Legends of Tyrrus

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Tessa smiled with relief. "Yeah, she's with us. Or well...." She wouldn't call Kara a packmate, necessarily. Though the girl had done nothing to exclude herself from being named as such. "She's one of us." She decided firmly, glancing at Conrad. "If she's okay with following a giant spider, I'm sure she wouldn't mind helping." She smiled a little at the man next to her. "You should have more faith in her. She named you truly, after all." Tessa didn't elaborate on more then that as she turned back to Rayyad.

"Could the spider bring her here to help us? Or else..she should just stay where it's safe." The girl had already been bitten by one spider today, and without Tessa there to heal her, she shuddered to think what kind of trouble Kara could get into on her own. Plus, it might be better if Rayyad was introduced to their group one at a time. If Kara's presence was any indication, the others were looking for them now. Perhaps she shouldn't have been so hard on Conrad. Another time. Focus on Kara.

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Kara leaned forward, a little more comfortable with the spider now that she knew its name. "That's lovely. I wish my mother had been that creative with her names. Kara's so boring, isn't it?" She paused, tapping a finger to her cheek. "Do you mind if I call you Shady? Just for short. And it'll be between us." She laughed a little before turning her head to the side as the spider pointed to where she had come from.

"Oh, that. That's Ren." She turned a little, looking at the door with a slight frown. "Well, that's the door, but behind the door is Ren. The one who told that beautiful story." She turned back to the spider. "He's my...." Did spiders have relationships? Was she even in a relationship? Best keep it simple for now. "He's my friend. We stay in a group together. We were going to come through here to look for our other friends who seem to have gotten a little lost, but then the door closed and well, then I met you!" She shrugged. "It's so good that I was the one who came first." She leaned towards the spider a little conspiratorially. "Between you and me, men are more likely to attack first and ask questions later. Such silly creatures!"

 

Alice's pov:



She became increasingly worried. She looked a Lumen not sure what to do. She leaned up onto the cave wall, defeat in her eyes. She knew that when ever she tried to use her magic it did not work. She was not sure why she even tried. "Why do you stay with me?" Lumen was so much more then she could ever hope to be. She saw that all she was really doing here was holding Lumen back. "I am just holding you back. Everyone was right about me." She had no skill to help anyone. She could not even think of a way across the cave. She was not sure why Lumen was even asking her for the answers. She did not have any answers. "Everything is a mistake." Everything she would and could do was a mistake. Mistake after mistake she could do nothing with magic. She did not even know how to use it, let alone be helpful with it. She began to wonder if coming here was just another mistake on a long list of mistakes. She felt down and there was nothing she could do. She was not sure how she could ever hope to learn anything here.


Kevin's pov:



He looked over at Aston. He could see so much when he talked to Anthea. There was so much there in him. He smiled at the man as he talked. There was so much to the mans words. He truned to Bob when he said 'Just exploring? Weird way to explore, up by Fogwarden' "Not at all. People go into the forest all the time." 'There has to be something here. Maybe it's a load of treasure or something' "Ah treasure, probably rumors or something. It might just be an old man's tale." 'Also again, did you guys mention a Kellan?' "I did not maybe someone else did." That was when Baldomar brought Kellan over. When some asked for something it was best to figure out why, then to just give the person what they wanted. He then walked away from Bob with nothing more to say. He saw Aston. "Sir, I think we should get going."

 

"Hammer time? Yeah, I can see why you might be specialised in that art. Big ol' hammer you got there." He replied, making some casual conversation with the barbarian. "Err, no. My name is Russell." He started to laugh when the barbarian picked up who was revealed to be Kellan, who struggled profusely and started to kick him in order to get him to put him down.
"Baldy I swear to the Father, put me down or I'm going to hurt you!" Why does this always happen to me? "Anyway, what do you care who I am?"
"Well, sh*t. Phillius wasn't kidding when he said that you were going to come after us. And that you're an idiot." Russell answered.
"He's here?" Kellan stopped struggling and focused intently on what the stranger was saying, who smiled amusedly because Baldomar was still holding him up and he looked quite silly.
"Yeah. And a fair few of the Burning Blade. I don't know what you did, but we're meant to kill you on sight." Realising what he just said, he put his hands up in the air and backed away a bit with a nervous chuckle. "Not that I would do that! You guys just saved my ass from those wolves. I've got no loyalty to them, they're the ones that left me."

