You feel strange. Not at all like you expect. No strange dreams attend you. Instead...

Your bones are being clothed with muscle. Now hair sprouts. Eyeballs click into place. You're clothed.

You're laying on soft black dirt, and a lovely elven necromancer is kneeling beside you with an expression of concern on her face.

"Speak to me, Thomas. Let me know you are whole of mind and soul. I have powerful magics to aid you. And someone pursued you into the ether. What shall I do with him?"

She points a long, graceful arm with an accusing finger at Oak who is waking up less gently as two skeletons have his arms gripped so he is stretched out cruciform.

Oak, bony hands hold you. A beautiful dark-haired elf is staring at you with cold judgement....

Day is, to say the least, shocked.  He had expected to awaken on the other side of the door, having failed in his quest, but determine to destroy that which had brought them here.

Now there was hope.  This was a different ball game entirely.

And he was very glad she was his ally and not his enemy.....

"This man is a friend, and a compatriot in both arms and philosophy.  Broadly speaking any way.  He is one of those which your ring allowed me to summon from the worlds beyond....indeed there are three more back in the temple...." He thinks, "The gem!  We have lost it...."  He turns back to the moment at hand and her questions, "I am indeed whole of mind and soul......I must say that I am indeed much more whole than I would have been without your intervention....Thank you.  Very very much." though he worried now that this had somehow disconnected him from the Door.....

He could count on no easy pass back to the world beyond....Death was death to this world a second time...of that he was sure.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Fri 03 Apr 2009.

Day isn't immediately visible from my constrained position, but I am reassured upon hearing his voice.  I momentarily lift my head enough to verify that he is indeed nearby, before letting my head rest once again.

I return the elf woman's stare with a gentle nod and a benevolent expression.

"I am John Oakmaster, a servant of the LORD, and a friend of Thomas Day.  'Peace be unto you.'"

I lie quietly and peacefully, content to wait until she is reassured as to my presence and intentions...

In that moment, Tom realizes he might have the gem after all.  After all, they had already loaded the books into the tapestry, and were then looking for a way out, he knew the Door was likely to bring him back if he were killed...no, logically, Oak would be the one to carry it because if he were killed, Oak would be the next best qualified one to bring aid.

"Oak...do you still have the tapestry?"

OOC: Good question.  PT, do I have the tapestry?  :o

"Oh, I feared I would lose your mission so I had a spell laid into your ring in case something happened to you. It caught you before your body and mind fled to another world. But I have to admit, this is the first time I've tried something like that." Something in her phrasing doesn't make sense, but you sense no ill intent.

She turns to Oak.

"Peace be unto you, Friend of Thomas. Please, sit." She gestures an a silver chair appears next to you, and the two skeletons relax their grip and begin to slip into the soil. "I am sorry for being so suspicious."

She waves her hand again, and a pair of silver chairs next to each other appear across from Oak. Another gesture and a silver table with a glimmering blue drink in a crystal jug with sapphire studded silver goblets appears as well.

"Welcome to my garden to you both, and you again." She gives Day a smile.

Oak,
The tapestry is about twenty feet away, and two other skeletons are toting it slowly over to you.

PT

The Tapestry changes everything.  The mission, somehow, against all odds, had been successful.  He did not want to leave his companions behind, but neither could he stop in his efforts to bring aid the Conjunction.  He would have to arrange to have them indirectly sent aid instead.

Most of what she said made perfect sense except for the "I was afraid I would lose your mission."  It was the I that confused him, and almost sounded a little ominous, but he was willing to extend great trust to her.  The bar was very high to show duplicity and so far she had shown exactly none.

"We have four companions still in the temple.  Since we have the Tapestry, I do not believe that we can risk return.  Four versers vs all the lives at risk in the conjunction and their representative worlds beyond is simply not a comparison.  Having said that, do either of you know a way to summon them aid?"

"I understand Thomas." And she points at the chairs and the drink. "But you, and your friend, have had a wearisome journey. Can you not stay a few days to recover your strength?"

She sits in her own chair, and considers, her eyes growing distant.

"It would be easy enough for me to send a couple dozen skeletons to their aid. I do not know how they would react. There is also your adventuring company. We could also hire other companies. As you know, I have little connection with the Elves of this Wood so I cannot call an Elven Knight and his Captain of Fifty to my aid. If we have time, we could bring aid simply by spreading the word of a dungeon, but such things would take a couple weeks which is why I mention hiring a company."

PT

"If we send a message with the skeletons then they'll probably pick up on it, especially if we do something like paint a cross on their skulls.  I wouldn't want to send living people in there so easily, because I'm not 100% certain they'll be able to get out again. Having said that, I am not averse to hiring a company that is willing to take substantial risks for potentially little gain....time is somewhat of the essence in their case.  And yes, I believe we can rest a few days.  Although, in the interest of saving time, if you don't mind potentially sending a message to the Duke that I could compose, that would save more time I think."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:36, Fri 03 Apr 2009.

