From the journal of Vedis Valentine
We're inside a demi-plane linked to a deck of cards found inside a room, that can only be accessed by drinking a liquid that makes you gaseous, which can only be entered through a portal in a golem's chest, which in turn resides through a hallway guarded by a magically-summoned beast that re-sets each time it's destroyed, inside the same pyramid, on a planet, reached through a portal activated with blood from the two-that-are-one, on an asteroid that is the eye of the Dragon Constellation, in a crystal sphere known only as the Shadowsphere. With me so far?
About a quarter-of-the-way in there is where I died. A trap that forced the heart to beat with it killed me, then brought me back to life. I don't remember anything from when I was dead. No bright light, no drifting fog, no angels or devils or anything… just nothing.
So, Kenari retrieved the Harrow Deck from a room in the pyramid of the Four Kings. The deck itself transported us to the Harrowing, the land created by Sonaray, the bard. She split the demiplane off from Dream, and she based it off her stories. That's about all I know of it, but the cards can be played here to affect certain outcomes.
Moments into arriving, we got into it with these creepy bird people in creepy clown costumes. Word of Wisdom wanted to try to find a way to get us all out of this place, so he tried some fancy Pshychoportation and disappeared in a swirl of cards, only to be replaced by a scruffy-looking gunslinger cowboy with a hard-on for justice. He follows Murlynd, and his name is Melchior. I will miss my psionic friend. May his travels lead him somewhere safe.
All is not well, here. Sonaray was murdered by the Conspirators. There are ten in all. Local legend has it that to defeat the Head Conspirator, you must gather 6 of 9 tokens that are left behind of Sonaray to lead you to the Striding Fortress, where the Head Conspirator, Cesarian (a dragon, why is it always a dragon?) reigns. So far we've beaten Bernaditi, the Rakshaza, in charge of the Midnight Circus and gained a garnet, and Brambleson of the Briar Patch, whom I have dueled and won the emerald pendant. Tonight we camp in the clearing that follows Brambleson around, and wait for him to return, so that Melchior can question him further and administer Justice for his part in slaying the Bard.
We got into a heated debate about whether or not we COULD technically kill the bunny, as all the conspirators are merely characters in a story trying to be REAL, and seem to be in a fixed loop. He still won't budge, though. And I thought I was a hard-ass stickler for the rules. I have absolutely NOTHING on him. His sense of Justice is a hard one. With lots of owies. I feel sorry for the rabbit. I wonder why he didn't insist on punishing the Rakshaza.
From the journal of Kenari Sanura
The night passes rather uneventfully… but in the morning I am awoken to the feeling of falling as the house disappears from under me. Thank goodness for those Boots of Landing, because while I wasn't totally awake yet I did manage to land on my feet.
"What in the 9 Hells?" I mutter as I look around to notice that not only is the house gone, but the whole clearing has changed.
"I guess we had it the other way around," Lenata suggests. "The rabbit doesn't keep coming to the clearing… the clearing actually keeps coming to him!"
We pick up camp after having the clearing abandon us and make our way through the brambles and thorns once again. Thank goodness that card I played before seems to still be in effect. After what seems like three hours of hiking (hard to tell when the sun is made of wood) I can hear the sounds of water and swamp animals.
Parting the branches of a particular thorny tree we come to a large clearing some 700ft across with a boggy lake in the middle of it. Following the muddy path we make our way to the edge of the lake to find a rickety bridge leading to a small island in the mists.
"I can see a number of headstones and a pair of glowing lights on the island," says Lenata. "Do you think they might be the eyes of a creature?"
"They might be some of these annoying things," Melchior grunts as he swats at the glowing balls of light that seem to be floating around the area.
"That water looks pretty nasty," I say as I pick up a stone and skip it across the water with a flick of my wrist. After the third skip it sinks into the bog in silence with nothing else stirring its surface.
"I'll try the bridge," Melchior offers.
"Tie this rope around your waist first," Ef Utan suggests as he hands him the end of the line. "Trust me… it could come in handy if the bridge breaks and we have to pull you out."
As Melchior steps on the bridge to test it, however, a cloud of the glowing balls of light rise up from the lake to form into a winged serpent akin to the guardian spirit I conversed with so many years ago.
"I'm so LONELY!" it weeps and shrieks.
Hmmph… looks like this one is going to be just as hard to talk to… just for different reasons. I reach into my deck and slide my fingers across the card of The Winged Serpent. It seems like now is as good a time as any to play it. A shimmer of light appears above the serpent and then disappears.
