Court of the Phoenix King

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Laicamir
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#241 Post by Laicamir »

Laicamir's panic continues to worsen, he begins to pull all manner of objects from the sleeves of his robes as he mutters repeatedly about various tragedies which might befall him.
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Aicanor
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#242 Post by Aicanor »

Tiralya finally comes out of his thoughts as he senses Laicamir's discomfort. "Come," he says and lays a hand aroud old mage's shoulder. "Let's have some tea in my office and discuss what we saw and sensed. There is no more to learn here."
"By the way, lord Laicamir. Wouldn't you consider staying here in the tower for a time. There is a lot to gain and not only for the novices." He tries to hide it, but he looks a little worried.

*Check the previous page for Vortex and Tower update... more to come.*
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Elessehta of Yvresse
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#243 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Elessehta of Yvresse saw his opportunity, lowered his lance and charged. The magic spear of his family pierced the kracken, but so deeply that it would get stuck. Elessehta pulled it from the beast as he passed. Placing it in it's holder, he leapt from the griffon and drew his sword.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#244 Post by Laicamir »

Laicamir calms for a moment, hastily stuffing various quills and vials back into his sleeves.
"Yes yes lets do that" Laicamir begins to walk back toward toward the office, as he does so he scribbles a message to be sent back to Tor Lossaurel, full of warnings which are quite a bit more dire than they need be.

"I would love to stay here in the tower, it has been so long since I last visited and I have not had an apprentice of my own in a very very long time. I would of course need to leave to attend the council from time to time but my castle will be fine without me for some time."
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Aicanor
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#245 Post by Aicanor »

Rogue dragon

The dragon and his rider didn't circle the peaks for long when they spotted a glint of white under them in a deep, shadowy ravine. The rogue showed itself and Curranoch growled a challenge.
The smaller dragon didn't take it up though. It looked pointedly up at them and Anaril couldn't help but think the two dragons were communicating in secret. Then Curranoch squeezed his (is the dragon a he?) large body into the ravine and landed next to the white. Anaril saw in some astonishment there was a dark arch behind the strange dragon. And that blood was smeared over the young dragon's snout.


Ar Yvrellion

Elessehta's spear was not only one to pierce Kraken's thick hide. The Sapherian lord saw an opportunity to attack at the same time Elessehta thrust his enchanted blade into the creature's flesh. |dark substance started to pour from new wounds and the monster trashed, casting the Yvressi into the water with one swipe of its serpentine limb. Another one broke Alcaran's lance as he tried to disengage and hit him square in the chest. He cried out, but held firm in the saddle. At that very moment three arrows embodied themselves deep int the creature's body, unerringly finding less armoured spots. The kraken thrahed around, vanishing under the surface, fleeing back into its deepwater home, leaving a wake of dark ink behind. Elessehta found himself in a mass of salty foam that couldn't support his weight. He tried to reach the surface again, but it was hard with the waves rolling over him. And then something lifted him up and he found himself lying over griffon's saddle.
"That was... not... very advisable." gasped his rescuer, breathing hard. In a few moments, they landed amongst the (mostly harmless) wildlife on the quay and they both slid to the ground, Elessehta cradling an injured arm and Alcaran grimacing in pain as he tried to get rid of the breastplate.
"Hopefully now you will allow my ship into the bay?" he asked Elessehta through clenched teeth.


The Tower

To reside here certainly has its compensations," said Tiralya as they sat at polished stone table in his office, full of various species of plants and sipped hot amber liquid from paper thin porcelain bowls. "And not all the disciplines worth looking at are magical."
"So what do we know so far?" he said in a voice the two princes suspect is his "teaching voice".
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#246 Post by Shadow star »

Izen breathes out in relief. Nobody was hurt seriously and the threat off the kraken. He thankfuly murmurs a prayer to Isha and Vaul. He smiles at his companions. "Another tale to tell. Just wait till we tell the rest of the pack!"
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#247 Post by Laicamir »

"Indeed" Laicamir is greatly calmed by the tea and stops his fevered panic "It appears that something is disrupting the waystones in a very cunning way which may be connected to the monster incursions. Perhaps we should look at who gains from such incursions, what is the greater plot?"
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Elessehta of Yvresse
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#248 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

