Tales of Faerun

[AurianaValoria1]

It was over. Those who had not yet fled were dead. The camp was now littered with the mangled bodies of the dead, blood pooling upon the sparse oasis grass. The horses still screamed in fear, echoing the far-distant cries of the fleeing survivors.

 

So much for not making a statement.

 

Sori, Bilron, and Maeve had suddenly appeared at the Doomguide's side, along with the rest of her companions...save Tak'we. The thri-kreen had returned to Azhad's mangled form, intent on finishing off the cruel slaver. Sori stared at him, her eyes wide in horror...and something changed within both of them. Tak'we caught the girl's stare and suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious - that look was one he had seen many, many times before. His multifaceted eyes then fixed on Azhad, and he spoke with a low, hissing tone, "Tak'we will let you live, Azhad...*TckTck*...but you are never to come near clutchmatessss or Tak'we again. Do you undersssstand?"

 

Azhad's reply was a wordless moan of fear and a quick nod. As soon as Tak'we backed away, the slaver scrambled to his feet and awkwardly began jogging from the camp, tripping and stumbling all the while. It was not long before he vanished in the night.

 

Sori's eyes fell to her feet, and she did not look up for a very long time. When she finally did, they had lost some of their brightness.

 

Meanwhile, Rhaine had noticed that the tip of her blade was trembling from her anger. The Doomguide sheathed it and cast a sharp glare at Weyland, "Yes...we have. I hope Charmelion is happy."

 

As she surveyed the remains of the camp, she thought about the battle. It wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter. It disgusted her the way some of her companions had almost reveled in the massacre. True, their foes were Zhents and slavers who would likely have done the same thing to the group if the tables were turned - in that respect, they had no choice. But if they had to kill, fast, clean kills would have made her life...and the lives of the rest of her order...a lot easier.

 

Many of those who were killed had no doubt suffered agonizing deaths lasting several minutes. Such things made her job even harder...those who died slowly and horrifyingly were ever the more likely to come back as undead shades and were a hundred times more susceptible to necromantic magics. She would have to fight these people again at a later date as ghosts, wraiths, or zombies - vengeance would tie them to this world until they were released.

 

When she finally spoke again, she did not raise her eyes to those whom she addressed. Her voice was deathly quiet and calm, but the underlying fury was barely kept in check.

 

"Amendale, put out the fires. Bilron, Maeve...get those animals ready for travel. Tak'we, Weyland, and the rest of you...start digging a grave. Gather the corpses...or in some cases, pieces," the word was almost spat, "together. Now."

[mythicdawnmaster]

The bloody massacre at the Slavers camp was difficult for Mireth to devote herself to... There was no honour to be found as the group tortuously murdered the slavers, deaths that befell minutes of agonizing pain. With every atrocity she witnessed, more of the light that filled Mireth began to wane. Her own kills were lightning quick and clean, when she dispatched a foe, she made sure it was a finished job, aiming her precise blows to the heart, throat, and head. It came to be that she just stopped, As the battle began to end she slowly dropped her arms to her side, and shook her head in discomfort. She looked around, her own kills neat, but some of the others she witnessed... there were tendons scattered around the flour, tiny bits of human flesh thrown around. It was barbaric. Blood did not put her off in the slightest, and neither did ruthlessly dispatching a foe... but to see her foes lying half-alive in puddles of their own blood, their limbs misplaced, sickened her.

 

As Rhaine issued her command, Mireth turned, and sheathed her blades, she began to slowly drag the complete corpses of her own kills, refusing to touch the prey of the others.

 

Xallistine stood with his hands behind his back as the battle drew to a close. He had not partook. It was clearly a battle of the physical. While no emotion ran through him as he looked at the slaughter, he could feel Rhaine's anger flow from her. Looking to his companion as he stepped close to her, he communicated through their neural link. "My Lady... Do you honestly feel surprised by any of this? These people were all drawn to you because death clings like a cloud around your person... they could all smell the blood of battles to come, hear the laments of foes to die... For throw away the rigid castes of Morality, and each and everyone is a cold-blooded killer. And you knew this as well as I did. The promise of adventure means death in any case... Please, share with me your burdens."