"Good work, but I'd suggest we wait you two. I think there might be more going on here than we knew..." Aston gestured towards the conversation going on between Kellan, Baldomar and the guy they rescued whose name turned out to be Russell. "Sounds like some people here have history." He watched and listened intently with his hands resting on the hilts of his blades. What else did Kellan fail to mention, I wonder?​

 

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Darklight Disturbance
"Oh, Okay, that's cool! I'll let them in" Rayyad smiled. He liked meeting new people. Well, he imagined he did. As long as they were good people. As he shuffled his foot kicked a bone and he was suddenly reminded of where he was. "Let's get out of here" Rayyad once more led the way into the darkness as they left behind the glowing circle and the agonised bodies. There were less skeletons here, but enough to remind him of the fates of his ancestors. Suddenly out of the darkness loomed a large stone door. And covering it, a blue silk spider's web. The web glowed softly and didn't seem to made from real spider silk. To the sides of the room there were statues, but these were more humanlike. They each stood above a patch of bare soil, seeming to be weeping. In the shadows of the cave above the web, eight glowing blue eyes glared at the group, and a soft hissing could be heard. In the centre of the door lay a socket, but no gems could be seen nearby.

Shadowweaver cocked his head as if confused, then shrugged. The door suddenly opened and Laurentinus was allowed passage into the ancient city.

 

Well, that depressing moment came out of nowhere. Like that escalated quickly. That had left Lumen speechless for a couple of second while he tried figure out what exactly to say. He had no idea what anyone had been saying her, mainly cause he was asleep for most of it. "Well, you haven't really done much to actually hold me back, I mean the whole 'moving the cave' thing was a bit extreme, but it would've been a good idea if it had worked." Speaking of good idea that worked, hopefully what Lumen had said would break the depressed funk Alice was in.

 

Alice's pov:



There was not much to say. Lumen had said she was not holding him back, but that might be him being nice. The question was why. She could not think of anything that would make him be that way. Maybe she would just find out in time. She smiled at Lumen, but said nothing. Really she was ready to move on from this cave. Lumen said he had good ideas. Meh, her magic never worked the way she wanted it to so really she should have known better. She wanted to get better with her magic but she had no clue how to start. Shyra had said she would help her, but looked back she could see how well that option turned out to be. She then looked over at the countless spiders and waited for Lumen to move, because at this point Garrett had no better plan.


Kevin's pov:



Aston had said that there was more going on then what here than we know. That was nothing new. There was always things that was unknown. Aston said something about history. "The past, a long road that make you who you are, but will not make you what you will be." He then thought back to his past. Was he here because of it? What if something else turned out. The second chance in the life. Not many people get a second chance. He looked over to the group. Kellan seemed to be hiding information. Information that would show its self in due time. Burning Blade that name it sounded like an assassins group. "Sir, Burning Blade it might be an assassin group of some sort", he whispered to Aston. He began looking around. Things did not quite line up. Kill on sight. "Sir, this might be a trap, set up. How did they know we where coming?" he whispered to Aston. He narrowed his eyes and began looking around everywhere. Hand on his wepond.

 

Conrad followed Rayyad who said he'd let Kara in, if Kara was here maybe the others were as well. The accusations would probably start flying again, but he'd rather take that than having to bury them all. There were fewer bodies around and they happened upon yet another door. He looked at the webbing it didn't seem to be real at all. And he heard hissing. He grabbed his newly acquired sword and stood at the ready. "I don't like this, I don't like this at all..." Conrad muttered, he took a bone from one of the skeletons that was laying around and prepared to throw it, he wanted to know if that web was really there or not. "Everyone stay sharp, if you don't have any objections I want to test if that thing over there is real..." He figured he'd keep the whole discussion thing going, after all maybe he overlooked something. The statues had changed and he recalled that Rayyad had warned against hallucinations and he was afraid none of this was real.