"Heh, I just had this arm healed, what will my betrothed think if I spend so much time with the pretty priestesses of Isha?" Elessehta said to himself quietly, before looking over at his saviour, "Well met Sir, and my thanks for the rescue, with the beast gone you're free to bring your vessel in." Gesturing with his good arm, "The far docks are set up for maintenance of the kings fleet, your repairs can be seen to there. Bring any wounded up to the castle where they can be seen to." Back holding his re-injured arm, "Just listen for my complaints, the healing rooms will be easy enough to find."
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#249 Post by draxynnic »

Anaril looks over the white's snout in a non-threatening manner, aiming to identify whether the blood was from wounds inflicted on or by the rogue dragon, before turning his witchsight on the arch to check for magics that might lie within.

"So, what are we looking at here?"
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#250 Post by Karalael Moonsinger »

Karalael wasn't really listening to the Headmaster as he led them through the corridors and up to his office, his mind was still reeling slightly from the spell, he knew he wasn't much of a mage in comparison to Archmages or Loremasters but he hadn't been prepared for that... Jumping slightly as Tiralya's question shocked him out of reverie, he looked up, "Well, we know that you haven't sensed anything from the north and that it concerns you, I didn't sense anything out of the ordinary from the Lustria line but that could be my lack of skill and that Laicamir saw a red rune that worried him, maybe we should research that, it could lead to whoever has altered the stones?"
[quote="rdghuizing"]
Besides, the battle of Finuval Plain was more a minor skirmish anyway. A good enough summary would have been "Teclis and Malekith ran into each other. Teclis cast The Dwellers Below on Malekith with IF, and Malekith failed his Strength test." Not much more to it then that really.[/quote]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#251 Post by Aicanor »

*Sorry for the delay, the real world decided to intervene. But finally... another update!*


Rogue dragon

The blood seem to be both from the scratches over the dragon’s head and from fighting those unknown enemies. It is already dried out, it must have been there for some time already. The arch is quite dark, but Anaril can see there were sealing runes that were recently broken, But even without it, the Archmage can guess that the entrance to the underground was only recently reopened, stones that he can see all around it were not lying loose for long.


The Tower

“Or perhaps the two things are interconnected, Karalael. The quiet can be intentional. It can even be that the magic is slowly drained away from the net of lay lines. But for what purpose? I think we will have to find where that sigil was used first. It must indeed be very well hidden for us not to spot the possible interference sooner.” The Headmaster looks at Laicamir thoughtfully. “Can you locate the thing?” Then we could perhaps ask Lord Elessehta to help finding the disturbance. Then you probably should return to Lothern - and I will be looking forward to seeing you here again soon. You seem to have refined your scrying skills to a level rarely seen even in the Tower.” But it came at a price, didn’t it?


Ar Yvrellion

Small bird the colour of fire descends from the sky and lands on the prince's hand, bursts into bluish flame and vanishes, leaving behind folded sheet of paper. Once the seal is broken, it unfolds and runes written in ordinary black ink are revealed.

Under formal opening of the letter he can read the following:

New rumours came to Lothern from outside of druchii eyeing a raid to Lustria since our parting and that seems to be a main concern now, because we can ill afford to let them gain such a foothold.

There are also seemingly less important reports, but in the light of our investigations, I think it better to mention them.

Strange behaviour of a young dragon was reported in the high passes at the Dragon Spines in Caledor by lord Anaril's people. Harpies were behaving strangely there and we have an unconfirmed report states they were gathering at the coast of Inner Sea.

From another source I know that suspicious vessel was sighted at the coast of Caledor, but before the ships patrolling Inner Sea managed to track it down to the border of Ellyrion and Avelorn, it was abandoned by the crew and all that could be done was alert sentinels of both Avelorn and Ellyrion to the threat. There may be more than this one group that eluded our attention so far - and we are still guessing what was the purpose of this infiltration, but the timing is more than suspicious.

The King and lord Aislinn, I guess, will be keen to look into the possible druchii threat in Lustria and its possible implications, but that is one more reason to keep our attention closer to our homes for now.

Hope to see you back in Lothern soon,

Aicanor


Once read, the letter burst into flames and vanished in the same manner the bird did.



To the Vortex

At the end of a stormy day with wind full of spectral voices, Shannar was gone with his men to perform his equally mysterious task. The captain didn’t seem much too pleased with it and could be seen having a long conversation with Coradon, but he ordered his crew to keep the course towards the Vortex. Despite the gloom, the Isle of the Dead could be now seen with naked eye in the distance.

