Worlde Arcane
MysteryAndMagic.com

Worlde Arcane: Aniada: Dark Forest: The Lorimar Road 13: Knight's Walk


Each section of the Lorimar Road spans a approximately a full days' ride, or roughly two days' march afoot.
With the Dark Forest to the southwest, which is full of various beasts and malicious creatures -- including the occasional Hujiucker Hoblgoblin! -- peril lies here for the unwary traveller. In days of old, mounted soldiers from Terajin noble-houses would patrol these miles: thus the name "Knight’s Walk," although now a traveller proceeds at his own risk. Along the northeast verge, the Uiopa approaches, falls back, and approaches again, giving chances for adventurers to bathe and fill their waterskins.
•Northwestward travel leads to Merchant’s Walk, farther on down the highway it is three days' ride to Terajin
•Southeastward travel leads to The Festing Lanes, and four days' ride to Seven Oaks

 Off the Road Near the River August 5, 2009 - 9:28 pm

 The Fringes of the Dark Forest March 16, 2010 - 1:26 am

 Encampment Near the Festing Lanes September 25, 2009 - 10:12 pm

 Archive through March 30, 2004 March 30, 2004 - 7:51 pm

 Archive through May 27, 2004 May 27, 2004 - 11:12 am

 Archive through March 19, 2007 March 19, 2007 - 1:09 am

 Archive through May 4, 2007 May 4, 2007 - 6:22 am

 Archive through July 21, 2009 July 21, 2009 - 10:44 pm

 Archive through August 20, 2009 August 20, 2009 - 7:39 am

 Archive through January 3, 2010 January 3, 2010 - 8:47 pm

 Archive through March 28, 2010 March 28, 2010 - 8:12 pm

 What may I create?

By Little Enigmatic Being (Orein)

Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 11:54 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Sometimes it was in the most desperate of times that Orein seemed to grow the most. It was not always the most healthy growth, or one that did not have intended consequences, but it was still these circumstances in which Orein evolved the most.

For awhile he did nothing but sob like a child, banging against the ivory bars that kept him from freedom. What a start to their first journey this had turned out to be, he thought. He felt useless, weak, and very guilty for finding himself in the position he was in now, only further putting his comrades in danger.

"I can't... What can I do... I'm just a kid..." as much as he wanted to believe those words, even Orein now knew that he was more then that. He collapsed helplessly against the bones still. He might have tried to squeeze through the gap... but the way the serpent moved made it too hard to attempt.

Then came the Elven woman, or what he thought to be an Elven woman at first. For Orein could sense she was definitely not what she exactly appeared to be. There was just something spectral in her aura that threw off Orein's senses quite a bit to pinpoint it exactly.

He made his way over to her, cautious at first, but then realized that she was not exactly in a state to harm him. He reached out to touch her, but then recoiled his hand.

"Will all my comrades end up like this? I do not like this... I do not like this at all..." he thought to himself as his eyes widen at the thought of his friends meeting the same fate.

He sighed then leaned down to the woman, talking very close to her ear, and hoping that she would hear him. "I guess I have no choice... I do not know yew... and yew not me... but I am going to need yer help to get out of here, and yew don't look like yer in a position to argue. Please... if I save yew.. And I break the bonds that hold us... yew.. have to knock me out before I go to far... Yew'll understand..." he closed his eyes then stood up, he did not like what he was about to attempt, and if he somehow survived, he knew he was going to get a lecture form the "Ghost Book" later about being so irresponsible with gambling his life.

"I just got to let go..." he relaxed for a brief moment in the chaos... then let go of himself.

Then it happened, just as it had in Seven Oaks. His blood screamed out.

When his eyes opened again they were glowing crimson red this time, and like red ink on a paper his faeish wings followed suit. What he was doing was very, very, dangerous for him, and could cost him his life if he took to long.

"Alright Elven-whatever-yew-are... I hope yew appreciate this... if it even works that is."

Orein was radiating a very strong and powerful dark aura, the very thing that had been sealed away for good reason.

He once again reached out to touch the woman, this time where the wound on her arm was.

"Let us see which is stronger... Fake serpent venom... or my aura..." he placed his hand on the wound and attempted to push his aura through her system to eradicate the venom. He had read in the Grimoire about counteraction poisons with the same amount opposing energy or poison. He could only hope that his aura would be strong enough to counteract it faster than it would fully take hold of her. He read up up on doing this, but it was the first time he had put it into practice. "That's all I can do... if yew die... well then I guess it was ment to be eh?" He smile showing his tiny fangs, with a morbid sense of humor.

He left her there, gambling that allowing her to absorb some of his aura would prove more beneficial then not. He began to feel very hot. He had about another five minutes before the aura would begin to tear his body apart.

"Well... I helped take down one nasty giant... or so I have been told... I suppose one stupid imaginary snake is no problem..." he laughed nervously, but also with a grin... as if this challenge excited him. "Hey Scale for brains! I do not think yew herd me the first time. I said... LET ME OUT!" Orein radiated more of this dangerous aura as it seemed to envelop him like a cloak. He kicked at the bones... then took a swing at them... then clawed and kicked some more. The whole time smiling and laughing as if he was drunk on it, it would be a short while before this would turn against him.

By Anonymous

Monday, March 29, 2010 - 6:16 am GMT | Edit | Link |

For the first time since it had happened upon the band of travellers, the serpent was in real distress. Where blinding, stabbing, and puncturing had failed, now magick seemed to have an effect. The tough ivory bones fractured under Orein's assault, and the flesh literally vanished, blasted away by his magickal blows. It quickly became clear that the monster's false scales, muscle, and sinews had little to do with it's strength, as Orein battered away the walls of his cage and bent its bars. Still, whomever had built or summoned the beast had made it to withstand stern punishments. Where real bone would have powdered under the demonic attack, the serpent's bone cage held fast.

The serpent turned, ignoring all the other beings, it's attention focused on its small internal assailant. Without hesitation, it twisted into a U-shape and sank it's fangs into its own self time and time again like a dog after a pesky flea, trying to stab the tiny half-Fae. The serpent was incredibly tough, but it could not resist an attack from within; thus the fangs: to paralyze those it kidnapped. Razor-sharp poisoned teeth as big as swords jabbed at Orein between the bars of his "living" prison.

As the intensity of the half-fae's attack increased, the bones began to come loose. One rib shattered into a dozen pieces under a fierce kick, only to reassemble itself in a flash of blue-tinged magickal fire. But magickally-enhanced or not, the serpent/prison would not last much longer under this sort of assault.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Monday, March 29, 2010 - 2:46 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi whimpered at the sound of an unfamiliar voice in her ear asking her to stop him from doing something. The voice was pitched as that of a child but somehow... off. Then the speaker... transformed. She could not see it, but she could certainly sense an aura of darkness emanating from whomever or whatever she was trapped here with. She felt it draw close and tried to flinch away from its touch, but she could not move so much as a muscle.

Orein's dark aura tore through her like a lightning bolt. Stars flashed behind her eyes. The toxic paralyzing humors evaporated from her blood and, at long last, the curse which held her memories in thrall finally gave way under the irresistable onslaught of Orein's power.

Irihi remembered who she was.

The half-fae pulled away to begin his work at kicking their prison apart. Irihi felt the connection close with an audible pop. She did not move from where she lay, still a bit dazed, but a quite unwholesome smile slowly twisted its way across her lips.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 12:52 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Fortunately Breeze, under Lanno's direction - or perhaps, more appropriately, misdiretion - charged forward underneath the snake's tail. Its first strike missed Breeze, but as it turned to bite itself, its writhing body knocked the Hafling to the ground. Breeze whinnied and ran away from the melee, leaving Lanno sitting dazed on the ground. It was difficult to see what was happening - there were a few figures in the clearing, but he was having a little trouble focusing on them.

Holding his stomach, Lanno kneeled some ten paces from the snake. There was something strange happening to the snake, which seemed to be almost exploding from the inside. Then he heard Orein shouting from inside the creature!

"Yeah - yew heard him! Let him out!"

"Orein! Smash him!" Elation gave the Hafling strength to pump a fist in the air, which he regretted as the muscles in his stomach cramped up and stole away his breath. Despite his newfound courage, he still wasn't sure he wanted to rush the massive creature. Lanno knew his friend had powers he didn't understand, nor know the limits of, and he wasn't sure he wanted to get close enough to find out. Plus, his stomach really hurt, and the snake was really strong.

He groaned and gingerly rose to his feet. As he stood, he caught sight of something he'd only ever heard of in stories. Actually, one story in particular that the bosun on their last voyage had told them about a pirate's curse that turned them all into walking skeletons. But that doesn't make sense - skeletons can't walk around. They shouldn't even be able to stand up. What a stupid story. Lanno was upset enough that he almost cursed, except that his father had always told him foul language was a sign of a limited vocabulary, so he limited himself to just gaping at the skeletons.

"Skeletons." He barely uttered the word - probably not loud enough to be heard by the other people standing nearby. Well, there was a person here who was shouting and shaking, and another person sitting in the middle of the road.

"Orein!" His voice shook. "We have to go - NOW!"

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 1:47 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Time for waiting was over, Falcon saw what was happening inside the snake. He did not understand what Orein was doing, he just wanted his friend out of the snake.
Falcon didn't give a hoot about the Elf Wizard, as long as she left Orein alone. It looked as if Orein would make his escape, so Falcon rushed out of his hiding place and past the Skeletons.

He stood in the middle of the camp with Lanno. "Stay by me" He told the Hafling. Falcon had his shortsword in one hand and one of his silver daggers in the other.

He kept a eye on the Wizard, oh what was his name. Oh, yeah it was Bennithly, that was it. Now he wondered what Drimgal would do? Falcon had his hand over his dagger for a fast draw, just incase the Wizard atempted to summon the Demon again.

By Anonymous

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3:31 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(OOC:

Orein, if yew are ready to escape yew may post that the serpent is blasted apart whenever it suits yew.)

By Little Enigmatic Being (Orein)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 2:54 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

"Oi!!! Stop doing that yew self-replicating mouse eater!" Every time Orein destroyed one bone it seemed to grow right back, and this irritated and flustered him. That was exactly what he couldn't afford to have happen as it made him angrier, and more berserk like. The aura grew stronger yet, and now its fatal flaw was about to show

Tiny red marks were beginning to appear now on Orein's skin. The aura was too much for him to control and it was now retaliating against him, trying to break free from its mortal prison, and yearning spread out into nothingness.

Tears formed in his eyes and streaked down his face as the pain was both immense and exhilarating to his dark aura. He could no longer stop the downward spiral on his own, but he had thought about this before hand, and gambled on Irihi.

Orein pushed his energy forward against the bars, leaving the only vulnerable spot from behind on purpose from the start. In his berserk state he no longer put any thoughts to Irihi. Only on destroying his target.

The serpent's fangs now jabbed at him, nearly missing him a few times. Then just missing his skin and catching an ripping his tunic

"Hey watch the tunic Mr. Fangs... guess that means I am on the right track. Yew do no like what I am doing too ya huh? I wonder which of us will expire first!?" Orein screamed these words out in pain, and as if to mock his own words, blood was now beginning to drip from the red marks that had formed on him.

"I am scared... What if I can not stop... What if nobody stops me... Am I really going to die this time?" His blows to the serpent were more erratic now... more chaotic... more desperate. As menacing as Orein may have seemed, through the glowing crimson eyes and wings, his face would have shown much suffering and anguish.

"Maybe it was just too much to gamble on... but if I can just take this Serpent out with me... my friends... they can at least go on. Oh... Eddellyn... I am sorry if I can not keep my promise"

"Just DISAPPEAR!" Orein's clawed hand went back, then in one final blow his dark aura blasted foward through the serpent's bones. The aura radiated up through the broken pieces and throughout the giant serpent till it suddenly seemed to vanish around him in a haze of blue magickakal fire. He had done it.

Orein stood in the midst of the blue fire and it too disappeared. Only shards of the large broken bones now remained, about the size of clubs, scattered around Orein.

At first his eyes remained lowered, but then his face shot up staring at all those around him. He was not stopping on his own.

"Whose next?" he smiled through his little fangs as the aura began to build up around him again. If something didn't stop him soon, the damaged being cause to him would be too much to recover from.

By Drimgal (Drim)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3:44 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Falcon acted, and he had gone to Lanno, so that was covered. Drimgal decided that while falcon was with Lanno the Hafling would be safe, and so that made his decision clear,get to Orein. As he was running to the snake it seamed to burst apart in a whirl of blue magick and there stood Orein, but it wasant. Drimgal skidded to a halt and stared at the being that was Orein, his eyes, were red.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 8:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

If he were still capable of hearing anything, Orein would hear soft words breathed into his ear, "I think that is enough, little one," just before an icy hand touched the base of his neck.

Irihi stood directly behind the diminutive half-fae, sheltered within the only gap in the dark flames of his destructive aura. With one of the most powerful and simple of her crafts, she attempted to draw off the wild and chaotic forces threatening to destroy Orein. If she met with no resistance, she would continue to siphon off his life energies until there was just a flicker of vitality left in his body, exhausting the darkness that might otherwise consume him.

