EVENT: It stared with Sarah (IC thread)

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EVENT: It stared with Sarah (IC thread)

Post by ST_DM_Myle »

Episode I
Her life was rather boring. A poor girl from a poor family. Thyey lived off the modest amount they could earn doing odd jobs. Last fall, her parents sent her brother to join Marvale's defense forces and he promptly fell in the conflict. Then the girls parents died in the winter that followed.

But nobody knows this...

The world knows nothing of this poor forgotten girl, untill recently.

What is known is that she took to raiding the tombs along Blackstone road for treasure. She managed a meager success, enough that she could get a room to rent and cloths nice enough to work in the Playful Tavern.

The good fortune did not last. A hunger for treasure possesed her. She missed work. She camped out on her adventures for so long that sometimes she failed to pay her rent.

On her last known day within the Keep, she was not herself. Sickly and spiteful, she quit her job and later attacked Gleanna. Sarah's actions were linked together by two adventurers and Sarah was suspected of being the cause of several deaths.

//I am leaving it to those players involved to post attachments to this thread describing their characters involvement. //

In route to Gleanna, rumors of disease and taint spread and others who were concerned joined the two who began the investigation.

Gleanna had much to say and answered several questions before the odd mix of people journied to Skara. There, they found what appeared to be a possible source of the taint and a female corpse. The corpse rose up in hostility and was quickly destroyed.... then the pitiful cries for help started.... as did the cold laughter.

Was the incinerated zombie girl Sarah?

Learning more from Cranford, they followed a lead into the darkforest.

There appeared to be little proof of any foulness other than the usual occasional attack. As they began to question the wisdom of their path, demons sprung an ambush and managed to catch the group spread out. Now more cautious and careful, they continued on and found an encampment of foul demons and beasts guarding a ruined temple.

Some time later, inside the temple, a battle raged on. A tome was found. The book of faith for the cult of Shalnath. Underlined within the book was a prophesy, telling of the return of many banished demons to the surface of the world and the eons that will follow in which the cult will rule the world.

Also underlined is a passage about the birth of this age coming from a plague of demons which spring from the bodies of the people of the world and through this plague, the followers of the Gods are depleated, the Gods made weak, and finally, forced to serve the great Shalnath.
Last edited by ST_DM_Myle on Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Magocrat »

- You say THIS sword will do me good? - Vogon was the same after all, aleays trying to pass something to every humanoid who came in his shop. Now, he was trying to sell me a rusty old bastard sword, telling me that it's magical.
Trying to sell a sword to a bladecaster!
I pulled out my blade, the one which was tuned to my very soul. I didn't have to say anything, he understood it real fast.
Having the barter done, I opened the door and went out... just to see a man dying a horrible death. His chest exploded, and a red slaad emerged, just growing with unnatural speed, to have me and the other two elves who tried to help the man facing an eight feet tall planar creature.
I rushed to them, my magical blade glowing as it sensed the near battle. I jumped behind the slaad, then I knocked it down cutting the nerves in its leg.
Then, it was easy to reach its neck.
To my greatest sorry, we had to find out that this was not the only case. Someone - or something - was spreading slaad eggs in the water source, as Gleanna told us in the temple.
Then another dark prophecy came to our sight... the slaadi are only a prelude to the return of Shalnath itself, if we do not stop this in time.
The signs led to Skara Brae, to a former waitress, Sarah. It was too late for her. Her corpse now lies incinerated on the shore of the river she tainted.
Sharwyn, a powerful mage who joined us in the task, destroyed the egg sack which infected the water. But we were far from the end of the story.
The next events are blurry... what I remember is going for the north, trying to reach the wastelands, but ran into a bunch of demons. The battle ended in a ruined temple, where a demon lord, probably one of Shalnath's captains, died sliced and diced by our blades.
In a pool of blood, Sage found a book... a book of the Shalnath cult. They were behind this all along.
So... this will take us to Marvale. And there, maybe, we can end this madness. Maybe.
NEVER underestimate me!
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Post by ST_DM_Myle »

Episode II
They returned to the Keep and the tome was studied. Lacking the knowledge to read the words, they sought help.

Foxmore was able to yield some assistance, but the greatest aid came from fellow adventurers who had motivations of their own.

Rituals done, questions asked, barters made, insults passed and the demon had itsself a grand time.

Then he asked for a real prize and earned himself an unfortunate surprize.

He never expected for them to accept his request.

Of every summons he had tolerated, this was the best.
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Post by winteraven »

Renai had just returned to the Keep from delivering a message to Master Lin Wu in Kildar only to become swept up in this terrible thing. Her masters Kimiko and Qui Chang were trying to help some citizens in dealing with an evil book.

