EVENT: Jackals

Use this forum for In Character Interactions only.

Moderators: DM_eaze, Luceran, DM_Jaydaan, ST_DM_Myle, dm_xeen1, DM Nexus, DM_TrainWrek, Carpe_DM1, DM_Unicorn, DM_Griphon, DM_Shadowlands, dm_zane, DM_Centaur, DM_Mystic, DM Rendyll, DM_Avalon

User avatar
Difas
Duke
Duke
Posts: 272
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:15 pm
Location: no, you dont want to know...

Post by Difas »

OOC: is this event still on?
PURPLE!!!!

PLAYING:
Difas Cend: Gnome Bard, Purple Wonder

Zed: Mule :P

Zacho Cend: Druid of Lia, Slayer of Umgahs
User avatar
T'banyin
Duke
Duke
Posts: 244
Joined: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:23 pm

Post by T'banyin »

/// yes, I believe it still is on, but scheduled for mid December or so, due to the DM running it having some real life need to complete a project :)
~~I am the cat who walks by himself~~
User avatar
dm_demitri
Viceroy
Viceroy
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:13 pm
Location: Argos
Contact:

Post by dm_demitri »

// Now that the month of November is over, and my novel has been writ... Expect this event to continue in a most devastating way.. :twisted:

Are you ready for it? 8)
~Demitri
User avatar
winteraven
Count
Count
Posts: 181
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: The Land of Missing Socks

Post by winteraven »

Returning from what appeared to be another deadend, Caelyn dutifully reports in to the Warden. Seeing the look of dejection and at the same time a firm resolve on her face, the Warden tells her that Lady Fawn and some new investigators were on a fresh set of clues. The trail led to the undead kings tomb in the waste.

Shuddering in distaste for the undead with whom she is intimately familiar having dabbled in the arts herself, she fears greatly for Lady Fawn and the fresh young souls accompanying her. Without so much as a "by your leave", Caelyn races out of the State Building and towards the rune gate that will take her to the barren wastes. A most dangerous place, is Aildrek's, she thinks to herself as she hurriedly checks her pack for the many things she'll need if she is to catch up to them.

Running tirelessly in the blazing desert sun she reaches the door of the tomb just as it is about to be locked for another moon. All goes dark. The smell of death and decay is prevalent in the first rooms of the old tomb. The entire complex is a death trap and Caelyn knows she must reach the others. To die alone in this place can mean many things. Quickly gearing herself up in preparation to battle for her life, she runs, trusting in the protections of her magics and skills as a warrior.

Twists and turns later hours after she entered the depressing tomb, she turns a corner and hears the unmistakeable sounds of battle... and slaughter. Pulling out a slip or parchment, she whispers the incantation upon it and removes herself from prying eyes until she is in the thick of the battle. Bodies everywhere, there, a live person struggling with a soul sucker... A what? Those don't belong here! More of the dreamagi's sendings. Caelyn quickly scans the bodies and finds Lady Fawn, activating a slim rod of metal, Fawn breathes again. Caelyn does this then turns to the battle, charging in between the heavily wounded fighter and savaging the unnatural creature. Skeletal claws reach out for her and with the aid of the newly risen folk, they defeat the last of the walking dead. Strategically they retreat to rest and heal the wounded. Cae smiles at Fawn, " So glad I found you".

Caelyn draws from her long battle experiences and with Fawn's support, they rally the good folk helping them into a strong and cohesive unit. Each supporting the other. Fawn tells Caelyn that they must search and so they do, slowly and methodically. Traps everywhere, fantastical creatures and some truly devilish fiends bar their way, but these good folk of Blackstone are very aware of their duty and press on. They meet Mara, an ancient silver dragon apparently of the dream realm itself. She implores the companions to seek 15 blue crystal roses not of our realm and return them to her. In return she will provide aid in getting knowledge about dreamagi from the undead king.

Now almost all 15 have been found, the companions are now strong together, Caelyn looks into herself. Stay together, keep it moving and most importantly, survive... is her mantra. She glances over to Fawn then at the others with them, Brie, Sam, Eric, Draco, Chase, and Mather all resting in anticipation of what is to come. Who knows what dreams are made of? But these, amazing true people are what make real heroes. Steeling her resolve, she nods at her companions and gets ready to move on.
~ I kill things and drink potions~
User avatar
winteraven
Count
Count
Posts: 181
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: The Land of Missing Socks

Post by winteraven »

Finally the group of adventurer's retrieved all the roses and met with the planar dragon one last time. She sent them to meet with Aildrek himself who was a terrible foe. After having defeated him finally after a long and arduous battle with magic and death flying about, Caelyn, Fawn and the others met with Aildrek in silence while he spoke to Fawn, the holder of the purple planar rose that he coveted.

