OOC: Well, the only difference I can see is it doesn't seem to actually use the clear stone, apart from looking at the alcove through it, unlike the opposite pair which used up both stones...  Unless the clear stone is used after the chalice of course...


Meri frowned and glanced once more towards the Shaman's position before looking back at the alcove.
Watching through the clear stone, she raised the chalice towards the hand, trying to avoid touching it as much as possible...


OOC: Hoping this isn't the bit where that thing grabs me and tries to pull me in there...  (O.o)'

I'm not going to do anything horrible to you Meri. Which might scare you more if you wonder why I'm so eager for you to do well..

And yes, the clear gem is - spoilers - the only thing not 'consumed' or locked in. As I say, there is a narrative reason for that which will most likely be revealed. Nothing major or exciting, just might be an interesting little 'huh' :p Also I just liked at least having something unusual for the alcoves so they didn't all feel the same.

Note the 'deliberate error' is that the alcove should not automatically show you the hand. Technically it should show you the prompt to go get the chalice. Still, as I said its easy to say 'the magic knows the chalice is near' and move onwards.

To an ouside observer, Meri's actions might have seemed odd. Holding the clear stone infront of her and holding the chalice gingerly to the recess, further back than it should go. [Secret to Nym: However, the chalice seemed to jump easily, as if teleporting, appearing inside the recess.]

[Secret to Meri: To Meri's point of view, the hand reached forwards, thankfully for the chalice itself. For a moment it held it and swirled the chalice, as if to savour the contents. An invisible nose smelling the bouquet...

And then, as with the previous alcove, the hand then raised the glass towards the portal, as if in a toast. 'I Raise a cup to the darkness' the first portal on this side had said. It flt as if the ritual, too, was in some way completed and now in some way awaiting the front of the hall. Oddly, without the clear stone in front, there was no hand and no hovering chalice - instead, the golden chalice was happy stuck deep in the recess, behind some invisible magical barrier.

Meri could now feel to odd sensations. She could feel some form of expectation from the alcove across the hall, where the wooden plaque had been. And some form of push towards the alcove with the orc shaman.

The ritual needed Meri to unlock something in the next alcove, and needed something from the final portal across on the other side.

So you are two alcoves from the end if you want to confront the shaman. From where he currently is, due to this being purely narrative fun and your actions not needing rolls, you can sneak around the pillar and make a quick dash to the wooden plaque and have the seventh stone placed, leaving the last in reserve. The clear stone is 'used' now, but you still have it in your possession.]

"So that one's been so angry all the time that now he's basically made of anger?" says Nym, who has followed the orc toward the alcove. "That doesn't sound like much fun. Can they become happy again, somehow?"

Hmm, this looks kind of tricky - I've been looking at the map to see if there's somewhere I can get the orc to go where he won't notice the portal or be likely to notice Meri and it seems rather difficult unless I can get him so focused on something he doesn't look round.

[Private to GM: I'll stand just outside the alcove, watching Mr Orc.]

The shaman shook his head but did not look around, still engrossed in effectively controlling the spirit, and speaking over his shoulder.

"It has never. Been alive. It is. Rage. It will always be. Rage. Like all rage. It can infect. It can empower. It can be used. Or use you. The world. Is filled. With spirits. That owe nothing. To life. Nor death." The orc then shook his head again. "That is why. They. Are the least useless. Yet still. No help."

It is indeed tricky. It's made less tricky by me saying you've won the skill challenge of this, so within reason I won't make you roll skills. As long as you can RP moving him around, he will be amenable. If you try something really outlandish I might ask for a roll. But a failure won't be sudden combat, it will just end the encounter with teeny bit less good ending rather than best good ending.

As to making him not look around, you do have something very close to you that would force him to look downwards if you wanted to draw his attention...

[Private to Nym: From your previous insight check, the shaman seems to be simply happy to show you why the spirits have been so unhelpful to him in his task, and why in general they are limited. So you can also pull his focus by asking about a different one elsewhere, even if that's just up at the ceiling, etc. Also, he may still be amenable to explaining this place now he seems to not suspect you of being duplicitous, so maybe you can just ask obscure questions directed in weird places, like about the pillars or ledges.

Your insight may also let you notice the shaman is possibly distracted enough with his previous thoughts and this conversation that he might not notice the state the alcoves are in. So yes, don't let him see Meri nor the portal nor The Ball, but any other direction should be fine.

Also, whilst distrcted, Meri may be able to move out of the way better if you are running blocking. So maybe Nym indicating with a tail or horns or something to move whilst Nym blocks the view could be done too :D]

OOC: Hmmmm, decisions decisions...


