[Game Thread] Chapter Seven: Bloodlines

[Alphaeus]

Silverforge A sideways glance is earned by Didina's first response. He could tell it was a slight to his willingness to submit to a god's demands for no apparent reason. Insinuating he was a pawn wasn't something he planned on letting slide. "He who offends the least is ignored the most. He who is ignored most is restricted the least. He who is restricted the least can do the most. This is he who will know true power as others rise and fall around him." He chuckled a Didina's comment to Misa. "Yes, I must say I quite agree with Lady Reid on this point...though perhaps I am...biased, shall we say. That said...still...feathers? If you want an alternate texture, try Wildwood -- flexible, silky fibers yet an attractive earthy look. Not fluff." Her shift into the tone of business, however, was duly noted. Behind his mask of conviviality a predatory gleam struggled to show through, suppressed only by force of habit. His own tone moved from a comfortable friendly warmth to a tone just a half step off. It was a warmth that was as encompassing and relaxing and lulling as before, but not unlike the warmth felt by a rat as its life is ended by the coils of serpent, warm yet hinting of hardened coldness on some almost indiscernible level. "I am The Nightbringer. Such will suffice, for impressing is quite the opposite of my intentions...though I assure you, if you want a spectacle such I could certainly bring. I was never under the deception that you did 'buy' me -- it is a bad habit of yours to confidently drop subtle words that clearly explain both your abilities and knowledge to anyone perceptive enough to catch them, spoiling whatever advantage of knowledge you could have potentially possessed. I have other allies I can and will seek -- also, I duly quote both your king and the god in question when they advised me to seek your assistance, but his Highness was not aware until I spoke with him tonight. I wish to do simple business with you on friendly terms, that is all. Do not overestimate the bargaining power you suppose you possess based upon my supposed need or desire for your assistance for this matter -- I have been successfully attending to my affairs for many times longer than your lifespan, and will continue to do so far past the day age introduces you to the final slumber."

OOC Do note: Everything said here is true. He does not know all of Didina's abilities, but her awareness of his true form did not go unnoticed, so being familiar with magic he can assume she possesses some form of true seeing or the like, knows of her mental powers by extension, and has also assumed that she receives just a bit too much attention for more reasons than mere personality and beauty.

[Makenshi]

Didina can't help but roll her eyes at his aphorism, disguising it as a reaction to Misa's latest defence of feathers. "Hmmm, I've heard something like that before. It didn't impress me then and it doesn't impress me now. 'Rule' from the shadows all you like, but I fully intend to enjoy the fruits of my efforts and labour for all the world to see."

Misa shrugs. "Wildwood's fine, but it's still a fibre. Feathers are much more interesting, although not as much as a good head of hair I'll admit."

Didina preens. "And horns, don't forget those. Especially when they have jewels."

Misa chuckles. "Well, yes, that was the reason I actually paid any attention to you. I'd only met a few Tieflings or others of Fiendish blood with horns before, but I'd never met someone who decorated them before. They're also quite an appealing shape I must admit."

That comment quickly earns an almost predatory look from Didina. "Oh, appealing, you say? In what way?" She strokes one of her horns in what would probably be considered a seductive manner if she were doing it anywhere else on her body.

Misa smiles, letting out a quick, bark of a laugh. "Oh, come on. You hardly need to go fishing for complements from me."

Didina sighs in response to his latest comments. "Again, saying so much, yet so little. I had assumed that you knew, as most who matter must by now, that I have had some hand in these investigations of King Vulcar. Therefore, I'm not in a position to blindly trust a strange Fiendish man of Drow blood who I only know from a smattering of interactions in a nation famed for its corruption. Maybe you did talk to my King, and maybe he did send you my way, but as far as I know he could have done so to simply be rid of you." There is a slight pause before she continues. "Let me make this clear: if you want my help then I won't work with people I don't know. Either give me a good reason to trust you beyond 'my God told me to' or stop wasting my time and go bother someone else so I can enjoy myself."[/i]

~MTWC

[Blue]

Mrith eased back into her territory. There was so much lore to go through. She imagined that the stories of the Children of the Dark would be yet more stories of everlasting warfare. Probably not what she needed at the moment.
She would sound slightly playful. "Anything I'd wish to share would cover much! Say, do you have any of the memories of the wielders of the Unnamed Blade? Or perhaps recollections of what it went through? It could give me an idea of what you may already be familiar with."

