|
|
|
Chapter
4
" One Step Forward, Three Steps
Back "
page 18 ' A Mind Lost; A Life Forgotten'
~ NOTE This page starts during 'Lost in Thought' ~
Mataichi finally revealed his true name to be Jonis,
telling the Party that he didn't tell them earlier because
he thought that they were someone else. But since that
was behind them and they could hear Micheal's men getting
the dogs to track them down Jonis stood up upon the
rock that he was sitting on. "I don't think that
I will stay here any longer," he said as he walked
through a small opening in the back wall. The Party
had no choice but to follow Jonis through the crack
and down a large tunnel. The tunnel twisted and turned
around everywhere but continued its decent. The Party
soon encountered a pack of war dogs that caught up with
them from behind. Jonis continued walking down the 'stairwell'
as the Party had to deal with the poochies. Getting
more scrapped up from that encounter they relized that
Micheal's men weren't far behind them and quickened
their pace. The passageway finally leveled out then
went around a corner to where the Party saw a built
stone wall that was broken through from their side.
With the odd structure of the worked stone around all
of these natural tunnels the Party was a little cautious
at first to step through. Beyond the opening a large
room opened up before them, however, most of the room
consisted of a large deep dark hole. The rest of the
room was almost a balcony that stared off into the abyss,
hearing some scraping sounds the Party was quick to
discover, "Dio," said Cade. Dio looked over
at the Party with a blank face and a thousand yard stared,
"Shhhhh," he said while placing one finger
over his mouth then pointing it to the far end of the
room. The Party turned around to see a sleeping Bullette,
which was probably the cause and creation of the tunnel
they were using. "You know his name," Jonis
asked as he turned to the Party. They explained that
it was a long story but that they did have met Dio in
the past, a few times in fact. Cade walked over to where
Dio was scraping some sort of apology into the wall
along with a magic symbol. Dio finished then lowered
his knife. Then hearing a song in his head Dio started
to dance, twirling around and moving his feet he started
to move close to the edge. Then he stepped off and continued
dancing as if his feet were still touching ground. "I
get it now, That boy has some beautiful eyes,"
Jonis says as he raises his staff high into the air
where a red glowing ball of energy started to emerge.
It launched from his staff to the middle of the room
where it burst apart into millions of grains of red
light. These grains of light started to land on objects
that couldn't be seen before like large hanging tapistries
on either side of the room with colossial statues at
the far end. It also revealed a broken staircase that
Dio was decending towards a small cave entrance at the
far side of the room. Hearing Micheal's men approaching
the Party didn't have much of a choice but to follow
Dio down to where ever he might be going. When they
reached the otherside the grains of light started to
dissapear just in time for Micheal's men to enter the
room and wake up the still sleeping Bullette which preceded
to gore them.
"My poor child what has she done to you,"
inquired Jonis to the completely unresponsive Dio. The
party knew that Jonis was talking about Dio's sister
and then they asked him how much and what did he know.
Jonis said, "I don't know too much but, this boy,
Dio was his name? He was born in the city of Lo'co'wen."
Cade face lit up, "I've heard of that city, it
was a great metropolis, twice the size of Waterdeep
and it took up the entire island that it was floating
on. But, didn't everyone in that city dissapeard overnight
over five thousand years ago?" "Well,"
said Jonis, "They didn't disapear but, She killed
them all and left one survivor, who was Dio. It seems
that he has done something to upset her, I'm sure any
of the others would be dead by now but Dio is her favorite.
But, I do feel sorry for him because of what he has
been cursed with. You don't understand he isn't just
her slave but he has all of the hopes, dreams, memories,
hates, and loves of every soul that inhabited that city.
That is where he gets his power from and his curse,
all of those voices and not one for himself." "But
who is his sister," inquired Myr. "Delphine
was the first, then she became jealous and created her
own, her first was Dio but she has created more."
