Rashemen - RP Thread

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"Uh, Atten, where are we taking this Heart of the Earth?"

 

"I don't think that the amulet would've helped. Even when Nakia put it over my neck, it couldn't help. There was two much damage." Jex stood, buckled on his armour and headed out of the cave. As he passed Atten, he looked at the Heart of the Earth, shook his head and whispered to Atten "This had better be worth dieing and being pulled out of the afterlife."

With his shoulders slumped, Jex walked out of the cave. It was dark, he hadn't realize how long they had been underground. He began the long solitary walk back towards Sepps families house. He nodded to Maron as he passed her, and continued on his way.

 

Sepp looked at Kelvados, "I thank you for bringing Jex back, it was much more than I could have done." To Del he said, "And I hope that I never have to do something like that again, it was really scary, but some good did come out of it. When this adventure started for me I'd just lost a mother, a father, and a sister, and was looking for my brother. Now, I've found my brother, and have gained a new brother and a new sister. Of course, if I had a choice, I'd choose to still be simple little Sepp, herding our goats and eating mushroom cakes, but then I would never have met all of you."

He went with the others back to his family's cave. As he was straightening things up and collecting some last few things that he thought might be usefull for the coming journey or held some sentimental value for him, he uncovered a baby mushroom person hiding under his blanket. It quivered in fear of him.

"Don't be afraid," he told it. "We won't hurt you. Come to think of it, I want you to go back to Six-hundred-ten, or even One, and tell them that Sepp is giving them permission to move into our territory, the mushroom cave, and our living cave here, at least until Gesed and I come back, if we ever do." The baby mushroom hopped and rolled down the corridor to the deep caverns.

Sepp put the last of the things he wanted in Pa's special bag and ran to catch up with Atten. He instinctively reached his hand towards the Earth's Heart, but then pulled back before actually touching it. He could just see the small, crystal shaped hole where his finger had gotten sucked into it. "Atten," he asked, "Where can we return the Earth's Heart to the earth? And do you think we can return it fully when it is still missing a piece? For some reason I have a bad feeling that the Fellowship of the Serpent has the missing piece."

[ August 07, 2005, 18:53: Message edited by: Scot ]

 

“It would be better to return the Heart completely, because then it will have its full power. But if we can’t find the missing piece soon, we’ll have to return the Heart in its current form.

Some of you have asked why it is so important to return the Heart to the Earth. If you open your eyes, the signs are all around you. Without the Heart, the Earth force is weak compared to the other forces. There is no balance.

Look at the colour of the rivers around here. They are brown and silty. The Water force is eroding the mountains. If you travelled to the coast I’d wager that you’d see the tides coming in higher and higher.

Feel the tremors that have plagued the region lately. Did you feel how warm it was down in those caves? The Fire force is trying to break free from the bowels of the earth.

Nakia, try jumping as high as you can. See, have you ever been able to jump that high before? The Air force is loosening the earth’s grip on things.

Even the Living force is overpowering the earth. Gold is appearing in the markets in record amounts. The dwarven miners are digging deeper than they have ever been able to before.

All of these things will only get worse until we can restore balance to the Forces. The water will reclaim the land. The Fire will burst free from the ground. The Air will claim everything else. And until the end, the things that crawl on the earth will dig deeper and deeper, eating the very ground they stand on.

Now if anyone does not think that returning the Heart is a good idea, they are welcome to part company with me.

But now, Sepp, I think we have time to find the missing piece. Where do you think we should look?

Once we have it, we have to find a suitable opening in the Earth’s shell in which to throw the Heart…….”

 

Jex sat perched upon a rocky outcropping. He had retrieved his fathers piwafi and now wore it in place of his old cloak. It had worked fine as breathmasks for himself and the others.

He was staring off towards the moon. He was deep in though over what had transpired over the last few hours. He wasn't sure if he was happy or dissapointed to be alive again.

 

"We have to go to the Fortress of the Half-Demon, the stronghold of the Fellowship of the Serpent. I don't know how I know, but I know that Ma's spirit is trapped in the missing crystal, which is held by their leader. We have to get her out of it, then put it back in the Earth's Heart, then return it to the earth. That will also entail killing all of the Fellowship of the Serpent, which is something that many of us want to do anyway."

"The birds are really yellow today. ... Uh, what was I talking about? What did I just say?" Sepp scratched his head.

 

"Going to the Fortress with the Stone will be like walking up to them, waving a red flag and say 'come and get me'. We'll need to do some careful scouting. Del and I can do that, probably the drows, too. Wish we had another strong fighter."

Turning to Alexi, she stares at his armor. "Ye got right nice armor but how are your fighting skills? We have some tough fighting ahead of us."

 

Delphinae's face breaks into a wolfish grin. "Ah, my dear Nakia, the scouting is where I come in. I've studied the layout of that keep of theirs for weeks, and I know every room and corridor by heart. Penetrating the walls will not be a problem."

Her smile seemed to slip a little as she considered her new companions. "But a group this large would have significantly more problems going unnoticed by its inhabitants. Perhaps it would be best if the less ... stealthy members of the group wait outside the abominations' lair. They could perhaps even set up an ambush, in case we bring company on our way out."

"Once we have the Heart completed, Atten, Sepp and the others could go and attempt to return it. Meanwhile I and any who wish to join me could remain to destroy the Fellowship, once and for all."

 

Atten nodded in agreement, although looked impatient to be getting on with it.

 

"Lead on Del. You are the only one who knows where it is. I'm ready to go."

Nakia smiles at Del and bounces a little. Yet there is a quietness about her that is new.