[Alphaeus]

Silverforge Another exchange between the two women, another mental note. Just observations, building a relational structure in his head. "Well, personally, I've always been of the opinion that any bodily feature that is appropriate and well proportioned on any race can be attractive, generally speaking." He sighed at Didina's stubbornness. He didn't enjoy dropping his face for anyone, and despite the fact that she knew what he was, she didn't know who, and he would have preferred to keep it that way. The Children were the ones with whom he was comfortable as his normal self, and no one else. That said...an alliance needed to be made in regards to The Young King, and this lady was likely his best contact. "I have forged my life on keeping myself to myself, so my reserve is merely natural. Still, an alliance needs to be made on this plane with someone representing the mortal family of The Sword in the Dark, so therefore with his behest behind me I speak. I am Silverforge of the Wildsouls, founder and head of the Darkborn family...a Child in the Dark. I am a Fey'ri...not unlike yourself, but merely more fiend than anything else and involving Drow blood instead of human. I spent the first century and a half of my life living with the fiends -- born a bastard son of a slave owner, was trained in their elite forces...and have gone on to destroy entire He's personally destroyed small outposts/forts. As to cities, he's wrecked their leadership and spread complete chaos and fear...but destruction in a literal sense is not intended herecities of theirs. I am what the children call a Face in the Dark -- one who infiltrates the fiends and other realms to protect our interests. I have been training and leading Children now for well over fifty years. Ask any of the older Children here, and most will know at least the name of The Nightbringer, and commend me. I bear on my chest a stone fused to my skin by the power of The Sword himself, a personal gift. I'm sure you can see it. Does that suffice for...your ladyship?" The last words were said as if speaking to a child, for such she was to the Fey'ri. He was not derogatory -- in truth, she was playing the same hand he would have done were the roles reversed. Nevertheless, despite having to acquiesce for the sake of his goals, he was not about to injure his pride in doing so. Such was simply not his nature.

[Xian]

Adam Originally Posted by Sublime "True enough. He's far too concerned about magic this and phenomenal cosmic power that. How he enjoys that sort of thing is beyond me. If I wasn't convinced that he was asexual then I'd suspect he sleeps with magical tomes and treatises." "See now that is an image that I did not need in my head." Adam said as he pretended to cringe at the supposed imagery in his head before laughing and taking long pull from the drink that the Children had given him. "See... uh... I can't get it out!" "You know all of this incessant scheming, politics, and philosophizing are hurting my head." Adam laughed as he observed the comings and goings and the talks going on around him. "People need to give it a rest for at least short while... I suppose that something will never change. So what are they chances that we'll get to chill and just have fun?"

[Acathala]

"I was wondering if there had been any word of Xul'olin. Hopefully dead, and witnesses saw someone cast Barghest's Feast upon her corpse." Nallaul said bluntly Of all the people in the Underdark, she had been the one Nallaul had been most afraid of. Insane(although Nallaul often suspected she pretended to be crazier than she actually was, a kind of obfuscating insanity) and utterly unpredictable. The demonbinder was also the person whom had come closest to killing him. If it hadn't been for one of his phase doors, he would have been thoroughly shish kebabed.

[Makenshi]

 

L'arabiel shakes her head. "No, not really. Their souls departed the moment that Morgan and Xu'deln brought me back. All that remains are some vague...hmmm...." She pauses for a time trying to think of the right words. "...remnants I guess you could say. Impressions. The strongest such impression I get is when looking at Princess Celes, most likely because her brother was the last wielder of the Unnamed Blade, and even that is just a sense of familiarity and fondness that I can tell aren't my own. Honestly, I don't really notice it most of the time."

 

For a moment Didina looks like the cat that got the cream. "There. Was that really so hard? I must admit I'm kicking myself for not thinking you could be a Child in disguise now, but such are the benefits of hindsight. So, what is it exactly that you want me to help you with? Keeping an eye out for people who aren't what they appear to be? If so, I should point out that there are many already doing so and we've been increasingly running into beings that break normal convention. If a God asked you to look for someone then I doubt it's going to be as simple as dropping a true seeing and waiting for them to show their face."

 

Sublime practically cackles at his response. "Ah, the curses of an overactive imagination, eh?"

Originally Posted by Adam

"So what are they chances that we'll get to chill and just have fun?"

Sublime smirks. "In my experience, either you seize the fun when you can or you'll waste your life playing far less entertaining games. Hence why I've already started joining in the party rather than wasting this lull in pushing this or prodding that, but as the a.k.a. Ahekan FrenchElernans say: such is life (i.e. that's just the way it is)c'est la vie."

