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ST The last thing Xar remembers is roaring his protest as he was apparently smashed flat by two rogue cogs of enormous size. But judging by the lack of fatal wounds or death it would seem he was not so smashed as he first thought! Instead of being dead, as far as he can tell, Xar is in a strange place of metal.
ST Vast sheets of metal inset with great crystalline panels that glow dully with rainbow radiance form into a twisting structure of mind-boggling geometric perfection. Every angle and corner looks sharp enough to slice hairs, the only curves are perfect circles and spirals in the clockwork mechanisms faintly visible beyond some of the crystal panels.
ST The small room in which Xar currently stands is empty aside from his own reptilian presence, but there is a passage leading out the right wall down to a hallway.
Xar`Ex looks down at himself, checking to see that all his parts are in order. "What is this?"
ST There is no response but Xar seems to be in normal working order as far as he can tell.
Xar`Ex touches one of the edges with a claw, testing to see if it is sharp
ST The edge puts a nick in Xar's claw.
Xar`Ex frowns in mild irritation, and makes a note to stay away from the sharp edges. "Where am I?" he demands. "You, I gave you a gift of Essence, and this is what you give me?"
ST There is no response to Xar's yelling.
Xar`Ex waits til the echoes die away, and then stomps down the hallway.
ST At the end of the hallway there is a wall. It seems quite solid and very much a dead end until Xar approaches closer and the wall slides silently into the floor, revealing another featureless room and a man with a lean, hard body and sandy hair. His cheeks and chin are stubbled with several days worth of growth and his blue eyes look glazed, bored and tired.
Xar`Ex looks the blond man up and down, and strides into the room. "Are you the owner of this place?"
Blond Man looks startled as Xar enters the room and, for a moment, is silent. Then he gives a loud whoop of joy and lunges at the lizard-man, wrapping the vast Dragon-King in a hearty embrace. For a human of his build, the man is very strong and even Xar has trouble breathing in his grip. Xar can also smell that the man needs a bath and a good scrubbing.
Xar`Ex looks down at the man and... pats his back akwardly, making sure not to stab him with his claws. Humans are SO strange.
Blond Man makes happy-sounding noises, still hugging the lizard tightly. He finally makes himself let go and back up a step or two, at which point Xar notices the man is naked and that his clothes are piled in a heap in a corner of the room, presumably to act as a makeshift bed. "I've been here so long...I'm sorry..It's just good to see someone else alive!"
Xar`Ex "Are you from here? Did they pull you through too?"
Blond Man "I came in through the passage under Electrum, then I found my way to the clockwork room through the secret door in the temple. Then the clockwork came to life and...I was here."
Xar`Ex "Was the city in the air?"
Blond Man looks confused, mouth slightly agape. Xar notices that the smell about the man isn't just the usual smell of a dirty human, he smells...musty, like a reptile. "What do you mean?"
Xar`Ex "Brume, the islands in the air."
Blond Man "What does that have to do with anything?"
Xar`Ex "The last one I met in a place I did not go, did not know what the year is. Do you know?"
Blond Man ponders for a moment. "I don't know how long I've been here...the Realm celebrated their 6th centennial a month before I came here."
Xar`Ex thinks
Xar`Ex "You have been here very long, then. Come with me, we will get back out."
Blond Man looks at Xar and slowly shakes his head. "I haven't found a way out yet and I've looked."
Xar`Ex "
Xar`Ex "My friends will find us. Or we will find them. But you, you are not human. Or not all human. What are you? I am a Dragon King."
Blond Man "I can see perfectly well that you're a Dragon-King but I'll forgive you not knowing what I am, seeing as all my Essence was stolen by this place a long time ago. I'm a Lunar."
Xar`Ex nods solemnly. "A Lunar, yes, I can see it now. I have not met one of your kind for several years, since I left the Bordermarches. What were you searching for in the temple?"
Blond Lunar "Well, I was searching for the tomb of a Solar said to be buried around here. I don't know that I found anything but a trap."
Xar`Ex "Did you know the one who was buried here?"
Blond Lunar shakes his head, "No, didn't find out who it was. But I thought there might be something useful in the tomb. I didn't expect all this.." He waves one hand around.