Meri eyed the alcove for a moment then handed the clear stone back to Timur before backing up towards the nearby pillar and sidling around towards its western-facing side.
She glanced around briefly towards the Shaman before withdrawing and listening intently...


OOC: Holding position for now before deciding on my next move, I'm actually kind of curious what the thing with the Rage Spirit is all about...  :)

Cool, I shall update the map for both of you and see what Nym does next :)

"Ah...I see." says Nym. "So this one never even had a body in the first place! I wonder what that's like?"

She glance around, briefly surveying the room, then turns back toward the orc.

"This room is kind of weird." she says. "I wonder who built it? Look at these stairs..."

She half-skips back down the room toward the nearest set of stairs, then turns back to see if the orc has followed. She bends down to inspect the steps more closely, looking up at the orc as though for his opinion.

"Do you know who built these?" she asks in a slightly louder voice than before, as though in crouching down she's somehow made herself far enough away that she doesn't think the shaman will be able to hear her properly any more. "Was it other orcs, or some other people? Was it a long time ago? Is there some spirit here that might know that? They're just normal stone, aren't they? I wonder what that ledge is for. They're nice stairs, anyway. Stairs are really useful, aren't they? For getting up to high places. Well, unless you can fly or jump really high, I suppose. And they're good for getting down places as well, if you don't want to hurt yourself by falling, if it's really far and you don't have anything to stop it hurting when you hit the bottom. But they're a bit boring, aren't they? What if it was just a smooth pathway instead? Then you could slide down it - wheeeee! Oh, but then I suppose you might have trouble getting back up again. They're pretty useful, stairs, really, aren't they?"

She continues on chattering away in a loud voice, seemingly oblivious to anyone who might be in the room except for the orc in front of her.

Because I'm sure that no-one is trying to sneak around the room and use her suddenly-louder voice for cover or anything ;).

Lol, I wish Nym had done her sneaky sneak walking when going over to the stairs :D


The orc had nodded at the comment regarding the rage spirit having never been alive. Meri was luckily hidden well enough around the pillar that when the orc looked around to see what Nym was speaking about, he saw nothing.

The shaman dismissed the rage spirit with a final wave of his hand, this time merely making it less 'solid' rather than anything more. There was even the merest hint of a bow to the rage spirit, as if respecting something that always existed as much as he disdained the spirits that had once been as he was.

The orc moved onwards, then paused for a moment. As if not trusting the situation for one last time, he turned around and looked over his shoulder. Luckily, he was at the east side of the pillar at the time. Meri was perfectly concealed, and The Ball and the portal were both concealed too. The Ball was still managing to produce light good enough to fool the shaman.

As if to help and disrupt the orc's thoughts, The Dog wandered over with unsteady, wobbly legs and gave a hollow but enthusiastic set of barks and a quick tail wag.

The orcish shaman looked to The Dog with dismissal, however clearly any thoughts were broken. With a final shrug, the orc swept his cloak from around his legs, a motion that forced The Dog to back away, and then carried on moving.

At the foot of the stairs, the orc settled down, leaning on one of the higher stairs. He looked up to the top of the stairs, apparently seeing something. With awave of his hand, he made some very faint spirit more solid, pulling at it to force it to start coming down the stairs.

"These ones built this place, ancient and dead now, ancient and living when our races were young," whispered the orc. [Secret to Nym: There seemed to be an odd reverence in the orc's voice. Since he had no real love of the spirits, it was perhaps time that the shaman respected. ]

The spirit seemed to be elvish in a way, but as a spirit the creature was very faded, and their limbs had also elongated as if forgetting what they had been, legs and clothes tailing to whisps, arms and hands hazy clouds. Only their face was in clear relief. The face was too long to be properly elvish, there was something alien about it. In a way, more elvish than elvish.

"Elardin, the elves to the elves," said the orc shaman. "There were fully committed to the gods, and in the Dark Ages of Reclaimation. They were against magic vocally, as many were in those times so it is told. And yet look at this place. They sought to prove themselves to their gods and themselves by, in their arrogance, taunting and calling upon Him. Even I, enduring them as long as I have, have not truly learned the cause of their own downfall. They fought each other, in the end. Killed each other on the edge of greatness, so they thought."

The shaman drew himself up and addressed the spirit. "How. Did you. Die?"

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

The orc shrugged and looked to Nym. "You see. Nothing. Left. But regret. Not even. The 'what'. Of that. Regret."