 

"I'm sorry, but no. We're heard various accounts of conflict between priestesses and a...draegloth I believe is the term, but none by the names or descriptions you provided." He sighs. "From what our Faces have since uncovered there were several converted Drow spies influencing events in the Underdark, in recent years at least. We won't know for sure for some time, but I suspect that she is in either in the Fiendish realms or has fled to another city in the Underdark to carry on her work for them."

~MTWC

[Acathala]

Nallaul laughed bitterly. "Of course she would survive." He paused. "What do the accounts say? Personally I prefer the term unnatural abomination. Given the things he's done, it would be a well earned title."

[Blue]

"Ah, well noted. There are many stories surrounding the blade and the sacrifice of their wielders. I got from Nevh the tale of how Xander fought the fiendish ambush off so that they could bring the then princess to Halva. How the blade was recovered through Kato with the sheath. Like that one very much. And so many tales of the world that gave each nation its personality. Sharlan heroes of old who likewise gave it all, Tsuun hunters that became legend, an Halvan king who built an empire, fae lovers who eased ages of war, Quallish sentinels who abandoned their royal claims to serve with the Rudaa, the origin of the Serokai's Day of Blood which led to them forsaking their weapons... all true stories and many more without much truth in them... folklore but entertaining none the less."

She perused her notes for a moment and took out her inkwell, dipping a long, sharp nail in to add to the manuscripts as she went. Sometimes inspiration came during a telling and it would be a shame to let those moments go uncaptured.
"This could take a while."
Judging by her expression, she did not seem to mind.

[Alphaeus]

Silverforge He gave a crooked smile at Didina's response. It was no use dwelling on her, really, so he overlooked much of her response. At least she had never put the pieces together of what he was, so that was satisfactory. Lifting the hot cup of cider to his mouth, he sipped the heady brew slowly, thinking back his response to Didina's inquiries. "I've told you what I know. Fiendish Origin, being deceptive, and uncertain intentions. Key factors are that they will not be imitating a Child, and will most likely be Halvan -- by disguise, that is. As to their disguise, I will also say from the information the god told me, I strongly suspect they are capable of changing shape not unlike myself. In fact, pretend your looking for a more suspicious version of me...though with perhaps less exaggerated natural traits."

[dalarangreen]

Brood has an uncharacteristic startled look on her face when she hears that Shadow and Many Faces are twins. She hadn't heard that before!

Nor would it have even dawned on Brood to think it. It made sense in some ways, but then again, how often had she seen any of the Unknown gods together before?

"Well, that is both surprising and unsurprising, I guess," Brood concludes simply.

Brood notices the change in Shadow's body language become more guarded as the woman speaks of their time spent hidden.

"I apologize. I am not trying to pry, I was just thinking about Humility and how she might fend off her pursuers..."

Brood is again startled by Shadow's invitation to join this clearly important meeting, mostly because of the hopeful look on Shadow's face. For some reason, Brood had this nagging sensation that she was being lured towards something, but she couldn't quite place it. Or perhaps it was just that the subtle art of manipulation ran in the family...

"I can't deny that I am not curious, but this doesn't seem like the kind of meeting that is open invitation."

Brood says no more, but the look on her face clearly communicates the question, "Why are you inviting me?"

[Makenshi]

 

"Mostly the same sort of reports about Drow trying to bring back the old order. Of course, these sorts of Priestesses have the advantage of their 'sons' to make up for their lack of magic. Without Lolth they are one of the factions vying for control. The biggest threats are Arra'aste and Zekzar's respective broods, although they're both keeping a low profile themselves. In all, the Underdark is a mess of infighting at the moment from what we can tell. Ironically, the capitol is probably the most stable at the moment, but that's mostly because there's probably less than a tenth of its original population left after everything that happened, slaves included."

 

Rising takes the opportunity to speak while Mrith ponders on what tales to tell L'arabiel. "I thank you for your candour, L'arabiel. You have given me much to think about and discuss with my fellow Keepers."

L'arabiel seems a little confused by the sentiment but inclines her head in return. "You're welcome. I hope my news does not overly trouble you though. Even if the Asura were to be coming here then there would be some form of forewarning. A sign of their impending arrival."

Rising smiles politely as he stands up. "No, it is not that. We have waited centuries already, so time is not the issue." He touches a hand to his forehead, left shoulder, chest and finally his right shoulder. "May you both live long and die free."

With Rising gone and L'arabiel's tales over, some of the Children disperse as well, although some still remain. Presumably they wanted to hear Mrith's own stories. It seemed likely to Mrith that the Children were a society of oral story-telling from what little she knew of them. For all she knew most of them might even be illiterate, although she knew that Bane at the very least was an avid reader of arcane tomes.