Altatar was pondering the fact the captain so obviously distrusted him, when the voices on the wind grew even louder in his senses. Too loud to ignore any more and he suddenly found he understood. “Find it, find, find the seal. You’ve seen... destroy it, take it away...” And again, and again, and again the voices whispered the words...

A small bird, miraculously appearing in the middle of the sea, swooped down and landed on Coradon’s arm. And in the darkness it vanished in a blaze, leaving behind a letter with gently glowing sigil of House Nenuvar (opening it, he found a letter of the same wording as Elessehta’s).


Dragon in the Lion Den

“Lord Deral,” House Lionbane’s majordomo said softly as he took in his lord, pondering the strange object that lay stowed carefully in a nest of cloth on the small table in the middle of the room.

“The scouts came back and they found more traces of druchii infiltration. There are none left now. At least, none we were able to find.” the man grimaced. Then he paused. “If I may be so bold, my lord...” He paused again, waiting for Deral’s reaction. There was a grunt. “We should inform the Caledorians. They need to know and will no doubt accuse us of endangering the realm if we don’t. And, if I may say, rightfully so. I can send them a missive if you do not wish to do it yourself...”
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#252 Post by Laicamir »

"Indeed, I price I wouldn't pay given the choice. I know the general location, I can certainly investigate and hopefully locate it." Laicamir thinks for a moment "I can leave now if that is best."
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#253 Post by draxynnic »

:If you have any wounds still, I can heal them, if you will allow it: Anaril offers the rogue in the form of speech developed by Caledor in order to communicate with dragons, before gesturing towards the opening. :Is this place yours, or has something else taken up residence here?:
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#254 Post by Shadow star »

Izen seeks out the ships captain again. "So, how long will the repairs on the ship take?"
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#255 Post by Aicanor »

White Tower

“Then show me the possible locations and then send the messages,” said Tiralya. “Then perhaps you should take a ship back to Lothern, it is a long journey to travel through the mountains to Yvresse...”


Rogue dragon


As Anaril tried to communicate with the dragon, first thing he heard was not words, but deep pain and confusion. “They came here as enemies, elves like you, traitors? What are you here for? Go away before you cause more pain!” The archmage realized only the presence of Curranoch holds this young one back from attacking him. But still he felt no evil in the creature.


Ar Yvrellion

“It is not good, lord Shadowstar. Calendir did what he could, but it was damaged by warpfire - we'll need a shipwright to help repair the damage. I am afraid we have to forget Albion for now.”
The ship is lead safely into the docks and Izen finds himself once more on firm ground. Elessehta’s young griffon, Tiralya, circles overhead, finally satisfied the foul Kraken is really gone from the sight, She obviously pursued it into the mist until it vanished in the depths. Izen noticed Elessehta standing nearby, watching his noble steed descend from the sky. He seems to have a word or two to say to her.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#256 Post by Laicamir »

Laicamir pulls a map from the sleeve of his robe, that seems to be where he stores things, and spreads it on the table. "I would imagine its around here." He points to a spot close to the coast, toward the north of Yvresse. "I believe you are correct in that I should use a ship" Laicamir thinks for a moment "Who did you want me to send a letter to?"
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#257 Post by draxynnic »

Anaril's face hardens as he allows a touch of his own outrage to manifest despite his centuries of practise in maintaining mental discipline coupled with the clarity of mind achieved through studies in the winds of Hysh and Azyr. :If they're what I think they are, calling them 'traitors' is perfectly accurate. I'm here to find out what's going on and to put a stop to it. Can you tell me what they did and where they are now?:
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#258 Post by Aicanor »

White Tower

Tiralya seems to think about it for a moment. "It is still a long way through Lothern. Elessehta could be able to help with the investigation, but I guess you should alert all of people investigating the matter to the threat.
If you excuse me, I have some duties to perform as well now.

