A New Power

[MDRud216]

although the lower half of his face is concealed you can see the dispair in Quarian's eyes as he recalls the gallows.

"Who are you, and what aid do you offer?" he asks towards the manic character in the opposite cell.

[Vao]

"Hmm, you could call me the last true prisoner of Greymoor, seeing as Tarsyus evidently was just settling some personall feud when he captured you. Most just call me Isys, but you could be like my friends, the guards, and call me Filth." Isys said, his voice cracking every few words.

 

"As for aid," he said with a grin,"If you ever need a person that needs to go out with a bang, I'm your guy."

[MDRud216]

Quarian said nothing, pondering how long this man had been imprisoned in his tiny cell. And Although he could not see Thrin he glanced at Aechi with an expression that would hopefully be relayed before backing up and plopping onto the cold ground. His head throbbed all the more with the thought of a rope around his neck.

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edit: this is my fault as I am still leaning with this gm thing... anywho Greymoor is a fairly small fort with cells for about 20 prisoners and a medium sized wooden wall around its perimeter. About the only fortified structure in it is the tower you were interrogated in, and the main structure is wood and brick as well. Also, the fort is situated on the Rakatal river's delta, and that means to make sure you have realized that it has rivers and other low islands surrounding it, the settlement is situated to the east on the shore and a few islands. Also Greymoor has a garrison of under 100 soldiers.

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[Shadow of the Fallen]

Without looking into Akechi's eyes, Thrin turned away from the bared opening of the cell. This world is full of those that have lost the taste of life... Saddening. He thought of those he left back in Greymor, locked in the dungeons with only what little they needed to survive. By day the were rigorously trained at an accelerated military pace, by night they fought over small scraps of food and water, hardly sleeping. It was thier first trial. The trial that would seperate those who would form his leigion, and those that would forfeit their souls.

 

If it seemed harsh, it was only the beginning. They would fight with only what they could scavenge for themselves--sticks, tree branches, boot laces. In the end, they would be expected to destroy armies tens to hundreds of times their size. And they would do it. They would do it because it ment enternal damnation, they would fight for Thrin because he led their cause, they would kill only to be able to kill again. Their life would be and endless cycle of death, and they had each willingly chosen to live that way.

 

Most were hardened criminals, used to the kinds of prison cells Thrin now found himself trapped in. They had no care for life--just as the man across from them. They saw no meaning in it. They wanted to reap the only thing they could see in life... Death. Thrin would make sure that their blood oaths were filled... Even if it meant the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

 

There were three hundred now, he pondered how many would pass--no--survive the first test.

 

Abruptly, he spoke to the wall before him, his voice echoing off it and back out the peep-hole with magnified intensity. "Isys. Do you believe in the concept of a soul?" The sound of his tone alone implied silence to all others, and for a concise, no-joking-around response.

[ensis]

Akechi caught Quarain's eye for only a split second. He stayed at the cell door looking out. Both Quarain and Thrin moved back into the cell, into darkness. Akechi stared intently at the black void that seemed to fill Thrin's cell. With the words that Isys spoke, he felt even more inclined to find a way out of this brig. No, he thought, they HAD to get out.

 

Akechi grabbed the bars on his cell door and shook it hard for a couple seconds. It was fairly sturdy, probably not something he could break through. With his hands he felt around the door and the walls, looking for any signs of a weak point. With the construction made mostly of wood, albeit very thick wood, he felt slightly more confident they could escape.

 

The words that Thrin spoke next intensified Akechi's want to escape.

 

"Isys. Do you believe in the concept of a soul?" Thrin asked.

 

Akechi thought back to what Kataiyo had taught him. He stood very still and tried to focus his energy to his legs. Focus, concentrate, I must do this! he thought to himself. He felt it, and it was growing. His eyes snapped open, he lunged at the door and kicked in the open wooden space next to the bolt locking the door.

[Vao]

"Hmm," muttered Isys, carefully choosing his words. He knew of people, like the one across from him, who would kill you at the slightest sign of hesitation or just anything that they didn't desire, whether such behavior sprout from ones actions or conversations. Those kind of people, and Isys used the term "people" lightly, cared little for rational reasoning when death was involved, although Isys had seen many who prefered to kill those that failed miserably at lingusitics.

 

"Well," he said more sternly now, as if to signal he was giving his true answer,"It is more than feasible for one to perhaps have a soul. Despite the complexity of the human psychosis, it still cannot completely comprehend all emotions, particularlly the most powerful such as love and fear, which makes it all the more plausible that there may, in fact, be some other presence in action."

 

"However," he added,"There is no true way to prove the presence of such activity, other then by experiencing death." Silenty, as if to satisfy his twisted sense of humor, Isys muttered, with a hint of hysteria,"And what corpse can reveal to you the secret of souls?"

[MDRud216]

The door across from Quarian shook violenly for a moment, but nothing happened.

"Akechi," he says, but you know what he is going to say beforehand. Standing back up to look out of the bars you see the iron reenforcments of his cell. "Your door is reenforced on the outside...."

 

You hear something drop at the front of this cell hall and someone stands up roughly. "Shut up you rats! If you wake me up again I will gouge out your eyeballs," Quarian's face disappeared from the barred opening again, this time though you would not see it again until the following morning. A short time later some echoed snoring resumed but nobody had the heart to utter another word. And when dawn did shine her orange rays down through the lingering smoke nearby Tarysus' guards arrived to escort four prisoners to their waiting deaths.

