HLoM: The Firebird, Chapter 2

[Isabella]

Darkness.

Richard gasped as if he'd just surfaced from underwater, pressing a hand to his face. His armor carried the night's chill, the metal cold enough to bite his too-hot flesh. He nearly groaned at the feel of it, pressing his other hand to his cheek, lifting the shield shard to touch his brow. It was as though a fire raged upon his skin, even as the sharp air stung against it with bitter complaint. It took a moment to steady himself. Be still. Let the heat boil off his frame. Let the night cool his blood. Breathe in. Breathe out. One. Two. Three. Four.

What the hell had come over him?

He'd acted on basest instinct, and with the blood and blackness now receded, he felt shaken. Richard opened his eyes, holding the shard gently between his fingers. It was there. It was real. A balm upon his wounded soul, a tiny flicker of light in the ever-present pall of this place. Hold on to it. Take strength from it. Richard gently shifted the shard in his palm, gripping for the handle of his sword before realizing it wasn't there. He looked up, heart racing, but there were no foes to fight. The castle was gone. His companions, gone.

"O-oh Ezra," he whispered, aghast, as if the shard in his hand could hear him. "I-I-I promised - I-I-I promised to protect... oh Lady, please let them-please let them be safe. Please..."

Voices. Voices from the forest, not from his mind. Was he still in the courtyard, in the same place, but in the different time? But that would mean where and when he stood was long before the castle had been built - long before it had even been envisioned. Then who could these voices be?

It would do no good to try and eavesdrop, they would hear him coming long before he reached them - and likely react with alarm, given their current location. He dared not approach them without some means of warning. With a bit of effort, he retrieved his old and well-polished lantern, taking a few tries with flint and steel to ignite the oil. It had been his uncle's once, a symbol of trust and guiding light. Richard could only hope it held true to that promise.

He held it up and waited, in case the women saw the glow in the forest. Breathe in. Breathe out. One. Two. Three. Four. Then he carefully walked forward, to where he thought the voices were.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

As Richard reaches down and touches something in the tomb of the lady Isolt, there is a flare of white light and he is gone.

Vasili's mouth tightened, his jaw clenched as he examined the area Richard had touched, to confirm the shard had gone with him. There went his last angel, hopefully off on some mission from his goddess that would bring her grace back to them. They would have to make their way alone.

Outside, the wolves throw back their heads and howl in unison, then collapse and lie unmoving.

Seeing the zombie wolves are fallen, Vasili drops his voice to a whisper to be overheard magically. "Archon, Tara, Altan, Rojan--is anyone still in range? The ghost has fled, Richard touched the shard and vanished, and our other...adversaries...are indisposed at the moment. Stay together, but keep in contact and return as soon as you can."

He turns to Nuray with a nod toward the mouldering wolves. "Think they will stay down, or should we decapitate them?"

He looks around for the ghost to return through the rear wall.

"Goodyf, I can offer you some protection if that ghost returns. I'm casting spells now before restoring the illusion."

Vasili surrounds himself in a protective field of force, and does the same for Nuray if she allows.

Casting mage armor on self and Nuray, if she allows it. If she's got her own protection against ethereal attacks, Vasili won't complain about saving the spell slot. He will persist in re-contacting the archon if he doesn't hear back immediately.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Craig turns back, irritated (though he hides it well) but also at least a little curious. "I suppose it's possible. She told me she had seen the Dagda, and Belenus, and they had given her counsel, though she didn't like to tell mewhat it was." A wry, or perhaps bitter, expression crosses his face as he says this. "She dreamed of Lugh more than once--usually that she was at his wedding. She also had one several times from a goddess she didn't know handing her a broken shield and telling her to mend it."

Know (religion) and Bluff checks, please, from Avram and Lena both.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Renhalt and Dundee (the druid) are not with Cattia and Ushka, for the record. They are hangin' out talking (and playing telephone operator, in Renhalt's case) in your rooms in the south tower. Sorry for the tag confusion.

