A Wellspring of Regret

[SalmonMax]

Maighan considers that, then says, "If we were to defeat you in combat, would we win the keys without need of this compromise? And!"

 

She quickly holds up a finger. "And. If we were to defeat you in combat, would your essence not be freed from this place and return to your native plane?"

[Nina]

The demon stared down at Maighan, "I am not the Atronachs. You could not defeat me. But at the same time, my death would be freedom, so the Tower judges."

[SalmonMax]

"...and does the Tower require you to fight us with all your strength?" Maighan asked. "Or simply to stand in our way?"

 

"Do you have the option of simply...allowing us to free you from this form and prison, taking the key for our trouble?"

[Nina]

That chuckle again. "I would destroy all but one of you, then let that one end my suffering."

[SalmonMax]

"...so that sounds like a no then." Maighan shrugs. "Fair enough, it was worth asking."

 

She looked at the rest of the party. "So who wants to do the deed? It won't be me. My fortune places me in the company, not in a tower waiting."

[Asarasa]

Kathra gave the fey bard a sidelong glance. "Not a viable option, no." The brawny dwarf turned to face all her companions, her warhammer hanging down at her side, the glowing runes fading out, a distressed twist to her lips. "I would stay and trust you all to succeed, but my Vow compels me forward to see this quest through, in the midst of the fray and from beyond the borders of Tellus itself. A Vow I took before I met you all."

 

Shoulders squared with a serene determination, Renn strode from the circle of adventures before any of them could say anything more, to stand before the towering and wicked demon. It look down at the Eastern woman, a smirk adorning its profanely fine features. Renn looked up, eyes steady and unwavering.

 

"I shall stay," she said in a tone that intimated she would not be deterred.

It was a tone Kathra was well acquainted with. She slipped her warhammer through a beltloop than stepped up to Renn's side, reaching up to clap her on the shoulder with a wide, strong hand. "This is a great thing you do, Renn. We shall come back before the time is up, with Key in hand, this I swear."

[Nina]

Renn smiled down at Katra and the demon nodded. Then it looked up at the Tower and then its gaze fell down upon Maighan. "You, Maighan of Aetheridil," everyone glanced at Maighan, for Aethreridil was THE seat of power in the elven realms, the home of the Queen, "you shall climb the tower, alone, and retrieve the Key. The count of days begins when you have the Key."

[SalmonMax]

Maighan slung her bandalore back over her shoulder and pulled the strap tight against herself. She then tipped a salute to Kathra and Braga.

 

"So be it. I shall ascend and return. Fear not, short-lived ones. You won't be waiting long."

 

And with that she approached the tower to find the best place to begin the journey upward.

[Nina]

Maighan climbed. 

 

The steps were outside of the hollowed frame the Demon named the Tower. they were steep and wound abut the legs with bridges leading from leg to leg so that her journey covered the whole of the edifice.

 

As was said the tower was hollow and as Maighan climbed she saw things inside, visions. She saw the world as it was, the great forest which covered all the land, long long before the three leaves were risen. She saw the great elven city Aetheridil, in its triumphant glory in the days when it straddled the realms, occupying both this word and the Other, at once. She saw the Lady Queen before the Fall. She saw the fall of elven dominance the sundering of their race, the rise of the lesser mortals. She saw all of this and more during her climb and then she was there.

 

The platform at the pinnacle, there rested the Key upon a dias. It did not look like a key it was an uncut lump of some unknown stone, the same material the the transport   columns were made of. As Maighan looked at it she could feel its power. She knew that with this SHE could go anywhere, any when, she could accomplish anything. All she had to do was take the Key and claim it as her own!

[Shameless]

Brarga looked to Renn, who had been a comrade for a fair while now.   He had stowed his axes, and he removed the armored gauntlet of his right hand, offering his hand to her.   "We will return for you. my friend."   his deep rumbling voice sounded so absolutely certain.   It was highly uncharacteristic of Brarga to remove his armor in the field, and it spoke to how much he cared for his comrade, and how much he meant what he'd spoken."   After she took his hand, clasping at the forearm as was the Legionary style,  he smiled, or gave what she'd learned was a smile for him.   Once it was done, he donned his gauntlet again, and stood to watch their newest member ascend the tower alone as she'd been bidden to do.

