• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

< Talk In The White Room | Sol Invictus Logs | Harbourhead >

Adjusting a small sack of provisions and tools on his back, Marku raps on the door to Cerin's chamers. "CERIN! ARE YOU READY TO LEAVE?"

• Cerin sets down the lastest additions to his essay on the workings of essence "I will be shortly." He quickly changes into his armour and then goes to the door, locking it behind him.

<Cerin> "I wonder if Zahara would like a short break." He smiles as he walks with the big man away from his rooms.

• Markuran frowns slightly. "Mmm. It really should be you alone doing this..but the final Artifact won't be affected if Zahara comes."

<Cerin> "She could stay outside with you then..." He shrusg "She needs to get away from here for a time."

• Markuran shrugs. "Then let's get her. You say this is an urgent matter, after all."
• Cerin smiles and walks up though the cascade to Zahara's workshop "Zahara?" he called out softly
• Zahara looks up from her desk where she's been working on dismantling one of the soul widgets into its component pieces, to try to gain some insight into how to destroy them. "Yes?" she sets her tools down neatly.

<Cerin> "We are travelling to the south, to retrive the Gem Marku needs to start on the artifact he is making for me." he walks over to her and kisses her softly "I thought you might like to take a short break from your work, and spend some time in the S Outhern? sun."

• Markuran nods to Zahara from the door, offering a small smile of greeting
• Zahara smiles tiredly, "I don't know, I'm busy with this," she gestures to the small pile of pieces, "What artifact is he making?" she notices Marku at the door and gives him a little wave.

<Cerin> "I am not entirely sure. He can explain it better than I am sure."

• Zahara turns to Marku expectantly

<Markuran> "It will disguise Cerin by showing only a single part of his nature at a time. He will appear to be only a scholar or only a hunter, as he wishes. And nothing else will be revealed."

<Zahara> "why do you need such a thing?" she asks curiously

<Cerin> "For the journey I told you about last night love."

<Zahara> "To Juche, then? Ahh, I see. I hope this artifact will be sufficient to fool all eyes.."

<Cerin> "I will not be relying just on the artifact. But it will be a great help."

<Markuran> "It will serve it's purpose." Marku bristles slightly at the suggestion something he makes won't work.

<Zahara> "Might I see the plans? I am curious how it will work."

<Markuran> "If you two will prepare the wasps, I'll get the plans from my room."

• Zahara nods, "We shall do that," she rises, leaving the pieces there, labeled neatly. "I think some fresh air and sun *would* do me good." She takes Cerin's hand, and they depart for the courtyard
• Cerin follows after her, smiling, faintly pleased with himself.

Marku joined the other two a few minutes later, offering Zahara his sketches and plans for the Artifact. While Zahara read, the three took their Wasps to the nearest portal and made the swift trip to the depths of the Southern desert. From a lonely rock formation in the middle of burning sands, three demons fly out across the desert carrying their Solar masters.

<Markuran> "Cerin, you have to pick the place we land. Everything here should be your choice."

• Cerin nods from atop the wasp, casting his eyes about from the top of the wasp, flying on alittle before starting to descend, aiming to land atop a honeycomb mesa. He leaps down lightly from the wasp
• Zahara follows a short distance behind, alighting from the wasp near Cerin. "Lead on, then." she smiles encouragingly, and leans against the wasp idly, soaking up the sun.
• Cerin strolls along the top of the mesa, passing by several holes, before deciding on this one, justa bout large enough to walk down "I think down here." she smiles to Zahra before disappearing down the hole.
• Zahara walks over and crouches on the rim of the hole, watching him, then looks back to Marku, "Must we stay out here?"
• Markuran climbs off his wasp and turns to peer at the hole where Cerin disappeared. "It may be best, yes. This place may not be safe, we can guard him should anything attack from the surface."

<Markuran> "If you want to follow him, I don't think it will hurt anything. But I'll stay here. It feels good to be in the heat." Lazily, Marku pulls off his tunic and pants he wore in the slight chill of the Cascade. Now dressed only in his smallclothes, the sleepy Barbarian stretches out on the rock and laces his fingers together behind his head

• Zahara eyes the man's muscled body for a few moments, "I can see you'll be a good guard." she says drily, smiling slightly.

<Zahara> "Ahh so that's why you agreed to have me come along, then?" she sits with her feet dangling into the hole

<Markuran> "Purely so I could sleep, yes. What do you think of his trip?"

<Zahara> "It is not one I would have thought for him to make, but your methods seem solid."

• Cerin descends into the depths of the mesa, following the twists and turns of the passageways, branching right and left on a whim as he does so, the dark of the tunnels not effecting him, looking for gems and listening for danger.

