Paladins of the Radiant Hall

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"Get his sword," says the wizard, helping Bedevere to his feet. Grasping his sword, Bedevere moves from the wizard's grasp, steadying himself with his sword.

"If you are ready, we must press on. Your strength will return in full shortly, now that the shadow has been exorcised."

Gathering up his things, the wizard produces a small round wooden cage from his robes and places one of the orbs in it and hangs it from his staff. Holding it aloft, it illuminates the passage beyond.

"From here we move to the nexus, where we should be able to enter the Main Hall directly, but I fear it will be heavily guarded. Come, there is no time to waste."

 

"Wizard," Mathetais said as he followed behind towards the nexus. "Do you have any wards or enchantments that will protect our brethern from posession from these fell creatures? It would not be seemly for one of our brothers to turn on us in a heated combat."

 

"Nay, not against such creatures in their element. However, in the Lady's Garden, we may find something, it is at the top. This will lead us away from the Main Hall, which is undoubtedly heavily guarded. We will make our assault from the rear. Come, we go."

 

As Bedevere took his sword he felt the holy metal burn in his hand. Gritting his teeth he grasped hard on the hilt, and felt his hand return to normal as the taint was driven out. "By all the gods, "he said, "what happened to me? What was that...thing?" Still slightly undteadily, he followed after the others.

 

Stickytoes peered out through the leaves of a nearby tree, watching the travellers do glorious battle. He inched forward on his belly, up the enormous tree branch. At once his face turned pale with realization- a loud *CRACK* echoed from behind him as the branch at once snapped off of the aging tree. Now he remembered why he hated trees. They were so very much taller than him. Tall things could never be trusted.

Like a retarded cat, he rolled midair to face where the branch had been a moment ago, pointing his back to the ground. He loosed a grapple, throwing the hook end of a snare trap at the remainder of the tree branch. He sighed for a moment as it caught and took hold- but as soon as it did the rope grew taught and yanked from his hand, the snare becoming caught on his foot. His small blade dropped to the ground without him. He at once removed his rope belt, and lashed it around the grappling hook to right himself. As he struggled with all of his might, he felt his breeches begin to slip, beltless. Unsure of what to do, he reached down with one hand to pull them back up. As he did so he let go of his belt, his breeches slipped entirely off, and he swung back, resnagging his foot on the snare.

As he dangled, he thought aloud, "This is *NOT* how I wanted to introduce myself."

[ February 07, 2003, 01:26: Message edited by: Amon-Ra ]

 

The door was fading behind Mathetais and the group when he heard a loud crack, followed by a series of rather odd sounds. Drawing his blade, he raced out through the door to fend off the next creature ... and saw a halfling hanging upside down by his foot, half naked, and blushing furiously.

Pointing his blade at the sorry creature, he prayed for the wisdom to know if this creature was evil or not. As his senses registered no taint in the halfling's soul, he finally allowed himself to smile.

"Surely you have a good explanation of how you ended up here, like this little friend. My companions and I would be gladdened to hear it. Laughter has been too long absent from our souls. If I cut you down, do you promise not to run off?"

 

"Yes, um, you see, I am doing a study, a quite relevant and important study about the last moments of a captured rabbit. I found the only way to know for sure is to experience the horrors of a snare myself! [whispers aside: Yes, that's it...] And of course, in this moment the rabbit suffers from the worst possible lack of decency and dignity, hence my breeches had to be shucked. All in the name of science, of course. The name is Stickytoes, on account of my webbed feet, no less! Though, I don't see how that information does you any good, I simply have a tendency to ramble. Now that I'm done with my research, would you mind getting me down? Five human feet is a long drop for a man of my stature. Oh, and you have my word I mean you no harm."

The kind paladin proceeds to remove the snare from the halflings foot, and sets him upon the ground.

Recovering some of his dignity, Stickytoes gathers up his belt and pants, securing them tightly and moves to pick up his blade. He bows low to the man, then continues,

"I'm a master tracker, I am, on top of being a scientist of course. I'm on the lookout for adventure, as things get pretty dull around here other'n stayin' alive. What was all that noise coming from inside? Um- it was, um... breaking my concentration."

[ February 07, 2003, 22:14: Message edited by: Amon-Ra ]

 

Sir Dargorn rolled his eyes slowly.
'For all that is holy not another midget, I was fortuanate enough to have a Gnome by the name of Jan in my party years back. Decent enough theif but he never shut up!'
The huge Paladin leant over and waved an accusing finger at the insulted halfling.
'Now you listen to me! Just you pick up and head back where you came from, and take all your pant falling, rabbit catching, general idicotic..ness with you!'

At this the Halfling bowed very politely, raised his hand quickly and grabbed hold of Dargorn's nose.
'I am not a midget! I am vertically challenged! And if you need just one reason to let me on this adventure then it would be to teach you some manners'

He followed the speech up with a kick to the shins and then quickly fled and hid behind Mathetais.

 

"Well, what of it? What are you brutes up to? Don't all chime in at once, you slack-jawed daisies..."

 

"We do not have time for this. I do not know how you made it this far, halfling, but it is far too perilous for you to wander about by yourself. The creatures that stalk this land are made of the very shadow you wrap yourself in. Come, you may hide yourself in the light, but we must go NOW."

 

"The wizard is right," Mathetais said, clenching his sword in his hand.