The Party continued on until after walking down a set
of stairs they found themselves standing in front of
an iron bound wooden door. After checking it they entered
to find themselves in an underground stone hallway with
a gentle fog rolling in. Everything had a green tint
to its color including the plethera of people walking
through the walls and across the room. The party looked
around and as most of them were checking the large double
doors at the end of the hall Myr checked one of the
side ones. He found nothing but darkness beyond so he
entered and right behind him Elly jumped in concerened
for Myr. As the light grew they found themselves in
an open field near the edge of a forest and beside a
broken carriage. Everything started to play out like
it had already happened and they couldn't do anything
to change it. The same green tint was abound as they
saw some heros bound out of the forest and attack and
ancient elven priest and a large half-ogre. The priest
summoned some large ants to do his fighting for him
as one of the ants became colorized and attacked Elly
and Myr. One of the ants killed the young elf maiden
that was with the heros and she started to glow and
compressed into a fine amber gem. The ancient elf saw
the gem and went for it then retreated with his half-ogre
ally. Elly and Myr got hurt by the giant ant but were
able to take it down as the scene seemed to end a door
appeared out of nowhere so they used the exit.
Back in the main hallway Myr told the Party what he
saw and suggested that they check the other doors first
since the one they came back through was no longer there.
Entering the other doors the Party (excluding Jonis,
Dio, and Conti) started to piece together what seemed
like someones life. In three of the four visions they
saw the ancient elf and Charisma was also in three of
them. The order of the visions seemed to begin in an
elven city's council chamber where Charisma seemed to
be on trial for some crime right before the place was
attacked by a band of Orcs and Goblins. The second one
was the one Myr and Elly saw with the carriage inncodent.
The next one was in the bottom of a temple in a large
room with a gigantic statue that is holding up a large
two-handed sword which the half-ogre grabbed. This triggered
the ceiling to start to come down, the elf and the ogre
left the room as the rest of their paid minions stayed
to gather as much treasure as they could before the
ceiling crushed them, they were unsuccesful. But, Myr
followed the ogre and elf upstairs to where he saw one
of the heros from before, Rohm, battling Ergo the half-ogre
and he was losing. The Elf Priest cast a spell to drop
Rohm to the ground as Charisma jumped a pit to land
beside him, the elf then made Ergo leave before the
final strike handed something to Charisma then left.
The last vision was with the Party standing on the top
floor of a large tower that was roofed with pillars
all lining the circumference of the tower. They saw
the ancient elf, Melaar, and Ergo standing near the
stairs that lead to this floor. Up the stairs walked
Darwin who was grappled by Ergo and thrown accross the
length of the tower and almost falling off then came
Rohm who was then wounded by Ergo's two-handed Sword
of Haste +2. "How did this go again? I only paid
attention to her," says Melaar to the Party as
he comes into color along with Ergo and Charisma. This
sparked a heavy battle against Ergo who was able to
do over fifteen damage per hit and over four attacks
in a round which started to take its toll on the Party
even with vision Charisma's help. That was when Ergo
made his fatal mistake of trying to kill Charisma, Melaar's
adopted daughter, so Melaar gave him the touch of death
killing Ergo dead. Out of the darkness of the night
that surrounded them a long figure could be seen flying
toward their direction. The figure's sized increased
dramatically as it approached the tower. The Colossial
Ancient Red Dragon Ruby breathed through her nose to
spit a large fireball directly at the tower spliting
it almost in two then hitting it with one of its wings.
Myr had just a few seconds of sight but was able to
see that this dragon has the same fusion of Automail
to it just like they saw earlier. Before the tower collapsed
the Party was able to exit out of the last vision to
see the final one. This was a location that they recognized
as Harfein and the door that they was discovered not
long ago. Melaar walked up to the door and lifted his
arms up so he could place his hands on it, "I know
whats behind here, don't I?"
The Party then entered through the large double doors
to see a bridge that spanned a green glowing lake to
reach a domed room in the center of it all. As the Party
entered the room Cade recognized it as a Whisper Gallery,
a room where the living can contact the dead which are
buried there, however no body was buried here. Instead
approaching a center pedastool Enturof was surprised
when it lit itself on fire. Out of the Darkness walked
the real Melaar, or as real as he could be since he
died over fourty years ago. "I have forgotten something
that was very important, something that I need to remember,
can you help me?" he asks the Party. With not much
of a choice they entered Garabaldi's Nightmare.