The sorceress was amazed at what was contained within this tiny being. She had not drawn upon energies like these for years (though it had, in truth, been millennia since the era of her homeland's end times), and even then it would have taken the wholesale slaughter of an entire village to gather even a portion of the terrible powers residing within Orein. Simple craft or not, drawing off an aura of this magnitude was the work of an entire coven and it took every iota of Irihi's ability to funnel it into the ruby pendant she had retrieved from elsewhere only moments ago.

By Anonymous

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 1:52 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Its cohesive magick in tatters, what was left of the giant serpent began to hiss and smoke like water on a stovetop. The noxious smell of brimstone filled the air as the beast evaporated away to nothing. Soon there was no sign it had ever existed other than the crushed foliage where it had passed.

Save for one little bit; the forked tongue of the giant snake had landed some distance away in the tall grass along the road. For a moment, it writhed back and forth as if seeking the fanged mouth from which it had come. Then it quieted and slithered off under its own power. A sharp eye might catch it crossing the Lorimar before it disappeared into the foliage again.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 7:46 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Malev." Murmured Rei. She had not recovered from her journeys through the dark places, but she could taste the malicious aura that flooded the roadway; it reminded her of another soul, darker still, that she had subjugated long ago.

She stood, swaying slightly, and assessed the madness around her - the wild pulse of Magick from the boy, his proximity to Spokelse (and the flow of his Magick in her direction), the collection of wary strangers that had appeared in their midst.

Other forces worked around them that Rei could not yet see. Such coincidence came only through careful planning; yet who was the prize, and who the pawns?

She counted herself as neither.

Perhaps, though, this little dark monster was a prize to be won - it already seemed that Spokelese meant to claim him. Rei decided not to make it so easy.

Another knife found its way into her alabaster hand; this one heavier, unpoisoned, meant for fighting. She tossed it hard, aiming for Irihi's wrist - hilt first. At most, it would break her connection to the boy; if it failed in that, it would at least alert her that her rival was watching.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 11:23 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Falcon did not understand magik, so he could not tell if the Wizard was helping Orein or hurting him. "Orein, its me Falcon, calm down yer safe now." He said to his friend hoping the little guy understood him.
To the Wizard with the ring Falcon voiced, "Let him go witch, leave us alone."

Falcon just wanted everything to be back the way it was before the stupid snake came. He was confused and had no idea how to help Orein. Falcon looked at Drimgal as if to say do something, but what could Drim do?

By Little Enigmatic Being (Orein)

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 1:38 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Orein did not have time to react, and that was the way he had wished for it to be.

"Get yer han..." he tried to resist and struggle, but Irihi had him in her grasp and he paralyzed. The dark aura began to fade as Orein's energy drained away.

The crimson glow to his eyes and wings died away, and with it the strain on his body ceased. The bleeding marks closed back up leaving only red lines where they had been. He would be okay now, but the strain and damage he had endured would not make the next several days easy for him. He would not be able to pull off a maneuver like this again anytime soon, not that he would wish to.

Orein slumped as he felt his consciousness fading. His eyes, returned to their natural emerald color, stared weakly at the ground, but a smile was on his face. He had somehow survived, his plan a success.

"Thank yew..." were the last words he could get out to Irihi before a passed out. Despite what she may choose to do now, he was still grateful to her for ending his berserk. He would have to trust in his friends to recover him from Irihi.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 5:31 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi staggered back as the connection between herself and Orein was broken. She blinked and cast about, trying to gain her bearings as one emerging from a deep trance. Her hand hurt, a short young Uman was growling something at her, and she felt like a candle burned down to a puddle of tallow from acting as a conduit for Orein's energies. For just a moment it seemed the weight of memory was too crushing a burden, the ire of all these dangerous beings too great a peril. She wanted to surrender, let her enemies do as they willed, let others do the fighting. She was awash in a sea of despair that quenched her hatred and submerged her malice.

For the space of a heartbeat or two.

Shoulder slumped, head hanging low, she sank to the ground. Ignoring Falcon, and idly picking up Rei's fallen throwing dagger, she let its tip trail through the crushed grass and dead leaves at her feet. Only, her actions were not random, nor did the grass wilt and singe into arcane runes by some unhappy accident. Perhaps those without magick would not notice, but Rei and Bennithly certainly could not miss the fact that Irihi was crafting a powerful curse and making no effort to hide her actions.

Why would Irihi expend the whole of Orein's energy; gathered and contained at no small cost to her, probably irreplacable, and certainly more wisely invested as a hedge against the chaos which dogged her every move; in a senseless duel with Rei over some tiny slight?

Tell me why the ivy twines.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 2:29 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Orein!" The Hafling rushed over and kneeled next to his friend. "Come on, buddy," he said, shaking Orein's shoulders. "We have to get out of here." He looked back at Falcon and Drim, worry creased on his little face. He'd watched Orein destroy the snake, which was scary, then his friend seemed ready to turn his terrible magick on everyone else. That was really scary! For a brief moment, Lanno thought Orein was a completely different person. And if it hadn't been for the creepy Elf with the almost-white eyes, he wasn't sure what Orein might have done.

"Thank yew for helping our friend, but we have to go now." His thank yew was forced, and he definitely felt a strange sense of dread when he looked at her. He did not like the feeling she gave him, and he pulled Orein away from her as we watched the knife burn a strange pattern in the grass in some strange pattern. He also didn't like the feeling he got from the Hoar Elf who'd thrown the knife.

"Guys," he said anxiously, the pitch of his voice rising, as he continued to drag Orein over to their horses. "Let's go."

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 3:30 am GMT | Edit | Link |

The magick in the air pulsated in Bennithly's head. Echoes of ages past reverberated throughout to his skull. He heard what he thought was an ancient language but seened fresh in thoughts. Magick swelled from him and through him. Bright lights expelled from his very book that brought him power and encompassed him, seemingly blinding to all.

When the light passes, the old man was no longer there, but a young man, staggering where Bennithly was small. The robes he wore slowly began to changing into armor, and a mace formed at his his side.

A small voice in his head said, "I am Sir Reolf, and I was the one who gave yew power, now yew must return the favor, and restore mine."

Bennithly said aloud with a smirk, "Alright."

He began absorbing the power of the Book into himself, and taking in all the power he lacked in his former life and quenched his thirst for necromantic power.

He smiled again and said "so this is what its like."

Dark energy flowed from him like a river.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 11:44 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Falcon was about to go to Orein but Lanno beat him to it. Falcon was just a boy himself, what would these necro-Wizards want with them? Falcon started to follow Lanno and motioned Drim to do the same, all the while keeping an eye on Bennithly. Falcon and Drim had seen him change personalities before, and Falcon for one was not to be fooled again.

All Falcon wanted to do was get out of there and back on the road to Terajin, and leave these Wizards behind. Falcon seen Orein's and Lanno's horse's, Swifty was nowhere in sight. But that was not surprising, for Falcon knew his horse was near by.

"Is he alright? I have a healing potion in my saddle bags" Falcon said to Lanno, still keeping an eye on the Wizards for any trick they might pull.

By The Locust (Xiro)

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 8:40 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Xiro had been smote by the writhing mass of the serpent’s tail and lay senseless against the stump of a shattered tree. He could remember nothing but shrieking and terror... Irihi, she had been swallowed. The dim painful memory penetrated the fog of his slowly reforming thoughts. He recalled wanting to flee until the seeing the elf-maiden devoured, then wildly jumping at the beast but all after that was a deep, vacant hole in his recollection. “Why should I care for her fate?” the hobgoblin thought uncomfortably. Then he realized the quite that was around him. There was a faint murmur, but they were the far away voices of the living, not the groans of the dead who were his constant companions. “Where are they, where have they gone?... Wait, where am I? Why can’t I move?”

The sometime fortune-teller lay on his back gasping, his breath slowing as he slipped back into a fog of unconsciousness.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Monday, April 5, 2010 - 6:08 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Such was the magnitude of Orein's power that Irihi might have obliterated Rei with a simple word of power while touching the charged pendant, or compelled her to die the everdeath in a much more effective and brief manner than the complex sorcery she was attempting to weave. But Irihi had been more artillery piece than mage. Her most favored spells took minutes to hours in crafting and were meant to be cast at heavily warded enemies across countless leagues.

Since returning, somewhat, to the realm of the living, she had often intended--in moments of wild rage--to blight this land, sink that island, or burn the other forest. The difference between those times and this present circumstance was that she now had been given the power to follow through with her threats.

"How dare you oppose me, you... perversion... you abomination of Elven kind!" The Elfwitch did not raise her voice, but a sinister resonance carried it to all ears. She stood and cast the dagger down into the middle of the circle of runes that continued to grow in complicated whorls seemingly now without her aid. The detritus caught fire where the blade was now stuck fast in the earth, and the conflaguration quickly encircled the sorceress. Embers rose from the flaming ground describing ever more levels of intricacy, continuing the unnecessarily-complex spellcasting now in the air as well as upon the ground. Perhaps the duration and difficulty of the curse would have been humorous, were the intended effect not so devastating.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Monday, April 5, 2010 - 8:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

He had no idea what the heck was going on, and Lanno did not want to stick around to find out. Magick shook the clearing, and awful burning smell filled the air all around Lanno. In a dizzying, blinding light that surrounded the little man who'd been scared by the snake, a mace-wielding knight appeared. Even worse, the creepy looking Elf with the white eyes had started a spell of her own - he'd seen the dagger weave itself through the grass, but now the magickal runes it had traced lit up the grass and the air.

"I don't know!" he shouted to Falcon. He was terrified, his little legs were getting shaky with all the exertion, but he kept going. Lanno shrieked when the creepy-looking Elf challenged the Hoar Elf. Her voice carried enough malice that the Hafling shook as he carried Orein over to Yah-Jin. Tears rolled down Lanno's face as he finally reached Orein's mount.

Lanno grunted as he tried to lift Orein up, but he couldn't lift his friend. "Uggh. Ooof!" He fell sideways and Orein landed on top of him. Still fighting back tears - and not succeeding particularly well - he crawled out from under his friend. "Help me get Orein up!"

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Monday, April 5, 2010 - 8:49 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

For a boy, Falcon was well musceld and strong and he easy could lift Orein on the horse. And so he did, "Let the two Elf Wizards kill each other for all i care." Falcon said to Lanno. He was concered for his friend and Lanno seemed to be shakened by what had happened.

"Dont worry, calm yer self. Me and Drim are with yew"

Now with Orein on the horse, Falcon told his friend to get out of there and back to the road. Him and Drimgal would be behind him. At least he hoped? So far none had stopped them from leaving, but that could change in a hurry.

By Little Enigmatic Being (Orein)

Monday, April 5, 2010 - 9:45 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Orein's eyes weakly opened as he faded in and out of consciousness, but even in the brief moments he could sense the potent magick all around... the aura... the type of mana that was being used... it was his.

When they had lifted him on the horse, his eyes open briefly once more.

"Have... to go... power... mine... dangerous... go... now!" it was the last words he could get out before he slipped away again, his body strained from his berserk. Even though he had managed to finish off the Serpent, his friends were still in danger. There was nothing more he could do for them in his state.

His power was dangerous, a double-edge sword, and the backlash from using it could be worse for the wielder if abused. Orein had nearly died the last time he had gone berserk, and this time his body would need a good amount of recovery time for even the brief time he had used the greater portion of the power flowing through him.

Good or evil, Orien would pity Irihi if she had bitten off more than she could chew.

By SpiritMaster of a Green Forest Clan (Irigu)

Monday, April 5, 2010 - 10:56 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

A shadowy form appeared, at first barely visible and probably unnoticed by all upon the road, but slowly it became more obvious, althoguh still ghostly in appearance.

The form resembled a wolf, but standing on it's hind legs and having a somewhat more Uman-like shape.

Then it spoke with a voice that pierced the soul of all present.

~Irihi, withhold yer spell, it is summoned from a time different to this one and will have dire consequences not just for the innocents here, but for yew too, do yew truly wish to summon back that which blocked yer powers in the first place? Believe it or not, but I know something of yer history and yer capabilities, yer kind are discussed among mine and not without a little fear.....but by the same token we also know what happened to many that wielded such power as yers and they are no longer upon this plane, yew remain here partially by pure luck and partially by yer powers being as hidden at they are....I also warn yew that we are here to keep the status quo, do not force us to act~

Irigu hoped it would be enough, he knew that Irihu would hear him, there was no way should could not no matter what state her mind was in....the question was, would she heed the word of a being that was not there in physical form, that she may even know could do her no direct harm.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - 2:37 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Innocents?" Irihi laughed at the apparation. "I have eaten enough souls to come to know that lie. There are none here among you mongrel races!" She spat. Though her words were harsh, some of the venom leeched from her voice as she spoke. Something seemed to take the wind out of her sails.

Irihi recognized the creeping blackness of the Monban insiduously subverting her rage, and rallied against it. "This one's very existence is an affront to me. She is an abomination and I will destroy her!" She insisted, pointing at Rei. "Surely you would not defend such a monstrosity." But even as she argued, Irihi's fury sputtered and cooled. Even her intense bigotry against the lesser races, and especially the Drow, could not fan the dying angry embers.