Stooping to the halfling's level he said, "No rabbit snare study drove you up that tree. I will allow that one lie to go unchecked because I understand your embarrasment, however if you lie to me or my comrads again, it will go sorely with you. We are entering a realm of shadow, pain and struggle. Unless your studies and scouting would lead you to the gates of Hell, I urge you to turn back to safter activities. But if something in your heart drives you to walk this path with us, know that I will guard you in the light ... I trust your mettle, and will uphold you until your words or actions betray that trust."

Striding back towards the nexus, he cut the air in front of him with a frustrated swing of his sword, leaving a trail of crackling light that he walked through. "Come."

 

Beside himself with indignity, the halfling realizes its time to drop the rouse. These paladins were onto something big, something vile he'd sensed in the air around him, and smelled in the blood of the creature he'd slain. "No need to get snoody about it, pal. Alright, no more mistruths. Did I mention I'm a ranger?" *draws out a slightly curved dagger* Turning his attention to the wizard, he speaks confidently, "You want to know how I got here, do ya? I carved my way *points* through some lil' frights, I did. Nothing like that grim thing you just bullied, but I assure you my steel is as cold as yours."

With this the halfling re-sheathes both his dagger and short sword, and dons a pointed hat. Gathering his light pack closer around his body and checking that all of his grapples and blades are tightly secure, he looks eagerly at the men. "Well now, bold ones, lead on. We shall see if you still find me a nuisance in a few days time. I'm not looking for safety, I'm looking for adventure."

[ February 09, 2003, 18:31: Message edited by: Amon-Ra ]

 

Re-entering the Hall, the party creeps down the passage behind the wizard. Holding his hand up, he turns his head, "Tread softly, we must go unnoticed, for now."

Ahead of you is a huge swirling mass of shadows. The wizard turns down a side passage, away from the shadowy door, and follows it for a short time before turning again. A ways down the passage he stops and turns towards the wall.

"Hmm, yes, it should be right...here," he says as he pushes a hidden trigger. The outline of the door glows with a pale light and slides away. Beyond it lays a set of stairs spiraling upwards, also glowing faintly.

 

ooc -- I thought I was being nice to the little halfling!

IC --- Mathetais nodded to his companions, suggesting they ready themselves. Praying for a protection from evil that would cover himself and those nearby, he gripped his sword and followed the mage through the threshold.

 

Sitting on a stool in a dark room, a lone figure was reclining. He was oddly dressed, his clothing looked like it was once exquisite but it had been torn and used to line a bird's cage. He was playing a small ocarina made out of a potato and listening to its echo. He stopped once he heard the sounds of movement one floor below him. He muttered "I was beginning to enjoy the solitude." The ragged man kicked over his stool and proceeded to give off a wail.

 

To Loeryn:
The cleric had taken refuge in this building for a number of days. Clearly abandoned, he had found its solitude soothing. Wandering about half-heartedly, he had not probed deeply and was easily discouraged by locked doors. But now, something was moving below him, from within the locked rooms, something that was not there before. Walking over to the top of the stairs, he peers down into the darkness.

To Paladins:
Following the wizard up the stairs, the Paladins can hear a faint sound, like many voices singing long, pure notes in harmony. As they move up the winding stairs, the sound gets steadily louder until they reach the top and a round, white marble door covered in runes and glyphs of the Moon Goddess, Lunai. Pressing his hands against the stone, the wizard whispers softly, and a heavenly, feminine voice fills their heads.

"Enter, you are expected, and have been long in coming."

The door swings open, revealing a garden bathed in moonlight.

 

The brighter moonlight in the garden temporarliy threw off Mathetais' vision as he steeled himself. He had been seduced by beauty before and would not fall prey to such witchary again.

Casting a prayer heavenward for insight to see through any veil and determin if evil was present, he walked behind the wizard into the garden.

His senses realed with the almost tangible innocence and purity of the place. The knots in his shoulders eased and his knees buckled ... putting him on his knees before the presence of Luni.

 

"AH! WONDERFUL!" Rejoiced the halfling, as he took the liberty of unbuckling his simple cloth shoes. He let his toes sink into the garden, and bathed in the moonlight. Forgetting his shoes, he set off in hopes of finding some lovely flowers to pick, or perhaps the owner of that sweet voice that spoke so softly inside his head...

 

A ways away, Loeryn paced impatiently the dark room. Shadows didn't make such noise and he knew no manner of daemon that gave off the clank of armor. So it had to be adventurers. "Well we'll see about that," he thought. "Then again I am getting tired of rat and I can't remember wearing clean clothing..." Loeryn grunted in frustration and continued his pacing, considering the possibilities. "Well what if I am wrong, and this is a new sort of shadow or Daemon that I have never heard of?" he pondered. Finally he seemed satisfied, he fumbled in the dark for the fallen stool and set it upright. "It might not matter in the end," he thought as he sat down on the stool and leaned back, and began once again to play his solemn tune on the ocarina.

 

To Loeryn:
There is a great, terrible shaking and the sound of some powerful creature rending wood and stone. The creature is obviously too large for the space it occupies and takes no heed of the building's structural supports because, as you can feel him rumbling beneath you, the floor of the room you occupy crumbles and gives way beneath you. As you fall, you kick away the stool, not wanting to land on it as you slam into the stone of the floor below. You black out.