The exhausted companions left the sour undead king and returned home to Blackstone. As she left the others she went to seek out Neceron and see if his magics could divine anything. They came up empty. Still wearing her armour and armed for a fight, Caelyn set out to patrol in case the Jackal paid yet another visit in the night. Trying to remain vigilant after many nights with no sleep she wandered, her eyes slowly drifting closed.

Shaking herself, she continues plodding step after slow step.. her armour curiously getting ... heavier... Her dry eyes welcoming the short closings of the lids... so comforting... so tired.......
~ I kill things and drink potions~
Chiffawn
Commoner
Commoner
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:14 pm

Post by Chiffawn »

Fawn reviewed the words of the undead king aloud to herself as she flew in the cool night air:

In the place of the abyss,
Look for a guardian the seems out of place,
Who will have a charm to seal the veil.

The charm will allow free movement between worlds.
The dreamagi also seeks this charm.

Remember, things are not always what they seem.
When the strong are weak and the weak are strong,
Then you will understand.


The tree song, a never-ending near-silent hum upon the breeze, suddenly vibrated with urgency. It was Caelyn! The trees were witnessing something terrible.

Fawn quickly changed to her birth form that allowed free use of tools and opened a temple portal. By the time she had made it back to Blackstone from her island home, Caelyn was gone. The trees could not agree from exactly what spot she was taken, as each saw her from its own place, taken in a flash of electric light and the brief presence of the jackal.

"Caelyn!" Fawn shouted, as if she could be heard in that other world. She looked around her helplessly. When T'Banyin had been taken, he had been brought back with the help of N'Tabbish. Perhaps her dear friend will return the same way. Fawn sat upon the ground to await her friend's return, shield and scimitar at the ready.

But the day dawned, Caelyn had not returned and Sirion found Fawn sitting alone, grief-stricken. She told him, her now husband, everything that had happened. "Come my love," he said gently. "We will rescue her as we finish this and rescue us all."

A fortnight had passed and neither Caelyn nor the jackal had reappeared. The troop of dreamagi hunters had found the path to the abyss in the underdark. There a most gentle being like a giant mushroom man greeted them. His sweet and loving countenance failed him as he began to die. He was made of dreams as Mara the silver dragon had been, and like her, had come of his own accord and made his way with great effort to whatever place this world would allow him to wait for the heroes.

He told Fawn and the others about the charm, a horn, that could be blown at the gate of the veil to help her company cross to the rent and find the dreamagi. But to find this gate they must first find the dreaded most ancient dragon. As he held out the horn for her to take he expired and it rolled from his dream hand to her feet. Tears filled the eyes of all as they witnessed the dream death of yet another beautiful creature and swore to remember him in their dreams.

Their continued search brought them to his dracolich whose only designs were to collect riddles and kill the true living. The group decided upon two riddles, one not truly a riddle, to keep him busy and give them time to position themselves and the second one for his collection and to gain the riddle they needed from him. It worked, and as he lunged after Fawn, the other heroes took him down to his dust.

This was the riddle and the last clue they would need:


Under burning star, the blackened line spreads wide.
Down steps of stone, the hatched guard their young
And the secret door …
Of twisting corridors
opened by a talisman of a wetted scale
a ruin is the nights lair.

Surpass the lair and fix the tear,
A clue sounds with the instrument of war…
Be warned to only ask yea or nay,
For else you will tell yourself nothing.
If you think it is impossible -- for you, it is.
User avatar
winteraven
Count
Count
Posts: 181
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: The Land of Missing Socks

Post by winteraven »

...darkness...soundless...heat...weightless....senseless... Caelyn opened her eyes and looked around. "Damn, Stay awake Caelyn!" Staring as her eyes adjusted to the gloom of where she was standing, she noticed that she was in an enclosure...imprisoned??!! Where was she? What is this place? She shakes her head in disbelief, this is not Blackstone. This place is not real. Her joints sore from having slept in her armor, she grips her trusty sword and begins to investigate avenues of escaping. The exit to this chamber is blocked. Worried for Neceron and Fawn and the others, she destroyed the barrier without a second thought and strode forth into the unknown.