Rogue Dragon

The young dragon seems to hesitate for a moment, but at length she moves away from the arch, making way for Anaril and Curranoch to get inside. "See for yourself then. But if you turn out to be like them, I swear you'll never leave this place."
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#259 Post by Laicamir »

"Very Well" Laicamir pulls out more paper and writing implements and begins to write letters. He concludes that he will be setting out from Lothern and that any who wish to accompany him should meet him there. He then proceeds to say goodbye to many people within the tower before setting out for Lothern.
[color=#400080]'What errand have you, Dark Elf, in my lands?' - Curufin[/color]
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#260 Post by draxynnic »

:I would expect no less,: Anaril answers, as Curranoch begins cautiously making his way into the opening. Leaning forward against Curranoch's spine to lower his profile, Anaril mentally rehearses defensive magics that would serve to protect mage and dragon both against attackers - Pha's Protection, the Shield of Saphery and the Cerulean Shield - acutely aware that the rogue female had given no assurance that the threat within the cave had left, but not wanting to risk provoking a dragon that was already showing signs of paranoia.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#261 Post by Coradon Lorelian »

Coradon strode purposefully toward Altatar to show him the missive. However in his heart he knew something was very wrong. The last time so many signs of the druchii had been seen they had broken past the Eagle Gate and onto the plains of Ellyrion. In spite of his earlier boast to Altatar a discomfort had settled over him, one that shook him to his core. He then remembered Ariellanna and he knew that he would find some way back to her arms.

As he approached Altatar he again heard the voices on the wind that had plagued his sleep. "Altatar there is a missive from Aicanor." He handed it to the acerbic mage and he thought he saw a bit of displeasure and suspected it had to do with the general distance Shannar had kept from him. As for As he could tell it was a far more simple matter of two loner who stayed to themselves.

Shaking himself from his idle thoughts he asked "Can you send a message back to Aicanor reporting our findings so far. I have a feeling the voices on the wind may make more sense in a wider context."
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#262 Post by Aicanor »

The White Tower

Laicamir watches Tiralya walk away in opposite direction as they left the office. No doubt to make his own reports, and goes away to find a place to write his own in peace while Karalael goes to make his own preparations to leave the Tower. They plan to leave the same way they arrived, wondering whether they will be able to find a ship to Lothern quickly.


Rogue Dragon

The dragon and prince step inside the dark entrance into dimly lit corridor. It is not narrow - it looks like entrance to one of the old dragon dwellings, but long unused. And there is blood on the floor. They stop to listen, but only silence greets them. After a few paces of the dragon they come into a dome, lit from high above. There is a tall stone in the center. Something quite unexpected in the Caves, but then, the entrances to the dragon caves are seldom walled up... On the other side of the dome, there are more tunnels, leading further down under the mountains. And then there is the stench. Sweet, sickening stench of rot.


On the Wind

“There is nothing more to report yet than you already know. Write her if you would, please? I need to... concentrate.” the mage grumbled and started to walk away. He seemed distracted “Destroy the seal?” he muttered to himself, but Coradon caught the words on the wind. “What do they mean by that?” The words stirred something in Coradon’s mind. It was something he might have heard somewhere...

Coradon, frowning slightly, walked to the ship’s castle where the ship’s captain stopped him. “I guess it is you who is in charge of this venture now and I would like your word on what we are to do. I do not like this. I do not think we should continue on this course. I do not understand what this is all about, I never experienced something like it i these waters. Should we not be more cautious?”
He looked ahead into the greyness of cloud darkened sea. “But the decision is yours, lord.”
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#263 Post by draxynnic »

Anaril presses his left hand against a scale next to Cullanoch's spine, applying just enough pressure to be felt through the Moon Dragon's armoured hide - a prearranged signal between Curranoch and the Starseeker family that the rider wishes to stop. Leaning forward, Anaril looks over the menhir, first with normal vision and then with witchsight, seeking to discern it's nature.

Meanwhile, Curranoch's head swings from one side of the cavern to the other, first in a quick sweep and then peering at anything that catches his eyes, looking for the source of the smell. Nostrils flaring, the dragon sniffs cautiously at the air on the chance that an olfactory investigation might catch hints that the eyes miss.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#264 Post by Aicanor »

Rogue Dragon

The stone looked very old, even crumbling at the edges, and there is no doubt what it is, even for a wizard whose field of expertise lies elsewhere. It is a waystone, and one of the oldest by the looks of it. As Curranoch growled under Anaril, sending vibration through his body, the mage made a passing notice of the magic winds dispersing around the stone in an odd way. But Curranoch didn’t give Anaril much time for thought and moved in direction of one of the tunnels, deep sound coming from his throat. The tunnel was much narrower than the entrance and the archmage felt slightly sick as strong odour of rotting flesh breathed out from the dark opening.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#265 Post by Coradon Lorelian »