"I am Mourning Choir, and I weep because of a most heinous murder!" it continues to cry.
"Murder… would this be the murder of Sonnaray the Bard?" Melchior asks grimly. "We wish to punish those who took her away. Help us achieve justice!" Here we go again… he's going to want to bring a serpent in for questioning now.
At the mention of the bards name the weeping gets louder and more grating on my ears… until I feel like it's trying to burrow into my brain. Oh no… I am not going to spend the rest of my days depressed in a swamp! I've got stuff to do!
"I'm so sorry!" wails Vedis in sympathy. Crap… it must have gotten to her.
I snarl and shake my head to clear it. "Look, Mourning Choir… you can either help us or get the heck out of our way!" I draw my gun for an extra scary factor in the hopes that she'll just leave us alone. She really is sad, and I sympathize… but crying isn't going to solve anything right now.
Mourning Choir pulls back in shock and whispers a few words that I think our magical… before a mist rises up from the lake and she disappears once again.
Ef Utan mutters a few words and a gush of air ruffles my fur as it blows past us to disperse the mist. "Hmmn… I guess she's gone," he mutters before picking up the rope tied to Melchot. "We should tether ourselves to the rope when crossing the bridge, just in case."
Lenata picks up the rope and loops it around her waist before handing it to Vedis, who shakes her head and sits down. "Rope or not, I don't think that bridge is going to hold me," she says worriedly. "Besides… I need to shake off whatever Mourning Choir did to me. Don't worry about me… I've got your backs."
Lenata then raises an eyebrow and gestures the rope to me. "Nah… I think I'll be better without it, honestly," I say with a smile and a shake of my head.
The rest of them carefully cross the bridge one by one, and as it creeks and drops just above the water under Ef Utan's weight, I see why Vedis chose to stay. We've really got to find some kind of levitation ring or something for her… Eventually we all make it over to the island with no interruptions, and split up to investigate.
"These headstones are just more props," Ef Utan says with disdain.
"I wonder what these balls of light are?" Lenata asks as she reaches out to poke one and they bob out of reach.
"Hey, another sarcophagus!" I point out sarcastically to Ef Utan. "Do us a favor and don't open it, ok?" He grunts in reply.
"I'll stand back and cover you all if you want to investigate the sarcophagus and those lights, ladies." Melchior offers with a tip of his hat and a pat of his holster.
As Lenata and I walk closer to the sarcophagus we can tell that the two lights we saw in the distance were actually votive candles on stands at the feet of it.
"Interesting…" Lenata mutters. "These look like they are kept lit in order to keep the undead at peace." Good to know… note to self, don't play with the candles.
I'm looking at the lid of the sarcophagus for any kinds of writing when suddenly a ghoulish and skeletal armored figure carrying a rather large broadsword on his back comes looming out of the darkness. "What are ye doing here? Be ye trespassers or mourners?"
"We are here to mourn the passing of the bard Sonnaray," Lenata replies humbly.
"Cry now," he replies as he reaches up to draw his sword, "for this lamentation will be your last." With a swing of his giant sword over his head the votive candles are blown out and the ground begins to rumble beneath us.
Ef Utan swears behind me and I turn to see that emaciated hands have begun to reach out of the shifting dirt beneath us.
Think fast, Kenari… I roll underneath the creatures next swing as an arc of Negative Energy shoots from his sword and leap on top of the sarcophagus to try and dodge the grasping hands. Reaching into my sash, I pull out "The Beating" card and concentrate on the image of the man held down by hands coming out of the ground. If this isn't a time to play it, I don't know what is… I can feel a tingling of energy pass through me, and it's almost like it becomes easier for me to dodge the hands grasping at me from the ground. I only hope that it helps the others, too.
Thankfully others were paying attention to the actions of the sword wielding maniac, because for a moment, I certainly wasn't. With a tell-tale woosh of cold Vedis energy push rushes over the bog and slams into the monster as he tries to bear down on us with his sword. With a mighty "WOMP" it slams into him and launches him through a rotting tree and skidding across the ground.
"Gah! Son of a BITCH!" I hear Vedis moan across the water as she falls to her knees and grabs her head.
Shots ring past me as Melchior fires his pistols, but they don't seem to be doing much damage. The hands renew their vigor in trying to be as annoying as possible after that until Lenata stretches out her hands and a wave of energy pulses out from her across the island and into the undead creatures. The sword wielding monster groans in anger as many of the grasping hands shrivel away under her divine onslaught. Unfortunately one stubborn one manages to grab her ankle and knock her prone, though.
