DCC - The Forests and the Earth

Necro

'Grrrr argh? ARGH?'

Thonrat grunts.

Aelrindel looks at the queen.

'I think that means he wants the easiest...'

'GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR'

'Ugh, really? Can't we take it easy for once? Fine. Yes, he wants the hardest challenge first.'

Aelrindel shakes his head, muttering to himself about dwarves, speech and fools.

Fourier

The queens reply in unison.

"Our dearest son, Trotjika, was taken by the Dwarves for reasons we don't know. We ask you retrieve him from their caverns and bring him back to us.

If he is dead then use these..." they each hold up a gem "...we will give two, they allow you to go to the afterlife and retrieve a soul. Should he be dead do this"

They pause and seem to think for a bit.

"What say ye?"

Necro

'GRRRRR!'

Aelrindel rolls his eyes again.

'That means... oh I hate that word, it's so... dwarven. It means aye.'

Aelrindel shudders.

Banjo

"that's nice dear, but before we skip to 'any other business's there's the small matter of compensation due for kidnapping, compulsion to commit great acts of wanton destruction, loss of a favoured oaf. All we know if you do far is that you are inconsistent in your distribution of pastries to guests and you don't pay an honest wage for work done. I require convincing"

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"that's nice dear, but before we skip to 'any other business's there's the small matter of compensation due for kidnapping, compulsion to commit great acts of wanton destruction, loss of a favoured oaf. All we know if you do far is that you are inconsistent in your distribution of pastries to guests and you don't pay an honest wage for work done. I require convincing"

The queen's look to each other and extend their hands.

Quentanaa drops to the ground in pain.

"You dare question us. The quest forced upon you woke your abilities and you ask for more payment. Is this the arrogance we know so well from Elven kind? Always seeking more, always above others"

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

The queen's look to each other and extend their hands.

Quentanaa drops to the ground in pain.

"You dare question us. The quest forced upon you woke your abilities and you ask for more payment. Is this the arrogance we know so well from Elven kind? Always seeking more, always above others"

"There... Is .. no.... 'more'... Till .... There's....been.....'some'....stingy.....whore"

Nebelwerfer

The priest looks around.

"Scuse me... But, uh, I was brought here... Against my will...".

He hesitantly steps forward and points towards the spiffy elf.

"I think this one thinks I am a reward of sorts, surely, I have a say in all of this? Or am I to take part in this, as a payment of sorts, or...?".

He profusely bows, repeatedly as he steps back in line.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

The priest looks around.

"Scuse me... But, uh, I was brought here... Against my will...".

He hesitantly steps forward and points towards the spiffy elf.

"I think this one thinks I am a reward of sorts, surely, I have a say in all of this? Or am I to take part in this, as a payment of sorts, or...?".

He profusely bows, repeatedly as he steps back in line.

The queens turn all at once to the Priest.

"You have a reward, life. However you shall not use the name of your birth. To do so would be a smear on the family that bore you. From henceforth you are merely Pajac.

Do not concern yourself with this one" they say looking at Quentanaa.

OOC: Pajac in the language here means "The Rejected"

Nebelwerfer

Fourier wrote: »

The queens turn all at once to the Priest.

"You have a reward, life. However hence forth you shall not use the name of your birth. To do so would be a smear on the family that bore you. From henceforth you are merely Pajac.

Do not concern yourself with this one" they say looking at Quentanaa.

OOC: Pajac in the language here means "The Rejected"

A sting, sharper than from any dagger the priest had felt before, again provided him with the reaffirmation that he is but a blight that walks the earth.

While this pain was familiar to him, to hear these words from another, never ceased to have some impact.

The priest turns away from the group, if only to wipe away the tear from the corner of his eye in the hopes to maintain the little dignity he may still have left.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"There... Is .. no.... 'more'... Till .... There's....been.....'some'....stingy.....whore"

The last word of the sentence wakes the king from his completely still state.

Orange liquid pours from his mouth as he stands, jerking forward with awkward motions almost in a zombified fashion.

"You...insult...you...demean...I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!!!!"

OOC: Rolz for Quentanaa and all willing to help her

Fourier

Thonrat and the Priest get a very bad feeling as Quentanaa struggles to her feat. The entire air about them begins to light up, in fact the whole chamber does.

Fourier

The Priest gets even stronger feelings of dread. Visions of untold death and destruction in the next few seconds.