"Well Russel, nice to meet ya." He said as the stranger introduced himself. As he carried Kellan over the man tried to struggle free and even attempting to kick him, but the barbarian simply marched on and eventually put Kellan down. "Promises Sithwyr, promises" The barbarian only said. Russel mentioned a new group called the burning blade. "Say, Kellan friends of yours and your Radiant sword or is there something you haven't told your old pal Baldy?" The barbarian would have felt insulted that Kellan kept secrets from his old friend, but he really didn't give two shits. "Say who is this Philius guy and how the hell do you lot know each other, seeing Kellan probably isn't gonna tell me, say Russel would you be a gentleman and elaborate? I feel like we're missing something here." Baldomar asked the man and then thought for a moment and then looked at Kellan "Wait, you didn't borrow money from a loanshark right?" Everyone knew that was a bad idea, well nearly everyone.​

 

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Tessa turned and grabbed his arm, her eyes piercing in the near darkness. "Conrad." She whispered urgently. "Spiders are drawn to movement. If you throw that bone, and the web is real, then you call the spider directly to us. It'll stick to the web and the vibrations will tell the thing right where we are." Her hand loosened on Conrad's arm as she glanced at Rayyad. "Can you tell if it's real?" She asked quietly. The hissing hadn't escaped her notice, and she wasn't sure if whatever it belonged to had good enough perception to understand, much less hear what they were saying.

"If you can't, perhaps I can get close enough to examine it without touching it." She suggested, her voice still nearly silent. She didn't want to make their already perilous journey any worse.

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Kara giggled as the spider shrugged, unused to seeing the very human gesture on an arachnid. She turned as the door swung open, her eyes softening as Laurentinus rushed through and hugged her. But her breath froze in her lungs as he spoke, her mind picking out words and somehow ignoring the rest. Allowed? Let me? She lowered her eyes as Ren pulled back to face the spider. "This is Shadowweaver." Kara introduced the spider to Ren as she stepped away from him, giving him a little space. Her mind and her heart tangled with what she felt and heard and wanted and shewasgettingreallyconfusedreallyfast. "Can you take us to our friends?" She added onto Ren's question, her confused eyes clearing as they returned to look at the spider.

 

With the sudden depression moment over, there was nothing left for Lumen and Alice to do but to sneak down the narrow path and hope that RNG didn't screw them over and that's exactly what they did.

 

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Big Game Hunting
Fordington Survivor's Camp, Dragonvale:
Sanderson smiled at Bryce "I'm sure Aedan, Panola and Elder Greenbeard have that sorted. Those chaps know more about medicine" Sanderson explained. "Meanwhile, could you help me with the tents, old sport? Additionally we'll need to set up a watch, would you mind terribly taking the first watch, my good man?" Sanderson asked Bryce as he began to unpack their bags and set up the tents "Lyra, can you use your magic to set us up a campfire? Honestly I wish I'd had your talents when I was camping out in the wilderness in my youth!" Sanderson chuckled

Old Man Greenbeard:
Greenbeard narrowed his eyes at Aedan as the man bowed. Greenbeard's followers looked at Aedan aghast and shook their heads in warning. Harrumphing, Greenbeard hit Aedan over the head with his stick "Don't bow to me! I ain't no lord, or king. I'm just a senile old man who talks to trees!" Greenbeard exclaimed "Follow!" Greenbeard gestured as he hobbled away. Eventually the old man led them to a group of survivors, some of whom were injured. The Elder tapped his staff on the ground and around him appeared flowers and herbs, which he then applied to some of the injured. Suddenly from out of nowhere appeared a green reptilian creature, which gnashed and snarled at the gathered humans. Some of them ran and screamed, which only agitated the drake more. Aedan could hear the voice of the drake in his head.
"Humans! Humans! Must eat! Lovely meat! Rip the flesh, drink the blood! Starving! Starving! Human meat! Tasty! Tasty!"