As she learned more about the reasons why they were helping, her purpose became clear. To protect her masters and the citizens of the Keep; to find and eradicate and cure this odd disease that has begun to perpetuate and infect Blackstone's citizens. She followed the group into Starkson at Lady Chiffawn's invitation and witnessed a terrible Demon being summoned. Questions were asked and demands were made. The Demon even demanded that Renai herself kill one of those there. Nothing came of it.

Terrible prices yet it seems that the group was willing to pay at whatever cost to get this information. Concerned, Renai focused her chi and chose to remain silent yet watchful. "When the time comes, I'll be ready", she whispers to herself, "and may my Guardian Soul aid me". Turning to guard her masters, she remains wary and waits.
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Post by jackybaby »

Ian joins the group in the Temple, and begins to assist them in whatever manner he can. To aid them could yield several positive results, and a few not so desirable ones. He is willing to take the chance as he always is.

Ian makes several notes and copies a few diagrams from the book while Foxmore explains to them what he knows about it. He prepares for a summoning ritual as the group prepares to enter the summoning room on Starkson Isle. With the aid of Dax in deciphering the Abyssal language of the incantation, the ritual is successful and a demon is summoned in the manner described in the text.

Ian binds the Demon to the material plane and begins to arbitrate the deals that the group is so willing to make with it in return for answers to their questions. The notes Ian makes from this experience may serve his own purposes another time, but for now he is intrigued at how easily the Demon plays on their emotions and is given almost everything it asks in return for vague answers to their questions.

Has this Demon aided them in their search? Only time will tell. Ian has gained much information however, and so his purpose is fulfilled regardless. In Ian’s mind it was a successful ritual.
The wise man speaks because he has something to say. The fool speaks because he has to say something.
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Post by ST_DM_Myle »

Episode III

Promises made, blood spilled, and bargins shared... the demon leaves the party to their plans.

They journey into the depths of the underdark to destroy the source of the plague, a wizard.

In the underdark, their assualt on evil is short lived as they fall in battle. The demon they had bargined with, arrives, dismissing the guards and laughing as he raises the most entertaining of the supposed heros.

Taunting them to continue on, he also tells them how to find the apprentices.

Discretion wins out over valor and the adventurers retreat, seeking to deal with the apprentices first.

Their efforts end with mixed results. Unsuccessful in stopping an apprentice fromcompleteing his ritual, they do manage to learn some important information. They learn the apprentices are not as powerful as their soldiers and they learn how the wizard they seek is gaining his power. Now, with 6 known locations to search and 3 apprentices left to find, the odds of finding the next one is 50/50.

Will they be able to stop the next ritual?
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Post by jackybaby »

~ Every chance he gets, Ian opens the book he carries and studies its dialect, notes and diagrams. He has an entire notebook dedicated to it. The power Ian has gained in his dabbling with the undead has served him well. Perhaps this text could unlock the door to even greater power? ~

The summoning in the Starkson Tower gained them the knowledge of where to find the Mage who is behind the plague. Unwisely the group decided that a frontal assault would be the most direct path to success.

Ian lies on the floor of the Bloodcult Main Hall bleeding to death, feeling the remaining life in him trying to escape. The Demon from the summoning appears and restores full life to Ian. It wants to see more, and gives a clue as to where the group could be more successful, the Shrines where the Apprentices are hidden.

They regroup in the Temple and call on any who would aid them. Many show up for many different reasons. Fighting their way through the Shrine in the Pasture, the group captures on of Shalnath’s Captains.

The Captain will not speak, and so is tortured. He passes out and is brought back to consciousness and offered a quick death in exchange for the information the group seeks. He tells them he was supposed to slow them down so the Priests could finish a summoning and that the priest is further in the Shrine. The Captain is dispatched quickly as promised.

They fight their way through the Shrine and enter the Underdark. The Summoning ritual must be taking place close by as this area is heavily fortified. Dax is the only one who survives the first assault and is able to raise and regroup the party. After gaining the upper hand, the group seeks out and finds the ritual, only to see that it is too late to stop it. The deed has been done and before them stands a demon of great power.

They humble themselves before this demon trying to use its arrogance against it and see if it will lead them to the other apprentices. It works, but time is running out. They must act quickly and so set out to search the remaining Shrines for the other Apprentices.