The manifestation was correct of course. Even remembering her forbidden magicks, let alone practicing her craft, was surely drawing the Gatekeepers to her. "What business of yours are my quarrels? Why must you interrupt me?" She cried at the newcomer. "Do you also wish to be my enemy, that I would put your people to the flame?" She threatened, but her murderous rage was extinguished and only petulant pique remained.

Irigu had succeeded in distracting the sorceress from her task and she ceased her spellweaving. It was pity that the SpiritMaster's efforts would be for naught. Once unleashed, Irihi could no more control Orein's dark powers than could the little half-fae, himself. That die was cast and someone would come to reap the terrible whirlwind.

Irihi had never failed to complete such a powerful casting before, though she had seen the afteraffects of witches and warlocks who were interrupted. The blasted moonscapes she had witnessed led her to believe that there was little point in flight or protective magicks. She watched with mild interest as the complicated patterns of her magickal runes began to break down into chaotic whorls and squiggles. Peculiar and unpleasant sensations would warn even the most magickally-insensitive that something was very wrong as the hopelessly snarled Leylines of this place neared their breaking point.

Though the bright flare of anger was gone, Irihi felt a vague satisfaction in the knowledge that Rei would most likely be destroyed along with her and most every living thing that remained nearby. Too bad that annoying furry spectre had to come along and take all the fun out of her suicidal sorcery.

By SpiritMaster of a Green Forest Clan (Irigu)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - 4:57 am GMT | Edit | Link |

~Leylines as yew may well be aware are spiritual paths for the Worlde itself, the one grate organism, and through the Blessing of the Goddess herself, THE GREAT WOLF and my fellow SpiritMasters upon this continent such a tear cannot be allowed....the damage is done yes and difficult to repair.....but divert? oh yes indeed, witness the power of the Goddess and of the Wolvian people, I am a mere tool an extension of the goddess and by her gift and her hand where there was once chaos, let there be order!!~

Irigu's voice thundered into all spirits, softer perhaps on those who held no evil in their hearts and though it was true that Wolvian Magick was of no use against other forms of Magick it could still do miraculous things once that other magick had ceased. Argroww did not need to control, not deal with Orein's magick at all, for what it has started must continue, the fire would rage and indeed burn part of the Dark Forest, that could not be helped, but it's fury would not destroy the entire forest, or the animals and people living within, nor would it harm those standing here, irrelevant of if they deserved such a fate or not.

Across the great distance from the Green Forest Irigu connected to Orein's spirit and sent one single but powerful command "SLEEP", although the young fae was not quite consious anyway, this command, should it work would send the boy into a deep restorative sleep that oddly would also cut off the Magick he had started.

The next task was even harder, and as such Irigu knew he would suffer for the next few days for this, as would many other SpiritMasters of the Yeldu Clan, he tapped into the Worlde itself, feeling the Leylines, seeing that which many Traveller schooled SpiritMasters such as himself could see, he could se the freyed lines and realised the task was greater than he imagined, for this was a focal point of many leylines....clearly this Irihu knew her spots in which to cause trouble....somewhat confirming the lore of her existence.....still what had been started must be stopped!

Irigu's ghost-like form faded and seemed to sink into the ground, there was no longer any need to project his presence, that part of the job had been done, nor did he feel the need to speak any further with the being known as Irihu and the other did not concern him, even the necromancer Rei was not of importance at this point, the work he did was not seen, except perhaps for Irihu who would have noticed the leylines spread apart and rejoin in different places.

With that done, he was gone. But the fire was still there and getting hotter by the moment.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 2:15 am GMT | Edit | Link |

The Hafling's face was white with terror as the spectral image of a great wolf-like creature appeared in the roadway and began projecting its thoughts into his mind. Though Lanno felt no evil in its intent, the exchange between Irigu and Irihi unsettled him more than any storm he'd passed through at sea, and even the death and misery he'd witnessed at Seven Oaks. Unfortunately, he'd been paralyzed, compelled into inaction by the power being summoned by the potential combatants.

Until he felt the heat emanating from all around them, and he feared something really bad was going to happen. Lanno jumped up onto Yah-Jin - his friend looked to be sleeping deeply, and the Hafling feared Orein might fall off. "Can yew please lead Breeze?" he asked Falcon. "I have to stick with Orein." Without waiting for a response, Orein dug his heels into Yah-Jin's flanks and hauled on the reins. "Let's go!"

The Hafling felt the powerful horse lurch forward, and it took all of his strength and both of his hands to remain on the horse. He didn't care that he'd left behind his pole-spear, a finely made weapon that he'd had all of his adult life. Though they left the clearing behind, Lanno felt the incredible heat building from the dark magick that had been released. He just hoped that whatever the Great Wolf had done would protect them.

He briefly glanced down at Orein, who looked like a young boy again, and then back at the road ahead. He had no desire to steer the horse over uneven ground at the terrific speed they were travelling. He was getting used to riding a horse, but this was fast.

I'll get yew out of this, Orein, he thought, and flicked the reins again. "Go Yah-Jin!"

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 5:36 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Stop her" the voice in his head shouted.

"This could be fun, I just want to watch," Bennithly said to himself.

"Move yerself, or I will move yew myself," the voice replied.

"Fine," Bennithly grumble and charged at Irihi, intending to tackle her.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 7:04 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Rei stood silent, her sharpened teeth bared in a manic grin. The madness of it all was nothing short of glorious.

She had seen greater powers, and she had weathered harsher storms - and she did not doubt that she would survive Irihi's waning rage - even as the wolf-thing (a surprise, indeed, that! One such beast she had fought before, long ago) talked her out of unleashing her full power. As she watched the wondrous and terrible magicks break and collapse into themselves, Rei knew the battle would be hers.

"An affront, am I?" Rei hissed. "An abomination? Hah! I am still the greater monster. I am victorious, and you - pathetic thing! - have not even the resolve to see your magick through it's end. You have let that furry thing argue away your glory, and for what? Its arguments ring hollow - what care should those such as we hold for the dirty beastlings of this discarded worlde?" The Hoar shook her head, her black tresses sweeping along her shoulders. "Bah. You are unworthy of my time." She turned away, throwing a hand upwards in disgust.
"TonDen."

"Break her."

The Daemon-beast unfolded himself from non-space, stepping through the straining worlde from places beyond. He emerged in reality behind Spokelse, towering over her, leathery wings spread wide. He did not hesitate: massive hands reached for her, wings crashed down, disregarding the strain that had been put on reality, disregarding the rushing form of aged Bennithly, disregarding the vast powers that Irihi could summon - had summoned - disregarding all save his Mistress' command.

Irihi was his target. Death was his order.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 11:27 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(Occ-Dont know what happened to Drim, I'll asumme he is with us.)

Falcon took the reins of Breeze and climb on, "Lets get out of here now Lanno" Falcon said helping Drim on the horses back. He just hoped they could escape far enough, with the Wizards distracted as they were with each other.
Once they were clear he would see to Orein and find out if his friend was ok.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 5:18 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Despite her seeming langor, Irihi had been quite interested in watching this corner of the worlde die, and she was more than a little miffed when the furred one (for whom else could it be?) reached out over great distances to shunt the out-of-control spell into nothing more than a minor forest fire. However, this surprise was nothing compared to the incredulity with which she watched Bennithly totter over in what seemed an attempt to... hug her?

"No, we'll have none of that." She muttered half to herself, slipping off Maelstrix's Ring and discorporating before the ancient Uman could touch her. Bennithly's charge would likely carry him straight through the wraith that the necromancer had become.

And then the TonDen arrived. Irihi did not need to turn to sense the creature Rei had summoned. "Oh... Magnificent!" She breathed in awe. It was better than eight feet of armor-plated, faceless beauty. Not soul-less, though. The Elven necromancer could clearly see the intricate connections woven between master and slave that bent the monster's will to Rei's own ends. The TonDen was no mindless zombie or crude ghoul like Irihi might summon as her marionette. Though similiar, neither was it an autonomous Greater Fiend, with a mind of its own and the ability to turn upon the one who called it forth.

It was not often that a true emotion gripped Irihi. More often than not, her rages and depressions were as manufactured and shallow as her infatuations. But now she was seized by a longing so deep and powerful that it raised Gooseflesh on the necromancer's arms. She wanted a TonDen of her own to the point of physical need. A moment ago, she had not known such a perfect slave could exist, but now she would move heaven and earth to get one. But Rei already had one, and though she could guess at what a terrible price the Hoar Elf must have paid to bind the minion to her, Irihi was still insanely jealous.

Before the TonDen caught her up in its killing grasp, Irihi bent down to retrieve Rei's dagger. Still not facing her new adversary, she pulled the blade into the spirit worlde with her, whispering to it an Unbinding hex as old as her lost homeland. As the TonDen scooped her up to pulp her bones--for its wonderous grasp crossed all planes of being and nonbeing--Irihi prepared it to excise a few spells of the webbing that held the TonDen.

Irihi was not a witch of finesse. She knew there was no hope of ever being able to replicate the intricate ensorcellments Rei must have painstakingly crafted with years of her blood and sweat in the place of shrieks from whence she had ensnared her TonDen. No, she intended to steal them wholesale; for it was only Rei's own blade which could prise loose her marvelous bindings and let Irihi claim them as her own...
...which would be quite difficult if the TonDen crushed her between his digits at long arms-length as he was quite capable of doing. So Irihi burned him, just a little, and just for a moment, cursing the TonDen's great pincer-like hands to seize with rigor mortis just after she was caught up in his grasp. She looked up at the featureless face with a hungry gaze. "Now crush me against your chest, my lovely! Let me touch that beautiful cage of torments she's built around your soul." She whispered encouragement to the TonDen, hoping that Rei would not sense what she was doing until it was too late.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 6:40 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi was not a witch of finesse. Rei was.

And so it was that Irihi misjudged TonDen's true nature. She thought him a captive, a slave - and perhaps he was at that. But TonDen had existed only through Rei's effort, served only at her whim. He was bound to her, yes, closer than Master and Slave, closer than Craftsman and Tool, closer still than Mother and Child. Any such binding could be undone in the way Irihi planned, by breaking links and untying spells, and if TonDen were any of these things Irihi could have stolen him away.

But Rei had woven TonDen herself, fiber and sinew and bone. With her Magick and her twisted imagination and her own blackened soul she had crafted him, forged him in darkness of the Realm Unending. She made herself a minion absolute in his perfection, impossibly loyal because his shadow will was the direct extension of the will of his Mistress. The bond that ran between Rei and TonDen was the bond between Mind and Fist.

TonDen wrapped his hands around Irihi's ghostly frame. He did not heed her burning retort, nor her affliction of rigor mortis. He gave no sign that he cared for Irihi's words. But he lifted her up towards his body, encircling her in his wings, ready to pull her apart as his Mistress had commanded.

Rei, in her triumph, gloated; she stood with her back to the scene in utter disregard. The Magickal chaos that filled the area hid Irihi's machinations - though Rei would likely have ignored them, even if she could have sensed them so readily. And so it was that neither Mistress nor Servant were prepared when Irihi struck.

The hex of Unbinding lashed harsher than Irihi could have imagined, striking far more than the bonds between TonDen and Rei. So close was the Revenant bound to his Mistress that their souls were entwined - the Magicks that struck him struck her as well. An Unbinding was nothing short of disastrous, for Rei had bound herself in many ways, to many things.

TonDen unleashed a deafening roar, causing the ground to rumble as he fell to his knees. His assault on Irihi ceased at once, but he could not fling her away, stricken as his hands were. Through his thunderous cry Rei's cold scream pierced, high and eerie and in utter anguish; her very soul - and with it, TonDen's - beginning to come undone under the power of her rival's hex.

Irihi might well recognize that to destroy Rei was to destroy TonDen, and, on every level beyond the physical, the reverse was also true. She might also recognize that to steal TonDen away, she would have to ensnare Rei. In either case, no matter her choice, the fate of the pair lay in her ghostly hands.

That is, of course, unless Bennithly noticed the same weaknesses, and claimed TonDen and Rei as his own.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 3:30 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

"no...No...NO...NO!!" Irihi might not begin to comprehend even a fifth of the intricate spells which suffused (made up, really) TonDen and Rei, but she could tell that the magnificent construct was unraveling. It was such a work of art, that Irihi would--almost--have rather seen her own end than that of Rei and her masterpiece. Almost, but not quite.

Irihi was no raveller, at least not one of a calibur as Rei, and she could not rebind what she had unbound. She was pitched about by the collapse of massive TonDen, but absent from the physical plane as she was, striking the ground was more or less meaningless. Still misjudging the nature of TonDen, she scrabbled for a soul to bind to the emptiness where the TonDen's should have been. A badger cowering in it's hole died as it's soul was torn out and flung at TonDen. A forgotten corpse of some long-ago bandit raid turned in its shallow grave as its long-departed essence was called back and crammed into TonDen, only to bounce away, for what Irihi was doing was akin to trying to save a drowning man by holding his hand above water in her pel-mel approach. She even tried to cram Malestrix's Ring of Form Stability onto the oversized digit of TonDen in her panic, to seemingly no avail.

