Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Alberich
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Alberich »

Tim was a talkative man by nature and his head was full of arguments. About the falsity of the Ralkin promises - a better way to thwart the elves - the insidious nature of the magic's effects - about the difference between a man who beats his children in sadness, to correct them, and another who beats them because he's drunk and angry...

He longed to fill the silence with a flood of words. He didn't. Desiree's sadness was a stronger argument than anything his poor intellect could craft. And his own face, or the vision of it in this place, showed its own sadness. His own vision of Desiree's concern stood mute behind him, mirroring Eli's of her rejection. Tim kept quiet. Oh, if Eli had a question, he'd answer, but for now the least he could do was let the man think. Think and feel. The time was drawing near, but he would not show his anxiety. He waited.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"But does it even matter now?" The half-elf said, his voice hoarse as if something was caught in his throat. "The elves consider me an errant, and they'll hunt me down as surely as Drusia would when we get out of here. I might wake to find one of them standing over me for all I know."

He walked back to the barrier and stared at the man opposite a few feet away. Anger crept back into his voice, but it was contained, with an undercurrent of determination.

"This can't be all for nothing, Tim! Aleron's magic made me into a bad man, and I own that, but without it I'm vulnerable. And without him, without the artefact, I'm a refugee with a sword dangling over my head, someone with nothing to offer his people but danger if he ever tried to return to them. So I need a solution, a path to follow, otherwise I have nothing to renounce this craft for. Can you give me that?"
Alberich
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Alberich »

"It speaks well of you that you own your own decisions. For my part, I can't make you a promise," said Tim. "But I know there's hope in other ways. What was it Drusia was saying just now?" -- for in the midst of this he'd been puzzling over it himself -- and her voice echoed again in this space:

"Tsuirakushiti was a half-elf city, once. And now only humans remain. Humans with elven blood, but humans none the less."

"So it sounds as if a whole group of half-elves was able to hide from the elves, survive, intermarry with humans, and in the end...their children didn't just live, but they're a world power that treats on equal terms with Veracia and the elves too. If it was my job to come up with a strategy for that place you come from, that's what I'd do."

In fact, Tim thought this a further sign of the greatness and subtlety of Luminosita...that the Infernal Powers should create the elves to seduce and enslave the humans, but that He should arrange for even their children, or at least their grandchildren, to end up as humans with...with...humanity. Yes, they were decadent heathens, but they were still human and had souls worth saving, thus the mission in Kiyoka. But these thoughts were better left unspoken. Present company and all that.

"But Lord be thanked, that isn't my job or yours. The elves want to kill all your people, and I'm not aware they have any better way to find you than any other half-elf. Here you and Aleron put yourselves in a position the elves were bound to notice. Because that Ralkin magic drove you to seek power over men. But once you renounce it and can live like other men...it's a big world, Eli.

"Also, you're not going to wake up with an elf standing over you. If Drusia wanted you dead, we'd be dead already." And here he let Eli hear the echoes of the mind-speech from the earlier fight...

"What do I want? To not have to kill a boy I watched grow up. A boy who I thought might be my son-in-law someday. To be able to take Eli home to his parents; for him to cry in their arms. Instead, I will likely have to bring back his body for them to lay to rest. You have been with him since it began. Is there anything left of that boy? Or is this just his shell, with a monster living inside?"

"Very well. I'll believe you." -- and may the Lord forgive me if I'm wrong -- "Yes, he's still there, but partly corrupted. He can be saved if you believe. But only after the fighting starts. After it's done I know how to let you out of here. Don't give him to the other elf."

"If Eli had walked away, I planned to tell the other elf I'd killed him and burnt the body. That might still work. However, there's another half-elf with us. I will probably need to kill the elf - if he survives Aleron - anyway to protect that friend. Do you have any advice on how to disable Eli without killing him? Non-lethal take-downs are not my usual speciality. I'm... scared I might kill him accidently."


Not just the words, but the genuine fear and concern that came through in Drusia's voice. Tim still didn't trust her, not completely he didn't, but there was proof in her deeds as well as her words. She'd kept her promise and left them alive. And Eli had confessed he had feelings for her himself; maybe he'd hear something that spoke to him more deeply.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Eli listened to his former teacher's words dispassionately, although his eyebrows raised as Drusia spoke of killing her elven companion.

"Can't say I'd be sad to see that prick go." He muttered. "Ok, Drusia wants me alive, I can believe that, but you underestimate the persistence of the Peregins Brother. If I leave the Port today sooner or later someone will try to find me for the work I've done. Ha... if Logan is free of the altar's control he'll probably hire something more conventional to come after me, assassins, most likely. The rich bastard."

He folded his arms and took a flatter tone as he addressed something the Priest had said.

"And as for your solution... breeding ourselves into humanity and losing all that we are is hardly an appealing idea. I'll grant you it's a more peaceful end than one that comes at the hands of the childkillers, but it's still an end."

The half-elf stopped talking, appearing lost in thought; it was obvious he was turning a lot of issues over in his mind.

