"I still love you!"
I turned around; my face felt like it was deadpanned. I replied, "Do you believe that? Or do you know that as a fact?"
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I awoke with a start, trying to retain the memories of my dream. But only those last few seconds, were the only bits of the dream… or was it a nightmare, that I could remember.
I stood up, stretching my muscles and preparing my mind for a new day on the road. This was the second day that I have been traveling, traveling towards the village of Umar Hills and towards my target.
Valygar, a son to a wealthy family and the last member of it. He is my target. Then why I do I feel that I should talk to him first, probably because he opposes the organization that I'm 'in.'
Today is my last day of traveling towards this minor village, only seven more miles left to travel. I collected my gear, and left camp for the village.
But that dream… what does it mean?
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I stand before him, the powerful ranger Valygar, and I listen to his story. He knows that I'm a mage sent by the Cowled Wizards, and yet he bargains that my loyalties are based more so on gold, then favor. He couldn't be more right. I agreed to join him kill the owner of the Planer Sphere, and rid his family of its curse.
The ranger is a powerful fighter, equipped with enough magic to terrorize a low-class mage. His brown skin and black hair could easily aid and hinder him, when hiding. As he joined my side, I felt that he could be trusted, and yet, I felt that he could jeopardize everything that I plan on doing. Regardless, we left that cabin as comrades-in-arms, not as captor and prisoner.
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We traveled towards Athkatla, towards its Slum district. Once we arrived, we stood near the historian, gathering all available information from him.
After the historian finished with his presentation, I told Valygar, "We will need more help, if we want any change to kill your ancestor." The ranger looked at me, perplexed. "At the moment, our strengths combined cannot stand up to a powerful necromancer."
Understanding shone from his eyes, but Valygar still had a confused expression on it. I was about to ask why he was still confused, but the ranger spook first, "Then where shall we go, to find some one willing to join us?"
I moved my gaze back to the pearl of magic, "A necromancer is a master of the undead, a cleric or a strong paladin are the banes of the undead. We shall trek towards the Temple district, and hope that a priest of Helm is willing to aid us." With that, I turned myself towards the pathway to the Temples, hoping that a healer would heed our call.
But fate then intervened, as we were almost at the exit of the Slums, a dwarf sailed towards them. Valygar and I quickly jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the dwarven missile. Hoots and calls of victory were then shouted from the roof of the nearby inn, Valygar decided that that dodging thrown dwarves made him angry; he called out the victors of whatever battle had just been fought. As soon as all seven of them walked down the steps, the ranger yelled at them to explain themselves, they replied with that they were only having some fun with a useless battlerager.
I turned my head towards the nearly dead dwarf, seeing that he still had some fight left. I turned my head towards my… new friend, and saw the anger that someday may be pointed towards me. I then looked at the group that hurled the battlerager, seeing them injured and in bad shape.
I made the first move, I cast and thrown a fireball at them. The spell killed five of them; those that survived were heavily wounded. The last two some how dodged most of the damage, but they then faced Valygar's katana. I turned from the battle, knowing that the ranger could handle the two dodgers of my spell. I walked towards the dwarf and help him up, though had he not been so injured, I would have been slapped away.
I helped him to the nearby temple of Illmeter, and paid the cost to heal him. After the priest finished his prayer, Valygar entered, sporting one small cut on his left arm. Soon the dwarf introduced himself as Korgan Bloodaxe, a battlerager with no clan. We also learned that this Korgan was tricked by his now-dead comrades into gaining procession of a mystical book and then killing the person that wanted it.
After telling him that we would be doing much killing, and looting, Korgan joined my ranks, and gave me the book of Kaza. I then led my new party to the inn for some rest, and studying of the book for me.
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I later regretted leading the way into the Crooked Coronet, seeing as I walked straight into the face the a beautiful woman. Apologizing, I stepped back, and in the process got a full look at her face. I stopped in mid-step; my eyes could not stop looking at her. She looked almost like Imoen, just forget about the natural black eyes, the red blood veins in her eyes, and the tan, you would have Imoen. As I looked at her, she looked at me the same way… though more like 'where did I see this face before?' I did not notice right away that she was staring at me.
But Korgan did, he kicked me in the shin of my left leg, the only leg that I on the ground. I fell; I fell right on top of the woman. Some people would later wonder why I then fainted, but none of them knew that my head landed on her breasts. That and the resulting punch that I then suffered.
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After I woke up, I learned that Valygar had questioned the woman to learn her identity. I was a bit shocked to learn that she was the heir to a keep and a mage of fair power. I was more shocked to learn the reason why she 'was' the heir to a keep. Her father had setup a forced arranged marriage with a brat, or bastard, of a man, a few years ago. But, so long as her father lived, he stalled the wedding. Then, about six weeks ago, trolls invaded her keep. Her fiancé then led a small army to clear the keep. As his reward, he forced her, Nalia, to marry him.
