Paladins of the Radiant Hall

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Snapping back to reality, the halfling drops the picked flowers and rushes back to his shoes. "OOOH!!! Did anyone else hear that?? I know that the wildweed has a little grip of my senses at the moment, but that sounded BAD!"

The halfling stands facing the others, his hands steadily hovering around the grips of his blades.

 

"I did not hear anything. Those flowers are not to be picked as daisies, you are in the Lady's presence, and you must respect her."

Soft laughter fills your head, followed by the same, soothing voice. "Please Muumli, Worldwalker, you need not be so harsh. The little one may pick my flowers, he meant no harm."

"I am sorry, My Lady, but these are dire times. We seek to liberate this hall from the Shadow; no simple task, you know."

"I understand your concern, it is your nature, and you should not distance yourself from those around you, as you do, but that is another matter. Here, little one, pick these flowers and weave them into chains and place them about your necks. They shall protect you where I cannot. Come, drink from this pool and refresh yourselves."

The voice seems to lead you through the garden to a cascading stream culminating in a pool at its base. Drinking the water fills your body with renewed vigor and wrests the fatigue from your bones.

"Behind this curtain of water," as the words are spoken, the water falling from the rocks above parts to reveal a passage beyond, "you can make your way secretly and quitely to the Main Hall, where you shall face your greatest challenge. Good Luck!"

Stepping lightly over the pool of water, Muumli enters the passage beyond, and beckons the other to follow.

 

Mathetais rose from his knees, and felt the strength return as he followed the Lady's voice through the waterfall.

As the began to follow the wizard into the main hall, he paused and whispered, "Worldwalker, we have followed you far, but you have offered little information as to who or what this foe will be. Are you as blind as we are, or is there some lore that you fear to share with our feeble hearts? Regardless, let us prepare ourselves for this challenge that the Lady foretold."

Closing his eyes in prayer, he asked his Lord for the strength of hand, toughness of skin, and swiftness of foot to avoid the enemy's blade and to smite whatever evil lurked in the next hall.

Opening them again, the world seemed to snap into sharper focus. He could feel power surging through him. His knuckles cracked as he clenched his sword in his hand.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward into the hall, and braced himself to face a charge.

 

"I am no stranger to these creatures we have faced thus far, and I have read tomes and scrolls detailing the nature of such shadows, but there is little information beyond that, because the forms they take are truly unpredictable, and shift with time. I can tell you that the creatures responsible for this are very powerful, indeed. What awaits us? I do not know."

Stepping out from the passage, your eyes adjust to the dim light and you see you are on a balcony wrapping around a large hall, its former magesty still visible beneath the taint of darkness. In the center of the hall is a pulsing, black mass with many large tentacles extending from it and disappearing from view. Moving around the balcony, you see that they stretch into a portal set up against the back wall. The room is empty, except for these, and the only sound is that of the pulsing and the faint sound eminating from the portal.

"As near as I can tell, that thing is being fed by whatever lies beyond that portal," Muumli says.

 

ooc - don't really have too much to add, but I'm sick of waiting for someone else to post.

ic -

Mathetais drew a sharp breath through his teeth as he walked through the chill air. After standing in the moonlight, the shadows of the portal seems to radiate a bone-numbing chill.

Flexing the fingers of his sword-hand, he steeled his spin against the shivers and continued to follow the glowing staff of the World Walker.

Shadows pulled out of the walls, threatening to attack. They hesitated and Mathetais wondered if it was his diety protecting him, or the magic of the Mage ahead.

Keeping a sharp eye and his divine-enhanced senses aware, he prepared himself for the next foe.

 

ooc - Finally someone posted

ic -
Suddenly, the walls begin to writhe with shadow, and hissing sounds come from beyond a great door at the front of the Hall. The doors swing open, and a mass of shadows drags a woman into the hall. Black tendrils shoot out from the pulsing mass and attatch to her, and begin draining the life from her. Even as it does so, the tentacles that stretch into the portal begin to pulse with engery.

"No, the portal is not feeding this foe, it is feeding what is beyond this portal. No doubt what lies beyond is drawing energy from all of the various portals across the land. This must be stopped."

To Loeryn-
Waking up, your head pounds and you can see that the dust has settled and you can see beyond into the room that had been sealed before, and in the center of the floor there lies what looks like a husk, an empty shell or eggsack from which something recently emerged. Beyond it is a large, ornately carved circle of some sort of metal or stone filled with a pane of smooth, clouded gray glass.

o.o.c.-- sweet merciful, what are you waiting for? do something, or at least describe what you character is doing while waiting for something to happen, please.