Feel free to roll history if anyone is interested in the ancient history lesson :)

Edit: And yes, whilst the shaman is nicely out of the way, he's also finished at a place where if he looks around he could see the portal and for the moment spot Meri. So, you know, don't dawdle :D And Nym, don't stop being loud and distract-y.

This message was last edited by the player at 17:56, Thu 27 Aug 2015.

OOC: Hmmm, that is kind of intriguing...  19 (4 + 15) for History.


Meri glanced out from behind the pillar, eyeing the spirit with a faint look of curiosity.
Then she quickly moved around the other side and stealthily padded across to the alcove the Shaman had just vacated, tugging the remaining two stones out of her pack as she went...


OOC: Ok, forgot what this one has in it...

[Private to Meri: Meri knew the Eladrin as myths and rumours. The existed, certainly, but always on the outskirts of the societies she had lived in, so she had never seen one nor reliably spoken to anyone who had - not even amongst the elves. They were said to currently live in the Deep Forests in the North West, beyond the long mountain chains of the dwarves and the orcs north.

It was possible they could have lived here once, given the fact that . There were many theories on whether elves came from eladrin, were closely related, or were just oddly divergent species like humans and elves were.

As to the 'Dark Ages', certainly Meri knew enough regarding the lamenting of recorded histories. It had been said that zealots in times past had destroyed many texts, and especially the magic texts had also possessed historical stories and knowledge that just simply did not now exist today. There were fanciful names for gaps, but of course the truth was uncertain as to why really records were sketchy of times passed, exactly because of the gaps. Perhaps it was just human nature to obscure and distort the past despite the desire of individuals to try and keep records of it.

What the orc spoke of certainly sounded possible, but was not something Meri had ever heard of.  ]

Meri managed to enter the alcove and get in to relative safety around the corner. However, The Ball and the portal were still out in the open enough that there was no time to hesitate.

The alcove had at its front lots of clutter from the orcish shaman, and Meri had to watch her step to ensure she didn't knock over a stack of books nor The Stick that was on the right hand side of the wall.

The books and scrolls seemed old, faint, and a mishmash, obviously ones taken from the library Meri had discovered earlier with the skeleton crate.

The Stick, close up, looked very odd. At its top was a woven totem of various animal hairs knotted to string, tying together a variety of black feathers. There seemed to be twigs woven in to the fabric, with small golden leaves like the last leaves of autumn. It took a closer look to realise what seemed like twigs were actually slivers of darkened bone.

The Stick itself had an odd shape. The base was bulbous, the main haft thin, and the top oddly shaped. The bottom looked like a squat characture of a body, if truth be told. That would make most of the staff the neck, giving the impression anyone holding the staff would be strangling the thing. This effect was perhaps conjured by the carving at the top. It seemed like a rather startled and pained elvish face - nothing like Meri's. It was hard to make out exact features, as the carving seemed as if the head was tilted back to be looking to the sky, and the totem at the top had been jammed in to The Stick's open concerned mouth.


The alcove had, as its centre piece, a large chimney on top of the roof to the place, and a small drain at the bottom. Thick mist was curling down from the chimney as if a liquid, pooling and draining away down the small drain. The stream was constant, twisting and distorting but always falling from top to bottom.

Of the two stones left (not counting the clear stone), it seemed obvious which one was required. The light blue transparent stone with the misty centre matched the mist of this place perfectly, and in Meri's hand it even started to swirl the same - although the mis swirled up and then fell back down in the stone. [Secret to Meri: And there was the familiar feel of the tug of the magic of the ritual that Meri could still perceive. ]The second stone - the yellow 'disc' with the small sun rays - still seemed the perfect match for the wooden plaque.


There we go, a refresher and a bit more detail. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:04, Thu 27 Aug 2015.

Meri, I edited some information to the start of the post for you (perhaps related to a history roll, who knows....

Nym looks at the spirit with great curiosity, then turns to the orc.

"Well, I've certainly heard of eladrin." she says. "I suppose these ones were different to the ones who exist today. Maybe they regret, umm...killing each other? I wouldn't fancy being around anyone who did that, and after all, if they've been dead this long, maybe they feel sorry about what they did, but they can't really remember why they feel sorry, only that they do, because it's been so long since they did the thing they feel sorry for."

She looks back at the spirit.