Only when she cast about for something, anything to stem the diffusion of the bindings of the TonDen did she perceive Rei's reedy scream. "Oh no... not to a filthy Elf perversion." She whispered, for that was how she saw the Drow. Irihi would have gladly bound TonDen with a just another bit of her own half-soul. She could stand the thought of it twined with the pure evil of the chaotic fiends, she could gladly bear just a little more to possess the artistic monstrosity before her. "But not to that abominable creature..."

Irihi wanted TonDen only a little more than she abhorred Rei's kind. Now that she at last saw what must be done, she dithered, for she felt the disgusting Drow would irrevocably pollute her at first touch. And in the space of her indecision, a moment arrived for Bennithly or another to step in and steal the moment. Or perhaps Rei might yet pull herself and her construct together before the Irihi resolved herself.

By Drimgal (Drim)

Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 5:34 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

(O.C.C. sorry was getting back to school.)

Seeing that the group was heading out, Drimgal ran over and accepted the help onto the horse from Falcon, "Thanks," he said, "we better go."

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 5:56 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Having new found power, he began pulling opwer from the grave to create a new creature.

He was expecting something more akin to his skeleton as he made motions through the summoning.

He piushed and he pulled but nothing happen, he seemed to have failed, then something began to materialize.

It was small, aproximately rising to Bennithly's knee, it looked malnevolent, and pained, it was nothing more than a soul.

The soul charged at the TonDen, as he put in his bid to truly take control.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 9:25 am GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen was buffeted by souls, crashing in to him like so many hurled stones. The two from Irihi, fresh living and long dead, careened off of the Revenant, less than futile, and Bennithly's directed soul, though of a slightly different nature, was equally misguided. TonDen would not be possessed; he could not, no more than he could be stolen away. He had his soul rooted in Rei - he might well be severed, if one knew where and how to cut, and if one knew as much as Rei, he might even be grafted to a new Master.

What came of the onslaught of possessions, however, was rather different. Rei had made herself vampiric: a subjugator and devourer of souls. She fed upon them, a darkling predator, adding their essences to her own. And as TonDen was linked to her so closely, he inherited this predation; though him, Rei could sip upon those same essences.

She felt the crash of badger-soul; a tiny sip, fleeting, earthen, tasteless. But it eased her pain, let her draw herself together. She felt the scream of the bandit-ghost; a brief nibble, stale, musty, unsatisfying. Yet with it she straightened, pushing herself from the ground. Then, the onrush of Bennithly's constructed soul, and she siphoned off what she could from it; it was vile and acidic, but laced with Magick, and it was strong; strong enough to let her stand, and to let TonDen stand with her.

Rei rose, weakened, frail, but no longer at anyone's mercy. She could not hold her Hoar facade; as she stood, her clothes and her weapons fell through her, her false face crumbled and was carried off on the breeze. Only her ruby eyes remained, flaring crimson orbs within the pulsing black miasma that only just retained her feminine form; those, and her beating crystal heart - the lifestone she had chased madly into the Daemonologist's rift. To these three gems she had bound her essence, and TonDen's, and each to each she had bound the stones, and these were the bonds that Irihi had struck, and would not get another opportunity to strike so easily.

"Well played, Sorceress." Seethed Rei. "I shan't drop my guard again."

She formed, through what strength she had, fingers at the arm-ends of her swirling blackness. Pale Hoar-skin gloves covered her unreal hands - enough to serve her purpose - and with her new false fingers, Rei reached out, plucking the finest leylines she could see.

Carefully, delicately yet quickly, Rei began to weave.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 11:39 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Breeze was a good horse, but it wasn't Swifty. And after they were far enough from the wizard camp Falcon gave a whistle, and soon Swifty appeared. Falcon gave the reins to Drimgal and jumped on Swifty, all while moving. Once they hit the road he moved along side Lanno.

"I think we can slow down now to check on Orein" Falcon told his friend. He only wanted to stop for a moment then keep riding, he hoped Orein would be well enough to take his own horse.

By The Locust (Xiro)

Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 12:28 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Xiro felt heat against his face and then the sounds of the waling dead returned in a torrent. They were screaming uncontrollably from the trees, from under the earth and in the voices of songbirds. The burst of noise was unbearable. He found himself in a worlde of shadow and light. A beast spirit appeared and mumbled in a language he did not understand, small creatures fretted, a serpent’s tongue slithered under its own power over his foot and a two headed man argued with himself. In centre of this shadow worlde stood a great monster threatening to crush a delicate lily. Another vision came to the hobgoblin – a five legged spider. The frightening thing crept onto his hand, its obsidian eyes burning. It was hungry and its hunger filled its bearer. Withering, the creature curled up, its five legs crashing together and when they did the shadows began to shrivel.

The Locust stood, wide eyed and gibbering. His focused fixed on the mesmerizing ruins of Daemonologist’s magick swallowing gift to him. “Vlud-zgrrz? Perhaps my old enemy, but not today.” he said quitely into the fading shadow.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 9:31 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi directed a little half-sneer at Rei as she dissolved into a writhing evil miasma and congratulated the Elf on her lucky strike. "As if it mattered to me whether your guard be up, down, or sideways, oldling." She sniffed, and then waved to TonDen. "This is gorgeous. I cannot believe that... you made it." Wasting precious moments musing, unaware--or at least refusing to be cognizant--of the very real threat her adversary posed, Irihi summoned the Ghoul Eye and examined Rei and TonDen through its ghastly lense. "What manner of ruin are you, anyway? How do I unmake you without unmaking him?" She asked, expecting no reply.

Though millennia older than Rei in absolute terms, Irihi was very much the talented witch's junior in years and experience and it showed in her magick. Where Rei approached her spellweaving with the fidelity of needlepoint, Irihi employed a method more akin to sledgehammering with one's eyes shut.

Now that she had squandered the little Fae-daemon's aura, Irihi lacked power with which to pound her adversaries. Yet, she recalled what she had done by force of habit in her time of memory-less wandering. Reaching to her lips delicately with thumb and forefinger, she withdrew a thin silver strand as ephemeral as the whisper that accompanied it. Leagues away, in a distant cemetery a similar thread wafted from the branch of a gnarled old Oak.

"Give him to me. He would match me much better than you. Strength and beauty rather than strength and... dusty old bag of rocks, or whatever you are." She wrinkled her nose in disgust at Rei's lack of coherence.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 11:41 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Rei recognized the pool of Magick Abolition that welled up around the Locust, and her hands danced all the swifter for it - though it could not reach her, so far down the road. She had two threats now - three, perhaps, if Bennithly put his book to use, and sought revenge for his unjustly broken finger. But, shatterings Rei had survived before, through guile or planning or force of will; she had her spell half-done, its threads falling neatly into place.

"And what should you give me in return for my TonDen?" She asked as she wove. "Indeed, I should think you could make your own, for how could you lack even half the skill of this ruin? Certainly you must be my superior! See how you use a ring to give yourself a body, rather than making one through your own power. Never mind that it turns you to stone, your quaint little artefact puts having complete control over my own form to shame."

The spell edged ever closer to completion; she forced herself not to rush. Each leyline she threaded through its fabric tempted her to abandon her precision; Xiro might at any moment clack his claws together again, drawing away her Magicks, or Bennithly might throw his little soul-creature through her pattern, and Irihi could do gods-knew-what to poor TonDen, who's dead-locked hands could neither pull apart to drop her nor drive inward to crush her.

"Certainly such a great and powerful Sorceress like you should have no problem seeing what I am, and what TonDen is." Rei went on. "Why, perhaps yew might even divine what I have been. You even have a little device to make it easier for you! Surely what beats at the heart of this dusty bag of rocks poses no mystery for you and your grand trinkets."

The last of her threads fell snugly in to place. Rei howled out a harsh laugh, triumphant again. Her Hoar hands disintegrated, leaving only the vague black presence of hands thrumming at the ends of her stormy self, and her disembodied crystal eyes flashed.

"Were you watching, arrogant wench?" She asked. "Did you see? You want a TonDen for your own? I have shown you the way!"

She thrust her ghostly hand forward, through the fine mesh of her spell. The leylines flared, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. The worlde began to tremble.

"Blood and bone." Said Rei. Dust swirled around her upon a great wind, dragging with it the spent shavings of a million living things - the flecks of shed skin and tumbled feathers and decaying leaves, the tiny forgotten bones of half-eaten birds, the fur and blood of a freshly slain badger. The flotsam of life twisted in a macabre dance around her; and so it began.

The mad whirlwind swept inward, drawing Rei's raw components to her ghostly fingers. She began to thread them through herself, changing them as they came; with her Magick-laden hands she refined the scraps of life into the same steel-hard bone, the same tightly drawn sinew and dense muscle and blue-grey flesh that TonDen wore. She wove another body, as she had woven his - but this, she wove around her own soul, encased in its gemstone shell. As the materiel of death and decay began to diminish, she pulled away the essences of life around her, and renewed her supply, feeding the flow into her monstrous crucible.

She made herself a new Rei - a Rei anew - slender and graceful and beautiful as she had last been, but now more ethereal, more disconcerting for her blue-grey pallor and her impossibly perfect symmetry, and the pulsing ruby of her eyes. As with her TonDen, she forged armor for herself, of bone and scale; as with her TonDen, she gave herself long black wings. She resurrected her lost face around her glowing eyes, she grew her long raven hair anew, letting it cascade between her new wings.

"And so I made TonDen." Rei said. "And so I make myself."

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 2:44 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Lanno glanced at Falcon and nodded. They'd travelled a fair distance from the battling necromancers - far enough that he could not hear the noise of their horrific battle. He pulled back slightly on the reins. "Slow Yah-Jin. Easy boy." The Hafling gradually brought the powerful horse to a halt under the cover of a large oak tree whose trunk reached far into the air above most of the trees around it, and its boughs shaded this small section of the Knight's Walk.

He took a few moments to catch his breath and stretched his fingers; he'd been gripping the reins so tightly, they'd marked the palms of his hands. His back and legs were stiff, and he was having difficulty keeping Orein steady on the horse. "Could yew take over for a second, Falcon? I need to get down for just a bit."

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 11:21 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Sure, take a rest" Falcon said to Lanno as he jumped off Swifty. He grabbed the healing potion from his saddle bags then climbed up on the horse to steady Orein.
The little guy was weak, "Orein can yew hear me, try to drink this." Falcon said.

He was not expecting a full recovery, just hopping the potion would give Orein a little strength back and color back in his face.

By Little Enigmatic Being (Orein)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 7:02 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Orein was indeed pale, but he showed no signs that he was getting any worse.

As the liquid from the potion enter his mouth, the boy coughed and his eyelids tightened. Color did indeed return to his face as Orein's body was still susceptible to magickal influences.

His eyes weakly opened, his emeralds staring at Falcon, and a smile crossed his face.

"Did we all make it... Did I do...good?" His voice had its childish quality again, but unable to resist the call of the magickal sleep that had been laid upon him, his eyes drifted closed again.

His mind relaxed, believing that they had all truly made it and were safe. For now his body would need time to recover from the damage that had been done to it, thought with the effects of the potion and restorative sleep enchantment, he would be on his feet again soon.

He was happy... He had been useful... Maybe he had not exactly made the best decision, had put himself in serious mortal danger, but his friends were all safe and that is what matter most in all of the worlde.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 12:42 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Falcon was glad that it looked as if Orein would be ok, with some rest. He let Orein lean back into him to sleep, while Falcon took the reins of Oreins horse.
Falcon waited for Lanno to rest a bit before speaking.

"Get On Breeze Lanno and let Drim take Swifty, I'll stay with Orein while we ride. There is still daylight left before we make camp and i want to be far away from any creatures or umans"

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 2:45 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

(OOC:

Unexpected trip, will try to post tonight. sry!)

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 7:45 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

"Gah..." Irihi tied the thin silver thread to her little finger and as she did so, her voice once again became audible to mortal ears. "He most certainly is not like you!" She patted the massive pincer which held her. "You're not made of bits of dead worms and rabbit poop, are you? No you're not." She cooed to the monsterous slave construct.

Irihi cared much more for appearances and origins than almost anything else, nearly to the point of obsession. She found using Uman souls and corpses distasteful, to say nothing of insects and animals. That Rei would craft herself a form from dead creatures, shells and bones disgusted the finnicky necromancer. Such lowly things were useful for divination and not much else, in her opinion. "I don't need a golem of muck and lizard tails, thank you very much." She sniffed. "If it is so easy for you, then make another TonDen and give me this one." She banished the Ghoul Eye with a wave and placed both hands on the great fingers which held her. "As for a reward; I will not make you go all fuzzy again. In fact, I'll even give you..." For a moment, she considered offereing Orein to the once-drow, but no, Irihi wanted that little creature for herself. He was a much better and less distasteful source of power than the Umans which infested these lands. She waggled her little finger tied with the silver thread. "..my drawstring." Considering she intended to use the residual power of the restless dead interred Reclaimer's Cemetery to undo Rei, in Irihi's mind the offer was beneficial to all.

