Athelmaun's Obsession

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"No. It is that simple, Sir Kalias. You take us as we are. Why do you worry about Tyr's reputation when we all display different symbols. Few would take any of us for a servant of your god. Each of your demands becomes more bizarre and difficult to follow."

Behind him, Raven looked over at Jex, and flashed three symbols at him in the drow hand code.

Name. House. City.

 

Jex quickly flashed his name. His father had been from Menzoberazzen, but Jex had no ties to the city or his fathers house. So he signed that he was half drow and from the surface. He hoped it would be sufficent to Raven.

 

It had been an uneventful two weeks on the ship, the one time they had seen another ship approaching, had veered off as they came on deck armed and ready. And that had been the high point of the voyage, they pulled in to Luskan two weeks after boarding their cousin's ship. After guarded farewells they made their wayto the nearest Inn, quickly finding a room large enough for all of them.

Fylla looked round and then spoke up "Meryk, go and find out what you can, if he's still here or where he's gone. Kit go with him and organize some horses, we'll need them later. Dec you and Jenz sort out our supplies, make a shopping list, we'll get it later, I'm going to the temples see if I can find anything."

 

"If you refuse to serve Tyr, then the Church of Tyr will refuse to hire your services. The Blind God has no need of mercenaries that take his gold while serving others. I should have expected such from creatures so disposed to chaos like the elves, to desire to be paid without loyalty and duty. Well the servants of Tyr have a task which needs preparation, good day." said Sir Kalias.

The Paladin walked from the temple in the direction of where his forces most likely lay.

 

Jex shrugged. "Sorry if I cost you all money and riches. But I loyally follow Ilmater, and I'm not willing to fight in the name of another god. I will say as far as I know this lich needs to be defeated. If you'll accept, you have my help as well as my dwarven friends." He said to Raven and the rest of his group.

 

As Kalias stomped away, Daie followed and caught Brachaol's arm and his gaze, outside the temple.

"Can you do something about this? We would like to help, but who on Toril would be willing to cast their deity away for such a task? Does he expect Tyr to grant us prayers? Besides, we stand a chance of losing our places in the hierarchies of our faiths by following his orders. I implore you, sir, can you not help us?"

[ June 13, 2006, 14:04: Message edited by: Daie d'Malkin ]

 

Hjorvald, Saevilar and Mira urged their horses to run as fast as physically possible, Kara clung to Hjorvald to avoid falling off the horse.

"By Gargauth, what in the Nine Hells is that thing following us?"

Hjorvald didn't answer, the poison hadn't completely left him yet, though he had ingested the antidote.

"Curses, how was I suppose to plan for that? My plan would have been most satisfactory in any other environment!"

What Kara was pointing at was a large, ogre sized black humanoid shadow flying above and somewhat behind them; its eyes where a horrible blood red, Kara did her best not to look into them. This creature had come to follow Saevilar and others shortly after Kara had forced the group to stop and hear her demands, but then the clouds had begun to roll in, dark and heavy, and this creature with them.

Kara could hear the creature's voice as if flew above them; the voice was as cold and dead as an eternal winter.

"Run mortals, run as far as you like, you shall never be free of me. I shall hide in the walls of the room in which you sleep and allow you to breath me in while you sleep. I will always be with you so stop your running, face the inveitable, face your undeath you pathetic, weak and ugly mortals."

The voice continued on in such a fashion, describing how it would turn them into undead and who they would serve it in their state of undeath.

"Keep riding!" shouted Saevilar, "It is only a matter of time before we break cloud cover, be this being shadow or wraith, neither will venture into the sun."

After what seemed like the passing of several minutes, the cloud cover broke and the creature shrieked in a manner cold as ice, shouting hateful curses that its prey which had now eluded it.

After some time in the saddle, Saevilar signaled for a rest.

"What was that thing.", demanded Kara.

"A wraith I suspect for I have never encountered a shadow who would talk with me. Wraiths on the other hand, at least the wraiths I have encountered, will spread evil with words if they cannot spread evil with their touch."

Saevilar directed his answer to anywhere but where Kara was. After some time of resting for the horses, the four returned to riding in the direction of Waterdeep.

 

Brachaol nodded in response to Daie's question.

"I apologize for the actions of my fellow paladin; Sir Kalias is a good man and as passionate about good as Raziel the Crusader, but Kalias lacks Raziel's wisdom as do all of us lesser beings. Sir Kalias has dedicated his life to Tyr and takes his faith in Tyr very seriously, having given up his family's title, marriage and material wealth to better serve justice. My dear brother in arms sometimes fails to see that lawful action is a way to do good and as much as I, as an archon, detest to admit, not a requirement for doing good." said Brachaol in a righeous, deep and gruff voice, "Now being native to the House of the Triad, I do not fall under the hierachy of Tyr's material church; my connection to the Church being Sir Kalias who I am honored to serve. Archons have resources outside of the church which I would be willing to use to pay for such services that you and your friends provide; the payment would be based on how you perform however, the Triad's resources are not limitless for if they where I am sure Ilmater would have brought an end to poverty by now.