Xar`Ex "I admit, I did not expect this either. Nor do I like being cut off from the Unconquered Sun." he frowns.
Xar`Ex "But still, I have my strength, and you yours, and our bodies and minds . Let us see if we can summon the one who brought us here and reason with him."
Blond Lunar "I've called as I can and nothing's happened. I think this place feeds on our Essence...but it has to keep us alive somehow too. I haven't eaten since I came here, nor drank."
Xar`Ex "Do you feel no hunger? No thirst?"
Blond Lunar shakes his head, offering a slight grin. "Good thing too, else I'd likely be tempted to try eating you and human teeth just wouldn't get the job done."
Xar`Ex eyes him for a second, then realizes it was a joke, and chuckles. "I do not taste very good."
Blond Lunar chuckles. "I prefer a good rabbit stew myself."
Xar`Ex "When we leave, we shall hunt rabbits together." He claps the man on the back.
Blond Lunar looks somewhat hopeful as he nods and makes a faint smile in retunr.
Xar`Ex places his palm against the (flat) wall, and tries to see if he can contact the spirit of the place
Blond Lunar Despite Xar's best attempts, his inability to awaken even a single mote of Essence means that he has no way to contact the spirit of this place if one even exists for an oddity of location like this one.
Xar`Ex grunts, and punches the wall.
Xar`Ex turns his gaze inward, and mentally asks, 'Xeth are you still there?'
Blond Lunar seems to finally notice his lack of clothing. Looking somewhat red he pulls some sort of rag from his "bed" and ties it around his waist. "I'm sorry, I forgot about that...and about giving you my name. I'm Sands."
Xar`Ex "It does not matter, I am not concerned with clothing. I am Xar`Rex. I apologize that I did not introduce myself." He says formally, and extends a hand as the humans do.
Blond Lunar shakes the hand, offering a smile.
Blond Lunar In response to Xar's mental question there is the usual snappy response from Xeth who indicates that despite not going anywhere, he is similarly unable to contact any spirits or use Essence
Xar`Ex smiles in return, oddly comforted by Xeth's crankiness. "Well, I cannot contact the spirit without my essence. Let us walk, and see what we can find. I know that you have done so before, but it can not hurt to do so again."
Blond Lunar shrugs and gestures to the door which leads back to Xar's room. "If you want."
Xar`Ex nods, and walks through the door, trailing his claws along the wall.
Blond Lunar The walls, indecent things, refuse to be scratched! The Lunar, watching Xar's progress from a few paces back, seems unimpressed. "How did you come here?"
Xar`Ex looks at Sands, "I came here to find something. I do not know what. Brume is in danger. This island already has fallen, while you were here, trapped. Did you feel it?"
Sands looks back, obviously stunned. "Fallen? How?"
Xar`Ex "A cult, the Black Viper Cult have used the powers of a dark Behemoth to destroy the magic that held it up."
Sands "I've...well, I think I may have heard of them.."
Sands "Is a man named Falling Darkness connected with them?"
Xar`Ex "You know of him?"
Sands makes a sort of vague shrug. "Not directly, but I've heard about him."
Xar`Ex "Please tell me."
Sands "Well, it's just from a friend of a friend, but I've heard he's a pirate that works for Nine Moons."
Xar`Ex "Who is Nine Moons?"
Sands "Far as I know she's a big player that makes her lair on a boat in the southern sea."
Xar`Ex nods a bit. "Who do you work for?"
Sands "Me, of course. And the Silver Lady."
Xar`Ex "I do not know the Silver Lady."
Sands "She's hard to miss, every night in the sky." He grins, the second real expression of happiness Xar has seen on him
Xar`Ex laughs. "Aha, I do know the Silver Lady, I am not so good with words, you see."
Sands "I noticed, yes."
Sands looks around Xar's room that he's and the lizard are now standing in. "See? Nothing."
Xar`Ex "There is nothing other than these two rooms?" He knocks against the walls, listening for a hollow sound, or anything odd
Sands "Not that I've seen." He listens keenly as Xar taps but...nothing indicating a secret passage.
Xar`Ex looks up and down, searching the ceiling and floor likewise
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