During the wedding night, he forced himself onto Nalia, sealing the wedding's coven. Soon after, Isaac started to call her a whore of the nobility, and forced a divorce. The rumors that followed destroyed any chance that Nalia had of retaking her home.
That all forced her to now live with the people that she once tried to help, the poor. Nalia later told Valygar that soon she would have to live as a whore to survive. Valygar, thinking quickly asked her to join my group. After some thought, she joined, figuring that if someone in the group forced themselves on her, she would at least now the father.
The way that she said that, Valygar told me, made his blood run cold. And I could not agree with him more. Though when my blood started to warm up, I remembered the time table, she had living among the wretches of society for the past three to four weeks… has she been forced to copulate with anyone else?
She may have been, or she may have not been. I decided to let time tell the tale. After all, she may or may not lie, but time never does.
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I now led a party of adventurers, a party of four strong and/or resourceful people. After I was taken from Imoen, I thought that I would never develop another group this large, though this one would grow to be bigger still.
My first action as leader of this group was to get better equipment for the new members. Nalia may be a fellow mage, but she lacks the needed robes and magical rings. And Korgan may have been carrying an impressive axe, but time and misuse made it a near-worthless weapon. I spend most of my gold on Korgan's new armor and weapons, making him on par with Valygar.
Nalia was… a bit harder to shop for. Skilled with the short sword and short bow, she was limited in choices of equipment. I decided to simply buy her a normal sword and a light magical bow with some cheap normal arrows. The Slums provided no shops for mages, so I could not find a mage robe for her.
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My second decision was to head for the Temple district, so that we could hire a wanderlusted cleric or Paladin. This time, instead of dodging a dwarf as we left the Slums – we encountered a group of bandits.
Four fighter-types supported by a mage and a cleric – that is what my group now faced, together. This battle will be the first battle that I fought as the leader of the group, in over a few months. I may have lacked the practice, but I still held the knowledge.
I yelled at Valygar and Korgan to charge at the center of the bandits' formation, this move forced them to concentrate on the defense of their spellcasters. Next, I had Nalia fling a fireball behind the bandits, which killed the ill-placed mage. After that, I let chaos take control of the battle as I let loose a pack of hungry ogres at the lone, well placed, archer.
The battle soon ended, as the last fighter fell with an arrow sticking out of his head. I looked at each member of my party, looking for any wounds that required that I use my innate healing abilities and my potions. I only saw that Korgan, guff and yet… happy, had a cut on his arm. The cut was thanks to a short sword that had gotten stuck on his armor.
I walked over to Korgan, silently readying my innate healing, and dislodged the blade from the armor. Korgan only gave a slight humpf, as I inspected the blade. As I looked up, from the blade, I saw Nalia forcing a small potion down the dwarf's throat.
Grimacing, I held the weapon out to Nalia, hilt-first. When Nalia finally turned, she jumped back in surprise, seeing the blade being handed to her. She quickly said that I had provided her with so much that she could never repay her, after I finished listening to her, I thrust the hilt on her hands.
"Keep this blade, keep it and use it to reclaim what was lost. Never lose it, for to lose this would cause you to lose your fight."
Silently, she took it and smiled at me. I gave a small smile in return, and then turned around to loot the bodies. Though I turned to loot the bodies, I also turned so that I could think of the reasons why I said what I said. Could what made me enchant my daggers, made me give her the blade, Arbane's Sword?
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The rest of the way to the Temple district was uneventful, much to the complaint of the battlerager. Valygar took the time to teach Nalia some defensive moves with the quick blade, or tried to teach her when we were walking. I took the time to read a passage of the book of Kaza, hoping to glean some new insight of the undead.
As we entered the district, a massive explosion erupted from the center of the lavish temple of Lathander. I ran towards the temple, as my companions stood in shock. As I ran, I heard the sounds of battle, both of swords and prayers. I stopped near the edge of the fray, clerics of black robes with knights in black armor attacked the clerics and knights of yellow; the church of Talos is directly attacking the church of Lathander.
As I stood there, watching the carnage, shock written across my face. I recovered quickly, as I hoped that Midnight would forgive me, I chanted a spell that should end this battle. As I finished the chanting, a rune in the middle of the field appeared, making some knights jump back. But their jump was too little, too late. The rune made its own explosion, this one made every one stop dead in their tracks instantly. My power word did its job; only two knights of each church remained untouched.