[SalmonMax]

"Hmm," Maighan mused on seeing her quarry. Glee seized her, along with an impulsive urge to dash forward and grab the Key!

 

She had not been in Spring long though, and she felt just the ghost of an icy touch from the season that had turned drag over her heart, like a cloud momentarily obscuring the sun on a bright day.

 

A little easy, wasn't it? For something of this potency? Your eyes are good for more than mooning like a simpleton. Open them and LOOK.

 

With the mental equivalent of blowing a raspberry at her Winter self, Maighan cradled her instrument in the crook of her left arm, and drew steel with her right, then let her eyes rove over this ancient structure. This platform. This Key. Seeking any signs of mischief that awaited the one who had arrived to claim the prize.

 

Spoiler

Perception to see what tomfoolry's about.

1. 

   Dice MaidenBOT — Today at 6:42 PM

   SalmonMax Request: [1d20+5] Roll: [19] Result: 24

1.  

[Nina]

Maighan saw nothing that hadn't be apparent before, the Tower was steeped in magic, but the Key, it gave off nothing. The trap was in the tower. If she took the Key for her own ends it would doom the quest and her companions.

 

But she would possess the Power of the Key.

 

But the demon had chosen her to acquire the Key, what motivation did the Demon have?

 

Spoiler

Maighan is the only one there to take the Key. does she take it for herself? does she take it for the Quest? or does she leave it and return to her companions?

 

[SalmonMax]

Seeing no barrier, no ambush, Maighan goes to the waiting Key. The idea of just having it was...tempting, to say the least.

 

It would not cure her curse, but was that so bad? So she was split into four in her own head and sent randomly spinning through the seasons. What was that compared with the power to span the very world in a step? No door, no lock would bar her. The very fabric of the planes would mold between her fingers!

 

Stop it. It's my time now.

 

The last ebb of Winter faded from her, and the table revolved to show a different angle.

 

What good was power, all the power in the world, if she was not whole in and of herself? Where would she go if she wasn't safe in her own mind?  The Key was amazing, but it was not what she needed. Not she alone.

 

In the realm of Faerie, there were paths winding through the woods and mountains. Trails that were sometimes hard to see, harder to follow, but that would take you eventually to the place you needed to go. Mortals that blundered into that world would sometimes follow those paths, but would quickly lose faith, begin to question. Wonder if there was a faster way. Wonder what they were missing, just out of sight. They would step off and be lost.

 

Maighan decided she would not step off this path, as winding as it was. As tempting as the idea that something faster, something better, was just out of reach off of it.

 

A fortune paid, a fortune earned. She reached out and took the Key, then turned to descend the tower again and return it to her companions in this quest.

[Nina]

When Maighan completed her turn she was no longer in the tower.

 

Maighan, Marida, Brarga, and Kathra stood upon a hill top amid crumbling ruins. Beside them and towering over them was a worn Travel Column, its four sides each carved with different rune indicating its connections.

 

It was late, dusk approached and a cold wind blew from the northeast out of the distant mountains that they could see. East, far far away they could make out the hazy green of forests. This placed them in the northern part of the Dragearen Empire, to domain of the Dragonborn and their Divine Emperor. Below the hill tow ancient roads led away one, heading southwest and the other west.  The remnants of a third road could be made out below the north face of the hill, but that was over grown and its stones long since taken.

[Asarasa]

Kathra snorted as she looked around, fists planted on her hips. She enjoyed traveling, and her journeys had only skirted the Southern-most edge of the Dragearen Empire. But this isn't where they were supposed to be. Leastwise, she didn't think it was. She glanced back towards the Travel Column, similar to, but not the Master Column they had left the children at.