 

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Bryce nodded slowly, frowning as he considered what Sanderson said. The concentration didn't last long, as he needed to focus on what his hands were doing. Which, at the moment was tying one of the pack strings into terrible knots instead of untying it. He sighed and sat down, working stubbornly at the strings until it finally came undone. Next was actually pulling the tent and setting it up.

Bryce thanks the gods, whatever and wherever they were, that he had experience in this area. It had already taken far too long to even get the cloth out of the bag in the first place. "Whoever packed this needs a lesson in tent packing." He muttered, conveniently forgetting that it had been him that had done so.
Once he had wrestled the tent together with several curses and promises that the clothed home would never prevail, he rested in front of it, running his hands through his hair several times.
"What exactly do you want me to do for watch?" He turned, eyeing Sanderson's sideburns with suspicion once more. "I suppose, over here is a good spot." He would have to let the strange facial hair plot in peace, for now. The more immediate threat was the drakes that were prowling around. Or the mountain cats. Or the elephants. Did they have elephants here? He wasn't sure, but they were dangerous creatures, not to be trifled with.

As he stood at the edge of camp, peering into the darkness, he felt his hand reach for the grip of his weapon. "Even if the facial hair escapes, I'll defend this camp to my last." he murmured softly, recalling an oath from long ago.

​

 

"Ow." Aedan spoke as he was bonked on the head with a large wooden rod. He winced. It could be worse, it could have been a Zweihander and I saw what that did to Bryce. It was probably a good thing that Bryce wasn't with Greenbeard, otherwise his already delicate brain chemistry might be too far gone for any hope of recovery. Maybe it already was? "Sorry s- Greenbeard. I won't do that again." Turns out, the outside world is full of a lot of informal people. I never realised how comparatively orderly we were back home. Aedan shrugged to himself and followed Greenbeard as he was bid. A tap of his staff and a ring of flowers appeared and he began to treat people, and Aedan naturally joined him. Amazing, he can conjure up the perfect herbs! Such skill! He picked the appropriate herbs and assisted Greenbeard in tending to the injured. It was going well until the Drake arrived. He heard its voice, and Aedan frowned. Now that is just rude! He stood up and stepped in front of people, placing his stand in front of him as impressively as he could.
"No, humans are not what you want to eat!" Aedan declared. "Because humans have pointy sticks made out of metal, and they hurt! And humans have magic, which also hurt! Go into the forests and find deer! And bears! Why are you hunting humans?" He transmitted these signals into the mind of the beast, as well as speaking out loud so other would know what he was saying. He attempted to conjure ideas of humans = pain, deer and bears = tasty. The drake was unlike anything he had ever spoken to before. Birds were quite pleasant (Apart from robins) and bees were nice too, but this was an aggressive force.




"You met Phillius, Baldomar. Remember that guy outside of Haven who I spoke to, and then tried to convince me to join them, and then rejected us because he was a pompous *******? Yeah, that guy." He explained, folding his arms. "He used to be a member of the Order of the Radiant Sword, like me. He used to be one of the best of us. But now..."
"Now he's making a killing by running the Burning Blade mercenary group, which I am a part of." Russell continued. "He's still a pompous ******* by the way. And he thought that you might be coming. He knows that you're trying to get back at him for betraying the Order. Gotta hand something to you though, he's obviously worried enough to tell us to watch out for you."
"So you brought us into this grudge of yours?" Aston asked. "Is there actually anything worthwhile here, like you said?"
"Yeah, he didn't lie about that. This place does actually have valuable stuff in it."​

 