(YEAR 500) The Party found themselves standing in a
tent as Melaar, looking a few hundred years younger,
walks up and asks, "Are you sure Sir Dre they might
have powerful magic on their side?" The man he
is talking to is dressed in holy armor with a beautifully
crafted Bastard Sword strapped across his back, he points
down to the field map on the table, "We have no
chioce because they will do it tonight so we must attack
now, if we wait till night he will have more power undead
on his side to control, our options are few." Time
passes as the thousands of troops that are surrounding
the circumference of a very large crater. Inside the
crater are thousands of Zombies, Skeletons, Giant Skeletons,
Ghouls, Ghasts, and many other undead and at the center
of them stands a very large and ominous dark tower.
The horns are sounded to begin the battle against the
all evil. The Party followed along with Melaar who was
using his turning abilities and spells to help as he
could. Light started to receded from the sky as a large
shadow started to move in front of the sun blocking
its light and letting Garabaldi's Vampires, who were
hiding in underground passages, out to attack and feed
at will. Sir Dre saw his soldiers dropping at the hands
of the vampires and went to help using Sunstroke he
was able to take down a half a dozen of those foul creatures
before he succumed to one of their deady bites. Zebulon
sunk his teeth deep and drunk heavy upon the rich blood
of a Holy Paladin of the highest order then dropped
Sir Dre's lifeless body to the ground and let out a
big broad smile. The sounds of bones breaking and flesh
tearing could be heard as Zebulons head was taken off
of his shoulders by the bare-handed Dre who is standing
behing him. The party saw Sir Dre laying dead on the
ground and the Dre standing above the vampire's body.
"RRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!," came a
deep and loud growl/howl from the Dre that was still
standing. He then turned toward the tower and started
to move at high speeds hovering only a few inches off
of the ground. reaching the tower he flew straight up
to the top where the major shit was going down. The
Ba'dazu had just been summoned and was pulling itself
out of the portal. Dre looked at its ugly face 15' body
and large wings unscheathed Sunstroke from its cradle
and procedded to do some heavy damage on the Demon.
His hand erupted into flames as he dealt his final blow
on the demon; "No this wasn't it either,"
stated Melaar standing close to the Party who was just
barely alive.
The scene shifts again this time back to Harfein (cy
520) and the door which couldn't be opened. This time
Melaar isn't the only one here. Darwin is too. Darwin
walks up to Melaar, "can you do it? I need this
to be perfect otherwise it won't work." "Don't
worry," Melaar answers, "this will be sealed
until your bloodline opens it again at the right time."
Melaar raises his hands high up to release heavy magics
from his hands to lock the door. Melaar then became
colorized as he walked closer, "But what was back
here?" he approached the door again pushed on it
and was finally able to enter with the Party. Looking
around the room four torches light up to fill the room
with an erie calm. Looking around the room it almost
seemed like some sort of alchemists shop, then, they
saw it, the large twenty foot circular gate made of
some very dark metals. A pool of water appeared in its
center as Darwin walked to a center pedastool to pick
up some sort of coin, "With this we will be able
to get to anywhere we desire." "THAT'S IT!,"
said the real Melaar as the scene shifts back to the
whisper gallery.
"Thank you," says Melaar to the Party, "I
have been down here so long trying to remember something
and you have helped me out." He then showed them
the exit so they could get out. "Wait," says
Myr, "Do you know anything about an ancient and
powerful Spear?" Melaar answers after a little
pause, "You mean on of the thirteen Weapons of
Power they each were created in a unique fashion and
most of the names have been forgotten over the years
but, The Spear of Destiny, the spear which has the power
to sway the will of man to change the destiny of its
wielder." Jonis then took a hold of Dio's hand
so he could lead him out of this nightmare of a lost
life. As the Party left through the door Melaar has
one last though and whispered, "wait i remember
Delphine."
|
| Session
on Monday January 25th, 3pm - 9pm |
page
18 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
