A Stitch in Souragne: Symbols of a Fallen Loah

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Goren

The skeleton briefly holds onto the amulet, its bony digits touching Goren's, before it lets go and clatters back to its broom. There is something oddly sad and weary about the collection of gleaming bones in its pristine cassock. As Goren goes further from the chapel, he starts to feel a pulse of energy, emanating from the amulet in his hand...

[steveflam]

Goren

The skeleton briefly holds onto the amulet, its bony digits touching Goren's, before it lets go and clatters back to its broom. There is something oddly sad and weary about the collection of gleaming bones in its pristine cassock. As Goren goes further from the chapel, he starts to feel a pulse of energy, emanating from the amulet in his hand...

Goren re-enters the chapel, aware of the amulets power, but wanting some information."Pardonnez moi, messieur squelette. Vous etes un pretre dans la vie? Ceci est le symbol de votre dieu?"

*Excuse me mr skeleton. Were you a priest in real life? Was this your holy symbol?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The skeleton looks up from its sweeping when Goren comes back, and appears to be listening to his words.
To the first question, it nods.
To the second, it shakes its... skull.
Then it goes back to sweeping the already spotless floor -- and the rather large vèvè that has been painted onto it sometime in the past.

Knowledge (religion) check, DC12.

[Ail]

Zumba nods at what the slave girls say. He had understood most of it as he looked around the room.

"It is true." he says to the girls. "I was a slave. And I will believe that you are all relatives of my former masters. And I don't deny that even now I am fighting my impulses to strip you all naked and rape you until I can forget the memories of all the old wounds... such a sweet redress it would be."

He stops for a moment, looking at their face as he realizes what he just said.

"But that would be doing violence to you, and you are not responsible for my suffering. And I don't wish to hurt you. Less even in a place like this, where life is so rare. If you had found me in another place, maybe your own house, I might have indeed branded my revenge upon you... I'm not always master of my will. But here.... here I want to see you all free and alive and away from all this death. It's not a promise, I don't know the intentions of the master of the house, and I doubt I can oppose them."

"Oh don't look at me like that... I feel like I am playing chess with the Baron, and there are so many ways I can lose that I can't count them. Don't be too hopeful! I just wish it won't be my hand to make you suffer."

He sits on the bed looking at the girls. He tells one of them to check the one that has just fainted and try to bring her back to her senses. Without touching any of them, he tells them to sit around him, on the floor.

"Now, you can still fulfill the duty the Baron gave you and do what I want: tell me all you know about this Baron, and his plans for me and my friends."

[steveflam]

The skeleton looks up from its sweeping when Goren comes back, and appears to be listening to his words.
To the first question, it nods.
To the second, it shakes its... skull.
Then it goes back to sweeping the already spotless floor -- and the rather large vèvè that has been painted onto it sometime in the past.

Knowledge (religion) check, DC12.

Having seen the vèvè before, Goren nods at the skeleton. "Merci monsieur le squelette. Vous connaissez Chicken Bone ou avez entendu parler de lui dans la vie, monsieur?" *Mr skeleton you know Chicken Bone or heard of him in life?

As strange as it seems, even to Goren, he is holding a conversation with a skeleton. Again, this is a very strange land.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The skeleton nods again, but continues sweeping the floor. (It may be a conversation, but he sure isn't much of a conversationalist.)

[steveflam]

Goren nods to the skeleton "Merci. Je reviens plus tard." *Thank you, I will come back later.

He exits the room and heads for the stairs.

[Ken of Ghastria]

OOC: My apologies to all for the delay. I promise to regain my ... regularity.

The first maid curtsies before the Half-Elf. The graceful movement is at horrible odds with the lifeless look in her eyes. Shockingly, the creature addresses him in flawless Balok: "Please follow me, Monsieur Renier."

Lucien's face blanches, turning nearly as pale as the "servant" before him.

They are fine clothes, in the latest gentleman's fashion of the Core, the colours wine red and black. There is a crest set out on the left breast in bright red and gold wire.

A splendid rapier in an ebon sheath, attached to a black leather belt with a gold buckle, is also lying ready on the bed. Two gloves - one white, one black - and a golden mask shaped like a snake's head lie ready, in addition to a sealed envelope.

Balok: "Do you wish assistance in bathing, Master Renier?" the maid asks. "I have been placed at your... complete discretion." Horribly, the maid winks at Lucien, and unfastens the top button of her bodice.

Lucien's earlier astonishment gives way to a growing anger. Claude silently admonishes him in his mind, Control yourself, Lucien. We are in the home of a VERY powerful man. Rage is your greatest foe right now.