Edited March 9, 2013 by mythicdawnmaster

[josh900]

Dragging Jax out of the tent Tannin stopped when he saw the carnage. "Soooo did no one else try and take someone alive or was that just me?" He asked looking around the camp in disbelief. He shook his head dismissively and proceeded to drag Jax to Rhaine. "So what do want to do with this guy? He's just asleep for now, can wake him up whenever you want." He said before noticing how angry Rhaine was. "Ooor I could not.. bother you with him right now..." He said as he slowly took a step back.

[tokyobiohazard]

Reona began digging with a spade she'd found with the slavers' supplies, her fingernails now rough and white from so much contact with the abrasive sand. She hadn't killed anyone, but figured she could at least dig a grave or two.

 

After a long while of digging, she had a grave three feet deep and large enough for one man. There were a lot more bodies than one, though...

 

Ianthe had only killed one man herself, and she was quite dismayed at having nearly severed his arm, leaving it only hanging on by a tendon. As she gathered up the man and his dangling left arm, dragging the body while walking backward toward the nearest hole, she looked over to Sori. The nymph wiped at her gory forehead with her upper arm, smiling at the young girl. "Sometimes, there are no good guys. This is never okay. These men probably had families like yours. But doing this most likely saved many more people than were killed."

 

She didn't wait for a response, instead looking over her shoulder as her smile faded, continuing her dragging the body on toward what would be its grave, seemingly freshly dug by her sister.

 

Reona gave a weak half-smile and almost whispered, "Do you think this was the right thing to do?"

 

Ianthe shook her head as she shoved the corpse into the hole, feeling different about this fight than she had with others. "I've killed men before, but never like this. Never unprovoked."

 

Alphonse warily nodded from next to Reona as he rolled another body over the edge of the grave. It fell in with a lifeless thump. "We can't bury them all individually."

 

Arva dragged in three bodies at once, holding them all by their shirts. "Why is this hole so small? I can't fit all of these guys in."

 

Reona crossed her arms, "You do it, then."

 

"I'm still winded from fighting them." He took a moment to catch his breath and then sighed as he crouched, beginning to enlarge the grave by hand. "I wish it would rain again. It smells pretty bad out here now. Like copper or something."

 

Reona's only response was to stick out her tongue and start digging a little faster than she had been before. "That would just make the bodies harder to bury."

 

"Mmh, I guess you're right," he reluctantly agreed.

[Flipout6]

Weyland was puzzled with Rhaine. They'd just killed a sizeable group of evil people without any deaths of their own. Then he looked around at the carnage, truly looked, for the first time.

 

Mangled, bloody corpses littered the ground everywhere in the camp, killed using various methods. He spotted his own kills, of course, with deep sword cuts to the torso area that probably destroyed something vital and killed them before they bled out, luckily for them. The soldier with a broken neck, dead instantly. Then he looked at some of the others. It was easy to tell which targets Amendale had gotten to, because they died with an expression of agony on their faced as the acid arrows had shot straight through them, melting their skin as it went. He had no idea how mere acid arrows had done so much damage, evern Weyland knew they were weak, but maybe Amendale had just lucked out. Or maybe Amendale had just finished them off with a more powerful method, as seemed likely. Tak'We's victims were by far the most gruesome, with severed limbs scattered everywhere (Weyland was only a few steps from a severed arm) blood soaking into the ground, their internal organs scattering all over the ground, from hearts to bowels...It was enough to give even the most hardened warrior pause for thought.