"Now open..." She said, dispelling the hex which locked TonDen's hands in place and speaking a word of power to Rei, thinking that the sorceress would not have had time to armor her mind as she had her body. Despite her seemingly willful disregard for Rei and her sorcery, Irihi was beginning to get the gist of how TonDen worked, and understood that it would do her little good to speak a curse of command to the monster.

Early spring buds within range of her curse sprung into early blossom before withering and dying under the heat of the inferno still raging around them, bowls of trees split asunder, and shells nuts and sundry all did as bade, but would Rei's TonDen?

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 7:25 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Rei laughed, a high, trailing ethereal lilt that made the worlde twist.

"I suppose you watched me forge him, then?" She said. "You ignorant cretin. You could not tell the difference if I made him from demon-fang or swallow-tail or tortoise-shell; even I could not, if I could be bothered to recall. It does not matter, for the substances I refined never mattered to begin with." She snapped her two new fingers together. "My Blue Ash is unlife in its purest form - the ultimate distillation of death's essence. Death is death - a property unto itself - and I can extract it from anything that dies; once I have it, it acts at my whim alone. I made all of my TonDens from the Blue Ash, distilled from anything and everything; if I wish to dismiss this one and forge another then it is no great task. If yew want him so badly, take him."

Rei smiled a sinister smile. As Irihi undid the hex binding TonDen's hands, the result of the Hoar's finger-snap became apparent. The Revenant crumbled, dissolving into his component parts - the Blue Ash that Rei had touted. Like a pillar of sand, TonDen shunted downwards into himself, dropping Irihi as he lost all structure, rendered by Rei's whim into a pile of blue-grey dust. A cloud of him billowed out around Irihi, drifting on the breeze.

Rei's response to Irihi's word of power was immediate and reflexive: she murmured the complementary word of negation; she could not match Irihi power-for-power, in spite of her skill, but it gave her enough time to draw her disembodied TonDen-soul in to herself, wrapping it around her crystalline core like a shroud, essence atop of essence. Perhaps she only delayed the inevitable - but every moment counted, and she could ill afford to let an opportunity at defense pass.

By Drimgal (Drim)

Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 1:13 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Drimgal nodded at Falcon as Falcon passed the reigness of his horse to him, "yes, it is better that we get goin." said Drimgal looking back twordes the direction they had just came, "I dont like the fealing that they give me."

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 12:11 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi watched sadly as the TonDen became nothing more than dust on the wind. "You would undo him rather than give him to me? Do you so long for your end?" She wondered. "All I meant to command was my release."

She shrugged. "Then you make your choice, I suppose. That which you have commanded will keep you at last." Irihi had not dueled at close range with another magick user of any particular skill for quite some time. Certainly she had ripped the life from the odd penny-ante magician here and there, but a real match she had not found before encountering Rei. She should have been filled with anticipation for such a match. Finally she commanded some real power, had a purpose for her murder with nary a do-gooder in sight to distract her, and her opponent was a wreck of one of the cursed Drow races. But she had really wanted the sinister beauty of the TonDen, and losing such a prize took some of her heart out of the fight.

Deciding she might first probe the Hoar Elf's ability, Irihi raised her hand where the drawstring twined, and invoked an ancient proto-curse, brief and powerful, but not so difficult to turn aside. Any with even a hairsbreadth of sensitivity would note that the forces she commanded came from a distant source away to the South, and certainly they might use their senses to anticipate the coming blow.

A whipcrack of too-close thunder split the air, many times louder than the roaring of the forest fire, and a jagged bolt of black lighting lanced across the clearing, stabbing at Rei faster than an eyeblink.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 12:41 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Lanno got back up on to Breeze and nodded to Falcon and Drim. "Yer right. We'll keep going." In the distance, the Hafling thought he could hear the sounds of a sharp crack split the air. Fearful of the consequences of getting caught by the necromancers, Lanno flicked the reins. Though he had slowed the pace somewhat, he still kept Breeze moving at a quick canter.

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 1:10 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Leading Lanno and Drim along the road Falcon thought he had very good friends. Orein just needed rest, he would be alright. That is if they could continue down the road without interuption. They might even make Merchants Walk by night fall.
But Falcon also knew that this stretch of the road was still dangerous, so while they moved along he kept his eyes open for a attack by Hobgoblins, Orcs Or something else.

And he also was looking for a place to camp. "Lanno, yew and Orein showed much courage today. Yew showed that i was wrong, I did not know yew were that brave. I hope yew can forgive me, I'll never dout yew two again. And mabe we can find yew another pole arm in Merchant Walk to replace the one yew lost." Falcon said.

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 6:44 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Bennithly saw what he believed was an opening in the elf's posture. He began drawing power from the dead in the area. He focused their want for revenge, and soon crafted an undead the likes of which he had never dreamed of.

He had hoped for some powerful creature like the TonDen, but what he got was a small zombie-like creature. It stood only three inches tall, and had skeletonized wings. It appeared physically weak, he hoped it packed a serious punch.

(ooc: sorry I haven't been able to post lately)

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 8:33 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"I give nothing!" Rei screeched. She clapped her blue-grey hands together and drew them apart, faster than thinking, and between them twined a net of raw Magick; with this she intercepted Irihi's proto-curse, deflecting it. The bolt glanced away, screaming through the flames behind Rei, wreaking untold havok elsewhere.

Rei's guile served her well; Irihi did not suspect, even when told the properties of the Blue Ash, that TonDen's body still posed the greatest threat.

Rei did not practice combat Magick. She would never had needed a TonDen at all if she could throw curses like the one Irihi now directed at her. She had learned defenses against Magick - negations and barriers and refractive nets like the one she used to turn away Irihi's bolt - but she had learned only a few destructive spells, instead devoting her time and her skill and her finesse to other things; she mastered the borders between planes of life and death, the control and manipulation of souls, the powers of the Realm Unending, her death-distillation, the Blue Ash. In fighting, she had always employed her slave-training, her assassin's tools, her darts and her poisons and her knives. She had needed nothing else.

She knew that such tools would fail against Irihi. But she could not overpower such a soul, either. And so, a gambit: sacrifice TonDen's body, keep his soul close, keep them both alive (for want of a better word), and wait. She had already invoked her daemon's crucible; she could remake him here, now, without casting the spell a second time, without refining more Ash. If she held Irihi's attention long enough, TonDen would catch her by surprise - and there would be no second escape.

Bennithly, somewhere behind Irihi, had summoned another minion; Rei wondered to what use he would put the tiny thing, and whether he was friend or foe. She assumed the latter, as she always did. And Xiro had not made himself or his intentions known; his Magick-negation could put a stop to this battle instantly - and it could undo Rei completely.

She hoped that the Locust had not realized this. She dared not think that Irihi would notice it.

The Blue Ash began to settle. As Irihi devoted her attention to Rei, Rei split her attention between Irihi and the reconstitution of TonDen. She did not care to trace the origins of Irihi's power; if her gambit worked, it would not matter in the least.

(OOC:

Realize now that I misunderstood Irihi's intent in the last post - I though the open command and the word of power were two separate things. Ah, well. Maybe the situation made Rei overreact.

Also, Benni - don't be afraid to throw yer hat in the ring.)

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Friday, April 16, 2010 - 6:27 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi was not at all surprised that Rei could turn aside her attack, but she was startled at the precision of her defense and lack of counterstroke. "Will you just stand there and be destroyed?" Perhaps she had misjudged the Drow necromancer, for she had thought her at least a challenge. Yet the Hoar Elf seemed to have trouble simply holding herself together. Used to directing and channeling overwhelming force, Irihi comprehended magick on a scale of raw power, with little regard for the finer points of the dark arts besides where they could provide her some creature comforts; which was the very reason she could not create her own TonDen. That Rei would not expend more power in her own defense bespoke only weakness to Irihi.

Trying something different, but no less showy, Irihi summoned restless spirits from her distant source, wrenching them from their haunts and cramming them into the trees caught in the conflaguration all around them. She had no skill to create slaves, but merely manufactured marionettes. Jerking and twisting leylines (for she could only percieve their largest and thickest forms, and not the intricate tapestry that was the true nature of the reality around them) she bent the haunted burning trees to her will.

Oak, Sycamore, and Elm were jerked from the ground, their roots ripping free, their trunks splitting into crude legs for the giant wooden dolls they had become. They lurched toward Rei, all stumbling, some falling with mighty crashes and great torrents of flame and embers. As the ring of flaming flora converged on the necromancer, their bark crackled and branches thrashed wildly, for the tormented spirits within them felt the terrible flames as though it were their own flesh burning.

Irihi giggled at the spectacle of a half-dozen tree effigies. This was the sort of madness she truly loved; a horror of being so profound, she almost did not care whether her dying tree-army crushed, cooked, or smothered her opponent. She simply enjoyed watching them burn in agony. Quite occupied with forcing her marionettes ever inward, she noticed nothing of Bennithly, Xiro, Rei's machinations or the disposition of the Blue Ash.

By Lanoaeth’ghel Kindersmere (Lanno)

Saturday, April 17, 2010 - 4:24 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Heh. I don't feel all that brave, Falcon, after all I did scream like a kid when that one Elf started casting her magick." He'd never seen such malice and hatred as mirrored in the nearly-white-eyes of the Elf, and he expected he wouldn't forget them either. He glanced over at Orein, who still slept soundly, and wondered how much of the fight his friend would remember. Lanno found it difficult to think of Orein as anything but a kid, but he'd also witnessed something in his friend's eyes that scared him. For a brief moment, Orein wasn't himself. Or maybe he was...

That thought scared him even more than the Elven necromancer.

Lanno turned his eyes back to the road before them. The trees became even thicker, their trunks wider and their branches reached even higher toward the sky. Nightfall was approaching quickly, but for as long as their was enough light, the Hafling felt it was best to put as much distance between themselves and the battle raging behind them.

After a couple of minutes of riding in silence, he looked over at Falcon. "Thanks for sticking with us back there. And don't worry about what yew thought earlier - a lot of what yew saw was as much desperation as it was bravery." He smiled to himself and added, "A new polespear would be nice. Now let's put a little more distance between us and them." He snapped the reins again, pushing Breeze to pick up speed again.

(TO:

Merchant's Walk)

By The Boy Legend (Falcon)

Saturday, April 17, 2010 - 12:25 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

As Falcon listened to Lanno, the more he liked him. "We all get scared during battle, even me. But the love for yer friends always seems to push us beyond what we normally would do. Yer brave in my book Lanno." Falcon said.

And with that Falcon picked up the pace and followed his Hafling friend down the road. He would be glad to see some friendly faces for a change instead of wizards and monsters.

(TO: Merchants Walk)

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Monday, April 19, 2010 - 2:34 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Destroy the interloper," the knight said to Bennitly.

Bennithly smiled and directed the creature to Irihi, to see what his new powers entailed.

Instead of the slow shuffle most undead have, Bennithlys darted quickly from place to place erractically. It pulled out a small sliver of metal, dripping with poison, intending to stab Irihi with it.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Monday, April 19, 2010 - 10:49 am GMT | Edit | Link |

With her right hand, Rei worked her daemon's crucible, tweaking the Magicks with subtle motions of her fingers, almost too subtle to see.

With her left hand, Rei wove a separate spell. With preternatural dexterity, she plucked and twined and looped and knitted leylines into a fabric, quickly - ever so quickly.

Behind Irihi, TonDen began to take form: his featureless head rose from the Blue Ash, dragging with it the tops of his broad shoulders. Rei worked furiously, trying to rebuild enough of him to strike at her opponent - but she could only do so much, so fast, lest she overrun herself and become entangled in her own Magickal web.

With the last knot of her second spell, Rei lashed out, her first retort of the battle: half a dozen ethereal lanyards leapt from the fingertips of her left hand, seeking the puppet souls that Irihi drove forward through raw force alone; burning toys of a brutish witch-child. Rei threw the hand above her head, twisting it, seeking to steal the souls from the blazing treant marionettes; in so doing, she pit her will directly against Irihi's.

The slave-incantation within Rei's one-handed weave bore all her trademark finesse; it's complexity evolved expressly to tear souls from bodies - useful enough for Rei to learn to cast it under almost any condition. She had stolen the life from golems before with this very spell, depriving fools of lesser bodyguards so that TonDen could destroy them unapposed. But, Irihi lashed her puppets together with wide cords of Magick - far more than Rei had ever expected of a sane Mage - and she could not count on breaking such overwrought bonds with the first strike.

So she pulled - hard - against Irihi's marionette cords, trying to rip them from her; and she sent a raw Magickal pulse down the length of her shadow-lanyards in an attempt to burn the wires away. Her right hand worked madly, straining against the pressures of time.

TonDen's body shrugged another shoulder from the Ash.

By Drimgal (Drim)

Monday, April 19, 2010 - 3:56 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

(to knights walk)

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 6:43 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi was most pleased to feel Rei's resistance as a subtle but growing pressure against her marionettes. She felt the other witch's attempts to co-opt the souls lashed to her fingertips. Abruptly, she clapped her hands, once, sending a great shockwave down the strained magickal conduits as though shaking a length of rope.