Okay… we need to make sure these things don't come back before they recover from that. I scramble to the end of the sarcophagus and pull my sparker out of my sash to relight the votive candles. "Time to go back to sleep, now…"
"Duck!" I hear Ef Utan yell and I reflexively flatten myself just in time to feel the breeze of an axe whizzing past my head.
Melchior's guns ring out in reply as Ef Utan, now free from the hands, leaps forward with his katana towards the monster. It's the cleric who steps up for the final blow, however, as a beam of light from her hands shoots past them both to sear what is left of his rotting flesh from his bones. With a rattle the bones collapse into a pile, and the noises of battle become silent.
"You ok?" I yell across the water to Vedis, who waves a hand weakly in reply.
"I think this is what we came for," says Lenata as she pulls a chain with a heart charm from the bones and puts it around her neck. "It's probably a good idea if we keep each of these charms separate from each other, just in case."
"In the meantime, I think we should get out of here and find a place to camp so Vedis can get over her headache," Ef Utan suggests and the rest of the party nods in agreement.
"Yeah… I definitely wouldn't mind getting out of here."
Fortunately the bridge doesn't give us any more trouble than usual, and we're all able to leave the creepy island behind.
The brambles, though… that's another story, as they seem to see it fit to drop a rather intimidating man in shiny armor in our way.
"Halt, adventurers! I demand that you hand over your tokens so that I may complete my most holy of quests!"
I run a hand through my hair and shake my head in disbelief. Great… another paladin.
The paladin in front of us is a rather imposing figure with his gleaming armor and white bushy mustache… and in any other time and any other place I might be impressed. Now, though, after all of the chaos we've been through lately… I could care less.
"I challenge your Gods claims to these artifacts!" Melchior declares. Hmmn… apparently he doesn't care for the paladin's holy claims either.
Melchior takes the paladin by the arm and leads him off a few feet to have a heated discussion over what I can only guess is a debate about whose god would win in a fight. I look to Lenata and roll my eyes at the two, and she just manages to cover her laugh with her hand.
"Fine, I will allow you and your companions to come with me on my quest… but I must kill the dragon!" the shiny paladin announces in a huff. "It seems that you have obtained some of the tokens I had that were stolen from me by that meddlesome Brambelson."
"Who is this guy?" I whisper to Vedis.
"I remember a childhood story of a paladin named Alagon that seems awfully similar to this man," Vedis replies. "He lost his faith with his god because on his quest he slaughtered the innocent."
My eyebrow rises in surprise. "And we're choosing to travel with this guy?"
"You know what they say about keeping your enemies where you can see them…" she shrugs as the party gathers and we move on through the brambles.
After a few hours the thorny bushes part into another clearing with what looks like an old worn mansion in the distance. "The Weaver resides here over the Man Molds, where all reborn," says Alagon with a wave of his hand at the mansion… before it lands on the hilt of his sword. "And now you will give me the rest of the tokens so that I may finish my most holy of quests!"
"What, already? I figured you were going to wait until we got another token at least before you were going to turn on us!" I mutter as I slip my hands into my gauntlets. Suddenly a lariat flies through the air and attempts to bind Alagon, but he is able to cast it aside with his sword before swinging it down on the place where I was standing just a moment before.
Paladins… I think I might have a card just for this! I reach two fingers into my sash and pull out "The Paladin" and concentrate on the card. After a moment there is a faint glimmer of energy around him, and then nothing. Well… I hope that did something helpful, anyway…
Lenata puts her hands together and whispers a prayer to Celestian for a spell… but from the frustrated look on her face it doesn't look like anything happened. Thankfully, Melchior was ready to tell this paladin what he can do with his holy quest as he whips out his pistols and blows a mighty fine hole in chest, knocking him back into a tree.
With a final slice from Ef Utan and his katana and a few slashes from my claws we are finally able to finish off Alagon… at least until he is remade again in those Man Molds he mentioned. In the meantime, though… I wonder if he has any other tokens on him?
After some searching we are able to divvy up the spoils to everyones satisfaction. Vedis received his Amulet of Natural Armor, Lenata received some potions and a pouch of Dust of Appearance, Melchior received his Belt of Mighty Constitution, I got a nice Cloak of Resistance to help with those pesky attacks on what little willpower I still have, and Ef Utan got a rather pretty sword with flames etched along the blade.