The trap door has no obvious way to reach it--there aren't handholds in the walls, which are quite smooth, as Cattia quickly learns, and the ceiling is rather high--not quite double Cattia's height, but close. More drastic measures will have to be taken to access it, although it appears that even a stepstool would make it fairly easy to get it open.

The creature on the other side of the door scratches at it; Ushka, already acutely aware of it, hears it clearly, but Cattia's absorption in the task at hand mean her attention is elsewhere.

Perception DC 16 to notice the scratching, Cattia.

[Nerit]

Nuray blinked again, for when she thought she had Richard's arm, he was gone, and she had grabbed nothing. "Heathen, indeed," she muttered to herself, and tore her gaze back to the wolves, who had thankfully given up their restless endeavor to live again.

She stared, for a moment, deaf to Vasili's words at first, as if they were far away. "It is grisly work," she finally replied. "I...only have a dagger." She held her bow aloft to light upon the lupine carrion.

Nuray did not refuse the enchantment the sorcerer offered, merely nodded. It seemed she was hardly bothered at all by the notion, unlike some of her more superstitious kin. (Could you blame Rashemani to begrudge magic when all of Hazlan is ruled by magi?)

"We should...regroup," she added. "Find the others, and Freyr, Richard I mean." She glanced back toward the tomb, then forced out a breath and turned the way they had come.

[NeoTiamat]

Ushka turned towards the door, the fur on her back rising as she lowered her head. Even an angry tiny fox is still a tiny fox, but there was something about the sharp-toothed, silent snarl that Ushka aimed at the door that was not at all laughable. She looked back at Cattia, then scuttled into the shadows, warning delivered.

Stealth +27, though if Cattia needs Ushka for anything (to lug up to the trapdoor), the fox materializes promptly.
[dice]0[/dice]



"A goddess with a broken shield?" Lena murmured. Well that was direct. The Lady of the Mists worked in mysterious ways. She smiled, putting just a hint of magic into her next words. "If Milord has anything to write upon, I can take notes to deliver this to my fellow experts. Still, at first glance, this does sound like the Lady of the Mists, the goddess Ezra."

It was a calculated gamble. Lena needed to give Craig something to keep him around, and Ezra's identity seemed unlikely to be information anyone would regret.

Suggestion DC 21 (I have no idea if the Fascinate worked); Hey, Craig, how about the letter so I can take some notes on the back?

Taking 10 on the Knowledge: Religion, for a total of 20.
Curse trigger on the Bluff! Bluff +18, lower of the following:
[dice]1[/dice]
[dice]2[/dice]

[Nathan of the FoS]

As Richard approaches he hears the women conversing in low, urgent tones. He gets closer than he expected before the older and taller of the two seems to realize he's there. Turning to him sharply and moving to place herself between Richard and the woman she's talking to, she snaps out, "Who disturbs the sacred grove?"

The lamplight reveals the speaker to a long face with a strong chin framed in a mass of wild dark hair, her eyes worried, her mouth pressed to a thin line, but obviously a woman accustomed to being obeyed. After a moment Richard recognizes the face--it is that of the restless spirit who drew away Rojan, although she is several years younger now--perhaps about thirty. The other woman is about twenty, fair-haired and pale-skinned, pretty but apparently in ill health; she seems vaguely familiar, but Richard can't place her.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Tara replies with one muttered word: "Caught." None of the other three respond at all. From Vasili and Nuray's vague impressions of where Tara, Rojan and Altan fled, they would guess they fled back to the dining hall where you talked with the mercenary Colin and Captain Avard, as the nearest place with light and human companions. The archon's location, being faster and not limited by gravity, is more problematic.

[Nathan of the FoS]

"The goddess Ezra?" Craig repeats, looking at Lena with great interest (but not showing the slightest inclination to hand over any papers he may have acquired from her). Then, to Marcel, "This would be the one to whom you have sworn yourself."