In rapid succession, the tree effigies exploded in great torrents of flames and sparks. It would take quick work for Rei to close her own delicate connections with the enslaved spirits before the raging dark magicks burned their way back down the leylines to her own fingers.

But something went awry with Irihi's plan, and one of the knotted magickal cords was pulled beyond its breaking point. There was a brilliant blue-white flash and crackle which overpowered the reds and oranges of the forest fire. A shimmering chord hundreds of feet in length, like the aurora in miniature, whipped skyward in a great arc and then descended upon the Elf. Irihi only just dodged aside as it clove the ground where she had stood, sending a fountain of dirt and steam skyward.

No sooner had she escaped the deformed leyline, than Irihi felt a prick at her ankle. A monstrous shriveled soul crouched there, holding a tiny blade. Revolted, Irihi commanded it to die, but in her enthusiasm, she shouted the curse of command. The word of power rolled out from the sorceress like a violet wave, sucking the life from most every living thing within earshot and turning that which had not already burned into ashen dust.

The drawstring tied around Irihi's finger frayed with her abuse of its limited powers, but the sorceress was preoccupied with the tiny ghoul which had stuck her.

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Friday, April 23, 2010 - 12:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Such violence.

Rei had prepared herself for a counter-lash - even a novice would have expected such a response - but what Irihi threw at her was something else again. Around her the worlde became a cataclysm of flame and destruction, and six burning souls led a cascade of eldritch madness straight for her; any sane Mage would have abandoned the lanyards, the battle, the plane itself in hopes of escaping such wrath.

Rei did not. She did not even break her ties. With her right hand - still alight with the fires of the daemon's crucible - she clamped fiercely down on her left wrist. Shrouding herself in her leather wings, the once-Hoar braced herself, body and soul, and let destruction reign from the heavens.

While stray leylines crashed and drove Irihi into Bennithly's trap, Rei buckled under the titanic wave of Magick. Unchecked power spilled over her, obliterating her left hand, ravaging her right, disintegrating the meager protection her wings had given her. She pitched her own power against the onslaught, stole the life that she could from the souls and turned that to her aid, focused everything she could to wrestling the deluge through the crucible. She spent all that she had, forcing her order on the chaos that overwhelmed her, and as the tide began to ebb she yelped in triumph. And then, Irihi's word of power stormed over the worlde, its energy caught up by the torrent, redoubling the mad Magicks.

A sharp CRACK! tore the air, and Rei vanished in the heart of a tremendous Magickal explosion. Light and raw entropic power tore a blazing path in all directions, only to crash back inwards again, vanishing in a single gout of smoke.

Rei's shattered remnants lay decimated on the roadway. Her Blue Ash shroud had been blasted away, leaving only a vague dark outline; her weak, quavering miasmic self pulsed with a fading heartbeat, struggling to hold together over her cracked gemstone core. And the broken monster laughed.

For there, behind Irihi, loomed a TonDen like none that had ever been.

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Friday, April 23, 2010 - 1:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Rei had spent her skill time and again, but never before had she commanded such power. It had a life all its own, a dark wild life that she could not control, in spite of her finesse. She had shaped TonDen, but it had forged him, and in so doing it made him its creature, as well as hers.

Deep inside TonDen, Blue Ash had been compressed into crystalline bones, which thrummed with glowing Magick, visible faintly from without. The same bone glowed brightly at his feet: broad smooth hooves, translucent and flaring with the electric arc of the energies they held. His legs, thin and taut with muscle, each cut three graceful lines - once up to a backsprung point of articulation, thence down and forward to a second knee, opposite the first, and thence up again to his waist. His torso was lean and tightly drawn, like his legs, and intricately laced scale, glowing with his internal Magicks, replaced what had once been bone armor plates across his chest. Four arms branched from his shoulders, two per side; one pair, thin and close to his pale blue body, ended in long fingered, dexterous hands, while another pair, broad and mighty, set above and slightly behind the first, ended in four tremendous digits, intended for no more than crushing. From his shoulder blades sprouted what were neither wings nor shell, but strong articulated limbs of the same glowing bone, laden with crystalline plates, their smooth flat surfaces hard as any armor, their trailing edges sharper than any blade.

Atop this madness, twice as high as any other living or unliving thing present, TonDen's perfect, faceless oval head looked down at his new body. He examined the palms of his four hands, his strangely articulated legs, his weapon-wings. In her maddest hour, Rei could never have imagined the fever dream that wrought this - and yet, here were all her trademarks: her devotion to symmetry, her attention to detail, her utter denial of any personal identity.

This TonDen was Rei's, yet he was not Rei's. He felt his connection to his Mistress as clearly and as strongly as ever, felt the ache of her fading life, felt her will upon him - but now, for the first time, he felt his own will moving against hers, causing friction, demanding that he no longer simply act, but decide.

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Saturday, April 24, 2010 - 1:27 am GMT | Edit | Link |

The poison from the blade of the zombie would have started their effects. At first, there would be a slight tingle at the fingers, but the effects would be catastrophic if the were allowed to lie dormant and no treatment would be administered. It's true power lies in the fact it will tranform a being into their true nature.

Bennithly smiled as he realized what he had done, and pulled
out the mace at his side, began to move toward the side of his mistress, Rei.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Saturday, April 24, 2010 - 8:16 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Despite her outward appearance, Irihi was yet a warrior of Dor OŐLim, and she had endured years of painful and disfiguring wardings and tinctures from those lost eldrich Elves. Had it been any common--and many uncommon--poison upon the blade that had stung her, it would have no more affect than a mosquito bite. But this was an insiduous sort of magickal transfigurative, changing the afflicted into a form which reflected outwardly what they kept hidden inside. Around the pinprick, and at the tips of her fingers the sorceress's skin began to lighten. The ends of her long midnight tresses evidenced the first hint of a golden blonde. But even as the poison took it's effect, the countercurses and antidotes which suffused the necromancer went to war against it.

All this, Irihi felt only as a slight tingle in her fingertips and at the ends of her ears, but more noticable was the immense drain upon her magick as the anti-toxin wardings began siphoning power from her drawstring and her own vitality to fight the transformative agent. Her leg buckled and she stumbled. "What is this...?" She wondered aloud as she took a wobbly step toward the conflaguration which had engulfed Rei. She turned and lifted the hem of her cloak and skirt to see the source of this new affliction.

And in turning, she caught sight of the TonDen.

The poison forgotten, the contest forgotten, Irihi was drawn to the TonDen on unsteady legs, mesmerized by the constructs impossible grace and sinister beauty. When her stumbling gait brought her close to TonDen, she reached up to touch his glowing flank. It was not that Irihi had no sense of self-preservation keeping her from approching her opponent's living weapon, it was simply that she had no desire greater than to witness Rei's Magnum Opus. As her fingers brushed the translucent weaving of scales, tears sprang to her eyes. "I'm sorry... I had not realized..." She saw the truth now. The White Drow, or what remained of what had once been a Hoar Elf named Rei, was a true master of dark artistry. Compared to this perfect being of the Blue Ash, Irihi's own magicks were no more than the ham-fisted smears of a child upon the same canvas where Rei had wrought a masterpiece.

Perhaps a tiny bit of Irihi's revalation was true insight, but the majority came from the workings of Bennithly's poison and her own wardings as they sapped the rage, bitterness, and fear that was both the necromancer's shield and sword with which she had bludgeoned her way through her short-yet-long life.

Artificial or not, Irihi's appreciation and desire for the TonDen still overwhelmed her. "If she is ended, will you too disappear?" She sadly asked the silent towering figure. "Then save yourself, beautiful one." Irihi whispered to the beast with no ears to hear her and (she thought) no self to save. She untied the frayed drawstring from her own finger, diffusing to semi-transparency as the abused and waning power of the Redeemer's dead left her, and reached up to tie it about one of the TonDen's own finely-articulated finger. Irihi knew she was surrendering the source of her power to Rei, that the abominable Drow could be saved from the end that was now upon her, and that she would have no remaining defense against Rei, Bennithly, or their monsters. It was a strange dichotomy, to hate the artist but love the artwork, for Irihi, who prefered the simplification of hating everything. But if she had liked Bruce the murderous shark, the previous killing machine TonDen, and any of ten-thosuand other infernal creatures and daemons she had encountered, then she loved this beautiful evil creation with the same magnitude of emotion as she feared the Monban.

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Sunday, April 25, 2010 - 10:14 am GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen gazed down at the sad and unsteady form of Irihi, enemy of his Mistress. He could have crushed her, easily; he felt Rei ordering him, screaming at him silently through their straining bond to do just that. He watched her as she drew the source of her power and wrapped it around one of his fingers, imploring him to use it to save himself.

Rei had never cared if TonDen saved himself. He could be built anew, as many times as she wished. Here, with her hand upon his thrice jointed leg, Irihi had shown herself willing of sacrifice for TonDen's sake, and though that did not make her good, nor him, it did change things between them. Rei wanted Irihi ground into dust, but TonDen did not.

He slipped the drawstring from his finger, and reached down delicately to loop it over the intangible point of Irihi's ear - caressing her slowly bleaching hair as he did so. Bending his many knees, he lowered his head far, far down from it's vaulted place, and pressed it gently against Irihi's own.

"My Mistress will survive." TonDen stormed. "As will I."

He flashed backwards in an a leap of impossible agility, planting his hooves on either side of his Mistress' SoulStone. Bending once again, he plucked the cracked gem from the ground and pressed it to his scaly breast; his unnatural armor parted, and the red crystal sank into his ashen flesh, sliding between his glowing ribs to rest at his core. Rei's miasma followed, sinking into the gemstone as TonDen swallowed it up.

"You seek to cage me now, traitor?" Rei's voice echoed from behind TonDen's scales as they re-knit themselves. "You take the witch's side, for no more than the price of flattery?"

"I am no traitor, Mistress." TonDen shook his head, though Rei was nowhere to see. "If I do not hold you thus, you will fade from this worlde, and I will fade with you. We must find you another SoulStone, and . . . "

"Do not presume, wretch!" Rei snarled. "I know what must be done! And first, the witch is to die!"

"No." Said TonDen. Something rumbled inside him, and his bones flashed with terrible light. A vast silence settled between Monster and Mistress.

"Fine." Rei said at last. "I will indulge you this, my pet. But do not think I will forget."

"Nor will I." Said TonDen, pet no more. He straightened, and left his contained Mistress to brood in her tomb. Turning to Bennithly and to Irihi, he posed the most pertinent question.

"Now, how shall we decide this?"

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Sunday, April 25, 2010 - 3:26 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

As she removed the silver strand, the energies by which Bennithly's poison was suppressed were lost to her. Now the bleached ends of her dark locks turned ashen and crumbled to ethereal dust. For Irihi's true self was thousands of years old. She might enjoy some measure of immortality, but not even Elven lives are meant to span such vast reaches of time. A creature of a long-lost worlde, she did not belong in the modern age, and where the poison took hold, she was no more. Only when TonDen returned the drawstring did the transformation to dust slow, but it did not stop.

Restored to the physical plane by the waning power of the silver thread, she thrilled at the touch of TonDen. It might destroy her in an instant, but now, under the influence of Bennithly's form-altering tincture, she could think of no better end than to be crushed by the perfect monster. Her shock, then, was immeasurable as TonDen spoke to her as itself and not as Rei's weapon. The voice of the Burning Beast was the sound of mountains splitting, cities burning, and the dying shrieks of a great multitude of throats. The creature's words drove her to the ground, where she sat, dazed, as it lept back to gather it's mistress to itself.

Yet even through the haze of deathly calm instilled in her by Bennithly's poison, and the shock of the TonDen's words, cut the realization that something about Rei's construct had changed. It was no longer wholly a part of the necromancer, but a being of it's own; an I. And a tiny spark of selfish desire re-lit within the damp tinder of hatered, fear, and bitterness that the old Uman's zombie had so effectivly doused.

"I surrender to your mistress. Her skill far exceeds my own. She has created you, and what a marvel she has made I dare not undo." Irihi answered the question of TonDen. "Even had I the power to destroy either of you, and thus the other, I could not. I am at yer mercy." Irihi bowed her head and closed her eyes, feeling the poison and countercurses warring within her.

The witch had little inward-looking skill. She relied almost wholly upon the hexes of long-dead mage-armorers for everything save her outward appearance. She did not know how to resist or dispell Bennithly's toxin, but she did recognize it as a deadly threat to her existence. Perhaps if she eliminated the source? She did not know whether to smash the frail old Uman and see what she might devine from his bones and guts, or to plead for relief from him while he still drew breath.

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 2:53 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"My Mistress, please use me as yew see fit," Bennithly bowed on one knee before Rei, offering his mace in both hands. "I beseech thee, use my power as an extention of yer, I am yers to command."

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 8:24 am GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen turned his facelessness from Irihi to Bennithly, both crouched in the roadway, both putting their lives in the hands of one who no longer held any power - who would, had TonDen not contained her so, dissipate - and he pondered what to do.

