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Private-Prinny · 07-23-2010, 08:47 PM

Flame on? Or just not off?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tummo

Tummo of the Three Candles

Synad Half-Fiend (Cerebrillith) 4, Bard 1, Soulknife 5, Pyrokineticist 10

Before you stands a creature who some might call fierce beauty. It is not in the body, though it is lithely muscular to an astonishing degree, like flexed cushions of brown leather. It is over seven feet in height, with claws that protrude from supple-fingered hands.

It is not in the handsome face, which is mostly as a man's, with glinting black eyes, and a pronounced, over-bitten jaw of viper teeth. Irregular patches of cranial skin seem to have been cut away revealing an opaque crystalline skull. These patches glow and flicker or pulse like a candle seen through a frosted window, as if the skull were but a housing lantern for the flame. Knobs of bone also stud it and then flow down in and overdeveloped spine that keeps him forever in an alert crouch. In the darkest shadows the faintest, most ghostly visages seems to take form from the light shining from within. One is a horrible countenance all calculating hatred and the other a gentle woman's with shining eyes that spark with alertness and life.

Nor is it quite in it's presence, which is both commanding and defiant. This is a man, in all sense of the word, but one that bows before none, tolerates no master, and wishes no servant. A man who finds grace within, and will be He until the day he dies.

It is a combination of all, a blending of pain and peace, warmth and burning. A flame in man form.

The Epic

Spoiler

I
Hear the woe of Tummo
Child of hell's inner fire and
Bitterborn of the Three Candles
Come was he, from a mother of three
Sides to every speech.
She came from afar did this rare blossom
Where beasts of the mind held full sway
She stepped through a twist, a hole of dark mist
To visit our chill mountain passes.
She wandered the slopes, peering into shadows
Traveling as was her wont
Out of a deep cave, she became a low slave
To a demon, horrible and wise
He spoke with this trio of voices
That debated every move
He was intrigued, and somewhat fatigued
By the way that she minded all thrice.
He gazed into a crystal that hung
And saw what might could be made
Born was a triplet, though only one in it
Both foul fiend and ravaged lady.
His intentions were to open the womb
Like veal emerged for the slaughter
But with a plan levels deep
She stole away while still large
With this progeny of the abyss
Did this resourceful aberrant daughter
She gave birth in the snow while
the storm howled and blew forth like
The ire of her rapist husband
For years they kept low, always on the move
The mother taught kindness to the
Foul kid. Though its origins vile
And the act enough to raise bile
A sweetling was what did emerge
He sung with the howls of the wind
And when the rage threatened to bend
This kindness into a steel rod
She would show him a dance which to prance
That would channel away all the fuel
To something beautiful and bright
In the snow he whirled for his mother
lifted in song. He could do little wrong.
This did not last, as from out of the past
Came the eyes of the terrible fiend.
The mother he broke with an offhanded
Blow and winced as fang tore into
Its hide. The youngling son, now long
in tooth and strong in hide was still
to weak for vengeance to seek against
This dark minded hellion lord.

II
For winters child was both son and beast
Gazed on for sport, of a demonic sort
Demon tried to learn all its deep secrets.
Taught what the Hellfather would want
Then with a callous, backhanded blow
He would beat and slice it deep
But within this fair child was pride
Of a sort that few have seen
Though all that he knew was cold
A fire burned within that soul
He saw things once and he saw them
Twice but third time was the charm
All were himself, but also were three
He was He, who listened to them
Taking wisdom from each and all
One spoke of bravery and was
The center of calm in the storm.
He called it the Warming Hand.
But one that blazed and wished to lay
Waste he called it the Burning One.
No matter the words, or pain brought
To bear from this fiend in form,
and thought. He would be He
Even through He was Three
A CAPTIVE IN MIND HE WAS NOT!

III
Cut and heal, divide and test
Did that horror of the abyss
But the young one did not
Even give it a thought but
Distracted himself from the pain
Though never heard was a sound
He sung in a three voice refrain
One night he found strength beyond
All before, enough to rebel and flee
It followed him quick, though not
As fleet on the slick of the ice
That coated the steep mounts.
Into our country he came from the
deepest of deep the wild ranges
that no man would willingly roam.
Though power had he, even demons
Will not take on a whole town.
The child he hid, only coming out
of the shadows to fetch bread and
meat. He befriended a few of the
young woman who, saw the handsome
yet strange boy that appeared in
the night with a hood showing only
a face, a fearfully comely face.
He haunted the town, taking with
Force what would not be willingly
given. They sent guardsman out to
run him and clout their clubs over
his head. But so stout was the skull
With knobs and bright holes,
That he sent them running in fright.
For several years he was the source of
their fears, but that all changed
one fateful and silent night.

Level 5

Spoiler

IV
Warriors studied of combat's way
That was nothing short of sublime
Came down from the far frozen slopes
Stolen away was that demon kin
And all thought he we destroyed.
But though he howled and clawed at the
Prison chambers of the Nine Swords
They did harm in no way nor act
And food and drink were not lacked.
Until came a time, where for no reason
Or rhyme, the food refused to be brought
He grew even fiercer inside of that cell
When a young boy was shoved in as well.
Though another week passed and hunger
Swelled hard in the belly of hell's spawn
He refused to give in, and chomp
On the child they had in sadistic intent
Given him to feast and feed.
Instead he held out, til life was in doubt
The child then stood, though young in look
Was a man of incredible age and thought
This had been a test, to see if molest
Would this part-demon do for repast.