"That is correct, Laird ApBlanc," Marcel replies, bowing slightly. "I have that honor. I am astonished--perhaps more astonished than I should be, for Our Lady's power is very great--to know that your daughter has seen her in vision. She is certainly greatly blessed."

"Not only the blessed receive the attentions of the gods, priest," Craig says grimly. Recovering his friendly air, he continues, "But you interest me strangely. You are the first people I have ever met to whom this goddess is known--and not only do you know her, but you are her priest. Perhaps when my daughter returns from her latest misadventure you can speak to her of this Ezra."

Know (religion): The Dagda is a god of the earth, of harvest and plenty; Belenus is a solar deity. The two factions of druids in the present day are mostly worshipers of one or the other. Lugh is a god of smiths and metalworkers, often depicted in full armor and almost always depicted carrying a spear. Ezra is Ezra.

Another Bluff check, please.

[Isabella]

"I-I-I am sorry. I-I meant no trespass, nor-nor disrespect," Richard said, slightly bowing to humble himself to the woman. He raised the lamp away from himself to prove he held nothing threatening, though his other hand clutched the shield to his chest as if it were the only thing sustaining him. "I-I -- My name is-is Richard. I-I-I will leave if you ask it. I-I have just become lost, and your-yours were the only-only voices I-I-I could find."

[NeoTiamat]

"Latest misadventure?" Lena echoed, turning a quizzical look at the Laird ApBlanc. She pursed her lips as if in thought, which was only half-inaccurate. "Did the other visions contain messages as well?"

Bluff +18
[dice]0[/dice]

[Nathan of the FoS]

The older woman gives Richard a fierce, skeptical look, and growls, "A stranger, come to this sacred place by night and armored? Are you bearing arms?"

"Rual," the other woman almost whispers from behind her. "His face is kind. I..."

She is interrupted by the wail of an infant, and Richard realizes she is carrying a child in her arms. She turns away, hushing the baby, while her companion continues her examination of Richard. "What's your business here, young man?" she says, obviously still suspicious. "Lost on your way to where?"

[Nathan of the FoS]

Craig makes a dismissive gesture. "I suppose they did, hardly seems worthwhile for the gods to trouble themselves otherwise. My daughter, I am afraid, takes after her father." He half-smiles. "Too headstrong by half. We fought a few weeks ago and she left in a snit, probably to visit with her friends and complain about her father. We've not had word from her yet," he goes on, perhaps a little uneasily, "but I'm sure she'll turn up some time soon and expect to be taken back into our good graces. Which she may just possibly achieve. At any rate, I must be off. I'll ask you more of this Ezra tomorrow morning? Yes? Capital."

He turns away again, obviously determined to actually get out the door this time.

Sense Motive--surely you were about to anyway! You will have to do something pretty dramatic to get him to come back to the conversation again. You'd guess it's a half-hour to sunset.

[Isabella]

"A stranger, come to this sacred place by night and armored? Are you bearing arms?"

"No," Richard replied, his face bleak. "My-my sword is gone."

"What's your business here, young man?" she says, obviously still suspicious. "Lost on your way to where?"

"To-to find this," Richard said, lifting the shield from his chest to show Rual, and likewise reveal the alabaster shield that hung around his neck. "A-a-a priestess. A woman. She told me it-it could be found in this forest. And found it I-I have, but I-I... cannot seem to find my way back."

"My... my lady, you seem ill. Can I-I-I -- can I-I aid...?" Richard asked the other woman quietly. He wondered if she still acted as a ghost, when she looked like flesh and blood, and if a well meaning attempt to heal her body would only cause her more pain.

[Nerit]

To be edited.

VIEW CONTENT:

Nuray blinked several more times and moved closer to Tara, her eyes no longer wide with surprise. They were slitted, almost feline, in suspicion. "What do you mean caught?" she asked, a dangerous tone rising in her voice. "This place conspires against us, but surely not the relic...unless there's something else you know, Dommra

."


Sense Motive +20 on Tara
[dice]0[/dice]