Arc 3 - Glimmers in the Dark (Main Roleplay)

[Kowsauni]

Kuori, Ruin and Revenge walk back to Irene's horseless carriage with the body of Kuori's brother. The travel a bit slower with the dead weight but they get back in roughly the same time it took them to reach Gotham's body. Seeing the party approach, Roland would run up to them with a worried look on his face. "We heard some commotion from over the hills in your direction and the ground shook! Is everything all right? What happened over there? Where is Miss Irene?"

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Back at the worm, it would take several minutes, but Irene would eventually finish the sketch of Valac triumphantly standing on top of it. She would tear the drawing out of her book and present it to Valac. It was actually quite a good drawing for the short amount of time she spent working on it. It did a good job catching Valac's gallant pose and making him look ferocious. She obviously possessed some talent as an artist .

However, not waiting for a response, Irene would quickly dash back off the back of the worm and approach it's split head. She moved around quite spryly for the sickly girl she appeared to be. "All right, well now that my drawings are done. it's time to take some samples. Its armor is a little thick so I'll be taking them from the inside." Without another word Irene scrambles up inside the purple worms broken maw, disappearing from sight.  

[SCN_ Grey_fox]

Knowing the others wouldn't play along, Ruin would quickly answer first

"I am sorry, your Irene is worm food." Ruin sadly spoke as he looked toward the ground, "A purple worm broke though the ground and with in an instant gobbled her up. We all fought very hard to get her back but... We buried her under a tree just over that way." Motioning into the direction they just traveled.

Bluff 19  

[PupSage]

Kuori keeps marching onward with a grim determination, her stoic face neither confirming nor denying Ruin's story. Forward she moves towards the Fort, not waiting on Irene or the Whooshwagon. She had her vigil, she had her geas, and until it was done she would carry on.  

[Mongooseh]

Valac hopped down from the Worm as he watched Irene scurry into the Worm's maw. Raising an eyebrow, Valac drew one of his rough-looking daggers and held it out to the opening.

"Do ya need a knife?" Valac Called into the maw.  

[Rain Yupa]

"Sounds a bit out of my realm of capability, then," Revenge would respond. "Abby will be pleased to hear that you are genuinely tastier than I am to refined giant worm palates."

Revenge would then answer the question that was poised to him in return. "After I had lost Halima - Abby, as she is now called - I had fallen into a dark place, and a temple had taken me in until I could get back on my feet. I couldn't just give up on her and move on, so having spent every copper I had to my name trying to find her, I asked for the church to train me to be able to defend myself so I could continue the search personally."

His gaze turned from the fellow tiefling to the direction they were traveling. "Originally, they thought the path of the Avenger to be for me. However, I was - and still am - more interesting in protecting than mere violence. I just... took to the way of the Paladin better. I just want to make sure no one has to feel what I had felt. The loss of a loved one through senseless violence is a terrible feeling."

Soon, they reached the carriage, and Ruin attempted his bluff. Revenge would sigh. "No, you see, this is just what I was talking about." He then turned to Roland. "He's pulling your leg, no such thing happened," he would confess. "She was never harmed, she's with Valac and Ilikan right behind-

Revenge turned and pointed in the direction they had come from, and realized that half the party was absent.

"By the gods, why?!" he would sigh. Facing Roland and the other guards, he held up one gauntleted index finger. "Just... hold that thought. I'll be right back."

He would turn back the way they came and began jogging back towards the others. In full plate mail. stare  

[SCN_ Grey_fox]

"A stark contrast, we three are, of what happens when suffers the loss of loved ones." Ruin would add after Revenge's story.

"My point was made to be simple. It is always better to see with his own damned eyes. So unless if Roland knows a ritual to resurrect the dead. We have some things far more important to do than to answer stupid questions after he can see we been through a battle." He would add again after Revenge, this time he continued following Kouri.  

[Psychofish]

Babysitting without too much need to do a great deal, Ilikan sat back, chortling to himself as the girl climbed into the worms mouth and the tiefling poked in after her, just imagining if Ruin had been about to see the scene- and, sadly, missing a much greater laugh if only he'd been privy to the conversation far off.  

[Kowsauni]

With an echo-y ring to to it Valac would hear Irene's voice answer back from within the worm. "Oh, no thank you I already my own, thanks!" He would then hear the sounds of scraping and cutting from inside.

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Back at the Wagon Roland's eye would narrow at Ruin. "Is this a game to you, sir? I guess I can take solace in the fact that the only one who seems to be seriously injured is you."

He seemed to relived once Revenge began to talk to him but immediately became agitated when he cut their conversation short. As revenge begins to jog back to the others he hears Roland shout in exasperation from behind him. "Is anyone going to bloody tell me what happened!"

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Revenge arrives at the worm just in time to see Irene slide of out of its maw. Her once pristine looking dress is covered in worm blood sizzling slightly from the bile. However, Irene incites a magic spell and her outfit as well as herself are cleaned back. Clapping her sleeve covered hands together she would proclaim. "Alright, I am all done here. Thank you for this exciting specimen! This is already paying off. I told you that you didn't have to wait for me, but now lets head back to my carriage and see if it is up and running."