 

Amendale surveyed the scene with sorrow in his eyes, having put out the fires as requested, feeling terrible that they'd killed these people so painfully in an unprovoked attack. Sure, they were slavers and Zhents, but to Amendale, not even they deserved such a horrific fate. Even Weyland was disturbed, despite being one of the ones who almost enjoyed the fighting. It wasn't so much that he liked killing, but instead it was who he was killing that softened the impact significantly. He looked around, seeing Tannin and his prisoner, and moved to execute him. Amendale's hand grabbed his wrist and stopped him from doing so.

 

"Why do you have a prisoner? We should kill him here and now!" Weyland wrenched his arm from Amendale's grip.

 

Amendale interjected. "No. We've done enough today without heartlessly taking this one's life. Slaver or no. We should take him and set him loose somewhere safer."

 

"He'll just eat our food, drink our water, diminish our supplies in general. If we kill him, that doesn't happen."

 

"Then we let him go."

 

"Then he just dies a slow, painful death via dehydration, worse than anyone here suffered."

 

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Arland woke in the middle of the night to the sound of his door being kicked down, and in entered an armoured young man brandishing a blade and a triumphant expression.

 

"Arland Grey, you are under arrest for the murder of lord- AGH!" Amendale grabbed his blade as the guardsman spoke and slashed him across the legs, ensuring he wouldn't be walking anywhere, following it up with a painful pommel strike to the head that knocked him out with the first try, thankfully. Arland donned his armor as quickly as he could, and had to fend off two more guardsmen in the process, before he grabbed his pack and dashed out the inn and into the woods, startling the innkeeper's eldest son and a half dozen armoured authority on the way. His chainmail clinked together as he ran, which kept the guards from losing him immediately. Arland would prefer they didn't get a close look at him and therefore only engaged them when he had to. He got further ahead of the guards and couldn't find anywhere to hide, although he was incredibly grateful they weren't smart enough to bring tracker hounds. He hid behind a tree as a guard dashed by him, and then he went the other way, creeping as silently as he could, which was quietly enough that he attracted the attention of the same guard fifty feet off and was attacked.

 

"Just surrender before I have to hit you. Very hard." Arland seethed, frustrated, as the man shouted for aid. Arland stomped on the front of the guardman's knee and broke it, leaving him lying in the dirt and howling in pain, before running off, in the general direction of Dagger Falls. He wasn't so easily identifiable there.

 

It took almost an hour, but eventually an exhaused Arland managed to lose the authorities, and it took the rest of the night for him to reach Dagger Falls and stumble through the main gates as the sun came up. He was awake for the rest of the day, trapped in the city by bounty hunters patrolling high and low for him out in the countryside (and even many within the city, although at last report he'd been running in the other direction.) Something told him he could be here for a while, so he'd have to lie low, probably in the slums.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Flipout6

[AurianaValoria1]

Rhaine had closed her eyes for a few moments, and she waited until she calmed a little to reply to Xallistine. Focusing her thoughts into a razor-sharp stream, she directed them to the Ulitharid.

 

"It is not death that bothers me. Of all the people in Faerun, I think I am the most at peace with it. No, it is the manner of of these Zhents' and slavers' deaths that irks me so. Such violence upon death is known to increase the likelihood of necromantic magics or negative energies taking hold of these souls and chaining them to the Prime. It creates the very perversions that I, and the others of my church, fight against...the very entities that we go to fight in the Dalelands. It is the reason we fought Ravenna."

 

She paused a moment, glancing over the group before adding, "They do not understand...do not see the world the same way I do...but perhaps their eyes will be opened one day."

 

Tak'we had made the most progress out of all of them, using his gythka and his mind-boggling strength to create a large grave at least thirty feet across and four feet deep. Rhaine stood and watched all of them as they gathered the corpses of the fallen. The Doomguide began mentally preparing herself for her task...it would take a lot of focus to protect these graves properly...

 

Tannin broke her concentration with his inquiry. Her emerald gaze latched onto him before flicking to the prisoner that he held. Weyland and Amendale then began arguing over his fate, and her voice came out as a sharp bark, "Enough! He does not come with us...but we will not slay him either. Let him run like the others."