"They say they are at my mercy, pet." Rei sneered at TonDen from within. "Well, I am at yours. You have stolen your freedom. What shall you do with it?"

TonDen's bones pulsated with glowing thought. He had only had his own will for moments, and already he had the wills of others in his hands. He looked at his hands: two of them he knew well - great brutish crushing things, easy to understand - and two he did not. He had never known hands meant for anything but destruction. These new hands held greater powers, alien to him. In these hands now Bennithly and Irihi waited, balanced precariously between long thin uncertain fingers.

"When my Mistress bound herself to her stone, she had hands to weave her spells." TonDen looked up, watching Irihi and Bennithly, each in turn, with his absence of eyes. "I have hands, but I have no skill. I shall need those with skill to restore my Mistress." He turned and looked hard at Bennithly, staring down at the Necromancer with his entire body. "You. Repair the dark-haired one. Undo what you have done. I shall need the both of you, intact."

"I see, my pet." Rei smirked from behind TonDen's scales. "Do you think it wise to free me, and face the consequences of your treachery?"

TonDen did not answer, but to wave Bennithly on with one massive hand.

"Quickly. She fades."

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Sunday, May 2, 2010 - 8:05 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi thrilled to the sound of TonDen's voice as he commanded Bennithly to aid her. So it seemed she would not fight the old Uman mage after all. Normally this would have disappointed the sorceress for she felt killing Umans was akin to killing flies; there were so many of the annoying creatures, yew could never make a real difference, but it didn't hurt to swat one or two of the most troublesome ones. Yet Irihi's drawstring was all but spent, her magicks would soon lose all power within the physical realm. She could only imagine the spiritual devestation that must have been wrought within The Redeemer's Cemetery where the silver strand's twin was tied to a tree. It would be a place of twisted evil spirits and restless mangled ghouls for years to come.

With that happy thought drawing a smile to her lips, she gained her feet and weaved her way over to Bennithly and TonDen. Tearing her eyes away from the terrible beauty of TonDen, she spoke to the ancient Uman. "I will aid your mistress. Please help me." She managed not to grind out her request for aid though it was galling to ask a Uman for help.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - 6:02 am GMT | Edit | Link |

As she waited to see if any aid would be forthcoming from the aged Uman, Irihi’s very small, very black heart ached each time she glanced at TonDen. To the sorceress, the self-aware construct was a wish come true. He was all arching limbs and bladed wings of glowing murderous energy. She was vaguely aware that his essence was bared to her, that she might—with some effort—siphon it off as she would the life of a mortal creature. But to do so was unthinkable. Do yew drink the water from a vase of perfect roses? Well, Irihi might, but not if they were evil roses.

Irihi also remembered how easily Rei had dispelled the construct. She did not think she could bear to see this beautiful monster so callously destroyed, yet she feared Rei would do so the moment she could maintain physical form without her slave’s help. Emboldened by the drow’s weakened and contained state, she gave voice to her fears. “TonDen, I fear your mistress means to end you the moment she no longer needs you.“ Irihi looked up at the burning beast with as soulful a gaze as could come from one with half a soul. “I do not want that…” She was not surprised to feel her eyes begin to water with at the thought of the magnificent creature rendered back to the blue ash. Even if it was really just mostly dead leaves and moldy snails. “I would like to see your existence… continue. Will you let me show you how?”

Irihi meant to help TonDen to shield his life-force from necromancy, something innate in those with sentience, but seemingly absent, by design, in the construct. Of course, by doing so, she would make the Burning Beast impervious to her own influence as well. Her infatuation with TonDen was as deep as any she had felt, but the sorceress was terribly fickle. It remained to be seen if her interest would abide for any length of time, and whether she would come to regret the skill she might teach TonDen in the interim.

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 12:58 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Even if I could, what makes yew think I would, because yew are a gigantic man!" Bennithly said coldly. He made some motions to move away from TonDen. " But I cannot, my power comes from vengeful spirits, and they rarely wish to help others."

"Yew must help them, in order to help yerself," the voice in Bennithly's head stated.

"Never will I help anyone, nor will I assist yew in any way, she must fight off the poison, if she can, but I doubt someone as weak as her could," Bennithly began humming again, and cackled madly.

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Friday, May 7, 2010 - 5:06 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Again, TonDen glared from Irihi to Bennithly and back, and again confusion troubled his massive frame. Irihi's offer drifted in empty space, waiting for his attention, while a million other problems churned within his newly-spawned self.

"If you cannot help, Old One, then you are perfectly useless." TonDen said. "You certainly cannot help my Mistress. Which means that you," the beast turned to Irihi, "are the only one who can help me restore her. But who shall help me restore you? And if I go through the trouble to find one who can, why not simply use that one to restore my Mistress, and have done?"

This made such perfect sense. TonDen could find no flaws in the logic; by all rights he should leave these two and find one who could re-bind Rei to a new SoulStone, and that would be that. And yet.

"And yet." TonDen's bladed wings flexed nervously. He did not understand his discomfort - or even that he was uncomfortable. "I do not want to leave you in this state. I am perplexed by this. You fought my Mistress. I should destroy you. I should, but I do not want to. I do not want what my Mistress wants. Yet I do not think she is right, and that I am a traitor."

TonDen's many knees contorted, and he lowered himself toward the ground. One massive hand dropped next to Irihi, and one long thin one extended itself, offering to help her climb to his tremendous shoulder.

"I do not know how long the poison will act." TonDen said. "Nor whom we must see to cure it. But you must certainly know someone, somewhere, who would know. You have skills like my Mistress; certainly you have connections like she does. We will seek them out."

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 7:07 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi felt her fury kindle anew at Bennithly's refusal. It was not often that the sorceress asked for aid, and to be dismissed by a mere Uman was quite galling. This wizened old toad presumed he could poison her without consequence? He could not be aged more than two or three hundred years, barely older than herself, yet he was a withered old husk, barely clinging to life, thanks to his insect-like Uman lifespan.

"Then die, useless old fool!" Irihi hissed, raising her hand to summon the energies which would rend the old man's flesh from his bones.

And the drawstring snapped.

The loss of access to the Redeemer's Cemetery was like a physical blow to Irihi. She crumpled, reaching out and grasping the TonDen's outstretched hand for support.

The touch of the monster was electrified with magickal power. Yet it was a cool-burning and ordered energy very different from the blind, wild malice to which Irihi was accustomed. It was at once refreshingly restorative and disturbingly calming. The essence of the TonDen tasted of it's logic and dispassion; things Irihi did not really grasp. "Oh, you beautiful nightmare, I really must teach you to hate." She whispered more to herself than to TonDen.

Irihi perceived that TonDen's desires were paler reflection of Rei's, that he did not understand his own wants or even the concept of wanting. As Irihi, herself, was a creature driven purely by selfish want, she fully intended to teach the Burning Beast the best of the desires; the ones from which all mayhem stemmed.

Because what could possibly be better than a being of pure evil magick? Why, a being comprised of pure evil magick and filled with a desire for murder, of course.

"Yew serve yer mistress well, even if she does not know it. Yew are no traitor." Irihi reassured the TonDen, her resistance against the poison sustained now by the construct rather than the drawstring.

To another, she might have spoken the truth; that she had no connection to this worlde, that she was even more lost than TonDen. But the Burning Beast was no creature of pity or succor. No, she would need another way of influencing him, and in the meantime she should be careful not to show too much weakness, should he suddenly deem her unnecessary. "There was a fae of no small power here not long before yer mistress and I had our... disagreement. Sacrificing his life might cleanse me and bind Rei to this worlde." Clambering awkwardly--but thrilling at the very act--to TonDen's broad shoulder she pointed north, in the direction those travelers had gone.

As Irihi pointed, she could see that the skin of her fingertips was mottled with healthier shades than her usual pale coloration.

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 12:49 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen watched dispassionately as Irihi failed to slaughter Bennithly, her attempt thwarted by the frailty of her overtaxed drawstring. He felt her latch on to him, grasping for more than simply support; she pulled at Magicks in his core, and he could feel her life drawing from his. The vampiric drain he felt tingled in his bones; it was not far removed from the bond he shared with Rei.

A bond that still existed. Rei did not fail to see Irihi's new connection to TonDen - parasitic though it may have been. But, she bided her time for now, remaining silent and alert, keeping an exacting tally of the crimes against her for the reckoning to come.

TonDen, for his part, gave no thought to reckoning. He lifted Irihi up and gave her the opportunity to settle on his shoulder, pondering the things she said to him, and to herself.

"A power source will be necessary, certainly." TonDen agreed, slowly nodding his perfectly smooth head. "But I must have a Soul Stone for my Mistress, as well. The capture of the fae will fill one need, but not the other." He paused, and his head dropped forward, as if searching for something else. "There was another here - just a presence, no more - one of the wolf-things. I can smell it." A tremor rolled through TonDen, like fast-approaching thunder. "Hate has ever been the domain of my Mistress. A cudgel does not hate; it merely crushes what it hits. Yet I am no longer just a cudgel - and if I am to hate, then I shall hate the wolf-things above all else."

(OOC:

Sorry for the delays. Also, Benni?)

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 9:52 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Bennithly smiled slightly at the change of heart made by a long arguement with himself. "I will help yew, I may know how to create a focus for our mistress, but I cannot do it myself, for my skills lie elsewhere, but I know of somene in the nearby metropolis who can, but my knowledge is slightly dated, for I have not returned to the returned to my home town in several years" he smiled at his own cleverness. " Maybe we can form a coalition, to create a worlde never seen before, and the worlde will tremble in fear."

(OOC: My apologies for taking so long to post, military is keeping me busy)

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - 5:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi thought that perhaps the aberrant White Drow were a better target for TonDen's hatred, but she kept her own counsel regarding that particular thought. She glanced askance at Bennithly as he raved about some lunacy. "Does the horse form a partnership with the dirt it treads upon?" She grumbled to herself. The ancient Uman's mind was obviously failing if he thought himself a peer of an Elven necromance, but he had mentioned a city nearby where perhaps a Soul Stone or some substitute might be found.

No doubt the place was a teeming hive of the disgusting Umans and other lower races, and not a proper town of the favored folk. The thought made Irihi's skin crawl.

"Hate the furred ones? Well, I suppose they are hateful foul beasts in their own manner." She answered TonDen. She reached up to run one mottled finger along the bladed edge of the Burning Best's weapon-wings. "Then we shall see their bones ground to dust beneath your hooves, I think." She purred.

Despite her words, Irihi was not entirely convinced TonDen understood what it was to hate without reprieve, to rage without restraint. That was what she wished to teach, and to do so she would have to find a way for the beautiful monster to feel loss and wronged; to bring agony and misery to dispell the calm she felt infuse her own mind even as she leaned on TonDen's strength.

Using an infintesimal portion of that strength, she summoned the Ghoul Eye and peered through the ghastly lense of the unblinking orb. She looked toward the Uman warren of Terajin and she looked toward the heart of the forest where the Wolvians must dwell. "The eyes of the dead often see what yew seek. Do you see a way to save yer mistress, my lovely one?" She asked TonDen, wafting the ghostly lense before his non-face with a wave of her hand.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - 2:58 am GMT | Edit | Link |

"Let us visit this Uman city, the old man speaks of." Irihi suggested. "I believe I was once told that anything or anyone could be purchased there."

She wondered how the city would suit TonDen. Would the city-dwellers perceive him as simply another freak amongst the carnival of mixed blood and polluted magick to which this worlde had degenerated? Or would this magnificent horror be understood and properly feared so that they would have to smash gates and burn their way through the filthy hovels of the knavish scum? Irihi dearly hoped for burning.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Monday, June 14, 2010 - 2:18 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi peered into the unsettling translucent glow of TonDen's skin, squinting as if she might make out the outline of the once-Drow encased within his living crystalline malevolence.

Nope.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 10:03 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(OOC:

La dee da... *kicks feet idly*)

 

By Noble of Wolvians (Dagiris)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 12:09 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

(OOC:

Unfortunately TonDen's true master is currently unable to get online due to RL callings, he apologises for the delay and will get back as soon as he is able, but doesn't currently know when this will be )

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 2:16 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Bennithly sway from side to side swaying from what looked like a deep internal arguement and shook his head.

Deeper understanding of his own problems came out. "Stupid but powerful."

Benntithly smiled evilly.

(OOC: sorry, went on a military excursion)

By Unearthly Hoar Necromancer (Rei)

Friday, July 2, 2010 - 8:43 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(OOC:

Er, yeah. Sorry about that. *cough* Um. Back to yer regularly scheduled mayhems, I suppose? I promise yew can both crucify me later.)

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Friday, July 2, 2010 - 11:04 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen stood still and thoughtful for a long moment. Having not sight like Irihi had, the Ghoul Eye availed him nothing; having not a scheming heart like Rei's, he did not know how best to consider the plan posed by his comrades - if such they could truly be called.

"I do not trust this Uman city." He said. He did not do well in cities. Usually his time in cities involved chaos and destruction that he had no control over; this made him uncomfortable. He liked knowing that the madness was entirely his doing. "They will respond with violence, undoubtedly; havoc will make it difficult to find the SoulStone I need."