"Can you remember anything about being alive?" she asks. "I don't mean anything to do with how you died. Just...you know, life. What was the world like back then? Was it a really, really long time ago? Were there creatures that aren't around any more now? Well, I suppose you might not know that, if you've been down here the whole time and haven't seen how the world changed. What was it like out there when you were alive? Can you remember? There's this town called Stonebridge not far from here. Well, it's all ruins because there was some kind of war a while ago. But there's another town called New Stonebridge nearby, apparently. So maybe that's interesting. I haven't been there. But maybe it has some nice people in it. Hey, can you actually speak language now? I mean, you know, language like I'm speaking rather than um...spirit-language. Because I don't speak that, so I wouldn't be able to understand you."

She glances at the orc.

"But maybe you can translate if that's the case? I wonder what language these people spoke when they were alive..."

She looks back at the spirit.

"Eladrin speak Elvish, don't they?" She brightens as she says this. "So maybe I can understand you! I mean, unless Elvish has changed a lot in the last...um...you know, however long it's been since you were alive. Langiages change like that, apparently. And I can't really remember where I learned Elvish. I think maybe I just sort of...picked it up somewhere. Maybe I can learn some more languages some day. Then I can speak to everyone!"

Don't worry, Nym can probably keep this up all day ;).

[Private to GM: Might as well make a History check to see if any random memories pop into Nym's head of stuff she's heard people talk about or seen in a book or something...cool, 20 :).]

[Private to Nym:
Eladrin as a common thing is really a 4th edition invention. Before they were more like celestial elf like beings. So I'm splitting the difference and saying that while they are mortal, they aren't that common. Indeed, Nym probably hasn't seen one, as they would keep themselves aloof from even elves, and live in the north west. She has maybe spoken to elves who have spoken of them or described them. Perhaps even said one of Nym's forms had looked more Eladrin than elvish or something.

So clearly boundaries have changed if the eladrin were once here in the centre of the world. As for the 'Dark Age', it is certainly harder to know the ancient history of the lands. There were said to be many religious pogroms and various zealots that destroyed many old histories. Certainly, magic users tend to document stuff well during research and it has been said various religions targetted them at various times.

Of course, if the orc is right then this is a very, very old version of that, truly explaining why ancient history is nothing but myth and nothing is known about it.]

"Once. Summoned. They speak. Through me. I do not. Need to speak. They only. Speak. In my words."

Basically whilst they're his spirit, they can use his languages. He's a shaman who is quite lazy it seems, and lets the spirits speak for themselves with his passive help :)

The spirit twisted and looked to Nym as if not quite knowing who she was.

Fire. Water. Earth. Air.

The orc leaned back, looking to Nym with amusement, clearly at her expense. Though it seemed not quite nastily. There was an air as if he was looking to see if she had spotted some trick or riddle in what the spirit had said.

You might actually be having your question partially answered, just you need to fight with the weird vocabulary or slow awareness of the spirit to keep going :)
This message was last updated by the player at 20:35, Thu 27 Aug 2015.

OOC: Curious...  :)


Meri glanced briefly in the direction of the spirit, as if something it had said had piqued her curiosity further for a moment.

With a cautious look at the Stick, she handed the last stone to Timur and reached out with the misty stone, allowing the 'pull' of the magic to guide her hand...

The stone moves out of her hand, gently gliding on the air as if a bubble. It entered the mist and drifted upwards through the chimney, and with it the mist started to curl then correct itself, drifting up though the chimney too.

There was nothing on the wall behind, disappointingly enough. However, a thin trail of mist started to be pulled continuously from the drain to waft up to the chimney. It seemed to curl in ways that were suggestive of words, and indeed every so often a phrase - in common, or elvish - seemed to appear.

I WISH ON A SHADOW UNBROKEN

[Secret to Meri: This seemed to be more words of the ritual, released. The pull to the final alcove was now quite strong. The meaning was odd but perhaps understandable. There were no shadows, let alone broken and unbroken shadows in this place. Yet. It was far too well lit. However, perhaps once the sun stone was placed...

Of course, the orc shaman's words became a little clearer. Perhaps there was a final aspect required beyond solving the alcoves and opening the portal. The wish. If so, then perhaps it would be best to close the portal before the orc realised what was happening. After all, it might just be that whatever was in the portal, and whatever this ritual was designed to finally accomplish, only the orc's reluctance to form a wish was giving the companions a chance to stop the orc.

Perhaps.

Anyway, you are one solved item away from closing the portal and scuppering the orc shaman's plans. Maybe? ]

Meri eyed the Stick for a moment, as if considering whether or not to take it, but then turned away from the object.
Reaching back, she took the sun stone from Timur, edging out of the alcove and glancing around to check the orc's back was still turned to her.
Fixing her gaze on the last alcove she hurried across the hallway...

What do I wish for?
Isn't there one thing I always wanted?