Coradon wrote the letter and sent it to Aicanor. He added a postscript detailing the strange malaise that had come over Altatar and Shannar. He drank another of the potions Ariellana had made him and sought out shannar and the first officer he needed to make them reach the island. He needed a way to fight this fugue state. He needed help and a knowledge of the arcane arts it seemed he was to be denied both.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#266 Post by Aicanor »

On the wind


*I probably didn’t make it clear enough, but Shannar and his rangers left on his Lord’s orders . They were needed for another task and I suppose another ship was sent for them and now they are gone.*



The captain was none too pleased by Coradon’s decision, but issues orders accordingly. Evening fell and the wind was gaining strength. Not enough to endanger the ship, but it brought the voices with yet more urgency. Even Coradon couldn’t ignore them completely, there are words in the whisperings, yet he couldn’t make sense of them. He couldn’t do much but wait and watch the multicoloured sky turn dark blue and ash black. And then he found himself standing on a sandy beach, but instead of breakers there were gleaming white figures. “Erase the evil sign, find them.. find them and destroy them. Tide is coming...slowly...”
Then he woke with a start. Loud, high pitched scream came from below the deck, suddenly cut short as Coradon's sense of hearing seemed to give out. There was total silence. And then roar of waves and flapping of sail cloth came back to him.

“Altatar!” he shouted, springing into action.

____

Lothern


Meanwhile, Aicanor sits at the high window of her Lothern apartment. She was reading through old court records almost continually in the past few days. But now two letters lie on top of the pile of papers and yet another, blank one, is already filling with runes as she writes.
Two letters, and both mentioning an occurrence of odd rune symbol. Both tied to the waystone network in a way. She already sent the information to the most of investigating Court members and to the White Tower. They probably already knew as one of the letters was Laicamir’s, but the other one from Coradon that was in a way confirming the findings.
She looks at the last letter and writes the last note. “To continue is too dangerous, turn back.” She seals the note with a sign of her House and hides it in her hands, muttering soft words. When she opens them, a small, fiery bird takes flight and vanishes from the open window with speed of lightning.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#267 Post by Coradon Lorelian »

Coradon burst into the cabin where Altatar slept his friend was screaming about "Destroying the seal." Altatar woke for a moment and then lapsed back into sleep."What do I do now?" He thought. He went up on top of the deck and longed for an answer. When he saw a tiny fiery bird flying toward them. When it alighted on his arm he read the message from Aicanor and then shouted to the captain to turn the ship around and sail them out of this place.

He needed sleep and answers and only Aicanor could help him. He hoped desperately that Altatar would return to his usual acerbic self as the distance from the vortex increased.
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Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#268 Post by draxynnic »

Choking down his nausea, Anaril gathers the wind of Hysh to illuminate the cavern, revealing the cause of Curranoch's anger... and, incidentally, the source of the smell, since they were one and the same.

Before Curranoch's foretalons sprawled the corpse of a male blue-and-white dragon, large enough to be one of Curranoch's brothers. Bolts marked by black and indigo fletching emerged from various points in the dragon's wings and body, but the injuries they represented would have been mere inconveniences to the dragon. Of greater import was a series of deep rent-marks as if the dragon had been slashed by a thousand scimitars, and regions where scales and flesh had been stained black and bore the marks of more advanced decay then the rest of the corpse - telltale signs that the dragon had been brought down by the work of Dhar. Worse, not all of the defilement of the dragon's form appeared to have occurred during the battle - across the dragon's scales were runes of pure darkness in the debased Druchii script that fought to push back against Anaril's illuminating glow. Steeling his determination, Anaril intensified the power behind the beam, augmenting the cleansing power of Hysh with trace amounts of Aqshy, Ghur, and Shyish to rally any lingering presence of the dragon's spirit to fight back the corruption, and the runes dwindled beneath the tide.

Signs of the struggle were spread across the cavern floor. A nest for holding dragon eggs lay behind the dragon's corpse, but only one shell could be seen within the nest, possibly broken in the struggle. The body of the dragonling that had been within the egg was not to be seen. Markings across the dirt on the floor suggested that the dragon had not been left where it fell, but had been heaved into its current position - its head pointing directly towards the waystone.