Necro

Thonrat grunts and shuffles towards the exit quickly. Aelrindel follows behind him.

Fourier

OOC: Just waiting to see Nebel's action

Nebelwerfer

Necro wrote: »

Thonrat grunts and shuffles towards the exit quickly. Aelrindel follows behind him.

With the feeling of dread upon him the priest looks for the nearest way out and makes a run for it.

Fourier

As Thonrat and the Priest run toward the tower's entrance Quentanaa's body bursts and a swarm of bees erupt from it, each cocooned in magic.

Arcs of power spark between the twenty nine bees as they hover like miniature stars in the chamber. Just as they run out they see the tower walls shake. The matter within changing suddenly. A sphere encompasses the bees and they both taste a sharp bitterness in their mouth.

The Priest knows running is not going to cut it, his link to the divine tells him something enormous is coming that they can't outrun.

Necro

Thonrat, not feeling anything but fear (and a little trickle down his left leg), looks for a place to hide.

Fourier

Necro wrote: »

Thonrat, not feeling anything but fear (and a little trickle down his left leg), looks for a place to hide.

He spots a tower up ahead with an open door and two floors.

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

He spots a tower up ahead with an open door and two floors.

Thonrat runs for the tower.

Nebelwerfer

Fourier wrote: »

As Thonrat and the Priest run toward the tower's entrance Quentanaa's body bursts and a swarm of bees erupt from it, each cocooned in magic.

Arcs of power spark between the twenty nine bees as they hover like miniature stars in the chamber. Just as they run out they see the tower walls shake. The matter within changing suddenly. A sphere encompasses the bees and they both taste a sharp bitterness in their mouth.

The Priest knows running is not going to cut it, his link to the divine tells him something enormous is coming that they can't outrun.

The priest feels increasing dread befall him, like he felt days earlier. This dread then, resulted in many casualties, when a platoon of soldiers made their first attempt to capture him.

Instinct kicks in and his hand moves onto his holy symbol, its fight or flight.

The priest kisses the symbol, raised in the air, then kisses it again aimed at the floor beneath him.

As he keeps running forward he starts chanting.

"In His House at R'lyeh dead, Cthulhu waits dreaming..."

The priest holds his symbol in front of him, gazing into it, while his steps remain steady.

He continues chanting, droning, repeatedly:

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

Fourier

The Tower:
The bees collapse in on each other, transmogrifying most of the matter in the chamber into a sphere of acid only a yard across, but weighing more than a building. The acid itself is unbelievably potent. The nine queens scream as the acid ball quivers, ready to explode...

Outside the tower:
Templeton and his gang wake up on the Jeremy as Loygar shakes them.

"Alright you lot get up! The others have gone into that tower there to meet the king of..."

A straining sound is heard as if the Earth itself were ill. An amulet about Loygar's neck glows yellow, then red, then black.

"BLACK!" Loygar shouts in shock jumping on his mount.

"Good luck, I have no idea what is about to happen, but I doubt this city will come out of it well"

He takes to the sky, flying across the largest moon, Cthinion.

R'lyeh:
Beneath the vast oceans of Cthinion sleeps Cthulhu. Not a demon, not a god, but something else, something older. Gods have a place in the mortal story of the world, concerned with life, death, hope, love, hate and so on. Cthulhu is too alien for any of that.

He had crossed into this plane millions of years ago fleeing another of his kind, Rghil, as well escaping assault from the Archtemporal Projectionists of the Limitless Expanse who sought revenge on him for a billion year plot he had foiled.

It was a nice place to hide, time was very rigid here and magic not very stable. The local life had spawned gods, but as usual they were well beneath him. Not the larger gods of older planes, those occasionally required him to wake to deal with.

Here he had the time to plan his next move against his enemies. His vast mind exploring millions of possible futures in equally numerous dreams. However one dream was a bit off, the one of the small ape who carried a symbol with the 443rd letter of his true name. He stood now next to some sort of tower.

Ah a nexal convergence caused by some naturally magical creatures. The ape will die, ending the dream. Was the ape real or just a side affect of his mind attempting to understand this plane's life? A question whose answer didn't deserve his full attention. Nevertheless ending the dream would mean he'd know less of these apes. Seeing as how his exit from the plane in thirty million years hence will most likely kill all the life save the higher gods and mages it would be a shame to lose the knowledge.