"Nice… I love the style!" I comment as Ef tests the blade with a few swings.
"I can tell it's magical, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to activate it!" he replies in frustration.
"Can I see it?" Ef looks at me warily and I chuckle. "I'll give it back, I promise. I just want to see if I can make it work for you." He hands it over and I run my fingers down the patterns in appreciation. "_Very_ nice work. Ah… and see, right here in the filigree there is some very skillfully hidden text. It looks like it says….ah yes… Flametongue. " I hand the sword back with a wink. "Just let me stand back before you try it out."
Once everyone is clear he whispers the name of the sword and with a WHOOSH flames light along the blade and shoot out into one of the bushes. "Yes… that will do," Ef declares with a grin as he sheathes the sword.
"While the paladin lost his way long ago, this god of his is still worth respect," Melchior declares as he takes the paladins shield and begins to build a cairn around it. "May his god Iomidac receive him and show him the error of his ways."
"You know, I have a theory about those balls of lights that we've been encountering," Melchior continues as we finish up and make our way to the mansion. "I believe that they are the souls of previous visitors such as ourselves. Since they are not a part of the story, they cannot be 'reborn' in these molds… so they are turned into these balls of light to forever float in this cursed oblivion."
"Then perhaps our quest to right this broken story will also help these poor souls find their peace," Lenata replies. "With Celestian's guidance I can only hope it will be so."
"Whatever they are, I just know that I'm never going to become one of those… things," I scoff. "This story isn't fit to scare Gheldaneth children with at bedtime… so I plan on rewriting it before that happens."
"Well nothing's going to happen while we're standing around here," Ef Utan mutters as he strides ahead. "Come on."
From the journal of Vedis Valentine
The morning sun rose on its wheel-and-pulley system, or whatever it takes to get a cardboard sun into the sky in this place, and the clearing just 'poofed' out of existence. Seems the clearing goes to Brambleson, not the other way around. Melchior will have to wait for another day to interrogate the rabbit. For Brambleson's sake, I hope that day never comes. There's GOT to be some statute of limitations on how long a fake character can expect to be punished for the murder of somebody who would already be dead due to old age. Especially when he's fuzzy, cute, and adorably inept.
Poor Kenari. The house she was sleeping on just disappeared from beneath her, but she always manages to land on her feet. Still. Got to be a rude awakening.
We broke camp and picked a direction to travel through the bramble patch. In this place, the Bramble is like the Flogistan between the Spheres of different plot lines in the greater story. So far, only the cook has had any idea about the presence of Melchot. The rest of the characters have either been evasive, lying, or too highly distractable to give our questions any real answers. Everybody thus far has been terrified of Cesarian. Just what have we gotten ourselves into this time?
Hours of wandering through the briars brought us to another destination. The clearing was very large, with a lake in the center and an island at the heart of the lake. Honestly, the lake is more of a boggy marsh moat, but none of us felt like testing out how well the local wildlife liked our tasty flesh. The only non-aqueous access to the island was a sagging rope-bridge. I could tell right away that it wasn't up to holding a Maenad's weight. There was NO WAY I was getting on that thing.
Before the others got a chance to test out their luck, a mournful Coatl appeared in front of the bridge, so very glad for some company. We tried to talk to her, but even Kenari couldn't get her to cheer up, even after she played the corresponding card, and she'd managed a Coatl that was ten times the size of this one, back in Bralspace. The Coatl was crying for the dead Sonaree and nothing could be done to alleviate her sorrow.
Toward the end of our interaction, the Coatl did something to try to make us as sad as she was. The others didn't take to kindly to that. Before they could attack or do her much damage, the Coatl disappeared into the misty bog, leaving me with my buzz officially harshed. Sometimes I hate being an empath, and a weak-willed one at that.
Ef tied a rope around his waist as they all bickered over who was going first and how many of them would get on at once. I wished Word was still with us so he could fly me over, but I soon changed my tune and was glad of remaining on the other side. The bridge would only hold one at a time, as Ef's weight made the bridge nearly touch the water as he neared its center. The rest followed suit and I moped around, feeling left behind.
Kenari and Lenata called out what they found as they searched the island. It was a miniature graveyard with cardboard headstones and a nice, coffin-shaped tomb with Sonaree's name 'carved' in the front. Honestly is everything made out of pasteboard here? They spent some time looking around and scrutinizing the candles set out on Sonaree's tomb. The candles were meant to keep the dead things from rising again.