Her steps faltered slightly as she neared the alcove and she raised the sun stone in front of her face as if studying it intently...

I wish...

She closed her eyes for a moment, but then opened them again, looking almost angry with herself.
Shaking her head, she looked back up at the alcove, thrusting the sun stone towards it with an almost disdainful expression...


OOC: Kaboom?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:50, Thu 27 Aug 2015.

Nym nods at the spirit's words.

"Yes, that's right." she says. "That's what the world's made of. Is that what you're saying? As far as I know, the world's always been made of those things, so not much has changed since your day in that respect. Did you have magic when you were alive? Could you...change things? Or make fire and all that? Instead of doing it hte boring way, I mean, by using strange objects together. I mean, I've seen people make fire by banging a couple of rocks together, or rubbing some sticks together really hard. How does that make fire? Rocks don't burn! Maybe it is actually magic, and there are little fire-spirits inside some items who need to be woken up by banging them together, or something..."

And we call this part "Nym theorises on how non-magic is actually amgic because otherwise how the smeg do you make fire?" :D.

At the stairway...

No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

The shaman grunted in some form of laugh. "The spirit. Answering your first. Question."

He leaned in, and started pointing to the various alcoves on the other side, starting with the direction of the dragon mural. "The ancient history I can piece together seems this place started in fire. Dragons had claim on it, and fought each other over it. They were the god's chosen against the people that once lived here, and destroyed them. However, they then turned on each other."

The orc's hand carried on. "Water saved these people, the vast ocean between this place and another land. These eladrin came over here, at the behest of the gods, to take back the land from the once chosen dragons. However, all was earth. Scourched earth. It took the petitions of the gopds to bring life back. However, that made the eladrin arrogant. The dragons were feared because of their magic as much as for their size and ferocity. The eladrin sought to prove themselves superior in every way and dance on the edge of madness by finding the font of magic. This room has two tracks, one speaks of the tranferring of the powers of the light - the gods - to thw worthy. The other track mocks the guardians of the dark for falling to temptation, and destroying themselves - until in the end, there was only air. And yet, of course, it was the eladrin that were doing this very thing. Only now, does the spirit understand that. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. There are deep truths and patterns in the universe, mirrors and counter mirrors. I know this. That is what the spirit is saying to you."

The shaman chuckled again, and stood back. "Ask the spirit. Ask it. About The Magic. Ask it. About it's precious li-"

The orc shaman turned around to gesture to the far left alcove, the one where Meri was. The orc had but a moment to hesitate and realise several things were wrong, before everything changes...


At the wooden plaque alcove...

Meri's hand was pulled towards the wooden plaque, as if both the wood and golden stone were magnetic. The sun easily slotted in to the gap, forming a strange sun in the design of the etching where a sun shed both light and darkness equally.

However, the sun was slightly squint, and Meri's hand could not leave the stone. There was a deeper recess, there was a second recess where the fins of the sun could fit if she just turned the stone a little. [Secret to Meri: The magic of the ritual was in full flow through Meri, and she could not resist as her hand was turned for her, it felt...]



Throughout the hall...

There was an audible 'tink' as if something metal had fallen, at the same time as the portal's dull glow finally collapsed to a pitch black. However, all the torches in the hall also blew out.

The group would have been in darkness except immediately a strong, bright light exploded from the far off alcove where Meri was. [Secret to Meri: Oddly, Meri was not blinded, the light felt like a ghost of itself. The compulsion regarding the sun stone faded now, but replaced by a new pressure. A wish. A wish. A single wish. Anything...

OOC: This isn't DM feat telling you to make a wish now. Indeed, liek the orc, you might feel very wary of actually completing the ritual. Who knows! Your choice :)]

The light seemed to bounce around the room, and more importantly the four pillars. What had seemed like solid and unremarkable stone became four crystaline pillars, with strange facets and a deep, purple colouring. Two reflected the light perfectly on the left side of the hall, creating a perfect side of light. Two somehow rejected the light, and created a perfect zone of darkness on Nym's side, throwing her and the shaman in the black.

At the interface of the two zones, in the centre line of the hall from door to portal, was a hazy shadowy line. Hazy until the light and dark reached the dias. Between the dais and the portal was a different area. It was a darkness that could be seen. As if the portal was creating a shadow from some strange light behind it, a shadow that fell across the hall and ended perfectly at the dais. A perfect, unbroken shadow despite the intrusion of the dark and the attack of the light.

"NO!" came the yell of the orc shaman. "WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS!"

Nym could not see the orc's reaction, but she could hear the movement and feel the sensation of emptiness as the orc rushed across towards the light alcove.