Irene would move over an remount her obsidian horse and being to head back in the direction of the carriage.

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Ruin and Kuori continue across the lonely stinking battlefield by themselves with her brother. Progress is slow with their extra weight. They do see some interesting dead creatures though it is nothing new to Kuori.  

[PupSage]

As things start to wear on Kuori begins to chant in dwarven. A song about miners trapped in the dark after a tunnel collapses on them. Each of the four sings of what they miss most. The first misses food and mead, the second misses the pretty women and his youth, the third misses his family and that he won't see his kids grow up, and the last sings that he will never again have a new story to tell of his adventures with his friends. In the final verse, the first three escape, but the fourth is crushed.  

[SCN_ Grey_fox]

"The agreement was to take her to the Underdark because you wouldn't go. Not to answer your questions, because you wouldn't follow. So you have an invitation to get off your a** and follow Revenge, to find out for yourself. Or Sit down, shut up and wait." Ruin would call back to Roland. "Your choice"

Ruin didn't know the song Kouri sang, he knew Elven. But, he knew her emotional state. He had seen it countless times before, on many of the orphans faces. The teifling placed his hand on his comrade's arm. If for no other reason than to remind her, she isn't alone.  

[Mongooseh]

Valac placed the dagger back into its sheath and said to Ilikan, "Come on soldier-boy marchin' orders."

Now also that Valac no longer needed it for the drama of the picture he finally found a corpse to smear the gore on his blade off on before trotting on ahead so he was leading not following.  

[PupSage]

Glances over, "Sorry, old habit. A lot of Goliath religion is surprisingly musical for a people that don't tend to produce a lot of famous singers." She adjust her grip, "Plus it takes your mind off of things, lets you push that ever bit when you have given all you can give." She went a bit further, "As much as I know that we'll need his help, I would be lying if I said that a large part of me isn't doing this because I am scared and I want my big brother to tell me that its going to work out okay in the end. Maukeen is lost, not just mentally or emotionally, but with what she is about to help do, as much denial as she is in, she will be exiled. Only the priest of Kuliak would be allowed to talk to her after that ..." She looks up, "It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear when I asked the Gods for help, but then that morningstar was there. It was way to strong of a sign."  

[SCN_ Grey_fox]

Ruin would raise his hand to dismiss the apology. "No need to apologize, most people are creatures of habit. We will always return to comforting things in life, during times of stress. Coming from an orphanage that is one thing I know all too much. I knew plenty of children who would do strange things in the name of some comfort." He said keeping up with her. "And I remember I used to look behind me, expecting to see my sister following. So, sing if it helps you." He would add, before following the direction of the conversation with her sister. "Call it being an optimist, but is it possible the Gods see a way for you to be the instrument of her redemption?."  

[PupSage]

"Maybe. But being exiled is a permanent fate. It doesn't mean an end of life, you could still go on to do great things, but it does mean an end to claiming family. If she can be redeemed, she will likely have little comfort beyond the church."  

[Kowsauni]

((I am assuming everyone returns with Irene to the wagon))

Irene trots back to the carriage with with Valac in the lead and the rest in tow. Once they arrive she jumps off the back of her obsidian horse and runs up to Roland. "Mr. Roland! You won't believe it! We encountered a purple worm! It ate the small tiefling for a moment but they managed to kill it. I got to draw some amazing sketches and I filled a whole bag with, uh, samples of its flesh. So, did Breezy fix the wagon yet?"

Mr. Roland would put his hands up as if to caution Irene to slow down. "I'm glad to hear everything turned out all right, but don't you think that is a sign to how dangerous your current plan of action might be. I know you are driven by your compulsion, but please think it through one more time before you depart into the Underdark."

Irene would cross her arms and pout. "Hmph, you're still going on about that? Look I already made up my mind and that encounter proved to be everything I was hoping for."

Before this conversation could continue any further, a hidden door to the carriage would dramatically swing open and a little female gnome covered in grease with her wiry hair in pigtails would jump out and hold a dirty wrench to the sky. "Buh-dadadaaaa! I have finally done it! The whooshwagaon is ready to roll! Let my brilliance shine like the sun!" The gnome would then look around and notice there were a few extra guests than when she had last been outside. "Huh, who are all these people?" She took particular notice of Valac. "Why, hello there, handsome! You look like you are fresh from the fight."

Irene would clap her hands together. "Excellent, Breezy! We can finally get moving again. Let us return to the fort. I'll explain everything along the way..."

((Everyone with Irene can either choose to ride in or on the carriage. Let me know what you do in your next post. Mr. Roland rides in the wagon with Irene, Breezy pilots it from a secret compartment, and the rest of the guards hang off the wagon from hand and footholds that pop out when they press a secret button.))

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Ruin and Kuori push on through the battlefield until they hear a strange noise approaching them from behind. When they look behind them they see smoke rising that seems to becoming closer. As they watch they see the smoke is emanating from the top of Irene's carriage which is miraculously moving under its own power. It does not take it long to catch up. The carriage would come to a stop beside them and the door would swing open, revealing Irene and its luxurious interior. "Hey, would you guys like a ride? I believe we can get you and your brother back to the fort quicker in my carriage than on foot."