It wasn't long before a dark specter loomed out of nothing at the foot of the bard's final resting place, forming into a litch-king. A large one. Another player in the conspiracy and a card in the deck. He asked them in a menacing way if they were mourners or trespassers, and Ef said they were there to mourn the lost Sonaree. The specter was mollified for only a moment, but it seems that was just a ruse. He quickly knocked over one of the candles, extinguishing it, and the undead began rising from their graves. Ghastly arms shot up and grabbed at my friends on the other side. Now do you see why I was glad to remain behind?
Honestly, I've never trusted the undead, especially after what happened with the ghosts and our helm in the flow, so I was ready for him. I knocked him flying with a blast of icy force, amping the power up as high as I could. He smashed through a tree and into a second one, and I was left with a pounding migraine. Psychic ennervation is a royal bitch.
Thankfully, that gave my teammates all the time they needed to bring down the pain on the Barrow King. In no time at all, it seemed Lenata was finishing him off with a bout of positive energy while Kenari re-lit the candle, sending the zombies back to bed (those that escaped total destruction from Lenata's channeling, anyway). Lenata found the third token in the crumbled ash that used to be the Barrow King and that seemed to be that.
Three tokens down and three more to go, we were about to head to our next destination when out of the Brambles came a Paladin. He demanded that we turn over the tokens we had gathered thus far so that he may fulfill his destiny as the one who killed Cesarian. Obviously, we weren't about to hand them over to a total stranger, so Kenari and Ef wheedled out the Paladin's story. After finding out that he had no tokens of his own, had in fact held a few and lost them, we were more reluctant to give them over.
We asked to aid him, instead. Ef tried the logical approach, promising that of course the Paladin would strike the killing blow. We'd just… soften the dragon up first, and make sure the Paladin would actually survive to get to his final target in the first place. Like most paladins I've met, he was bull-headed in the extreme, saying, "This is MY task. You are not faithful enough to aid me in it," or some such holier-than thou rot.
Melchior took the greatest exception to the questioning of his faith, and challenged the Paladin to a philosophical, theological debate. I couldn't help but zone out on this. What's to debate? The gods are real. I've MET some of them, including Melchior's, Kenari's, and my own. Granted, I hadn't known Murlynd was a god when I met him, otherwise I would have stammered and tripped on my tongue and just stood there trembling and silent (or knelt there) as I'd done before and since.
In the end, Melchior won out, and we were off once more! The Paladin knew the way ahead as he had traveled this way so many times before. He told us of the giant ant queen, 'the weaver,' who ran the wax-works. (What is with all the GIANT BUGS?)
As we were nearing our destination, the Paladin turned on us, and once again demanded we hand over the tokens. What is it with these people? Did Sonaree just hate dynamic characters or something? Everybody's stuck, unable to change or grow in the least. Maybe that's what they mean when they say the story is broken. Everybody's a static character.
I tried the 'boil 'em in their armor' trick I haven't done since the Endless Stair in Nova Roma. I didn't even singe his hair before Melchior blew two fist-sized holes clean through him, and Ef, Kenari, and Lenata finished him off, although Lenata broke her spear in the process. I'm never going to EVER question Melchior's faith. I don't want to end up like that Paladin. We got some neat goodies from him, though. The armor itself was a total loss. I snagged an amulet of natural armor, Lenata got some spell-type things. There were a few potions here or there, but the really cool thing in my estimation was the long-sword. We all took a break while Melchior buried the shield the Paladin carried. (The device on the front was worthy of respect, he said. He cast a disparaging glance at the Paladin, himself. Wow. He really doesn't like that guy. He left him out to rot and buried the shield? Harsh.)
Kenari is even now figuring out how the sword works for Ef. It's magical and goes by the name 'flame tongue.' I sat down to write in my journal and drink some water, and WHOOSH! There it goes. What was the activation word? I can't remember. Seems odd enough that we wouldn't be saying it by mistake in the Flow.
Ahh, adventure. Times like these, I hardly ever think about the… hour before we plunged into the Plane of Time. Killing things and taking their stuff, running around, solving mysteries, it's times like these when we're on the road that I feel that sense of family that Ef wrote about. Even Melchior is beginning to fit in, and he's been with us such a short time. He's a tough, lone-wolf type, absolutely certain who he is and what he's doing. No ambiguity there. Makes him a hard sell at first, but I think we all respect him just a bit for being that way.
Ah, well. Break time's over. Off we go to the wax works!