Tessa grabbed his arm and spoke up explaining to him why exactly it was a bad idea. "Good point, I must admit I didn't actually know that...." He whispered in return, carefully putting the bone back down on the cavern floor, after she had let go off his arm. "Well real or not we'll have to get past it, somehow, not to mention the door behind it. If you two try to figure out whether or not that web is real, I'm gonna see if there's anything with those statues, they seem a bit out of place here... I'll be right over there, if the owner of the web comes back we'll have to try our chances in overpowering it." He whispered to them then walking over to the human looking statues to inspect them they seemed to be weeping over bare soil. That was rather odd, patches of soil where the remainder was all stone... He knelt down in front of one of the statues, looking warily for any traps before he began to dig through the patch of soil with his hands to see if he could find anything buried there. Maybe he should have stuck close to them, after all safety in numbers, but he wasn't too far away from them, now was he?

Baldomar thought long and hard for a moment to remember who this Philius guy was and then remembered, yep that guy. Ah Haven that was some fun past-time for the barbarian. "Ah, that guy." Baldomar said "Well then, Kellan, what do you say we introduce your old pal to one of my great pals." Baldomar said, hefting his hammer. "After all you got a score to settle and old pal Baldy is ready for some hammering." The barbarian said, Aston inquired about the validity of this quest. What did it matter why they were here. Grudge, gold both of them started with the same letter. It didn't matter, but Russel said that there actually was something worthwhile in there. "Well what are we waiting for then? I'm really itching to hit something and I think Kellan's gonna oject if I use his face as target practice again, then again it could only improve." Baldomar said with a grin on his face, then remaining quite for a moment and started laughing. Baldomar started sniffing the air, he could sense him out there somewhere on the same page. He sniffed the air again, sucked his lungs full of air and roared angrilly: "GREENBEEEEAAAAARRRDD!!" ​

 

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Darklight Disturbance
Darklight Tunnels, Darklight Caverns, The Sunset Mountains:
Rolling d20 +1 for Alice's success at getting past the spiders
Alice rolled an 18. 10 was needed for success.
She successfully gets past. +10 Exp
Rolling d20 +2 for Lumen's success at getting past the spiders
Lumen rolled an 8. 10 was needed for success.
Rolling d20 for his luck
Lumen rolled a 9.
As Lumen passes by, one spider wakes and attacks him

The lighter tiles are all webby covered, if you step on them more spiders will wake up.​

Giant Spider used Slash! (6 AP)
Lumen successfully parried

The Mines, Arak'Un, Darklight Caverns, the Sunset Mountains:
Rayyad examined the web cautiously "Uh, I think it's a Spiritweaver's Web" Rayyad stated, the looked up anxiously at the eight glowing blue eyes above them "One of the only spider types I don't have control over. They're the ancient guardians of Arak'Un" he turned back to the others "Any ideas for how to open this door?"

Arak'Un Entrance, Darklight Caverns, the Sunset Mountains
Without a word, the spider began to scuttle away and gestured for the two humans to follow it. It lead them through the abandoned streets and forests of Arak'Un, only inhabited by various small animals, until they reached a house that was slightly less dilapidated. The titanic spider couldn't go inside, but nodded for the two to go inside. The house had two rooms. The first was a kitchen of sorts, with a small table in the centre and some food preparation areas to the side and a fireplace. The second was a bedroom, with an unmade primitive bed in one corner and a small bookshelf.

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Big Game Hunting
Fordington Survivor's Camp, Dragonvale:
The drake looked up in surprise at Aedan, then growled in response "Starving! Starving! No bears! No deer! Winter Man scared them away! Winter Man scared us out of home! Need human meat! Need human flesh! Forest is cold, too cold! Human den is warm!" the drake snarled, then snapped at some of Greenbeard's followers. They stepped back and stared in surprise at both the drake and Aedan, but the old man himself simply looked at Aedan appraisingly "So you can communicate to them too? Hmmm" Greenbread stroked his beard thoughtfully "The others have all said similar things, warnings about the "Winter Man" and being scared away from their natural land. Something's disrupting the Mother's course of nature" Greenbread suddenly turned to the drake threateningly, his staff raised "You do not belong here! Unnatural spawn of Assuria!"