 

Didina drums her fingers against an arm in thought. "Hmmm. I still don't like this. The Children would already be looking for people in disguise and I'm a good example of them not having an issue with Fiendish Freeborns. Why hide if it would only draw more attention to you?" Silverforge doesn't get the impression that she's actually asking him that, more thinking out loud, and she quickly moves on from that thought to another. "Jester is of Fiendish origin and beyond reproach. I could perhaps see Lucretia showing up and, being a Paladin of Trinity, being accepted. With the specifically, she's referring to his masqurading as a high ranking Halvan General who was in a relationship with Zephyrarevelations about Deimos and his connection with Zephyra, I suppose it wouldn't be entirely unthinkable that she could be who we're looking for."

There is a brief pause before she sends out what Silverforge can only describe as a telepathic grunt of frustration. "We'll need more eyes. Excuse me a moment while I look for someone." Despite what she said, Didina doesn't appear to get up, move or even look around - instead continuing her occasional banter with Misa.

 

Shadow takes her time reply to the question and when she does, she has the same careful, deliberate speech that would sometimes plague Many Faces. "It's not a secret meeting either. We've no doubt that most of what we say will eventually filter through to the masses in some form or another. As to you specifically, I've been told that my brother has given you some sort of vague mission," she rolls her eyes, "And knowing him, he's probably trying to throw you into the deep end, so you should at least have an idea of what you could be getting yourself into."

~MTWC

[Blue]

She saluted Rising as he bid his goodbyes and began her stories.
A lot of effort was put on the task as she tried to make it interesting for the rest of her audience as well.
A few tales in, she was cut short by the telepathic call. Hearing a voice in her head made it difficult to focus on what she was saying.
"Hm. Wait. Most sorry everyone. Telepathic message."
She paused a moment, to understand what this was all about.
"Looks like there's a party crasher hiding out here. They need help with it before it causes trouble."

Standing back up, she swiped dust off her left thigh absentmindedly.
"Guess I've got to go for a moment. We can pick up where we left later."

She'd join up with Didina whether L'arabiel or members of the audience would be interested in helping out with the search, in which case she'd offer to return to them with the details.

"Hi, Didina. So... an infiltrator, I hear Oh, hey Misa! Lovely to see you! You're both looking astonishing. Got to show these Children how to properly dress for celebrations, yes?"
There was no irony nor sarcasm in her tone. She had been herself a little disappointed with the rather laid-back spirit of the thing. She had formal clothes as well though she had accessorized to have shamanic and druidic influence. Some could think it to be a Rudaa dress but really it was just one of her folklore hero theater costumes that she had gotten embellished for use in special occasions.
Seeing new faces, she'd smile and quickly introduce to get the basic good manners done with.
"Ah, hello to you as well. I am Mrith Jenn'la. Great party. What's going on?"

[Alphaeus]

Silverforge Mrith's comments left little doubt in his mind that this was the person Didina had called. He smiled, nodding to Didina. "Fast work. My gratitude, darling." Directing his attention to the newcomer now, he bowed his head slightly in greeting. "Miss Jenn'la, a pleasure. Call me Tavrin." He cast a glance at Misa, then shrugged. "I suppose we might as well speak aloud about this, so long as we keep our voices low. Long story short I have received intelligence that a being of Fiendish Origins and uncertain intentions will be appearing here, almost certainly well disguised, and a Halvan, at least by appearances. Male or female is uncertain, most likely masculine but either gender is to be assumed. Shapeshifting abilities are to be considered as well as more mundane disguises. Of note is that I do not believe they will be a fiend themselves, and they will also not be a Child in the Dark. Knowledge is sparse, but it is what it is."

[Blue]

Mrith made a short curtsy. "Well, met, Tavrin! Though you'll excuse my expedience, I did not make it simple; Mrith Jenn'la is my given name. The closest to my surname would be Rudaa or Yesterwind of the Rudaa. Glad we got that sorted out."
She did not sound patronizing or anything. It was, she felt, a good way to prevent future embarrassment and she was quite upfront when it came to tell people when there was something stuck between their teeth. Better fix it now than watch it going on. Assuming the blame was another socially acceptable way to do so to prevent anyone from losing face.

As for what was known so far... that was odd. So much information made it feel like the identity of that person would actually be known. How did they happen to only get those fragments?
"To be clear, you're all looking for someone in a Halvan-looking disguise or a disguised Halvan?"