 

Akechi's door was opened first, the first of the three guards pulled him out and slammed against Thrin's cell, pinning him there as they bound him. When he was tossed conveniently aside they repeated the process with Thrin, followed by Quarian.

"It is not your day Filth," he says with contempt into Isys' cell, opening it and binding the manic prisoner, "Tarysus prefers every nuse used." and with that the four were led to the end of the hall where they saw the overly large gurad who had threatened them the night before. They were directed right and pushed up a short flight of stairs to the open air above. Their prison had been underground, hugging the fort's wooden wall. When you arrive at the gallows a small crowd of lowly farmers and tavern patrons had gathered below. Tarysus smiles as his guards force you onto the narrow ledge of walking room between the walls edge and the base of the nuses. He moves behind you as the ropes are fitted around your necks.

"Countrymen, these four are rebels, revoluntionists, and responsible for the attack on our glorious capital!" the response from the crowd is meager, save the few drunks unaware of what they were cheering for.... The scent of death and decay reaches your nostrils with the breeze; as putrid as Tarysus smile. It is not a bad place to die, the Rakatal river flows directly at you before parting in a V and winding through other low islands and sandbars around Greymoor. The town is to your right, and beyond it a black haze is suspended in the air.

 

 

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this is my fault as I am still leaning with this gm thing... anywho Greymoor is a fairly small fort with cells for about 20 prisoners and a medium sized wooden wall around its perimeter. About the only fortified structure in it is the tower you were interrogated in, and the main structure is wood and brick as well. Also, the fort is situated on the Rakatal river's delta, and that means to make sure you have realized that it has rivers and other low islands surrounding it, the settlement is situated to the east on the shore and a few islands. Also Greymoor has a garrison of under 100 soldiers.

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[Peregrine]

As Tarysus admired his prisoners, a single horse rode slowly out of the last morning fog, along the road to Greymoor. Its rider, a man in brightly polished armor painted with blue and gray trim, carried a white banner of truce on his spear. A banner he held high, with no trace of the regret that normally accompanied such banners. In fact, an almost visible aura of pride and confidence surrounded him, as if it was his castle he rode to in triumph.

 

Their attention locked on the execution, few even noticed the rider. Only a single guard, barely more than a boy, met him outside the castle's walls. Punishment duty Aseir obseved, too junior in rank to get a better spot to watch from. "Fetch the Emperor," he ordered. "I have come to negotiate for his prisoners."

 

This should confuse them nicely, Aseir thought as the guard ran off to relay the message. If my poor messenger doesn't trip over his own feet in the process, he added as the guard nearly did exactly that.

 

An amused smile interrupted Aseir's serious expression as the crowd began to notice something unusual was happening. The guard had finally reached the Emperor and, although the distance hid their words, the confusion was obvious. Nervous discussion began to run through the crowd, and Aseir couldn't help laughing as he imagined what must be going through Tarysus' mind. The absolute mess he was making of the Emperor's nice ceremony was comedy anyone could appreciate, even a humorless Habassan commander.

[Shadow of the Fallen]

The grimmest, darkest of smiles flashed across Thrin's features as he surveyed the scene before him. It would be a good day to die, were he not already dead. Without turning his head, he spoke Isys in a meaningfully direct manner, "You said last night that it is somewhat possible that we dont have souls. If thats true, I'm off the hook. As of yet, however, my soul is bound to the lord of the underworld. I am a dead man walking." His words were hushed, but intense enough that any of the four about to be executed could hear him, "You also said that you'd like to go out with a bang."

 

Thrin's eyes were geasture enough as the messenger reached the emporer. Tarysus caught the glare Thrin was throwing at him, and blanched a little. It was several moments before either of them looked away, and it ended with them both staring out at the crowd, and the newcomer. Again, he spoke without looking at the man to whom he addressed, "I would like you to reconsider the whole going out part, but I'm afraid its a little too late to avoid the bang.

 

Ever so slightly, Thrin spread his feet a bit farther apart, angled his toes so that his legs were in a combat stance, and checked his bondings. He was thinking about everything and nothing, in a professional state of preparation that only came with great experience. He was not a member of the Leigion of the Damned... He did not suffer what they suffered. He was their leader--and he suffered worse. Had he not been in this position so many times before, in his own country, maybe he would have faltered less in his actions.

 

But he had been in this position.

 

His last words had the most penetrating aura of all, "We're about to have a very... big... bang."

[Vao]

All Isys could do was laugh. He'd been waiting for this moment for eight years, yet all he could bear doing was laugh hysterically on the ground, rocking back and forth like a child.

 

"He must've lost it. Makes it a pity he's gonna die. The insane ones are the most enjoyable." a nearby guard muttered to a civilian, who looked away in disgust.

 

Idiots! They have no idea. Despite Isys' apparent hysteria, there was a far more sinister side to it, as he gently removed his shiv, his only valued possession, created through eight years of depression, from his shirt, and tediously began to cut his bindings loose, ready to kill any and all who oppose him. He would avenge his fallen kin, whether he lost his life in the process or not.