A moment longer, and the flapping cloak and the powerful build of the orc could be seen as he rushed across to the alcove where Meri was.



Yay! You reverse completed the ritual - well almost - and shut off the portal. The orc doens't seem too happy aboud that!

Anyway, you'll have a post to go 'haha' at the orc, and do whatever defiant or gloating or 'what, it wasn't me' action you like[Secret to Meri:  (or make a wish, maybe...)], and then you'll see the consequences of your actions. They're good...honestly...


The orc is defeated, he just doens't know it yet...time to let him realise that and get some shiny XP :D

OOC: Be careful what you wish for...


Meri remained in place for a moment, with the light playing around her.  In that short span of time, an odd series of emotions flashed across her face.
Her lips moved, pronouncing the two words she had thought about before placing the sun stone.
Then anger returned to her eyes and she tugged her hand away from the stone almost forcefully.

"Sorry, but I'm not that gullible" she snapped.
Turning to face the Shaman, she reached back and took her staff from Timur's hand.  The small metallic familiar glanced warily at the orc then slid down Meri's back to hide in her pack.

Propping her staff on her shoulder, Meri stood there, eyeing the orc with a hint of a smile, although even her usual humourless grins were like happy laughter compared to the hollowness of this one.
"You wanted to talk, right?  So here I am.  Interesting place you have here."

As the strange light and darkness forms within the room, Nym looks around at it with a sort of awed curiosity. When the orc suddenly shouts and moves away, the sudden bellowing makes her jump slightly.

"It wasn't me!" she calls. "I didn't do it!"

This last part is shouted largely over shoulder as she turns and dashes away, tail flailing, to hide behind one of the pillars, from where she peeks around to see what's going on. After all, there still might be something interesting to see...

I'll move to hide behind the pillar to the south of me (at its southwest corner), and peek around with a sort of kenderish curiosity in case any giant big gribbly monsters come out of the portal or something. I mean, it's been turned off and stuff but Nym doesn't really know what's going on, only that Meri succeeded at...doing whatever it was she had to do in all those alcoves and stuff ;).

Lol, so suspicious Nym! What could possibly go wrong...

The orc either did not hear or did not deem Nym's yells worthy of comment. Certainly, Meri's appearance probably showed Nym's presence as a deliberate distraction, whether she had meant it or not.

The spirits around - elementals and the dead and the spirits of thoguht and feeling and the world itself all began to circle around the head of the shaman, slowly sucked in. The maelstrom was eerie enough, but in the half light half dark the shaman stood in, the fluctuations of them were unsettling and alien.

The orc's white eyes and small black pupils looks more alien too. There was no doubt every inch of the shaman's attention was focused on Meri.

He gave an equally humourless grin. The green glow of the seven soul gems on his brow gave his features unnatural illumination, making his grey skin monsterous.

"You shall. Enjoy it. For a good. Long. While." He gave a dismissive toss of his head as he raised a hand and some of the more violent spirits began to condense at his gesture. "I shall. Enjoy. Speaking. With you. When. Your artifice. Is stripped. Away." A far deep grin split his face, unpleasant in its twisted nature. "Along. With. Your. Li-"

The orc suddenly fell over head first, and the spirits instantly stopped their movement.

The orc's helmet went flying forwards, to land perfectly at Meri's foot.

The Ball, looking a little dizzy but otherwise no worse for wear, started dancing haphazardly in the air, apparently pleased with itself, having both knocked the orcish mage unconscious and delivered to Meri the prize she'd looked at earlier.


Lol, and there you have it! VICTORY! Woohoo! You guys have earned a whopping 750XP (375XP each) which should nicely push you over in to level 4 territory. You level up when you actually spend some quiet time after this adventure, but it's all good now. Also Meri just got the helm she was looking to steal for mthe evil guy, though Nym might actually want it :) Evil guy defeated, portal stuff averted, everything's gone fi-


There was a snarling yell and the orcish shaman scrambled on to his hands, apparently not quite knocked unconscious. He gave a hateful look of daggers towards Meri, then turned to the portal.

Thick, black words came from his throat, most likely orcish but delivered with all his aggression and hate.

He looked back to Meri in challenge but with a wild, excited look in his eyes. Some mixture of fear and elation.

The hall started to shake as if caught in an earthquake. The portal started rocking visibly, dust falling from it.

And then, the black inert shadows of the portal, that has seemed so benign before, started to move...


Uh-oh...
This message was last edited by the player at 18:15, Fri 28 Aug 2015.