I rise with a friendly smile, and nod thankfully as I see the tapestry bring brought toward me, and the offered chair.

"Well met, Lady Morrigan.  No apology is necessary.  The multiverse is all too filled with those who serve evil, and you had no way of knowing if I had ill intent.  I am thankful for your kind hospitality, and for your aid and goodwill toward this worthy quest."

I take the offered chair, looking about at the garden and at our hostess while she discusses options with Day.

"I could attempt to teleport back to the others with the tapestry, and use it to bring them back here.  However, given how needful that tapestry is to the quest, that would probably be too much of a risk.  As it was, my last attempt at teleporting in that place brought me to that strange scene of our last battle."

I quietly give the drink an experimental sip to see if it is alcoholic, and study our hostess with interest.

"I have traveled many worlds, but you are the first elf I have met.  If we are to rest for a time here, I would be honored to get to know you.  The memories, experiences, stories, and songs of you and your people would interest me greatly..."

"As you say, Thomas." She points a finger at the two skeletons and they shuffle off.  She stands and walks over to a plowed bit of bare earth in the midst of the roses, and climbing vines and the brooding violets that mark the clear lawn that is her garden.  It is sheltered about by trees of middling height, and beyond them you can see the great giants of the elvenwood.

She begins to speak calmly, and one by one skeletons arise from the ground until she has twenty-four of them. She then hands Day a black chalk and asks him to put 'this mark of yours? A deity?' on their foreheads.

"Thomas, I've heard of the Black Thumb Order, a party of adventurers that is in the elvenwood seeking information. I could send them a message."

With that, her skeletons come back with a large 'bird bath', and place it by her chair.  She stirs it with her right hand, and a gloriously beautiful face appears.  And then a frown appears on the face.

"Ah, Morrigan."
"I need you to send one of your messengers to the Duke after it comes to my garden to take on teh message."
"Not plotting treason with humans are we, Morrigan?" The following laugh does not sound quite sincere.
"Thats for tommorrow." Morrigan replies too sweetly.

Later,
As Oak sips the delightful fruit mixture which includes several tastes he's not familar with, the Lady Morrigan begins to sing some of the songs of the Greenwood.  At times, she uses her voice, and at other times a mandolin as accompaniment.

As you study here, and listen to her voice, a couple things become apparent Oak. One, is that that she is bitter from some wound given her by the other elves even though she loves them. And the second is that she looks at Day with way more than casual interest.

The mission interests her, and she supports it, but you get the feeling she'd support whatever Day wanted to do.

Tom thanks Morrigan for her help.

Regarding the Adventurer's, assuming she can scry/contact them, he will explain the situation and and offer to pay them to go to the tomb.  He will explain that he's moderately certain the treasure is high there, but he can also reward them with more than that if they are successful, including the use of his services as a Sage.  He'll also offer up to 20 gold for them to seek it out.  If they agree, he'll also give them an extensive map, with detailed descriptions of the area, including what he knows about the three versers remaining and Radian.  He'll specificly explain that though Radian seems to be taken care of, they are to get the three Versers out and to help the villagers if another threat is deemed something that they can handle.

His message to the Duke,

"Your Grace,

Thanks to the timely aid of numerous and suprisingly generous allies, including fellow Versers, the Lady Morrigan and others, I have successfully entreated to gain the ability of your crusade transport through the door via the key.  I will head your way from the Elven lands in seven days time.  If you will call for volunteers, we can begin training them for what to expect on the other side upon my arrival.  It should take about a fortnight, possibly a month.  Please entreaty them, my lord, that though the cause is noble, the odds are long and even if we succeed I am none too sure about the ability to return them to their homes.  This may be a one way trip."

Tom then briefly lists his encounters hitherto this point, and thanks the Duke, signing it Thomas Day.

Tom will spend the next seven days relaxing with the Lady Morrigan. He will be friendly, courteously flirtacious even, for she is beautiful and a good friend, though she would know from his story that his heart belongs to another, so he will not encourage anything more than that.  She is obviously in need of company, and he will do his best to cheer her up; for without her this quest would have failed beyond imagining, and she's also gotten a really raw deal from her fellow elves.

When (if) she is busy with other duties, he will learn what skills he can from Oak (if he's willing to teach them) and teach what he can to Oak in turn, including the 'keep awake' spell which he will use to good purpose, spending an hour or two a day to examine the Alchemy book of Radians, and comparing it to the one he currently has; using to enhance his treatise on Alchemistry.