With a moment of the silent communication developed from decades of working together, dragon and archmage came to a decision. Once satisfied that the enchantment behind the runes posed no further threat, Anaril slid down Curranoch's side, leaving Curranoch to set the dead dragon to rights. Drawing the wind of Hysh around himself as a shimmering cloak of protective motes of light, Anaril strode towards the waystone, the light from his protective spell illuminating a scene that had previously been missed - corpses of what had once been dragon embryos, each also facing the stone and covered in dark runes... and, as inspection through witchsight confirmed, each lying on one of the ley lines emanating from the waystone.

As Anaril raised a beam of light to illuminate the rest of the stone to search for further defeliment, a sudden realisation struck his thoughts:

The number of corpses here was not enough to account for the clutch size that could be inferred from the volume of the nest.

Some of the eggs were missing.
Shadow star
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:38 pm

Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#269 Post by Shadow star »

Izen frowns before looking at Nightwing. "Fly to our friend at Albion, and tell him we will be unable to meet him. Ask him to send word of any change in the waystones energy. Fly swift, and may Morai-Heg smile on your journey." as his companion flies into the sky, Izen finds himself alone with Grey. He smiles at the wolf. "Your nose is keener then mine, see if you can sniff out anything ... interesting."


OOC: I may not post much right now, I've just lost a close friend. Will post as fequent as possible.
[i]The shadow of war is cast long in the dying light of peace.[/i]
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Aicanor
Rainbows
Posts: 2900
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:15 pm
Location: Tower of Hoeth

Re: Court of the Phoenix King

#270 Post by Aicanor »

On the windr

Altatar lay still all that night, but he burned as with fever. From time to time, he whispered incomprehensible words. Coradon was watching him for a while, and what he saw worried him. Then the captain sent the healer to watch over the archmage and Coradon went up to the deck. It was stiffling below the deck. But the night air outside gave little relief. All was eerily quiet now.. But the crew went around their tasks as usual, knowing they were now sailing away from the source of danger, not into it.
When dawn came, Coradon was already wide awake and when the lookouts shouted a warning, he was amongst the first to check what was going on. In the ship’s wake he could see a dark, sinuous shadow below the surface. Not for the first time he wished for firm, grassy ground of his homeland.
“Ship on the port side!” he heard someone shout as he pondered what new inconvenience this news would bring.

From the White Tower

Laicamir and Karalael boarded a trading ship that was on it’s way to Lothern from Avelorn forest, loaded with herbs, precious woods and silks. The captain was quite happy to take them aboard - for a small compensation. Both mages stood on board at dawn. Their sleep was troubled that night and even in the morning sun something seemed amiss.
“The wind has died...” they heard the captain mutter uncomfortably a few steps away. And the the lookouts shouted: “Ship ahead!”
As they got nearer, the two mages realized the outline of the ship, now sharply visible against lightening sky, was somewhat familiar.

Rogue Dragon

Anaril was shaken by what he saw in the cave, but he knew what had to be done. He searched for the traces of the foul ritual and saw what eluded his eyes before. A runic sigil was written in thinnest red lines over the stone, and around its lines the weave of the stone was unraveling into darkness, absorbing the flow of magic around, hiding it from unwary eyes.
The spells of concealment were broken now he and Curranoch removed the taint from the old dragon’s body, but that was scratching the surface of the true purpose of the perverse ritual. And there were other traces around the dome, signs of fierce fighting, shard of a broken sword, blood, dagger fallen from someone’s hand between loose stones, smears of old blood, but there were no other bodies.
Anaril frowned as he took in all the details of the scene, rage burning deep within his heart. Such rage he didn’t feel for long, long years. And to what purpose did the eggs the damned druchii took away? Did they too play part in the intricate ritual, or was it plain theft? And the ritual itself... someone has gone to great lengths to disperse the magic energy flowing through the leylines, but to what end?
Anaril started as a flash of warm light flew from the entrance towards him.

Ar Yvrellion

Grey howled as if he wanted to say to Izen that he had enough ships and elven cities. It was time to return where he belonged, into the wilderness. From the distance, another wolf answered.

*I am sorry to hear of your loss, I know how hard it is... Write as much (or little) as you feel okay with.*
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