 

Sepp jogged a bit to catch up with the people in the lead.

"I've got a couple of ideas, but I don't know if they're any good, so I'll tell them, and then you all let me know what you think."

"First, that dwarf that stabbed Black got his dagger from the Fellowship of the Serpent, and the mushroom people said that they always attacked them from the tunnels that lead to the depths, and Gesed said that when he was in the big cave in the Fellowship's stronghold there were some passages leading down, so I wondered if you thought there might be some passages that lead from the mushroom people's territory to the Fortress of the Half-Demon, and if there were, would it be a better way for us to get there than traveling over land?"

"Second, what I did to those dwarves in the passage, dropping stalactites on them, gave me an idea for an ambush on the Fellowship. If we could get them to chase a small group of us into a large cavern, or small valley, or close to a hill, I might be able to drop lots of rocks on them, especially if I used the power of the Earth's Heart. But I don't know if that would be okay, to use it's power to kill, even though we'd just be trying to get the missing crystal back. What do you think about that, Atten? And what do you all think about the other ideas?"

 

"I know nothing of this fortress so I would leave the discussion of tactics to those who do know. As for the use of the Heart of the Earth's power, I would caution that such use may be very dangerous. This object provides the same Earth force that is used by anyone with an affinity for that element, but in a much more focussed form. Who can tell what might happen if wielded by any other than a master in the ways of the Earth force. Maybe even such a master would be wary of using the power.

But whatever we do, we should do quickly."

 

Del looked at Sepp with alarm that turned gradually into a slight smirk. "Ah, the impetuousness of youth. Striding boldly into the lair of one's enemies may seem heroic, but it is also a good way to get oneself killed. Your second idea bears much merit, but may need to be adapted to whatever terrain we happen to find ourselves on. Starting a landslide would not take much adjustment, but should we happen to be in the forest or out in the open, you may need to open the ground beneath them instead."

Becoming serious once again, she continued, "We must hurry before the Fellowship realizes what we have accomplished and comes after us. I will lead you to the fortress, but I must ask you all to heed my advice once we arrive. It could mean the difference between success and death." Now the wolfish grin returned, and Delphinae spoke once more before setting off toward the keep. "Let us be off; we still have a quest to complete."

 

Maron leapt out from the side of the track, falling into formation, looking away sheepishly.

Her face is blotchy and red, as if she's been crying, and there's a wet mark on the sleeve of her tunic, as if she's had to wash a stain away.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't like being underground. I had to get out. I'm sorry."

 

Sepp looked up at Maron, he still wasn't sure if she was an angel or an elf. "That's okay, Maron. In that case, it's probably better that we travel to the Fortress overland, instead of underground."

He dropped back to Atten. "Atten, do you think I could hold the Earth's Heart? To get an idea of how its power feels. I know I'm no master, but if it comes down to either all of us dying, or one of us using the Earth's Heart, I'd prefer to be a least a little prepared to use it."

 

Nakia pulled out a clean rag, wet it and handed it to Maron.

"Maron, tis no shame for you to be unconfortable in closed places. You are a creature of the air just as I am a creature of the shadows and darkness. My home is a burrow and most of it is underground. Bright open spaces with no place to hide make me very unconfortable. We are different but that is good. If we were all alike not much would be accomplished."

With that she fell silent and they moved after Del.

 

Atten reluctantly handed the Heart of the Earth to Sepp.

 

Sepp carefully held the Earth's Heart with both his hands.

"Ooh, I see now. Wow..." Sepp's lower body gradually turned to stone and he sank into the ground up to his chest.

"Whoah, now," he said, stopping himself from sinking further into the ground with a hand. He tried to take a step, and found that he was stuck.

"Hmmn, let me think about this. Oh, I think I know what I need to do." He concentrated, wrinkles forming on his brow, then his whole body turned to stone and he sank totally into the ground.

A few minutes later he rose back out of the ground, and returned to flesh and bone.

"Now I've got it. It's a little bit counter intuitive. I'm glad I got a chance to work with it before the stress of combat forced it upon me."

He looked around at the rocky country side they were going through. "That rock fall over there cut off most of the water to the down stream side a few years ago. We had to stop using this area to pasture our goats in, and I know many moles and snow hares had to look for greener pastures too. Gesed and I thought about doing something to clear it, but it was always too much work for little people like us. I don't think it would upset the balance too much to put things back to the way they were a few years ago."

He sat down cross legged a ways from the blocked stream and held the Earth's Heart in his lap. He closed his eyes.

A few minutes later the large rocks sank into the ground, and the stream started flowing again. Opening his eyes, Sepp found that he had sunk into the ground again up to his waist. He slowly got himself out of the earth and back up and went over to Atten with the Earth's Heart, and handed it back to him.

"Thank you Atten. That was very educational for me. Would you please carry the Heart though? Not only is it physically very heavy for me to carry, but it makes me mentally very tired to be in contact with it."

Sepp took out a goat cheese, and quickly ate it all.

 

Delinos and Kelvados were angry that most of the group did not appreciate what they did for Jex.

He didn't mention it, but Kelvados gave Jex a part of his soul when he did the spell.

He hoped that Jex would be okay. Kelvados and Delinos held a slight liking towards Jex, because of his race. Although it didn't seem like it, Kelvados had connected with Jex during the spell.

 

Atten took the Heart back from Sepp and continued on. He wondered if they were biting off more than they could chew with this quest. They had to succeed but it all seemed so daunting. And who were all these people he was now travelling with. He really knew so little about them but he was trusting the future of the world to them.