5 - 004: The End?

[K Man]

{Romar - I had intended to have Hirsuthe gaseous form out of there when HP was low...but this round for you was just brutal. Japic is right, no crits on undead, but still, that damage output is just sick! Since it is your birthday, I'm going to let this Little Big Bad Evil Guy die and I'll go about finding myself another one... Congrats buddy!}

Romar -

Knowing this battle could get ugly, you feel a sudden swell of strength come up from inside...deep in that area that few have ever felt before. This was your enemy. This was the vampire that had tormented you for so long...had taken so much...

...He could not be allowed to win this fight!

Gripping the hilt of your first blade, you thrust it with all of your weight behind it. With the sickening resistance that only flesh can provide, the blade sinks in deep...all the way to the handle.

It is milliseconds later that your second blade follows course, aiming slightly higher and just to the left of where this bastards heart should be. Shhhhink. Again, sunken to the hilt.

You imagine, that if blood did course through this villains veins, it would be spraying all over your face. But he's undead and the only thing to come out of him is the words...



"No....how?"

In retort, you pull the blades free and run them across his throat. The first cuts deep, nearly to the back of his throat and the front of his spine. The second comes at an angle, running from the meat of the shoulder to the lower portion of the ear...unhining the jaw free at the base.

Hirsuthe's eyes tell the volumes of pain and confusion he feels right now. He feebly tries to lift his jaw back into place, maybe to spit a few more venomous insults at you, but only garbled words and bubbling spit come out. He stumbles back, falling straight to the sand and his chest heaves dramatically. Small spots of dark ichor have formed in his garb where the wounds no longer heal.

The vampire shudders and shakes for a moment, he hands grasping at sand and fingers dancing in the dunes of the desert.

Then all is still...

Could it be...the villain is dead? Panting and huffing for air, you cross over to his body and check it to make sure he won't be getting, that his wounds will not close. Sure enough, the body is still and does not respond to any kind of prodding.

[Spot Check]
[dice=20]

As you move about the body, you notice that Hirsuthe's death shudders were not random, nor were his clasps at the sand. Even with his dying movement, this hateful and spiteful undead left one last memento...one last shot at your feeble existence--some words scribbled into the sand.

Astoril will undo you all...

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Irris and Tineniel - (Repeat of last post)

{No Worries on time Udjat. Your timeline is pretty much progressing solo now, so do what you want.}

((Yeah, I am behind - sorry about that. Keep getting distracted with life and work. I have a couple questions about the terrain/situation as I'm having a little trouble picturing it. How high up are the caves that the people are in? How long is the canyon, end to end? And where, exactly, is the wagon with the shard? I want to have Irris/Telena try to use it, I'm just not sure in what way to use it yet. I'll reserve my post until the answers come))

This canyon is a little over a mile long and it's walls are about fifty feet at their highest. Currently, you're about 1/4 way into the canyon, hiding in some caves along the dried out river bed. The caves above this point are small and do not go very deep into the bedrock edges.

The people of the Dune Palace are actually atop the canyon walls, followed by the Elves of Astoril. You and Telena are really the only ones at the bottom of the canyon. The wagon is currently pushed into a cave about forty feet deep and half as wide, hidden from view above.

{If you want my suggestion, flood the canyon bottom and use the water and wooden wagon to float the shard out. Take your time and PM me if you need more info.}

[Previous Post]

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Those in the Fortress -

Giving Yuri a wide-berth, you all step aside and watch him attempt to open the strange box. Tracing his fingers over the strange sigils, the Undying vampire finds the latch and gives it a flick, pulling on it slowly...

[Yuri, Will Save @ +9]
[dice=20]

The first blast of magic is nothing to scoff at, but Yuri successfully shurgs it off. [Bestow Curse] The second blast is a darkened ray of energy that shoot out of the opening door towards Yuri. [Ranged Touch Attack @ +10]
[dice=20]

Thankfully, due largely in part to Yuri's lightning quick reflexes, the bolt sails past and harmlessly hits the ceiling. [Ray of Enervation] Though this fireworks display is far from over. Another blast of light, this one much more hot and sizzling with energy blasts forth.

[Yuri, REF Save @ +9]
[dice=20]

(I'm not gonna roll this out here) [Lightning Bolt Damage = 42 (1/2 = 21, Don't forget your resist Elec of 10, so you take 11 damage)]

Then, finally, all is over. A triple-trapped box...thankfully doing little damage to Yuri.

However, once open, your hearts sink. Inside is a simple iron door handle...a pull-ring and nothing more...

{Man were those rolls good for you Yuri!}[rand=454941923872412387529910193754059868403204741354030650224342718413]

[Fangor the Fierce]

Still focusing her spell, Adelia turns it's focus on the handle, wondering if it may hold some purpose...

Krysta still goes about trying to find anything about the Master's Markings on his soldiers....

"Where is the shard? It should be here, somewhere in this fortress."

She then thinks back on what is going on outside. "There is still a battle going on outside. We must hurry..."

[VemuKhaham]

As his last fatal blows land on his foe and Romar mercilessly butchers Hirsuthe with an almost ritual-like performance, and as the vampire falls to the ground struggling with his words, Romar makes no attempt to listen, but adds his own sentiment in a merciless voice, remembering the line written on a small sheet of paper attached to a lethal magic arrow he once prepared at Bazarkrak Castle. It was written with a different scenario in mind, but it would do anyway:

"When you said I am a mouse who has grown claws, you were mistaken; I am the cat, and I can extend my claws whenever I want to."