"I must also tell you that as an archon I am by nature distrustful of elves, Corellon Larethian and his court, The Court of Stars and the Eladrin. I shall hold no pretense before you, we archons fear committing good acts that appear evil; we strive to be examples of perfect good and for that reason we fear the chaotic tendencies Corellon Larethian has instilled in your kind. I do not presume elves are like Slaadi for I have known several elven paladins in my day, but I did notice the holy symbols of Sune on blonde elf in your company and Sune is as unpredictable as any good deity, aside from possibly Tymora or Sharess. I would request that you or any of your companions would first speak with Sir Kalias and myself before dealing with a problem we encounter in an unconventional manner so we can find a way to deal with a problem that does not upset tradition or appearance."

 

Daie cocked his head as his friends caught up with him. Raven heard the end of the offer, and caught Daie's eye. They spoke quietly for a moment before Raven accepted.

 

"Well I am glad for you to accompany us servants of Tyr for none of the Tyrians joining us are as experienced as you and your friends." said Brachaol, "Now is the time to purchase any thing of which you need before we seek out our foes. I am sure Sir Kalias will desire that we are on our way by tomorrow's dawn; I doubt the good knight will rest himself tonight in effort to make we have completed all preparations by tomorrow."

With that Sir Brachaol turned and walked toward the parade ground which Sir Kalias' followers where preparing themselves.

 

A troubled look came over Saevilar's face as the crimson fingers of twilight began to work their way across the sky.

"Our friend, the sun, is quickly sinking and as the last of his rays dip below the horizon I fear the company we kept from earlier today will return to us."

Worried looks came over the faces of the other three.

"I imagine that we still have good distance on that undead creature and we must not let that distance evaporate; we all saw the size of that creature, it is most doubtful that we could defeat that creature in combat. We shall have to rid the horses hard tonight, reaching Waterdeep is imperative."

"But riding the horses hard to Waterdeep can potentially kill them Saevilar!", said Mira.

"Do not back talk me, Mira, this issue is not open to negotiation.", said Saevilar coldly, "Now faster all of you."

The sun set shortly afterward. After the passing of an hour, Mira signaled that she heard something.

"What is it Mira?", said Saevilar.

"I'm not exactly sure, it's no moaning ghost that's for sure. It sounds likle armor, half-plate or full plate and hooves. It's very distant. Cavalry I'd say, but I can't imagine what they would be doing at a time like this away from their home city. We should be careful, we might be dealing with mounted brigands or worse, mounted undead."

 

Daie was lounging on a bed in one of the two rooms Raven's group had rented. Maron was busy blessing vials of water, ready for use against their upcoming foes. Minstra and Raven, the sensible members of the group, had headed out to purchase supplies, leaving the younger elves behind. They'd been gone all day, and night had fallen by now.

Maron dipped her holy symbol into another vial, and cast an eye at Daie.

"Are we really going to be constrained by the orders of the Tyrrans?"

Daie considered for a moment, before shaking his head.
"I think we'll go along with them for the most part, but can you see Raven doing something she doesn't want to?"

Maron laughed. "Good point. Still, I can see serious tension on this little jaunt. Neither of those two are going to trust us much, you know."

"So? Do we trust them? Dealing with Tyrrans is always easy. Their utter reverence for the law makes them reliable, but predictable. It's that Kalias I'm worried about. He's asking to have a fist-related accident one night. One step near Raven and he'll be meeting Tyr in person."

"So fire, darling."

Daie shrugged and closed his eyes.

Maron returned to her blessings for a while before another question occured.
"What equipment should we take?"

"Heavy armour, I would imagine. Full battle equipment. This shall be extremely dangerous, so we should arm ourselves accordingly. I think we'll take everything. Is there room in your bag of holding?"

"Well there's a silly question."

Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the other two members of the group, carrying heavily-laden packs.

Dumping her pack, Raven gave her husband a withering look. "I'm so glad you've been working hard while we were away."

"I've been conserving energy for future battles."

"You've been conserving energy since we arrived in Neverwinter."

"I'm going to fight so well, believe me."

Raven's response was broken off by a thunderous yawn from Minstra, who even looked surprised herself as she closed her mouth.
"Hmm, I'm obviously more tired than I thought I was. Bed calls, I think."

Stifling a yawn himself, Daie nodded. "Off you go then, Minstra, goodnight."

"That's my bed you're lying on, kinsman."

'Ah."