~ Ian realizes as the group speaks to the Demon, that when the Demon speaks in its abyssal tongue, he can understand some of what it says. His studying is paying off, and he is learning the language of demons. If he can continue, and complete this learning, the key to the power of the demons may be found. It is a risky game to play but he is willing. With great risk comes great reward. ~

*Ian smiles as the group sets off to search for the remaining Apprentices*
The wise man speaks because he has something to say. The fool speaks because he has to say something.
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Post by Agarwain »

Knowing nothing of the adventurer's previous encounters with demons, and troubles with evil wizards and their soldiers, Agarwain Crimsonblood entered the temple in Blackstone in his usual way. Upon entering the Temple, He was surprised to see several of the heroes he looked up to and respected (and one that he owed a life debt to) gathering others to help them on, what the called "a desperate mission of extreme importance". Agar was deeply honored that he was asked by name to join the group on this leg of their quest. Just a short time Later, He learned just how dangerous this mission was going to be as he picked himself up off of the cold stone floor of the dusty, spider-infested, corrupt shrine. After so easily being knocked unconscious while having all of his finest blessing aiding his already strong fighting skills, Agar knew what he had to do... avoid direct combat.

Rethinking his normal "rush in and take their hearts out" fighting style, Agar decided he would simple aid the "Professional Warriors" that he was surrounded by. So after rearranging his blessings from Lia, Agar began to "enhance" his dwarven companions to allow them to bring the full force of their wraith down upon the enemy for a longer period of time before being beaten down and needing Agar's other skills of raising the dead or nearly dead.

"Much better to have others fall in combat then myself ... atleast I can get them back up" Agar thought to himself, "and atleast I am helping in someway, even if it is a support role"
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Post by Kindax »

Dax cleans her bow, and contemplates on which strategies may be more effective in future battles, now that the nature of the beast and the forces they face are starting to be known.
Dax - Specialty merchant, and archer of Vor
Vata - Bowdie archer, and thief hunter
Mindy - Silly monk halfling looking for a place to fit in
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Post by Agarwain »

*Agar sits in his rented room, preparing hmself to recieve the call to arms once again against this not-fully known threat. He has been training hard and has developed his skills and discipline for the next time he is called upon to help those who have burdened themselves with this important mission.*

"We must not allow ourselves to fall into their traps so easily." he says to himself, focusing his thoughts "We must learn to fight as an organized force or we will fall apart and be more of a hindrance then any kind of help"

"Learn or die, once again I am faced with this choice. Once again I will choose to learn ... how many others will choose this option or do the fools even know of the choice. well, those who decide not to choose has already made a choice, and die they shall. I just hope I can get to them in time."
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*boom boom boom*

Post by Vortex79 »

"Inhabitants of Blackstone.. I have returned... " The great dragon's voice carries over the rooftops. "I have heard of great evils in these lands.. those who would stand against the iniquitous.. I am at your disposal.. for a destroyed castle is not a profitable one.. and I need to pad my hoard."

It came to settle beneath the great oak of Blackstone.. under which it had sheltered many seasons. Great Furyion had returned.
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Post by ST_DM_Myle »

Episode IV

The would be heros took notice of a new wave of the demonic plague. Considering thei knowledge they reasoned that the next ritual to impower the mage who wantd to create a portal for Shalnath must be underway.

Considring the options, the group made for the shrine within the swamps. They pressed through their foes with hopeful hearts, the enemies they faced did not seem to be ready for them and the weak barriers they presented did little to slow down progress. The Runelors, however, did not belong here and it was clear that someone or something had control of them and had done something to empower them.

Before the enhanced Runelords, all were under threat of death and undead forces often flanked an attack to widdle down those who sought to flee and heal.

The battles into the depths of the shrine temple could have easily been the end of the heros, but the weaker members of their band kept the stronger ones healed and alive so that the truly powerful chapions could face threats the others could never defeat.

soon the fighting lead to the underdark and no sight of any of Shalnath's cultists. The temple was searched and a clever rogue noticed a secret passage through a false wall.

Within, a lich was found, a commoner freed from a life draining torment and a choice made.

Great power was available....

One had the power in his hand, had only to speak to command this new power.

One had the power in his incantations, had only to succeed in a battle of willpower to own the power.

None managed to claim it as the power was distroyed in a brief righteous act.

A ritual was completed and Shalnath's devoted mage is empowered.
Power grows.
A lich was stopped and balance restored to the swamps.
Power lost.
A book is read and the seeker has found what he sought.
Power shared.
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Post by Vortex79 »

Furyion the Crimson Tyrant... a soul so old that it'd seen times before Blackstone even existed. He came from another world where his great magic preserved his memmory of his past life when he died. So powerful in that previous life.. that he had reached out to try to pluck a star from the sky.. to have the gods cast it down upon him.. and utterly obliterate everything he was or had done on his homeworld.