After a mental nod, Lucien steps forward, a vicious smile on his face. He places both hands on the maid's now-bare shoulders, noting with revulsion that her cold skin feels perfectly fine against the gray, withered flesh of his cursed hand. "I shall inform you of my wishes. First of all, that... surname does not apply to me. I request that you do not use it--" he looks above the maid's head, as though talking to someone else "--My Lord Misroi. It has no bearing here."

He looks down again, making contact with the maid's eyes. "As for my physical needs, while I have committed sins in the past, I have not yet attempted necrophilia." He winks back at her. "No offense, mademoiselle, but that will not start today. If I change my mind, I shall happily inform you. You may assist with the bath, however."

As she prepares the bath, Lucien picks up the envelope and opens it.

After reading the enclosed message, he begins disrobing and asks the maid, "That mask.... Do the others have similar costumes? Has your lord arranged some sort of ... party?"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Zumba[color]

The girls huddle on the floor, clearly frightened.
"He is the Baron," says the girl who has been doing most of the talking. "The L... the L... the Lord of the Dead."

There is a strange feeling; a pressure upon the middle of the chest. You were not aware of it before, but you are now. Pressure. Now here, then seemingly gone. But you are sure it was there, if only for a moment.

"We have not seen him," the girl says, her voice faint. Sweat is running down her face in rivulets. "His servants took us from our homes and brought us here. There was... a dark room. He spoke to us, but we never saw him. I think... I think his voice came through his servants. He said... he said he would... he said he would make you his friend. You and your comrades. He said you would soon be his very best friends, and thus... thus his Master would become friends with she whom you are hunting."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lucien

The maid stands silently and watches while Lucien speaks. She remains in place, merely gesturing towards the prepared bath while the Half-Elf picks up the letter and reads it.

For Lucien's eyes only

VIEW CONTENT:

'My dear Monsieur Renier;

Welcome to my abode! While I am sadly certain that you should have found my little backwater Domain pales sadly in comparison with the lavish luxuries of such realms as Borca, Richemulot and Dementlieu, I wish to assure you that we are not entirely bereft of refinement. The name Renier is well-known to us, and as such, I should like to extend the hand of friendship to you. I may be the ruler of a culturally stagnated realm, but my resources are of the finest quality. There could be great benefit to an alliance between the two of us.

Respectfully,
Anton Misroi, Baron, Souragne.'

When Lucien looks up from the note, the zombie maid is standing quite close to him. There is a hideous grin on her face -- a smile which threatens to tear the flesh at the corners of her mouth. When she opens it, a hideous miasma exits, and a man's voice comes rolling out, deep and vital:
"How perceptive of you, Monsieur Renier! I do, indeed, have a party planned. You and all your friends are invited to my little masked ball. Please, make haste! Two of your friends are already waiting to commence the celebration."

Chuckling, the voice deep and dark as chocolate, the zombie maid ghosts past Lucien's partially unclothed body. Goosebumps rise on his limbs and back...

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Goren & Orda

Orda stands at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall as her breath comes in violent gusts. Her hand trembles on the hilt of her sword as she fights to regain control of herself, and she can feel a little sweat trickling down her back. Her sword trembles -- and scrapes the wall.

Goren is just coming out of the passage that lead him to the shrine when he hears a clattering, scraping noise. He looks up, up -- and his breath catches in his throat as he beholds a luminous vision of feminine beauty, standing high above him. She is magnificent, she is more beautiful than any other woman he has ever seen before in his life! The fact that she is holding a sword several times too large for her, and has another sword strapped to her belt, seems unimportant.

OOC: Goren, please make a Fortitude save, DC15.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Lucien's earlier attempt at bravado crumbles at the sound of Misroi's voice from the servant, and it takes all his willpower to resist the urge to flee the manor right then and there.

Despite the oh-so-needed comfort of the bath, the half-elf doesn't take the time to luxuriate in it. He doesn't want to spend a moment longer than necessary in such a vulnerable position. Or at least, that's his intent.... After several minutes, he realizes with horror that he's been frantically scrubbing the withered flesh of his zombie-like hand as though to rub it off....

He sits silently in the tub for a long minute, staring ahead.

Then he gets up, dries himself off, and dresses in the garments provided. He looks at himself in the mirror and stares intently at the crest on the garment, his face as much of a mask as the snake-faced item on the bed -- which he decides to simply hold for now. He turns to leave, but after a mental reminder from Claude, he goes back to Misroi's letter and sets it aflame with a nearby candle, leaving it to disintegrate in a pewter tray.