Entering another chamber, Caelyn is stunned momentarily as she comes face to face with not one but two denizens of this odd place. They looked exactly like her, almost mirroring her in every move, they had her face, her armour and weapon, Caelyn then understood. She was in the dream realm and these were dream aspects of her. Saying nothing, the two dream-Caelyn's launched an attack on her. Parry, thrust, lunge, retreat and again. A riposte here a feint there. They were too evenly matched... and she was fighting two! This realm defies all explanation, her spells did strange things and all the real Caelyn could do was rely on her wits and her skills. Taking a great risk Caelyn pulled out a scroll of a spell that is meant to use only in the more dire of times, for protection and strategic retreat, never for assault... Time Froze and so did her doppelgangers.

Stepping away from them, Caelyn used the moment of peace to try to think clearly and strategise, never taking her eyes off them and yet, they vanished. Not trusting anything, she kept a watchful eye out and began to explore this dream prison that she'd been taken to. "Why did they take me?", she pondered as she crept slowly forth and sought escape. "Am I a threat? Did I come too close to the truth? Why not just kill me? This place is too weird. These incursions of the dream realm into our reality must end."

Entering another large chamber, she came face to face with what had been haunting her dreams for many months: a Jackal. Warily she approached and demanded answers from it about where she was and how she got there. It did nothing but growl at her. Interestingly, it was also behind a barrier. Now that was interesting... so something else was trapping the Jackal creature also. With so many thoughts running through her mind, Caelyn was startled as she turned to leave for there coming up with her was another copy, only this time it was bearing her soulblade. An intense feeling of dread came over her this would not be like earlier with the other two clones. Caelyn knew that weapon, had forged part of her soul into it and wielded by its mistress was nigh unbeatable.

Watching the other Caelyn approach slowly, Caelyn sheathed her weapon and drew her own soulblade. Must fight fire with fire. As if now running low on time, the dream-Caelyn launched the first attack, barely parried by the real Caelyn, recovering quickly and landing a very hard hit to Caelyn's armoured middle. The real Caelyn staggered a moment from the blow and delivered her own, matching the copies movements. She wittled it down, hit for hit slowly and watched as death began to creep up on it. Sparing a glance back, Caelyn saw that the Jackal, still imprisoned was watching avidly. "I bet this amuses you to no end" Turning back with dismay, she saw that the copy had taken that moment to fully heal itself and the long battle started again.

Hours passed, days passed or was it only minutes? Time has no meaning in this place. Caelyn fought herself, over and over non stop for what almost seemed an eternity. "You may fight like me, but you do not think like me. You are NOT me!" Caelyn did the unthinkable. She stepped back from the fighting and waited for the terrible blow. It never came. The copy had vanished. Steeling herself, Caelyn left that chamber with newfound determination to escape this realm. As she left, she was assaulted by waves of the undead, the ones that she and her companions had been fighting for so long in the real world. Wave after wave came at her and she cut them down... There are too many! Still hurting from her epic battle with herself, bit by bit she was injured until she fell.

As she lay on the ground, barely breathing, bleeding from thousands of cuts and her soul nearly drained from her she fought unconciousness enough to recognize more battle sounds. Too weak to see further, things started to fade... rest....

Contact.

Heaving a life giving breath of air, Caelyn rose again, ready to battle for her life again. For her friends again.. Amid the corpses of all the hordes that Caelyn had fought and many more a lone Jackal stood staring at her. It was the same one that had been imprisoned. Wary, she stared at it as it growled at her. Then in a lightning quick move it disarmed her then stood back and stared at her again. Understanding dawning, she carefully picked up her soulblade and returned it to its sheath. Pulling out her regular weapon, she turned to say something and the Jackal disarmed her again, then stopped to stare at her, growling. "Fine", she muttered picking up her weapon and putting it away, remaining unarmed. Looking at it closer, and around her she realized something. "You healed me! You brought me back from the brink of death!" The Jackal looked her in the eye in silence a moment, as if gauging her mettle, then uttered a single growl and walked away, gesturing for her to follow.

Bemused and curious as to why this creature helped her, she followed noting that it avoided many different rune circles inscribed on the floor as if they were a danger to it. Caelyn followed it through many twisting passages and various halls of the strangest design. Finally it seemed as if they had reached the end. The Jackal pointed at the rune circle. It seemed as if it wanted her to enter it. Steeling her resolve and having seen no other escape, Caelyn nodded and prepared herself for battle. When she looked up again, the Jackal had disappeared, riding the lightning once again. Girding herself, she stepped into the circle.......
~ I kill things and drink potions~
Locked