Something slithers past, just beyond a rock wall at Cerin's left. As he walks, the same slithering sound appears every so often, always a few tunnels distant, but growing closer.

• Cerin smiles to himself and starts to head towards the slithering sound, slowing down a little, until he is making barely a whisper.
• Setin Stonescale Snake? rasps its claws against the stone as Cerin draws closer. From a tunnel opening into the passage from below, a tongue flickers a few feet in front of Cerin
• Cerin was prepared for this eventuality, and carefully bypasses the tongue. HE needs an area with a little more room to fight this thing for preference, so perhaps he should follow it back there.
• Setin Stonescale Sanke? rams one of his claws through the soft stone under Cerin's feet, grasping for the Exalt. But even as the stone rumbles warning, Cerin flows aside and the claws close on air. An angry looking snake's head fills the passage, hissing clouds of salt-dust from its mouth. "What are you doing here, Exalted?"

<Cerin> "I am seeking a Gem."

<SetinStonescaleSanke?> "And did you bring the sacrifice I demand from all who tresspass in my Demesne?"

<Cerin> "I knew of no such sacrifice."

• Setin Stonescale Sanke? is now known as Setin Stonescale Snake?

<SetinStonescaleSnake?> "Then I must devour you and your friends that lay above. I'm sure you understand. It is all quite clear, in the Promise I made with your ancestors."

<Cerin> "You will not eat me, nor my companions Father of Snakes." He shrugs at the unfortunate event. "I cannot allow that to happen."

<Cerin> "I do not suppose an offer to retrieve such a sacrifice would be allowed. I did not realise this was your lair."

<SetinStonescaleSnake?> "I am afraid not. You have already tresspassed."

• Cerin nods and calls a bow of glittering gold to his hands his body shimmering momentarily. "Then you will have to die Father of Snakes."
• Setin Stonescale Snake? opens his mouth and spits a wad of greenish clear ooze at Cerin as the Exalt threatens him, coiling his massive body out into the tunnel, moving forward behind the paralytic poison
• Cerin flickers to the side as the poison approaches, a red blur in the light of his own bow. As the venom sails through his body, he plucks six motes of light from the air, and draws them across his bow as lines of fire, shooting toward the snake.

<Cerin> "I ask you again, father of snakes, might I be allowed to return with an appropriate Sacrifice?"

<SetinStonescaleSnake?> "You..." the snake gasps through a pair of new holes in its nose, red eyes seething in rage at the Exalt who so easily brought it such agony. "You may go! Bring me my sacrifice, but I will NOT forget this humiliation!"

<Cerin> "It was you who attacked me, Father of Snakes. One should always consider the victim before attacking. If you attempt to harm me or my companions, I will bring you forgetfulness."

• Setin Stonescale Snake? hisses his rage and then slowly returns to the cavern below, waiting for less capable prey
• Cerin returns to the surface. "I have no gem." he speaks to Zahara "I need to find a mongoose or some such creature. I do not wish to slay the Father of Snakes."
• Markuran blinks at Cerin as he climbs up from the hole. "What?"

<Cerin> "This is lair of the Father of Snakes. He made a promise to one of our kind to eat any who trespassed here, unless they provided Sacrifice. My arrows disauded him from attempting to extract the price from me, though I have no wish to kill him, and so I will bring him a sacrifice."

<Zahara> "How..kind of you. I'm sure we can find some small creature for it."

• Cerin nods. "I am sure it will not take too long."
• Markuran looks slightly disappointed. "The Father of Snakes was scared of you when you did not recieve a single scratch?"
• Cerin smiles "His tongue and venom passed through me like the shadows. My arrows on the other hand..."
• Markuran mutters, scratching his chest. "Not even a Behemoth challenges us anymore. The world grows lesser."

<Markuran> "We can find something to offer this one easily, though."

• Cerin nods and starts to scan the sky.
• Markuran stands, peering into the sky "What're you looking for?"
• Cerin lets loose a single arrow. After a time a small dot appears, and he speaks to the wasp, who takes wing. The wasp soon returns, a desert eagle clasped in two mandibles.

<Cerin> "That."

<Markuran> "How did you see that?"

<Cerin> "I have keen eyes."

• Markuran snorts. "And now back into the lair of the Father of Snakes to give him his eagle?
• Cerin nods "I'll be out soon, with the gem you need."
• Cerin returns to the hole and ventures inside, until he reaches the creatures lair, following the blood and essence trail it left "I offer you the gift of something that preys upon your children." he sets the bird down.

<SetinStonescaleSnake?> "You may walk in my home, Solar. But if you return again, I will find a way to have my revenge."

<Cerin> "If you can extract your vengance from me, you are welcome to it. I will not tarry here long anyway." he sets off in search of a suitable gem.

< Talk In The White Room | Sol Invictus Logs | Harbourhead >