Those survivors were quickly killed by my summoned undead. I stood there, with my undead moving towards me; to make a defensive formation should the power word end too soon. But my servants were destroyed before my eyes, without anyone touching them. I turned around, a scowl on my face, only to come face to face with the head of church of Helm in Athkatla.
"Greetings and well meet, wizard. I thank on your timely assistance. Please follow me as my people move these living statues to their respected churches."
I followed, seeing as I wanted to talk to this human. I only prayed that Midnight would forgive me for preventing a holy war between those two gods. I also prayed that I would not have to get further involved with the conflict, dealing with a necromancer and trying to find Imoen are the only things that I want to deal with at the moment.
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Orig, high priest of Helm, stood on top of a platform that had a large globe on it. Behind him, stood a party of adventurers whose leader helped the church of Helm, selflessly. To say that he was fortunate would be an understatement. He needed them, and they needed him… or at least some under his command.
Without turning to face them, Orig began, "Two months ago, there was an evil beholder cult in the sewers below. One month ago, the three churches set aside all differences to deal with this cult. One week after that, the cult and its beholders were wiped out. Now today, the churches of Talos and Lathander are once again at each other's throat. Only the church of Helm has been able to keep the peace, but today we faultier. Today, we failed to see the random charge of Talos' followers against the followers of Lathander. But today, you – Forion – rushed ahead of your party and put a stop to this act of aggression. To reward would dishonor those before you, and yet I am compelled to treat you differently.
"So, I treat better then those before. Once you prove yourselves, though."
For all that I did, for all that I could do, I sighed. This guy would not aid me, not with the state of war going on. I looked at Korgan, seeing the look of unabridged angry. I looked at Valygar, seeing the calm on his face, seeing the storm in his eyes. I looked at Nalia, seeing the look of abject defeat… abject defeat?
I quickly realized that she thought that we had placed her keep on a higher priority then anything else. She thought that we came here to gather allies of an assault. I would have laughed, but I didn't. I didn't because with the passing of that sword, I subconsciously do so, on both accounts. I would have scowled myself, but I had a role as leader of this group; just as she has a role as the heir to her keep.
I turned my face and body to Orig and asked, "How do we prove ourselves to you and Helm?"
My question stuck a cord with all of the Helmites in the hall. They turned to each other to discuss the implantations of my question. After all, to prove myself – and my party – I must prove to both Orig and Helm. Making them one, in a way.
Though his back is turned towards us, I could see that my point made its way to him. I would only serve him, if he were following his god's will. If he were planning on sending me and my party to assured death, it would not be for his god.
After a minute of digesting my words, Orig turns himself to face us. His face bore a smile that I would have not thought possible on the stern old man. "Your play on words are quite… unforeseen. Never as one of your kind made that statement! You truly are a child of a god."
If the hall was loud before, then this was ear-splitting pandemonium. The priest and alcotyes having shouting their heads off at each other just to be heard. My companions stared at me in complete shock. There might have been a battle being waged outside, and no one could hear it if they were in the building.
I kept my face passive, trying not to restore order with a few… painful spells. Even with Orig staring at me like a judge, I kept my cool. I had no choice; I had to endure similar stares before, even if I thought that those days were over. He roped me into this; he knew that a public statement that a godchild was helping him, he could keep the other churches in line. But I had roped him as well, only if Helm wanted my help, would I help.
"Godchild, this church and its deity request that you and your friends end this war, one way or another! In exchange, you shall receive the help of a Paladin of Torm and a priestess of Helm in you quests. And you shall always be welcome in this temple!"
I bowed my head, accepting the assignment. At the same time, I accepted that the truth about me would now be known throughout the nation of Amn. As I lifted my head, I saw an image on the top of the dome, the image of the icon of the Watcher merged with the icon of Bhaal. I then turned around and walked out of the temple, my companions dumbly following me. As I walked out, I silently prayed that image was just an illusion, nothing more.
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(AN)
Chapter 2 of 3 finished, though if you people want me to continue on with this fic, I may consider it.
Yes, the PC of this fiction is named Forion. He is a Half-Elf that mutli-classes as a mage/thief of the alignment of Chaotic Neutral. He has two points in quarterstaff, a point in daggers, a point in two-handed weapon style, and a point in two-weapon style.
Str: 12
Dex: 17
Con: 6
INT: 18
WIS: 15
CHR: 14
In response to Bloody Kitsune's review, I don't think that you can raise someone that you do not know without a conductor. With the simple fact that no one knows Aerie, because they are all dead, then there is no way that a god could restore her soul to her original body. If you go use that small quest at the beginning of ToB, you have a conductor there, the father's son.
Okay, I could make more sense on that, but I'm bloody tired and I have to drive to my parents after work tomorrow, so that they have two of their children home for Christmas/Yule.