Harnan wondered why the bed was so hard and cold. Had he fallen out in the night, too spent to notice? His headache was not at all unexpected, nor was the soreness in his back or the pangs of hunger from not haven eaten last night, and it was only after an attempt to stand that he become aware of the others on the ground, the soldiers, then of the priests.

He turned to the closest soldier and barked "Where are my clothes! My belongings! Bring them at once!"

Gurth was obviously the biggest and the ugliest of them, ogres generally where. He was more than a foot taller than Ursion and almost twice as heavy. The two of them were obviously the largest, strongest, and fittest of the group.

The only other non-human in the group was the shadow elf Keira. She was also the only female in the group. And she was attractive. She was only a couple of inches shorter than Ursion, but she was also the slightest of them. Even slighter than Harnan who was the smallest and most charismatic of the group. But also the only one of them that wasn’t graceful. Perhaps because of his back.

Aladin was the only one that wasn’t completely naked. He wore a holy symbol around his neck. And together with Ursion, he was the runt of the graceful litter. But Ursion also had the bearing of the warrior class. While Gurth was a warrior and Keira the classic damsel in distress. Harnan on the other hand was harder to classify, though it seemed that he had been in combat as there were a number of scars on his torso.

Of the humans, Ursion was the oldest and Aladin was the youngest. And by an accident of fate, there were seven years between each pair. Guessing the age of elves was impossible. As a human, she appeared to be in her early twenties and might be slightly older or slightly younger than Aladin. But as an elf, that might still mean that she was centuries old. While Gurth appeared to be somewhere between Ursion and Harnan in age.

The soldier that Harnan barked at pressed the point of his spear into Harnan's flesh.

At the same time, one of the two soldiers wearing a red mantle unfastened it and crouched near Keira, wordlessly offering it to her so that she could use it to cover herself.

The rest of the soldiers continued to point their spears toward the group. Many especially keeping an eye on Gurth. Keeping all of them in one place.




[OOC: I'm using character names for ease of reference. You don't know each other's names yet. And yes, even those of you with your eyes closed "see" this.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:37, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 6):

Aladin cognized that this was not a good time to fight.

"Really, do I look armed and armoured? Who in hell are you, and what demons do you serve in dragging us here? I for one have no desire to be greeted by these pricks... " he said, referring to the spears in his face.

His attempt at diplomacy was not going well...

With her eyes still closed, Keira sat up and took the offered mantle to wrap around herself. The fact that she could see the mantle with her eyes closed concerned her even more than the pointed spears. She turned her head to "look" around, trying to determine the limits to her curious new sense.

Aladin addressing the soldiers didn't help. Two of them pressed their spears into his flesh as one of the other soldiers had done with Harnan only moments ago.

Keira wrapped herself in the offered mantle until she was decently covered and looked around.

The Ogre didn't know who the four strangers with him were.  He only knew that they were somehow on the same side for the time being. He stood up in solidarity with his new comrades and glared at the legionnaires.

He pointed a thick finger at them and growled, "No poke!", at them in broken Imperial.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Wed 27 Apr 2022.

In reply to Gurth (msg # 10):

Aladin brushed the spears aside with a scowl. These fools still had made no demands, and he was beginning to think that they were going to have to fight their way out of the spears.

A pained expression crosses Harnan's face and he steps backwards, clutching his head.

"What is happening! I feel as if I am being torn apart!" He yells, then suddenly he is gone.

The soldiers continued to hold their ground. Neither Gurth's growl nor Aladin's scowl caused them to react. They remained on guard. The officer that had provided his mantle to Keira offered her a smile as he returned to his duties.

But when Harnan yelled and clutched his head for a minute and then vanished, the legionnaires started looking for him everywhere.

"One of them vanished," the officer still wearing his mantle said. And the six robed individuals approached. They were dressed in six different colored robes, crimson, ebony, honey, indigo, olive, and snow colored.



[Harnan has spent 3 FP. 7 FP remaining.]

Keira opened her eyes and gave the legionnaire a thankful nod. She stood up slowly, wrapping the mantle tighter around herself. When one of the strangers suddenly disappeared, she was visibly startled, putting a hand over her mouth in shock.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

In reply to Keira (msg # 14):

Not having achieved a lot by talking, Aladin waited. He figured that would eventually say what they wanted, though wether he was going to co-operate was yet to be decided...

The ogre turned when the man yelled out.  He looked around, confused when he noticed that he was missing.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Fri 29 Apr 2022.

Harnan
This message was last updated by the player at 05:04, Sat 30 Apr 2022.

The six robed figures arrived at the legionnaires. And though their robes obscured their faces from the heroes' eyes, the spatial awareness that allowed them to "see" without eyes ignored such theatrics. But provided theatrics of its own as their clothes flickered between what their eyes could see and a translucent state that allowed the heroes to "see" beneath the clothes. Even the robed ones' entire bodies shifted between solid and translucent to that awareness. As did the legionnaires, their weapons, and armor.