 

Bilron and Maeve had managed to calm the animals somewhat, the former having lashed his stash of metal ingots onto the back of one camel. Sori already sat atop another camel with her mother, both of them a little wary about such an unusual beast. The girl sat sideways, curled against Maeve's chest with her eyes squeezed shut. Whether she was trying to sleep or simply avoiding looking at the carnage, Rhaine was not certain.

 

"We need to move quickly if we are to make progress before dawn," the Doomguide called out, "I need to consecrate these graves to try and reverse some of the damage done here."

 

Theron then lighted on her shoulder, his talons clicking slightly on her armor. His golden eyes blinked a few times before he rested his head upon his breast and began to doze.

 

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When Maydiira finally woke, she had no idea how long she had slept. Kento was still there, but that didn't mean much...she supposed that the strange man could stay in the same place for hours with that odd meditation of his. Shaking her head slightly, she pulled herself off of the floor, grunting as her stiff limbs objected to the movement. It felt as though she had been punched repeatedly all over her body.

 

Rubbing her eyes before focusing on Kento, she asked, "So...how do we get out of here, now? I'm assuming that's what you want to do? Leave?"

 

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Ginafae had followed Arland to Dagger Falls...it wasn't hard to do. Whispers from rangers and scouts of a man on the run led her northwards towards the Anauroch and landed her just outside the city. Getting in would be difficult. She was not familiar with this particular area, though she and Sana had come close to it as they headed to Shadowdale. The whole place was well-guarded and patrolled regularly, the walls tall and sturdy.

 

Thanks to Arland's disabled pursuers, though, she was able to acquire a patrol schedule and an arrest warrant...confirming her suspicions that the man had fled here. The guards wouldn't be missing them...not now that they were food for the worms...

 

Content to wait, she settled into the thick forest foliage, her hood up, and began studying the schedule.

 

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"SHE WHAT?!"

 

Valthanarax's furious roar vibrated the walls of the cave. The two Red Wizards cowered before him, having just told him of Maydiira's escape.

 

"She was the only means we had of ferreting out the weaknesses of our greatest enemy and YOU LET HER GET AWAY!"

 

"We are sorry, master, we-"

 

"Do you realize what she will do now that she knows our plans? You have ruined everything! And you will pay for it with your lives!"

 

The sounds of the two wizards' screams were buried beneath the angry snarls and fiery breath of the dracolich.

Edited March 10, 2013 by AurianaValoria1

[josh900]

"Can I object?" Jaxion suddenly said, sitting up he shot Tannin a smirk. "Sorry kid, You're spell work's good, but not that good." He looked up at Rhaine with a bored expression. "Here's the deal sweetheart, i was in the process of killing all those people anyways, You guys just... Sped up the process! Now if i go back with them?" He stopped speaking to lick his lips. "They'll kill me... slowly. So my only option is to try and survive out there in the desert on my own, Which i shouldn't have to tell you won't happen. So let me come with you and I'll." He spread his arms out wide, closed his eyes and grinned. "ReeeeJECt my evil ways! And shall... Forever walk.. in.. the light." He opened his eyes and bit back a laugh. "Will also give me a chance to connect with the family." He said eerily.

Tannin arched a brow before looking up at Rhaine. "I vote with Weyland. This guy's not all there."

Jaxion gave a loud gasp to Tannin's comment. "Is that any way to speak to your uncle?"

Tannin scrunched up his face in confusion. "Wha? The hells are you talking about?"

"Yeah!" Jaxion said. "I'm the....older..or younger brother of..... one of your parents."

Tannin stared at him in disbelief before shaking his head. "That's it. I'm killing him." He said in a matter of fact tone, pulling out the knife he took earlier.

"Read my mind!" Jaxion said eagerly. "Go on, get tentacle face over there to read me. He'll see I'm telling the truth."

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Kento slowly opened his eyes, breaking out of his meditation. "Would be for the best. With the guards searching for a drow, unless you can change your appearance staying here with be difficult. Or if you can figure a way to make them trust you or at least, not fear you." He stood up. "If we leave we must do it out the back to avoid being seen."