"I can't go home until I've found something... something to preserve us, protect us, something that can save an errant child from the knife. That's been my goal since I met the old man, and I cannot flinch from it now. The real question is, what do you mean to do, Brother? This kind of grandiose magic must have a greater purpose than sharing memories like a family photo album."
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Alberich »

"Can't say I'd be sad to see that prick go."

"Nor me, either," said Tim.

"Ok, Drusia wants me alive, I can believe that, but you underestimate the persistence of the Peregins Brother. If I leave the Port today sooner or later someone will try to find me for the work I've done. Ha... if Logan is free of the altar's control he'll probably hire something more conventional to come after me, assassins, most likely. The rich bastard."

"If Drusia's willing to make a false report that you've been killed and your body burned, the way she said -- then the peregins have no reason to search the world for you at all. Leaving you no worse off than any half-elf. That goes double for Logan, if you simply get out of Port Lorrel. He's got no reason to know you've survived. Let alone where to find you."

"And as for your solution... breeding ourselves into humanity and losing all that we are is hardly an appealing idea. I'll grant you it's a more peaceful end than one that comes at the hands of the childkillers, but it's still an end."

"It's the soul that matters," replied Tim to that. "That's what you really are, not how your bodies look. In your heart you know it's not worth killing and tyrannizing to keep your children looking the same. Isn't that what the elves do?"

"I can't go home until I've found something... something to preserve us, protect us, something that can save an errant child from the knife. That's been my goal since I met the old man, and I cannot flinch from it now."

"The old man didn't deliver on that promise. It was a temptation, a lie to get hold of your soul. The Ralkin power made you prominent - and drew their attention. You were only halfway to taking over the town, and look! - two peregins arrive, and slaughter your followers. Suppose you'd won. How many would they send next time, five, ten? A company of regulars? The city would be a smoking ruin, and no child would be one bit safer. But you and Aleron might escape, just to do it all again.

"You need subtlety to escape and thrive the way the Tsuirakuans did...or any other way. This Ralkin power takes that from you, makes you arrogant, leaves you nothing to do but kill. If you want to find some other way, I'll pray for success in your quest. Help you, too, if I can. But what you found here was not the answer you want. It never could be."

"The real question is, what do you mean to do, Brother? This kind of grandiose magic must have a greater purpose than sharing memories like a family photo album."

There was so much more Tim wanted to say -- like asking what a "family photo album" was -- but he could sense the time was at hand. He nodded.

"In moments," said Tim, "this barrier will come down. We will be closer than men ever can be. And I will try to take this Ralkin knowledge from your memory, and ask you to do the same for me. And also that you take the memory of that name you told me, that place you come from. I don't want to know it so I can never betray the secret.

"If you agree, no greater trust can one man place in another, and we'll wake up as the men we were before we tasted that power. The same hearts, the same souls, only very much wiser from what we've lived through.

"If you don't - then it's spiritual warfare between you and me, and may the right prevail!"

The barrier was coming down even as he spoke. The visual imagery was starting to fade. Now was the time for Eli to make a choice.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Jack Rothwell »

For a long moment the half-elf said nothing as he turned over everything that had been said between himself the Priest, everything he'd experienced since leaving Snamish, the things he'd gained and lost since throwing his lot in with Aleron and his schemes for domination.

Eventually he broke the silence.

"You ask a hell of a thing from a man you betrayed Tim, altruistically or not. But..." He stepped past the boundary which had separated them and looked into the other man's eyes. "...you made your case, I can't deny the truth of what I've seen, so i'm going to trust you. Just one thing... if the day comes where I find myself at the sharp end of a durus blade, or my search to help my people bares no fruit better than one I found, you'll go to your grave with my curse on your head, and I may yet be the one to send you to it."

A flash of fire raced across the half-elf's palms to illustrate his point, it was gone in a second, and the stern expression which accompanied it was replaced by one resembling a cautious kind of gratitude.

"Still, for now you have my thanks. It took a lot of courage to do what you did... it just better be worth it."
Alberich
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Alberich »

As their consciousness flowed together, visions and words became meaningless. Eli could feel Tim's gratitude directly.

[OOC: Returning to the other thread now.]
Last edited by Alberich on April 28th, 2013, 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: Would you like it to be arranged so that the railroad car from Gona makes an unplanned stop in Lorrel so that these two can get scooped up? It can be done with no breach in continuity down there, but it is also not necessary in any way to what happens next in that thread group (which is heading now toward a big event of its own, although it'll still be a short while coming).
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC I was planning to take Eli off for a while, maybe out of the story all together. He wouldn't want to rejoin Rose's group given the whole 'they nearly killed him the last time he saw them' thing. I remember you pm'd me about a plot point for Tamina... is that still going ahead?

This is good for rear view now if you get the chance please bud./OOC
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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel - It's All In Their Heads

Post by Graybeard »

OOC:
Jack Rothwell wrote:
This is good for rear view now if you get the chance please bud./OOC
OK, done. New thread up and going that gives the chance to get most of the groups back together.
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