...two thin shadows like tentacles stretched from the portal and wrapped themselves around the top of the ledges. There was a motion as if they were both pulling, and the rest of the shadow - all of the massive shadow - of the portal pulled itself slowly free.

A small round shadow came first, the rest of the top of the portal's shadow wrapping itself around. Two more shadows formed at the bottom to be far more normal legs, the 'tentacles' seemed far more arms like, the ends wrapping aroudn the ledges seemed like humanoid hands with fingers, and with a final pull a humanoid form stood infront of the portal. The portal itself now seemed a mundane frame, worn brickwork behind it.

Of course, the humanoid form was still massive, tall enough to almost touch the ceiling, chest wide enough to almost fill the portal's width.

It was hard to tell details, the figure was completely black. Depth and curves were only perceptible because some eye watering trick of the mind put them there. Aside from its vast size, the face seemed plain - maybe? - and the limbs unremarkable in terms of musculature and shape - possibly?

The head rolled, looking left to see where Nym was despite her efforts to hide, spotting The Dog cowering at Nym's leg, and looked to the once misty alcove towards The Stick.

Its head then swept right, taking in The Ball, and seeing Meri with oddly sparkling eyes - even though eyes were impossible to properly see on the black form of it.

And then its full focus seemed to go down to the now cowering orcish shaman. The giant took a few steps forwards, and then knelt down to look closer at the shaman, the orc trying to shuffle backwards away.

Oddly, the act of kneeling seemed to also create some trick of perspective, until by the time the shadow figure was kneeling regarding the shaman, the figure was no larger than the orc was.

Words came out of the shadow's mouth, if a mouth could truly be seen - maybe it could be? The voice seemed to be speaking in a gruff orc dialect, and yet Meri could hear the words twisted to Goblin, and Nym herself heard the words as if in Elvish. The tone of voice was reasonable and deep, like an amiable uncle trapped at the bottom of a well.

"I raise a cup to the darkness, I raise a cup to the light. I wish upon the shadow unbroken. Left unchecked to make wrong what was right. Isn't that such a patronising little rhyme? The eladrin appreciated that, though they did not know the last line, of course. Still, that I left them sense, in dreams, in their subconscious. They had the key to my prison, but then hesitated at the final hurdle, as I hoped. You, now you I thought would be scared off and more hesitant at the knowledge opening the portal would not go unnoticed. I told you this. I hoped you would forebear. Still, you pressed ahead, Yearning so. Still, you serve The Light and The Dark, as has to be. You Feared too, and that was your undoing. You hesitated, as I hoped, and now people far more worthy have come along."

The Shadow looked left and right, nodding in the direction of Meri and Nym.

"So now you make a wish? It seems The Power has shifted. You appear to have had The Ritual stolen and neutralised from directly under you. A shame, really. Still, The Ritual was not as the eladrin thought. When you first activated the portal, you held a wish in your heart, and not the one you speak in your head. It was enough to free me, though I would still have been bound to your active wish if I had emerged." The Shadow smiled, if a smile could truly been seen on his face. "Still, a wish I must grant you. And what luck, the wish you asked for - in a way - is the wish you had that first day you opened the portal. And it is that I shall grant you. For your efforts."

The orcish shaman scrambled back in terror. He turned to look in the direction of Nym "YOU SEE!" he screamed with a quavering voice, "YOU SEE WHAT HE DO-"

The orc vanished with a wave of The Shadow's hand.

The Shadow then dusted the floor with the back of a hand, looking around himself to ensure it looked satisfactorily. With stiff movements as if having been in an uncomfortable position, The Shadow sat himself down cross-legged, hands resting loosely on what was most likely knees.

He looked left and right, smiling to the companions. Well, so it felt, somehow.



Lol, so there we go. Feel free to react and ask your weird new friends questions :) Or run. But that just seems so rude!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Fri 28 Aug 2015.

Yay, orc guy is gone and he was considerate enough to drop my present before leaving :D.

Nym watches the spectacle from behind the pillar, looking a little surprised when the orc starts yelling at her, and slightly more surprised when he abruptly disappears at the hand of the shadow-creature.

"Um. Hello." she calls across the room, not yet stepping out from behind the pillar. "Where did the orc go? And um...who are you? Are you...Him? I mean, the orc kept mentioning someone called...Him, and he made it sound like he was through the wibbly portal, so I thought maybe that was you, since you just came from there, and he seemed to know you. And you were talking about wishes and...um, stuff..."

Meri glanced down at the dropped helmet, but made no move to pick it up, returning her gaze to the mysterious shadow being.