Then he exits the room to join the others.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Goren, Orda & Lucien

A scream tears Orda from her moment of exhaustion.
A scream brings Lucien running at a trot.
A scream -- torn from Goren's throat.

It is not a cry of fear, nor of pain, but some other, incomprehensible mish-mash of delight, awe and protest.
The beauty of what the Cleric beheld is simply too much. The beauty fills his thoughts, his eyes... and darkness follows.
Goren is blinded!

Lucien arrives just in time to see the Cleric, dressed now in a black robe and red slippers, a donkey's head mask on his head, clutching at his face. Only a glance up the stairs is enough to form a theory as to why Goren is suddenly afflicted, for there stands a vision of nigh-inhuman beauty... Beauty to overwhelm the senses!


Lucien, please give me a Fortitude save, DC15, or else your lights go out as well... :-\



For her part, Orda sees Goren at the foot of the stairs, recognizable only due to his flaming red hair and build, for his clothing and mask are completely unfamiliar to her.

A moment after the priest screams, Lucien comes running up, dressed impeccably in a black suit with a crest picked out on his breast pocket in red and gold. He looks up at her... and his eyes widen in awe! ... only for his sight to fade into darkness as well!

Orda looks down on her comrades, both of them clearly blinded after one look at her!

[A G Thing]

Orda flinches to attention at the scream that is so odd and queer to her hearing and looking down sees her barely recognizable ally Goren seem to be holding his face with the mask upon his head. Trying her hardest to summon back her anger she pushes her will so she might fight her fatigue and rush down the stairs to jerk the cursed mask from his face, but before she can take one step she then sees Lucien come into view. While he is not wearing a mask and looking up at her she does not grasp his stunned look and quickly glances behind herself as if to find what could be so fascinating.

Then looking back and seeing Lucien looking as if blinded she moves down the stairs. Her now ash blonde hair bobs into her peripheral vision and she fights to ignore the disturbing distraction of it. She drops her blade and bag at the base of the steps and attempts to grasp the mask from the blinded Goren trying to pull it from his face and yet she is horrified again but barely pushes through that to continue when she realizes how small she is compared to the man.

Her hands trying to grasp the mask and she is shocked by how small they seem, "Goren I am..." Orda again is distracted by how different her own voice is and yet while the panic of her own change frightens her she tries to calm Goren still and pull the mask from his struggling hands. "Goren it is me Orda! Lucien, over here..."

She glances as Lucien is still looking her way. With the change in height she is disturbed by his blank look at her and yet she does not understand. She says, "What is wrong?" with a voice that makes her sound far less controlled than she had tried to.

[Ail]

"Interesting", Zumba says. "His friends?

he muses alloud, not liking what he heard. He felt they were being manipulated, but in any case he did not expect this to be easy. His only hope into coming alive out of this plantation was that their quest was actually in the best of the Baron's interests. For if the land would die, so certainly would his power disappear. But who could be his master, and who is the one who they're hunting?

Then he remembered the pressure in his chest, and he took a hand there. Could this be due to the same voice that earlier spoke to himself, the one that now claims a debt from him? And what would be her intentions? This was also a she, he remembered. Would that be the same person they now sought?

He turned back to the girls and with a look of piety and compassion said

"Thank you for your information, and I am sorry for your pains. I..."

he wanted to say they were safe and he'd help them, but in all honesty he couldn't say what he didn't believe. He was just happy that they might have some respite and so just said

"Try to sleep and rest. And pray to Ezra that the Baron will return you to your homes."

And then he sat for a while more, recalling all that Chicken Bone and the Maiden had told them... the Maiden, that was not the Maiden, as the Baron is not the Lord of the Dead. And as he realized this, he raised his head, his face illuminated. The girl's words now made more sense: they would be the Baron's friends, and the Lord of the Dead would be the friend of La P'tite Soeur Renard. The little fox-sister.

He got up, feeling it was time to leave the room and meet the Baron and his friends, now full of hope. But in doing so, he looked at the clothes on the bed, and the lion's skin he had chosen to wear. And straight into his mind sprang the words of Chicken Bone again:

"Baron Misroi is my Master's mortal shade, boy. He is great, and he carries the majesty of the Lord of the Dead, but he is no Loah. You will stray close to the Land of the Dead, but you will not enter it - unless you fail to give proper respect to my Master's shade in this world."


A shiver went up his spine. He quickly undressed the skin, and put on the clothes on the bed. He got hold of the staff of the maiden, and turning once to say goodbye to the girls and wish them luck, he left the room.