His bloodlust sated, now forever without doubt, Romar slowly becomes aware at the way his senses are again returning back to normal; his vision broadened till he saw the horizon again; his hearing extended beyond the little circle in which the noise of Hirsuthe's garbled words and sound of metal piercing flesh dominated all; his body only now beginning to ache everywhere by bruices and wounds made long ago. Like this he kneeled for a few seconds with both swords still firmly in his hands over the lifeless body of his fallen enemy, checking to make sure it would not rise again. He knew enough about the undead to realize that would not be unthinkable.

But then, his senses returned and his bloodlust gone, he felt only satisfaction. A satisfaction that was like the fruits of a labour finally completed, of vengeance finally received and justice served. But also a satisfaction that was tainted by apathy, for the trauma's of the past had pulled up a barrier of some sort which despite every accomplishment Romar achieved he could never overcome. Emotions the young ranger had once known like any other now seemed unnatural, even foolish, and neither hate nor joy could be read on Romar's face. Instead of these feelings, Romar felt the void again, the all-encompassing knowledge that his labours were done and his time on this earth should be through, for neither himself nor anyone else would be served by his staying.

The feeling of satisfaction passing and the void becoming more omnipresent by every second's withering, Romar rose to full height. With one sweep of his left foot, Romar undid the last words of the Vampire. He had read the words with narry a thought. Astoril seemed artificial, distant,

...mortal...

Drawing his gaze away from the destroyed corpse and the ever-shifting desert sand, Romar looked up to the stars. Again, he felt a strange call, like he did while wandering aimlessly through the streets of Ravenshead the night before the duel. There were more people up there he wished to see than there were down here. Up there, all things were eternal, immortal, unlike the petty struggles he had kept up with for all his earthly life. Up there, there was peace forever without having to struggle for it. Here, one could struggle all his life and still wonder if what he did would lead to peace or simply more fighting.

Coming to these conclusions, Romar knew suddenly what he had to do. Sheathing his swords and looking again at the stars, but this time for guidance, he took the first step on what would become his last journey - if all would go by his plan, which it never did...

His destination? Carealal, or the ruins thereof. Why there? There were his roots, there where it had begun, it would end. The circle would be round. All was avenged, his Vow was fullfilled, nothing here was left to be saved. He seeked only to find the farm of his father, if it would still be there, and die in his own bed, as if going to sleep after a long day of plowing on the field, while the sun was setting and the last rays of golden light fell through the semi-transparant curtains which hung before his window. Maybe he would wake up among the stars and see his mother again, with a boiled egg and some fresh milk...

...

Before he would go far though, Romar would halt one last time. He would not hide from Yuri the fact that Hirsuthe, his enemy too, was dead and would rise no more, regardless of the differences which had torn asunder their friendship. Yet, there was nothing with which he could write a letter to him, so he readjusted his path for now. He looked to the ground, searched for where the many footsteps and wagon trails came from and checked the stars for further guidance to find his way back to an empty Dune Palace, where he was sure there would have to be a silly sheet of paper and some ink somewhere. After that, he would continue heading home.

---

So in short, track to go back to Dune Palace first. Survival +11 (also for surviving in desert environment probably). I'll update my character sheet to level 10 as soon as possible now.

[GeneralMHB]

(OOC: *takes a bow, blows the kiss* Romar and me have done some pretty damn good rolling! Nicely done RPing Vemu )

Yuri's words can only describe what everyone else is thinking at this point.

Why would 'The Master' guard a handle and a door-ring?

Unless...

Adelia, is it possible that these items can be used to exit the fortress?

[Fangor the Fierce]

"Or that they guard the entrance to the shard?"

[Japic]

Girud and Alton are still busy far from where the others are going through the master's things.

{As an OOC: The shards cannot be moved by magic, so I have to wonder if this would (hopefully) open a path to where they are being stored. Just because thye can't be moved magically doesnt' mean they can't be accessed as such.}

[TheUdjat]

((My plan was pretty much to flood the canyon, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that was actually possible.))

Irris looks at the canyon, then looks at Telena, then looks at the shard - or the body of water in which it rests. "This might work," he mutters, climbing back into the water and preparing to grab the shard. "This wagon should float us right to the top..." He closes his eyes and, as carefully as possible, clears his mind of all thoughts but filling the canyon with water, turning it into a river. Then he grabs the shard.

Meanwhile, circling overhead, Tineniel is still working on the mages down below. He moves closer to the Dune Palace folk on the canyontop, but unleashes another spell tingling at the back of his mind on the mage he damaged down below. It takes a moment for the spell to completely come to him, but it is slightly faster than before. His fingers remember spell-casting well, and his lips are eager to speak the arcane words. He has done this before.

Tineniel sends a lightning bolt streaking down from the sky just before he moves, fully aware that the jagged light will be a beacon to his presence. But he is still high in the sky, hoping that this will make him a most difficult target - especially in the dark of night.

((5d6 damage on the lightning bolt, Ref save DC 19 for half. Targetting the mage ofcourse. Then another 90' move away, towards the canyon.))

[BluSpecs]

"Hmm... I agree perhaps it opens the way to something"

"Lets examine this handle closer perhaps it can give us some clues..."