 

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Tessa sighed with relief as Conrad didn't press the issue, and followed him to the statues. The ground was bare in front of them, dry and dehydrated. She knelt, running her fingers over the dirt, frowning. It called out to her, aching and painful. She swallowed, reminding herself that she was not the one who was dying of thirst. "Everything deserves a chance to live." She whispered, pushing life into the dirt with her fingers. As the grass began to grow, she sighed, feeling a little better with something green and not trying to kill her in her surroundings.

She moved on to the next patch after the grass had reached sufficient height. It might not be helpful, but at least she was doing something and it wasn't drawing a giant spider towards them or getting poisoned.

​

Kara followed the giant spider willingly, talking to it about anything and everything as they strolled along. She slowly lost her wariness of the darkened caves around her as she spoke, laughing at her own jokes and smiling as she imagined the spider to slowly warm up to her. When they reached the small hut, Kara paused, before patting the hairy creature on one leg. "We'll be right back." She promised it with a genuine smile before entering the little house. It was quaint, and much nicer then anything she had ever owned, or really slept in.

"I wonder who lives here. I wonder when they'll be back." Kara gently lifted up the coverlets to make sure there indeed wasn't anyone hiding underneath them before letting it drop from her fingers. "I wonder if Tessa and Conrad were here." She poked her head back out the door to talk to the spider. "Are Tessa and Conrad nearby? With whoever lived here?"

 

Aedan frowned at the mention of the 'Winter Man'. That sounded ominous, as well as the problem at the heart of this. He looked to Greenbeard, who seemed a little surprised about the fact that he knew how to communicate. The druid was not surprised that Greenbeard could both hear, and could do so as well. Perhaps this strange old man would be a good teacher, if he could only convince him. That, and he had obligations to the society. Maybe one day, he would go to Greenbeard for some training when he had the time and the permission of Sanderson.
"Yes... I thought that there would be some deeper reason behind all this. Good thing we figured it out so soon and can tell Sanderson. He's a good man, but he would have loaded his guns and tried to kill them all unnecessarily." Aedan replied, tapping his fingers on his staff thoughtfully. He looked to the drake again. "What is the Winter Man? What did the Winter Man do?" It was possible that this Winter Man was some sort of powerful wizard, which they could deal with. If he could get a little bit more out of the drake, it would help. They might even be able to convince the drakes to help them get rid of the winter man so that they could have their original home back.




"Well, to be honest I pulled you along here to help so, of course I'm accepting your help Baldy. Even though you're only a little better looking than I am and smell like a marsh, you're a helpful, reliable friend." Was he really that reliable? Really? Kellan honestly wasn't sure if that was necessarily true. It made him sound nicer to everyone else, so there was that. After all, most of them probably weren't going to be so happy about the whole not telling them everything thing. He looked at the quiet girl who hadn't yet said anything and nodded emphatically. "Right you are, Chri- What was your name again? Was it Christina? I didn't catch it." ​

 

After a little bit he stopped digging, especially when Tessa came over as well and she had an odd look on her face, something he couldn't quite place, but as she ran her fingers over the soil to grow the grass he pulled his hands back as he watched the magic work, he couldn't understand or grasp how this worked. He himself lacked any and all magic power so he just watched the grass grow before his very eyes. Maybe she had been on to something. "Well, my guess would be that since there's an oddity here in the cavern floor, I'd say it has something to do with that." Conrad started "I mean the cavern floor, is made out of stone as far as we have seen for now. Yet here are patches of soil... the statues appear to be weeping so they lost something.... so maybe flowers or plants?" Conrad reasoned out loud. "Say those spirit weavers anything specific making them more dangerous than normal spiders?" Conrad inquired as after all if they were gonna have to fight again he wanted to know what he could expect and what he needed to watch out for.​