He came to blackstone when he reincarated.. as a human, and through the gods of this land and his loyalty to them, broke the old binds upon his soul, that restricted him to human flesh. A dragon he was in the beginning, a dragon he would be again. Through Eon's Wisdom and Ghia's grace.. he freed himself.

It's uncommon in the least for a Red Dragon to go good.. but when you've had everything and lost it.. it's hard not to learn a lesson. Especially when you have arranged it so that your thoughts are immortal though your life is not. And once again, he would have an opportunity to see power and glory and this time.. to deny it himself.

It was a peculiar night, Furyion had settled into trapmaking, a trade he had found lucrative with hunters, a few rogues and patrons of the underdark. He had become accustomed to this world and by this point.. was at the epidomy of any power he had ever obtained. He thought, he had no purpose.. no way to grow.. no way to find strength.

Then he heard the whispers on the winds.. the voice of eon calling through the ages that something was amiss.. the nudging of Ghia.. that she was ill with corruption. He called out to a friend.. and a friend told him there was indeed something amiss. A great evil was growing in the tyranid swamps..and already a small army from blackstone had gone to meet it in battle.

Overconfident, though still humble in person, as he had become.. he wondered into battle..t hinking it would be naught but a few lizards run amok.. and immediately ran into trouble. The party he encountered was engaged with a runelord. Forgetting his last encouhter with a Runelord.. he brazenly walked right into the fray.. and engaged it without a scale protecting his scaley hide.. and was promptly decked by a huge rock fist. The several ton dragon fell like a ton of bricks.

The rest of that night, he was not so overconfident. After being so graciously raised from death by a fellow party member, he struggled to his feet.. the rest of the night surged onwards.. battle to battle they struggled against the dead.. falling.. rising.. the party was more an undead party than the enemy itself.. which was rather ironic.

Then finally.. after laboring through the elemental temples.. they stumbled across the source of hte Darkness. A lich feeding off the life-soul of some poor helpless peasant. Time was stopped, missles thrown, the dead kept coming, the runelords kept smashing.. it was truly ugly.

Finally, it was done, the dead were.. dead again. Only the lich remained. As the battle had raged though, Fury had come across something interesting in the device being used to drain the human and empower the lich. A somber green stone twinkled in a magical eddifice. Fury , not a powerful caster, more of an adept of his phsyical form... used his kukri in his smaller visage.. to pry the stone free of its perch. The peasant.. freed.. ran in fear. Fury examined it closely, but did not realize immediately, that it was the Lich's phylactory.. battle raged.. more died, more rose.

Furyion had died many times. He had even been the first to threaten the lich with its existence. "You may slay me many times Lich, but I will come back every time.. a never-ending sacrafice to your destruction.. haunting you for all your enternity if needs be for my friends will raise me. You, however.. well.. your friends are all dead.. and your death.. will be the last death, the great sleep."

It was in fact, after about the 10th death.. and sacrafice.. that Fury fled to the temple via a portal to refuel his spells while his party battled on. When he came back, the lich was near defeat, Humbled, it stood before a long friend, Ian.. who served darkness and wanted the lich's power for his own. Fury.. had never been holy. He'd never been dark either. But he knew several things that were bad a bout a lich and its power.

First it was a power that controled you.. not a power you controlled..
Second, anyone who held the phylactory (in this case Furyion) would fully control the lich's essence.. and thus the person who had the power of the lich... Furyion found this EXTREMELY tempting, but Ian was.. a friend.
Third, it was a power none of them there deserved.

As Ian saught to consume the lich through abyssal utterances from an arcane book about the workings of Shalnath, Fury tightened his fist. The gem exploded under draconic might.. and the lich immediately was consumed by the abyss.. to which it belonged.. never to return again. Taken by the second death. His party, mostly Kazarites.. formerly friends.. stood agape. One of their own had been on the verge of seemingly endless power.. and Furyion had shattered the glass that dream was built on. He debated with them the wisdom of the use of the LIch's power, but it was no use. They were too hungry for it. They were going to kill him.. betray him for what he had done. He only lowered his head in submission.. sighed in disbelief.. and in 4 timestops.. 36 seconds passed.. and the dragon.. which had stood there.. was gone. The blur showed clearly where he went, to the temple via a portal.

He was followed to the temple..ridiculed as he prayed to his gods. But he shouldered the brunt of what he had done in pride. When they were wiser.. when they were smarter, they'd understand. Ian.. would even be grateful. This he knew. He knew more than any tome could tell. That was the blessing of Eon's knowledge.. and Ghia's wisdom.

(Myle, not sure if this was better here, or in an independent thread. Delete whichever copy at your discretion.)
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