[ February 24, 2003, 06:01: Message edited by: Muumli ]

 

ooc -- I just don't want this to be "Mathetais' Big Adventure" so I'm holding back a bit.

IC -

Mathetais looked to his companions and saw a mix of fear and determination in their eyes. Know the worth of these allies, he trusted that the fear would be dispelled quickly.

Nodding to the wizard he said, "Take us to the source. Now is the time for this to end."

 

"Haha! Goody goody! And here I thought all you sissy-foots were just going to stand around mouths agape."

The halfling dashes to the side of the towering Mathetais, and, on arriving, leaps onto the paladin's back with amazing dexterity.

"On, shiny one, lead us to glory! YEEHAW!"

 

"That's LORD Shiney One to you," Mathetais said, as he reached up to grab the halfling's collar and hoist him off his back.

 

Rubbing his head, Loeryn pulled himself upright. All of his limbs ached and burned. He limbered over to the husk in the middle of the room. I don't want to know what created this , he thought. Having no weapons besides a small dirk, Loeryn pulled off a chunk of the exoskeleton to use as a club. Seeing no other way out besides above, Loeryn decided to examine the circle.

 

Seeing no obvious way down, Mathetais vaults the railing and drops to the floor below, the halfling screaming all the way. The others follow quickly behind. Landing behind Mathetais, Muumli hits the halfling on the back of the head once, silencing him.

"You fool, the damage is done, it's stirring."

Just as he whispers this, the mass begins to writhe and a razor, black talon rips through the fleshy surface and the hole widdens as multiple leathery tendrils push out and rip apart the shell. In an explosion of slime and flesh, the incubator gives way to the horrible creature waiting inside. Looking something like an octopus, the creaure stretches itself out and begins to stalk across the floor at the Paladins. Suddenly, and with surprising agility, it vaults from the floor to the wall, wrapping its tendrils around the columns and scaling up the side before disappearing over the lip of the balcony.

 

The ground rumbled once again and Loeryn heard leathery tearing sounds and a halfling's scream. He looked up from the circle he was examining. "What the bloody hell is going on?" he shouted desperately. Frustrated and confused he took his dirk and drove the handle into his makeshift club. Well it wasn't a glowing sword but it would do the job nicely. Some battle was playing out and he would make damned sure he was on the winning side...

 

Senses reeling from the flood of evil that had just washed over him, Mathetais clenched his jaw and forced is roiling stomach to steady. "Does anyone know what that thing is?" he said in a low voice, his eyes tuned to the area near the balcony.

 

Loeryn feeverishly tried to determine what the circle was. There was far too much effort put in to it to be a mere decoration, Loeryn thought it must have some sort of purpose. Seeing no markings or guides Loeryn got frustrated and hurled his club-with-a-knife-in-it at the circle. It whistled through the air as it approached its target.

 

The club passes through the gray surface like it was insubstantial, but after doing so, the runes around the ring begin to glow and the gray begins to swirl like clouds. An image swims into focus of a great room beyond, deep with shadows. Quickly the image becomes crystal clear, as though the ring opened into the room. There seems to be something moving in the room,but it is hard to tell from this side.

ooc- show of hands: who knows that loeryn is in a different building than the rest of the players? i've tried to make that clear without saying it explicitly. Try not to address details not directed at you. Please.

 

Loeryn peered deep within the portal considering the possibilities. Then he looked back and considered the possibility of getting back the way he came. He only had one option but he knew it could put him in a worse position than before. He walked around the portal and removed his crude nail club from the wall where it impacted. He mustered his courage and jumped through the ring.

The image of the large chamber was always in front of him but streams of light and color whirled by him. He felt like he was being twisted, stretched, and compacted all at once until finally he felt like he was falling. There was no air rushing by him but he still had that feeling. He was rocketed forward and landed face-first on cold stone. Loeryn groaned and started to pick up his head...

 

you are in a large room with many more portals lining the walls, at the center appears to be what remains of a statue and shrine to some god, it is badly defiled. There is a door beyond.

 

Loeryn picked himself up off the ground, it felt like his organs had been rearranged. "Where the bloody hell am I now?" he thought. He walked cautiously to the defiled statue. Loeryn was a man of faith but he knew not what god this statue was meant to be due to its condition. He dropped what little money he had with him as an offering to whatever god that was. He could use any blessing he could get in this place.

Loeryn took a quick glance through the room and seeing no other way out he strode towards the doors and pulled on the handle.

 

The doors are heavy and do not budge with your first pull. As to try again, you hear a hissing sound behind you, and you turn around to see a creature seemingly sliding off the statue and forming into a bipedal shadow on the floor.

 

ooc - are the rest of us still staring at the balconies where the creature snuck off?