Five of them were human and the sixth was a shadow elf. The human in the olive robe and the elf in the crimson robe were male and the rest were female.

The male in the olive robe and the female in the snow-colored robe looked like they came from Imperium or Torrium with their normal coloration. The honey and indigo-robed women looked like Northlanders with their light colors. And the ebony-robed female looked like she was from Highland or Kantor based on her colors being between the other two groups.

"Reveal yourself," the one in the olive robe said. And to his commanding voice, Harnan dropped his invisibility, still standing among them, Keira dropped the mantle that covered her female anatomy, and Aladin, Gurth, and Ursion stod without covering their manhood.

He looked the group over. "We should talk," he continued. He then turned to the officer whose mantle rested at Keira's feet. "Have them clean themselves up and get them some clothes."

As the robed ones were about to turn away, a large powerful dog with fur as black as sin blinked into existence among the five heroes. And as a reaction to that, Ursion flared wings of fire from his shoulders that almost reached the floor.

The dog, who seemed to have arrived in a better state that the heroes did, ignored everything else, padded over to Harnan, and started to lick his left leg.

The robed ones exchanged looks, shook their heads, and started to leave.


[Harnan at 7/10 FP ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:49, Sat 30 Apr 2022.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 18):

Aladin agreed that they needed to talk, but said nothing for now. His concerns would have to wait until they were clothed and ready. He cooperated for now, doing as directed.

Keira waited to see what would happen next. It seemed she and the others - whoever they are - were not in danger, at least not for the moment.

Harnan gingerly pats the hound om the head. "Yes, a little hospitality is overdue I think, clothing and perhaps some food. I am famished!" He remarks, following the robed priests. "Come along, Bloodfang."

The ogre looked upon Ursion's fiery wings with awe.  Never had he seen such a sight.  Things were definitely getting strange. Perhaps there was something to this demon talk after all.  He followed the group out of the room while pointing at Harnan's hound and simply said. "Doggy".
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Sun 01 May 2022.

The officer that had offered Keira his mantle picked it up and offered it to her again, but this time she refused its cover with a shake of her head.

Whatever ceiling this place had was too far away for them to "see" and looking for it only revealed shadows as it was too far away from any of the light sources in this room.

"We are in a tomb in the middle of the desert," the kind officer said as the procession got started. The legionnaires surrounded the five as they moved, their spears directed at the group, and Bloodfang followed next to Harnan, but gave Gurth a friendly look.

The legionnaires moved slower than the robed ones so they soon vanished around a corner.

"It will take three weeks to march to Lessat-Ha," the officer continued. "So there is no point in running away."

As the group came closer to the walls, their spatial awareness intersected with them, and that portion was covered in darkness. As they came closer to the corner, the corner became translucent so that they could "see" through it. It was obvious that they could "see" through a foot of stone, but not more.

One decade headed up the stairs around the corner first and as the group was allowed to go after them, Gurth shoulder checked one of the legionnaires who wasn't focusing on where he was pointing his spear any longer.

The legionnaire took a couple of steps before he could stop himself and he was just about going to skewer him when the remaining officer ordered him to stop, which he did.

The stairs were three yards wide and the walls were too thick to "see" through. It led up to a fully illuminated hexagonal room with an archway in every other wall. The first decade was stationed such that there was one other archway on this side of them and they were pointing spears at them.

As they headed to the next archway, there was a moment when they could "see" through the wall between the archways, but it ended so quickly that if this spatial awareness blinked as eyes did, they would have missed it altogether. All the other walls were dark to their sense.

The domed ceiling above them was 23 feet away at the peak and there was only darkness beyond. The room was slightly over 5 yards across from wall to wall. And as they reflected over this, they realized that they knew the exact distance to anything they looked at!

"Go downstairs," the friendly officer said. "Follow the corridor to the end."

The robed ones were no longer in sight.

As they now had been in closer proximity to one another, they noticed that there was a creepy feeling from the other four, as if something was off/wrong with them, but each of them realized that the other four could sense the same creepy feeling from them.

As they moved about, a map of their surroundings formed in their minds ten yards around them with precise measurements of distance and angles.


[OOC: Obviously the exact distance to the peak of the ceiling differs with your height, but 23 feet is a good average.]

[What do you do?]


[Harnan at 7/10 FP ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:59, Mon 02 May 2022.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 23):

When the officer started to at least talk about how far it was, Aladin tried to question how they were taken from their homes, who the robed ones were and where they were now.

"You would have to ask them about that," the officer said.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 25):

"So where do you fit in then, if you are not with them?"

"We are legionnaires," the officer said. "We were assigned to protect them."

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 27):

"Then you must know something about them. Who are they? Who do they work for?"

"You would have to ask them about that," the officer said. "Keep on going now." He signed for the group to continue down the stairs.