But, he had no options. He knew of no place to find a new gem for his Mistress, nor whom he could contact to repair her. If he were not so monstrous, he might be able to find someone in Terajin - perhaps he could convince Irihi or Bennithly to search for him? Doubts plagued him, but in the end, he could do nothing but proceed.

"Though I have misgivings, it is the only alternative. As such, we must go." He wrapped one of his thin arms around Irihi's legs, and used one thick hand to snatch at Bennithly's robes, intending to carry him along. Whether or not he caught hold, the golem leapt forward, hurtling down the road towards Terajin with astounding speed.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Monday, July 5, 2010 - 2:01 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Riding the Burning Beast thrilled Irihi to no end. It far surpassed jolting along on the back of a sweaty, stinky animal, to say nothing of walking or wafting as was her wont. So long as she was sustained by TonDen's magick--and she feared Bennithly's poison would quickly turn her to dust without it--she was fixed to the physical realm. Though the day was a bit hot and sunny for her taste, she was comfortable enough with her golden-tipped black locks streaming in the breeze of TonDen's passage.

She watched the road roll beneath his gait, appreciating both the form and power of the monster's translucent shoulders upon which she perched. It seemed that the quadlet of sorcerers and golem would quickly pass out of the smokey region where Irihi and Rei's brief feud had set forest and field ablaze. For her part, Irihi thought no more of leaving the fire to rage uncontained than she gave consideration to leaving the tormented souls of her tree-effigies to burn in agony until they would at last be released from the embers as twisted and vengful spirits. Evil ghosts would haunt this section of the Lorimar long after the rains cooled the conflagration.

She almost branded him without asking. It would have been such a simple thing, to burn her mark into his glowing flesh. Certainly she could have performed the binding before he could brush her away, but just when Irihi was about to scribe the magnificent creature, she paused. As much as she wanted to, she could not bring herself to mar even the smallest bit of the living construct.

So long as the connection to TonDen sustained her against Bennithly's, she needed to ensure the connection was not severed. Though she did not want to brand the TonDen, she also did not dare voice her weakness. Rei might already know, Irihi expected. She thought she could feel that perversion of Elven kind slithering around inside the Burning Beast like a blind slug of noxious bile, reaching out to sense all that TonDen experienced through magickal tendrils. Still, she hated the feeling of the powerlessness of asking rather than commanding. "TonDen, you have saved me and now you carry me against your masterˇ¦s wish. I would give you something of mine to show my appreciation.ˇ¨ She placed a hand upon the glowing skin at the base of his neck, willing away any sense of treachery and doing her best to project sincerity. It was not as hard as she might imagine, for she both appreciated and admired the marvelous creature. She really did wish he might carry some small token of hers if she could not bring herself to forcibly mark himˇXand not just for the influence she might gain. She reached up and unfastened the clasp of the ruby pendant (when had she pulled it forth from the otherworlde and donned it?). ˇ§Would you wear this for me?ˇ¨ She asked.

(TO:

The Merchant's Walk at TonDen's Pleasure.)

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 7:15 am GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen heard the voice of his Mistress raging, deep within his core. His tremendous strides remained steady, but the tremble of Rei's fury made him waver within; a battle broadcast through his flickering bones. She screamed at him: a trap, yew fool! in a voice for him alone, but he met her rage with silence.

He knew a trap was possible. Even likely. A bond to another mistress could break that fragile identity he had been spawned with by mistake; it could drive him mad or tear his newly minted mind to pieces.

"Around my wrist." He said. Knowing the risks, knowing the rage he would invoke, he offered the witch on his shoulder his left hand, and a place to lash the pendant.

Rei, lurking deep within her once-slave, quelled herself. She began to do what she did best: to analyze, to plot, to prepare for a counterstrike. For as Rei an TonDen were bonded, so a bond with TonDen was a bond with Rei. If she was cautious, if she was careful, then her revenge would be swift and utterly complete.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Thursday, July 8, 2010 - 3:06 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Irihi was amazed at TonDen's compliance. She wondered if the Burning Beast, by his nature, found it difficult to refuse. He had once been a mere tool, and tools did not say "no". Or maybe he likes you... Said a very small voice, wordlessly.

The pendant fit snugly around TonDen's wrist, though it would have magickally expanded or contracted to wrap around whatever part was offered. "Freely given, freely accepted." Irihi whispered.

Of course the gift was a trick, trap, or whatever one wished to call such subterfuge. It was tethered to Irihi much as her drawstring had been, and with it she could drain no insignificant part of TonDen's vitality... if she could only figure out how. She still did not comprehend the Blue Ash of which the monster was made, and it was only by good fortune that she had stumbled upon how to siphon an infintesimal portion of the TonDen's artificial life to perform minor magicks and hold off Bennithly's toxin.

"It looks good on you." Irihi observed, patting the shoulder upon which she sat. "You and I are not so different, you know?" Irihi reflected almost to herself. "I was once a weapon as well." She sighed, and it was difficult to discern if the wistful note in her voice was truth, or a cold calculated play for a little of TonDen's favor. "I had more liberties, and I suppose I was always... myself. But my will was not always my own." She paused for a long while, watching the road fall away beneath the giant's three-legged strides.

Irihi had thought to curry favor with the TonDen while stoking her own malice, but reflecting on her past was not having the usual enraging effect. Pulling a few loose strands from the slipstream, she gazed sadly at her brightening hair pinched between mottled fingers. Bennithly's toxin and the calming effect of the TonDen's dispassionate energies were doubly-deadly for the sorceress. Should the MonBan find her with fury in ebb tide, she would be the lesser of the evils and unable to mount an effective resistance.

Releasing the strands, she took a deep breath and changed the subject. "Let's try an exercise of that free will of yours, shall we?" Irihi proposed with a smile. "Tell me, why do you hate the furred ones; the Wolvians?"

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Friday, July 9, 2010 - 1:57 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Bennithly sighed deeply, as he seemed to go along for the ride that he so wanted to avoid, to a place where he was last truly good.

He hated the beast, and the new armor he wore seemed cumbersome and untrustworthy, in any way for him to use.

The knight in his head said, "trust me, I know what I am doing"

"I hope so, I certainly do," Bennithly said aloud.

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Friday, July 9, 2010 - 10:50 am GMT | Edit | Link |

TonDen inspected his new jewelry, wondering if the strange flutterings he felt within were Magick from the pendant, or if he could even sense such a Magick. He did not know what to think of this, save that he liked it, and that yes, as Irihi had said, it did look good on him.

He was unfamiliar with these sensations; Rei had never complimented him, nor had she ever given him anything - not even a gift that could be turned against him - and she had certainly never put herself on TonDen's level. She was always Mistress, and he was always Slave. And now, Irihi. And TonDen felt . . .

He could not explain it to himself, and so he turned away from it. Instead, he considered Irihi's question closely. Why hate the Wolvians, indeed? He had only encountered one, that he could recall, which seemed a poor reason to hate a race; and yet in remembering, he found the hatred flaring again, hotter than the last time.

"One harmed my Mistress." He realized, as he said it, that that was not the reason at all, but merely the start - one incident that proceeded his true frustration. "It took my Mistress from her Magick. She was left with none of her usual methods, but she was determined to pursue the beast and its party. She followed it into a city, where I could not go, so she abandoned me, dismissed me into dust and made instead a different slave, of the body and bones of a centaur. And she called that worthless thing TonDen, too."

TonDen's bones flared with something else he had never felt, though this he had a name for. This was fury, and a molten wave of it coursed through him, flowing in to his chest, where rested Rei's shattered gemstone core. The fury pooled there, hemming in Rei's imprisoned soul, white-hot and raging around her.

Bennithly, being carried along, said something; TonDen's head snapped in the Necromancer's direction.

"WHAT?" The monster boomed, glowering down at Bennithly. He had no real qualms against the Necromancer, but his growing rage spilled out in his voice, which thundered down the roadway, causing nearby trees to tremble from its force. TonDen paused, forcing his fury to settle, and then tried a second time: "What did yew say?"

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Monday, July 12, 2010 - 5:30 am GMT | Edit | Link |

Tonden’s rage was both thrilling and invigorating to Irihi. Where she touched the Burning Beast, her skin tingled. It was not lost upon her that TonDen’s aura of power seemed to grow in proportion to his anger. She wondered just where and how he drew his energies, for they seemed to manifest from the ether without source. She wondered if perhaps they were leaving a trail of dead vegetation behind, as she was wont to do. Through her connection to TonDen, while he was otherwise distracted, she surreptitiously tried to divine the source and nature of the magick which animated the Blue Ash.

But even as she tried to comprehend the nature of Rei’s beautiful monster, his words saddened her. Oh, TonDen hated Rei as surely and even more fiercely than did Irihi, and he only projected that hate onto the Wolvians, or any convenient target. His fury, however, was of a different stripe than Irihi’s, for her hatred stemmed solely from a love of self. Irihi imagined that the balance of TonDen’s dichotomy of hatred was a jealous love of his master. She feared his loyalty might be unbreakable, which only made her desire to make him her own all the more. Oh why couldn’t Rei have saved them both a great deal of trouble and just given her TonDen in the first place? Of course, Irihi had first asked for the very Centaur-TonDen which so angered the Burning Beast, but there was no reason to reveal that.

When TonDen and Bennithly had finished whatever exchange they might have, Irihi spoke again. “Centaurs are foul beasts, indeed. To be turned into such a disgusting creature would distress me as well.” She would not dismiss TonDen, even had she the ability to make him anew, for Irihi took comfort in the monsters of this worlde where she found them; a giant murderous shark in the deeps off the Isle Obscura, the city-sized evil dragon dozing forgetfully within a mountain on Hjek Daru, and now this glorious creature of shimmering blue malice. She thought them, in their not-belonging, to be the closest she might find to kin in this modern worlde. She pondered how she might convince TonDen of the same. “But wait, you were not in the centaur?” She asked, her confused query a bit less-than-innocent. After a short pause, she continued. “Truthfully, TonDen, it gladdens me to know you in this form and no other. You are glorious and I am happy just to witness you.” And this last bit she whispered to the blankness of TonDen’s not-ear while she caressed the back of his thickly-muscled neck with her fingertips: “Though I do wish you were not already sworn to a single mistress…”

Had TonDen been a man or beast of ordinary flesh, Irihi might have described a charm of compulsion, but TonDen’s new mind was foreign to her, and she had no idea which strings to pull. So for now, she would have to settle for doing things the old fashioned way; with flattery and suggestion.

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - 6:58 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

"Nothing," Bennithly said "I was just remembering days long ago, when I last was here, yew must understand that I made more than a few enemies, some of them may still be alive, but this is a risk I am going to have to take. Do yew understand that TonDen?"

By The Burning Beast (Tonden)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - 10:28 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

With his powerful legs, TonDen bore steadily onward, carrying his passengers, and their conversations, up the road, to the Merchant's Walk.

By The Curse of Seven Oaks (Irihi)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - 2:58 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

(TO:

The Merchant's Walk)

By Bennithly the Ancient (Bennithly)

Thursday, July 15, 2010 - 3:42 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(To: The Merchant's Walk)

By Dalmut of the Western Grove (Dalmut)

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 6:39 am GMT | Edit | Link |

(FROM:

The Festing Lanes)


He hadn't slept for a while. In the Channyfor, napping was a common pastime, but this clearly was nothing like the Channyfor. There were trees, but their sound was dark and gloomy.

A particular set of sounds off to the left had been keeping his wavering attention. He was concerned, however he was too urgently attracted to the stretches of road ahead to worry. One might say he was fearlessly pressing ahead, though not for a lack of cowardice but for the innocent fact that he had never before known any significant fear.

Gnome stooped forward, eyes fixed ahead, arms churning and legs trotting. Someone had once written a book on the ways of Gnomes and included a respectably complete chapter on the traveling gnome. Dalmut was a perfect instance of this text.

The creature off to the left was less original than it was benevolent.

By Gulric Stonefist (Gulric)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - 8:42 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

"Darned pirates! I can't even read this blasted thing!" The dwarf grumbled as he stood in the middle of the road, turning around the map he held in his hands. He had gotten lost twice since he left Seven Oaks.

He only had enough gold to make it the Seven Oaks harbor and when the captain of the ship demanded more money, Gulric quickly broke his nose and dispatched several of the pirates men before stealing the map and a variety of other items including a ruby ring. Gulric quickly left the city in fear of retribution. Now he was on his way to Terajin, if he could just read the map.

By Gulric Stonefist (Gulric)

Friday, September 23, 2011 - 4:39 pm GMT | Edit | Link |

Gaining his bearings Gulric continued on, keeping an eye on the forest. He had heard various sounds emanating from it's edge and wanted to stay on guard in case anything attacked him.

The dwarf picked up speed, not wanting to be caught alone on the road by the Seven Oaks guards or anything else the may come out of the forest.

(ooc:to Merchant's Walk)

Add a Message


This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here.
Username:  
Password:
Post as "Anonymous"