"I take it you retrieved the Key, Bard," Kathra drawled wryly, turning her jade green eyes on Maighan. "While I appreciate not needing to walk back through the deathless desert once more, you were too quick in trying its power. We were supposed to return to the Master Column, so that Yameesa could show us the rune to where we could find her mother. Can you use the Key again or does it need time to replenish its power? The days have started to countdown for Renn."

[SalmonMax]

Maighan quickly checks herself, including making sure the Key was still in her hand.

 

"Not by my will," she protested. "I took it, and this happened just a breath afterwards. Maybe...some kind of failsafe? Or perhaps...perhaps this is where we needed to go. That WAS on my mind as I took hold of the Key. The company and it's quest."

[Shameless]

Brarga let out a sigh, and shook his head.  "It's done now.  If we can't go back then we have to find another column, or do so on foot." He hadn't planned on coming home, hell he wasn't even sure exactly where they were, aside from the Northern part of the Empire, and he looked at the road.  "Well, all roads lead somewhere, we simply have to decide which to follow."   He hated magic like this, certainly there were types that were greatly beneficial, but he trusted it far less than he did his own strength and skill.   

 

[Asarasa]

Kathra narrowed her eyes slightly at the Eladrin, but had no valid reason to doubt her word. She gave the lump of strange stone in Maighan's hand suspicious glance, then shrugged and slung her shield over of a broad shoulder. A hand planted on a round hip, Kathra eyed the two roads before them, sparing an instant for the remains of the third below the face of the hill.

The she-dwarf snorted then strode up to one of the roads, then the other, peering at them closely, and the verges, seeing if either had seen relatively recent use. "Unless, the Key is giving you a sense of which way we should go, I say we go this way." Kathra pointed. "With nothing else to go on, this road seems to have seen the latest use."

 

Spoiler

Rolling a Survival roll to see if Kathra can find any tracks or signs of use.

Asarasa Request: [1d20+3] Roll: [20] Result: 23 - Natural 20

Assume Kathra is pointing down whichever road has the latest tracks or signs of use.

 

[Nina]

By latest Kathra meant that she could at least make out the lingering impressions of a single shod hoof print, very small, at least  a week,  possibly even two considering the dryness, old. Both roads were unkept and had weeds poking between the stones and was covered with dirt and dried mud and other detritus of nature. There were a large amount of small animal tracks but the hoof prints were fairly clear and  led off along the west road. 

 

While waiting for her companions to decide the stout dwarf followed the hoof prints a few yards and spotted what looked like a heel print of  a shoe or boot. It too was small. a woman's or child's print. She moved a little further and found more. These prints where the same age as the hoof prints and were likely together with the animal.

[Asarasa]

"it isn't much, but it's something. A week old, maybe two," Kathra admitted. "A woman's print, mayhaps, possibly a child's. With a pony or a mule it seems, perhaps a pack animal." Kathra straightened up, glancing down at the tracks, then looked westward down the old road. "Could they belong to the girls' mother? The witch?" She turned to her companions and shrugged. "Let us follow them for a ways and find what we find. A day, perhaps two, and if nothing, we come back and try the Travel Column and the Key once again."

[Shameless]

Brarga nodded.  "Sounds like a fair plan to me."  He still ached from their most recent combat, he knew everyone probably had some manner of injury.  "If anyone is still injured, make sure you let us know.  That was a difficult fight, but one we weathered well, together.   There's no shame in being injured."   He sighed.   His own blood had splashed on his armor, and while it was lessened, he could still feel the charred flesh from where he'd been struck by lightning attacks.   "I know I'm certainly not at a hundred percent on that front myself."

"When we stop for the night, make sure to check your armor, and if need be, have someone else help you with it.   We don't know what lays ahead of us, and we have to be as ready as we can be."

[Nina]

For two whole days the adventurers followed the road without once seeing any other travelers. It was late on the third day when they were starting to look for a likely camping spot that Marida and Maighan both heard the tinkling of small bells.

 

The two elves melted into the sparse woods with Kathra and Brarga following. They moved quietly a short distance where the came upon a clearing with a stream cutting through. At the streams were a small herd of goats, some of them with collars that had small bells hanging from them. The two elves also spied a young human boy of perhaps 12 years of age wearing worn homespun and carrying a crooked goatherd’s staff.