He assigns a submind to deal with the problem. Simple enough, a slight bending of space removes the ape and the most prominent features of its narrative from danger (OOC: that's your guys Necro and sKeith) by reducing how far the effects of the nexus can carry.

However there is an element of the dream missing, the one from the older race, the naturally magical ones. He extracts the pattern from the weave of the plane and reconstitutes it next to the ape. This will annoy the plane's gods, but Cthulhu cares not.

The submind returns to tending other dreams.

Back outside the tower:
Thonrat, the Priest and Templeton's gang hear a bang from within the tower. The walls steam with a strange smoke before they burst open with a massive wave of green fluid pouring out into the courtyard in all directions toward the rest of the towers in the castle complex. However suddenly a strange shimmering effect overtakes the area and the sky bares the symbol of R'lyeh, the mark of Cthulhu. Before the tidal wave of acid pours out much further it hits the shimmering barrier and the entire area within the barrier is deleted from existence. The castle complex now simply has a crater by which to remember the king's tower.

Quentanaa wakes with a start on the ground next to the Priest, nobody is aware of how she got there.

The nearby by peasants turn to the Priest, kneeling in gratitude and some attempt to touch him for good luck.

OOC: The Priest gets 5XP and loses seven luck (1 from reroll and 6 to raise roll to 25). The gods' anger is reflected in his now low luck making him literally unlucky.

Banjo

Tanaa coughs and sits up.
"Suppose I'm supposed to be grateful for this too? Creosa y' roch de lle assa!"

Nebelwerfer

The priest turns to Quentanaa, as she is manifested besides him and whispers "Cthulhu wgah'n y'agl, Cthulhu nnnah y'agl. Y'hah Cthulhu."

"Consider my debt to you paid" the priest says to the elf, before turning to the peasants.

The priest lays a hand on any peasant willing.

"Y'hah Cthulhu, my friends. Y'hah Cthulhu. Blessings be upon thee. May the fortunes favor you. Cthulu wgah'n y'agl".

sKeith

"What did the king of black have to say?"

Fourier

The peasants seem pretty pleased to receive the priest's blessings, forming a queue to reach him.

Fourier

A very loud horn then sounds throughout the castle complex, in the distance some cavalry men that look like knights begin riding toward the crater.

Nebelwerfer

As the priest continues to provide blessings, as a show of his continued and undying loyalty to Cthulhu and in thanks for his divine intervention, he notices the queue of peasants forming.

he walks along the side of the queue and when reaching the middle, he addresses the crowd.

"Y'hah Cthulhu" He says loudly, hoping to grab the attention of those around him.

"We were shown a great mercy today, AN INTERVENTION, by a God before GODS.

The Great Old one, CTHULHU, saw it fit to intervene and show mercy to mortals. To spare the lives of probably most of us here, had it not been for the containment of the blast.

Do not fear, that which we cannot expect to comprehend. The matter and will of Gods are practices beyond our ability to correlate it to, what must be for the gods, mundane existences.

But TODAY, was Different. TODAY, was not mundane. Today, we were all touched, blessed and saved through Divine Intervention, Saved by CTHULHU.

Favor be with you all today, Y'hah Cthulhu.

Athg Cthulhu wgah'n y'agl. Y'hah Cthulhu.

Rember this day, Remeber the old One, for he resides in you".

Banjo

Tanaa considers mentioning the might of the Horned one who smote the tower in the first place but this might not be the time. Instead she goes to see what the Knights are up to.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

Rember this day, Remeber the old One, for he resides in you".

The peasants don't know whether to bow or not. Cthulhu is blasphemous in all religions, but at the same time it seems he saved their life.

A local priest of the hunting god is the first to bow, which sends a wave of bowing through the crowd.

Nebelwerfer

Fourier wrote: »

The peasants don't know whether to bow or not. Cthulhu is blasphemous in all religions, but at the same time it seems he saved their life.

A local priest of the hunting god is the first to bow, which sends a wave of bowing through the crowd.

The priest holds up his holy symbol.

"Rise, All, and relish in your mortality...".

The priest knows there are knights on their way and quickly calls one of the peasants over.

"Know thee a bard, if nay, find one. Tell tales of today, tale tales of the god who does not side with good nor evil. Tell tales of a god, who is beyond this. Tell tales of the god who intervened and saved the lives of many.

I would love for nothing more to be told this tale, through another, one day"

He lays his hand on the peasants shoulder.

"Y'hah Cthulhu, my child, now go forth and tell the tale...".