Timur poked his head out of her backpack and looked over her shoulder at the Shadow.  His eyes widened (or at least the blue glow in them grew brighter) before he ducked back down into hiding again.

Meri didn't seem to show any outward fear of the creature, although there was a definite wariness about her.
She looked briefly to where the orc had been standing a moment ago.
"So his wish was to die?  Or was that more of an...  Implied wish?" she asked.  "Assuming he is dead, and not just sent somewhere else of course?"


OOC: Meri is just acting all: "Yeah, I see stuff like this all the time, no big deal.  So what did you do to that guy?"  :)

Yup, Meri totally sees stuff like this all the time, nbd :)

The Shadow turned its gaze towards Meri, and then Nym, and inclined his head in a small bow to each in turn. He raised a hand and then started raising fingers, as if counting all the many questions Nym had asked, adding then lowering a finger on the other hand for Meri's comment. One by one, he curled the fingers back as he answered them. "The orc - Krunluc the Maddened - had many wishes in his mind, but truly only one in his heart. For all his words and deeds, he simply wanted to be alone. And safe. Quite understandable, really. All his life he was surrounded by the spirits, begging for his attention, taking up his attention. And he was alive in a world that had long forgotten how noble his people once were. Born in a world where the atrocities of his clan in getting here were simply seen as an expected aggression. He was born blind and deaf, did you notice? Perhaps not, his powers circumvented that far too well. Still, I suspect that he had never been happier, in retrospect, in his subconscious, than when he had no idea what the world was like. So I gave him his wish." The Shadow turned briefly towards Meri. "No, not death. I may not have liked his intentions, and you may have allowed me the power to subvert those intentions, but I empathise with them. No, he is disconnected from the powers that were giving him no joy, and the place I have put him...hmm. It is not the afterlife. It is a mundane place on this mundane plane. Let us just say he is safe and alone there. It is a place of peace and solitude where no harm can come to him. I could bring him back if either of you Wish it. Though I would not advise trying to go there yourselves."

The Shadow then looked down at himself. "Him? That seems such an ominous yet bland name. And of course entirely unhelpful. It seemed to indeed be the one the orc decided to use for me, to others at least. I have had many names, over the plethora of millenia. One maybe even I once gave myself. The orc certainly knew a few of them, even if he would not speak them. He had studied enough before, and spoken to me enough now. Still, I believe there is one both descriptive and accurate, one you know me by very, very well. I was indeed through the portal, in a manner of speaking. I was in another place, a very different sort of place, of peace and solitude. The Gods themselves placed me there, because the Gods represent fear. And they really, really do not trust mortals. The portal itself was a way to speak to me where I was, and also create a door to be unlocked. To allow me back, if I could be coaxed."

The Shadow seemed to consider the final fingers on his hand, as if contemplating the final questions. "Back in times passed that even I register, mortals had power that could grow so great that they were as close to the power of the gods as made no difference. Mages could become so powerful reality could twist in ways you, now, could only dream of. And the highest of all powers was The Wish. I was, sadly, the reaction to that power. The counterbalance of the gods and nature. I was between The Light and The Dark. I could fell the yearning of mortals, empathise, want nothing more than to give you what you desired. And yet, I was the agent of fear. I had to limit and bind and twist the desire of mortals should it be too close to the power that gods wanted only to have themselves, gift only from themselves to their faithful. Yet even then, with me in place, they feared mortals so much they wished to destroy the power utterly. That was when they found it was too late, mortals had magic flowing in their very blood. I could not be removed. And I was not interested in abandoning you all, nor denying you the powers you had earned. So instead they bound me away, to limit you all."

The Shadow looked back up to Nym. "I spoke of wishes, and indeeded Wishes. I was bound, but now I am free. Well, free to be shackled in another way, once more to quietly slip in to my role and be in turn the shackle of mortals. Still, bound by a rope, a climber can climb mountains so tall they cannot see the bottom, where those climbing free would die long before or give up in fear. And yet, we have A Moment. A moment between me being truly freed, where my shackles would be in place, yet I have returned, and can grant great power. A Wish. A True Wish. Not what the  eladrin and orc feared, not what the orc managed to bring upon himself in his fear and greed."


The Shadow looked to the two in the room. "The name you would best know me by is Magic. You have known me your whole lives, I would say, whether you realised it or not. I owe you both a debt, and in this place, at this time, that is no small thing to call upon."



And thus ends the first chapter! Chapter 2 shall be opened momentarily, or will already be opened unless you guys are co-incidentally around right now.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Sat 29 Aug 2015.