 

This goatherd was the first soul they had seen since coming through the Travel Column. Perhaps he could tell them where they were. Maighan and Marida showed themselves in a non-threatening way the goats paid them no mind and when the boy saw them, he stood a little straighter and glanced about warily but otherwise showed no alarm nor fear.

 

Greetings were exchanged at a distance and the elves moved closer but before they could engage in conversation Brarga and Kathra entered the clearing. The boy looking past the elves saw the dwarf and the dragonborn and his eyes flew wide, and a look of fear crossed his face. With a shrill whistle which could be heard at a good distance the boy spun and fled the clearing and the goats alerted by the whistle also scattered running hither and yon.

 

Marida bade the others to stay here while she went after the boy and not waiting for a response she darted after the goatherd.

 

She followed him moving silently and quickly caught up to him, but the boy was still running and seemed not to be going after his charges. Marida decided to hang back and follow the boy. They came to a well-worn cart path, the boy turned up the path and kept running. Marida followed. About half a mile down the path Marida came upon the outskirts of a small village.

 

The boy ran into the village and began calling out. In a short time the village square where a water well was, was full of people. Marida chose not to enter the village as she felt that might cause further alarm and instead returned to her companions to fill them in.

[Exile_Jeane]

Marida was still chuckling over the fact that, for the first time since she left the Radha woods, the appearance of a Grugach and a high elf drew less alarm than that of a dwarf. It was the first real bit of cheer she'd expressed since the demon beastie had claimed their bard companion as tribute to access the key. The elder powers were known to extract a price for their aid, and the warrior was sad to see that this one had been a tax of body and soul so soon. She'd make sure to loop around and give him the beastie's head as a liberty present once she had A) killed it and B) found a way to break the hex. Every hex had to have a condition to undo it. That was what the stories said anyway. The stronger the hex, the more simple the hex breaker once you figured it out.

 

But that was tomorrow's tomorrow.  

 

"Aye," she stated, strolling back up to the group to long strides, "'Erever we bae, there's 'en entire covey 'f folk ready tae extract a weregild from our 'ides for putting a fright entae tha boy. Ye call how to handle et."

 

The ashen-skinned warrior ducked and started sketching out the layout of the village in the dust with one finger as she'd spotted it from the tree line, complete with color commentary. 

[Asarasa]

Kathra glanced down at Marida's dust-drawn sketch with a nonplussed expression. They'd followed the track longer than she'd wanted, and what they found hadn't been what she expected. The reaction was even less so. She believed the shepherd boy had been more frightened of Brarga then herself, despite Marida's amusement. Dwarves rarely ranged far from their mountains.

"Let's leave talk of weregild for later, aye? Better to come to these folks out and in the open and see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps we can do somewhat to allay their fears, and in return, they can tell us if they've seen any suspect witches about. Let's be about it, then."

 

So saying the brawny she-dwarf started strolling towards the village Marida had found, tapping out a jaunty rhythm on her hand drum to well announce their approach.

[Shameless]

"Can't say that's the first time I've gotten that response."  Brarga said with a dissatisfied grunt.   He stowed his axes on his back, to look less threatening.  His thoughts were drawn to the badge on a thong around his neck, the same he wore proudly as a Sergeant Major in the 8th IRC.   The Imperial IRC's had a reputation for helping those at the edges of the Empire, and though he seldom did so, he might be called on to reveal this here.  His name was engraved on the back of it.   He wouldn't ever be a legionnaire, but he didn't mean to be.  That wasn't the path he'd set himself on.

"It's not like we actually harmed the child.   Though I do admit, roast Goat would definitely hit the spot after nothing but field rations."   Renn's fate was of course on his mind, and they had only so much time to return for her.  Still with no other leads, heading to the village was the best way forward.   At  least they might resupply there, and figure out exactly where they were.  "Kathra, I'll ask you to speak for us, unless things require me to do so."