V
Too turned up inside, and filled with pride
To master the way of the Sublime.
They taught him to focus the hate and the fear
Of his yesteryears and the inherited blood
Of that land of the dead and damned.
Though empty was hand and its sharp claw
What he came to saw was a blade made of pain
It was no longer inside, but out.
The edge of the soul in a knife made whole
Was what saved his life for a time.
What the Burning had burnt was soothed
of its hurt by the Warming Hand of his mind(s).
He learned the middle ground of love and war
Balancing the three of his kind.
Together they agreed and began to proceed
To make a man out of this uncut gem.

VI
For quite a long while, he could now smile
And be the being he wished to be.
When he was content, three flames would flick
In the dark, one one each side.
But the brightest of all was the one in the
middle where two flame strengthened the One.
Tummo they named him in small ceremony
The one of the stoked inner fire
But instead of the burn, he now had learned
A balance to inferno and warmth
He would light a candle for each side he
Tamed from day to day
Tummo Three-Candle, an appropriate handle
Was what they would now always say.

Level 10

Spoiler

VII
As those threefold fires were brought
to an ember's inviting warm glow
Something stirred in the ashes
A remnant of the evil done upon
The mind of this horrors son.
A fourth though invaded the Burning One
Whose flames had been dimmed
And stoked them hot, and spoke to Tummo
Of rage and murder and all the
dark passion that he should release
to consume he, the three and all those
who had shown disrespect and disgust
He fought the suggestion with tooth
And he raked himself with his claw
Fought did he, and it was two against
one, but three was as he should be.
In meditations sweet gathering of fires
To burn down all hate and shame
But in this one night, he lost the fight
As the face of a girl radiant and coy
Instead blew his control all to Hell

VIII
He descended from the monastery on high
To make the long journey to the village
And bright death on the air was nigh.
For as he sought his sweet, one with
lily feet and soulful midnight eye.
Her father was not have his daughter
Spoiled by this creature from the waste
An argument erupted in the truest sense
of the word as the blade appeared in hand
He sought even then a control not of men
But as he forged the heat of his head
into the impenetrable blade of the soul
It grew hot in his hand, and all through
the land was seen that great fireball
Where once was a sword was now a great lash
three paces and two in its length
He could not push back, and soul turned black
As Hell woke inside and burned to ash
All that was he, now not three, but a single
indescribable source of abyssal force

IX
For a fortnight he fought with infernal thought
Those he had once given his heart and hand
But Hades only knew what burns in the land of
The damned's ego or what fearsome winds blew
So he kept them at bay through many a battle
until even they could not slake his fire
So instead he climbed to the top of the peak
of the mount and roared his burning ire.
From sky to ground and all around
It echoed like a choir of suffering souls
The clouds burned away in the full sway
of the pitborn's all consuming fury.
Though many heard the cry from up high
Only one fully knew what it meant
From his lowly cave that one held a slave
Came the practioner, father and master

Level 15

Spoiler

X
A voice in his head spoke in
a tone commanding yet smooth
And up to the fire beaten
Stone hulked the demon of mind
Father spoke to furious son
Of alliances and return to below
The son though would not cave
To the swaying of sweet words
For he smelled the carrion breath
of certain death in its speech.
And finally now he knew why and how
He could never fully vent the rage
For despite all the fights, battles
and spites, this he truly sought
So with a wrath unholy he let out
his fires, for a blood bath but
that worm of a thought had invaded
The Burning One of Three so when he
would fight with all of his might
The fire was extinguished instead
They fought without sleep, til
Time lost all meaning in the fogs
Neither accepting quarter or defeat

XI
How long it raged on, could have
years or decades long, a battle
few have seen out of hell's fires
The rains began to pour, as the
frozen clouds thawed from the
impact of Tummo's inferno blasting
its way through the blizzards high
Then without warning, on an
unsuspecting morning, the demon he
turned and sped off into the snows
Tummo thought he had gone to flee
And so pursued he til they reached
A great slop stiff with century's snow
There the demon of mind, now blind in
one eye from the onslaught of flame
Made his stand right up on the crest
He stood straight and tall, making
son seem small beneath his towering frame
As he through out his chest and called
him by name, the snows began to roar
It began to fall, and it'd bury them all
The town that he'd since been run out
The demon then ran out of its way
As the avalanche began to tumble
Tummo he knew, could save them or pursue
The evil he'd battled so long
In an instant he knew and almost flew
To the bottom of the city's valley

XII
All that stood between crushing the
Town below with the flood of frost white
Was the sputtering flame that'd been
Stolen by the command of the demon lord
But then Tummo realized that what he
truly despised was to be led by a master
The rage had made him a prisoner as
full chained as any slaver and beaten
to blood strips with clubs and whips
that he had crafted by his own hand.
With this knowledge the peace he'd
Once thought he had flowed through him
and he now knew what to do for control
of one's destiny, to finally be free
As that snow came he beat back the
freeze of the parasite that had taken
over the Burning One's power.
Now not with rage, but the wisdom of age
He stoked up those three inner fires.
For though once they had been one, though
each in the son, they were now working
Together in blessed harmony
The fire it flames, burned like midday
in wave after infernal wave it poured
Th snow melted down and fog gathered round
As a thousand tons became sizzling steam
It rose up in hate, and thunderstorm built
The village might get wet, but it had been
saved by Tummo's compassionate heart.
The snow fallen off in the distance, now
revealed a familiar hole in mountainside.
He carefully creeped through a memory
As he examined this past place of dread
But to his surprise, what he found inside
Were the frozen bones of his father
Long ago cracked by monk's sticks and blows
The only demon he'd fought this whole while
Was the one within, he thought with a smile
The worst enemy you'll find, is of the mind
And it takes great strength to fight yourself
This battle he'd won, the enemy undone,
slain by Tummo, of the Three Candles.

Level 20

Spoiler

Level Breakdown

Spoiler

Sources

Spoiler

Build Notes

Spoiler