 

 

Edited March 11, 2013 by josh900

[AurianaValoria1]

Rhaine's brow furrowed, and she glanced to the Ulitharid, "Xallistine, does he speak the truth?"

 

The Favored Soul felt ever-so-slightly uneasy in the presence of this man...and she doubted it was just because he was with the Zhents.

 

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Maydiira nodded, "Let's go then...see where the cellar leads."

 

The drow then made her way to the escape route that Ginafae had taken, disappearing down a steep and narrow tunnel.

[mythicdawnmaster]

"If it calls me Tentacle face again, i'll kill it myself." Xallistine spoke angrily, in a tone quite similar to that of Tannins. "Without even reading this deprived lunatic's mind, i can tell you his charade of repenting his sins and stepping into the light is nothing more than a wasted gesture of insincere intentions." he paused for a moment, before continuing , his clawed hands twitching. "There are two types if madness, one is those who are brilliant, intelligent, use their minds to further important or personal goals... and then there are creatures like this wretch. It can't even speak in a correct tone my lady. Before i do any mind probing, i'd suggest cutting it's throat before any more senseless drivel spouts from it's mouth." Sighing slightly, Xallistine read the man's mind. "He tells the truth. Interesting to be sure. What you all do with him is your problem now." Xallistine said with a sigh, turning from the scene with a flourish of his cape.

Edited March 11, 2013 by mythicdawnmaster

[josh900]

"I don't believe this." Tannin said feeling that Jaxion was wasting their time. "Now I'm not usually one for executing prisoners."

"Yes you are." Jaxion interrupting.

Tannin rolled his eyes before continuing. "But i think it'd be okay to make an exception here. He's obviously not well. Could force himself to believe anything he thinks. Could probably convince himself that he's a god even!" He said with a laugh. And Jaxion laughed harder.

"Oooooh that's funny, me? a god? No no no no." He said laughing, suddenly stopping he straightened himself up and looked towards Tannin out of the corners of his eyes. "I'm just a son of one." He said in a serious tone.

Tannin's smile of disbelief dropped. pupils dilated at the revelation, he met Jaxion's stare already knowing where in his throat Tannin would cut. It would be light enough to make him bleed out, but shallow enough to make it last. A flash of him drowning in his own blood entered Tannin's head. He was a danger to them all and needed to be eliminated. But doing so without Rhaine's say would likely get him ejected from the group, something that he would rather avoid this far out from a city.

Jaxion let out a weazy laugh. "Theeeere it isss. Ya got it in one kid, I like that. Yeeeeaaaahh." He practically purred. "We didn't all poke our heads out in that storm kid. Some of us were smarter than others. Stayed hidden, away from it all. Rather live a poor life than due trying for that throne. But me? Weeeell i decided to instead of.. Running out screaming what i was, I'd instead find employment in the company of those that appreciate our..... Talents." He said smugly.

"You though.... There aren't many of us that had children... And most of them got caught up in all of the ruckus and ended up dead. Makes me wonder... who's kid are you?" He said looking at Tannin with a thoughtful gaze.

Tannin looked to Rhaine. "Now we definitely have to kill him."

"Why? Two sociopaths too many for this world?" Jax said. "You didn't even....... flinch when you saw the bodies, Most the others were holding their breakfast in.. You walked along like it was a paved road. trust me lady... He's bout as messed up as I am." He said breaking into a mad laughter.

"But hey hehehe, I'm unarmed soo hahaah, I'm at your mercy. So go ahead annnd murder me. It's a family tradition!" He growled.

-----------------------------------

 

 

Kento followed Maydiira to the cellar. "Escape tunnel. The blacksmith was not an honest man to have such a thing in his shop. Or he had no knowledge that it was here." He said letting the drow lead the way. Uncomfortable with not being able to see anything he mentally reached out, trying to sense anything that might be up ahead.