The Sea of Starry Night II [IC]

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

It can't be! Fizahn stands up too. He looks at the figures stupidly for a second before waving. I might be going crazy, but it's worth a try. "Well, fancy meeting you here, Taern, Graevic, Sedryn, Thokk, and, I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten your name! Do I know you? If you're not those people, you can just write my greeting off as stress due to the shadow realm... But you do so remind me of them!" Fizahn gives a toothy grin and casually flicks his "short sword" into the air.

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

Who are Taern and Graevic?

Aeroz still remains hidden. He draws his crossbow and loads a bolt. If these people are agressive, Aeroz will take a shot at them. If they give my position away I swear I'll kill 'em

[Dr._Bob]

"Fizahn, is that you?"

The spear-wielder pulls back her hood, revealing herself to be a tattoed wild elf. She smiles in recognition and lowers her spear, which glows softly.

The other figures also pull back their hoods:

Sedryn smiles broadly, his face as warm and bright as the morning sun.

Thokk smirks and places his hands on his hips.

Djital raises a hand in greeting, his blue eyes shine brightly.

A human female is the last to reveal herself. She is stunningly beautiful, with violet eyes, and ivory skin. Her lustrous chestnut hair is pulled back and fixed with a simple silver hairpin. She smiles uncertainly and hangs back.

Linda gasps and whispers, "It can't be ..."

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa jabs the spellcaster in the ribs. "What?! What's going on? For the love of all the gods, somebody tell me what's going on!" I freaking HATE being blind! Arrrrgh! She stands up, since she hears several other party members doing so. "Has Fizahn finally cracked? I thought I heard him greet two of those people as Thokk and Sedryn..."

[Zeal]

Hajih, Human Ranger

Hajih looks from face to face studying each one in turn. After looking over each person he smiles but that quickly fades.

I can't believe I expected it... it seems so stupid...

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

I really must learn not to stay in back so much, I might miss something. Did Fizahn just greet Taern? Sedryn?

Elthan finally closes in on the group.

So it is then.... But who is that other? I don't remember her....

"Excuse me, you in the back. While I am joyfull at the sight of my deceased companions, I must inquire as to who you are. I do not remember you being in our travels, nor do I know of anyone like you who has died. Enlighten me, please. Are you the illusionist who brought them back to our midst from our minds, or a figment yourself? Or is this just another obstacle this underground sends against us?"
Despite his claim, Elthan does not sound joyous in his speech, but accusatory and suspicious.

(OOC: Will to Disbelive-http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=367489)

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

It call came rushing back at that moment. The sorrow and memories that had been repressed by the stay in the gloaming city. And with it the rage that had accompanied his only friends death but now it had a new source. Hands clenched in tightly against his side even as he trembled in his fury. It didn't help matters that the cool and logical voice that had guided him for so long was telling him this couldn't be. He had seen the body and had watched the life leave his friend. And then it proceeded to list spells that could make the appearance of people.

"Liars and decievers! Y-you dare to descreate the memory of my friend! I'll roast your liver over a slow spit! Your souls will be in agony for eternity to toying with my mind vile trickesters!"

The words came out as a hiss and anger burned in his eyes but there was hesitance too. What if it was really him? Or if it was his mind playing tricks on him and he attacked innocent people?

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy mutters something incoherant, backing off a step,

"Ya know what? I'm just gonna let this one sort itself out. Something's gonna freak out or blow up, or try to eat us soon enough, an' I ain't gonna bother myself worrying about it til' then. Someone else deal with it."

He glances over at Lissa with a dismissive shrug, even though she can't see him,

"Hells, I dunno.. Ghosts, shadows or something. Like I said, I ain't figgering it out."

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

Aeroz ***** an eyebrow and stands up, crossbow still loaded and in hand.

"I don't know who you two, but Thokk, Djtal and Sedryn are Dead. Now, would someone care to to explain what's really going on? Because I have a very hard time believing that you two were ressurected."

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

No. Way. Can this be happening? What are the rules in this world of Shadow?

Achkby stays crouched in the bushes, silently watching the proceedings. He racks his brain to see if he might ever have heard of such Shadowy resurrection, and then trying to make out some vestiges of a spell.

[OOC]
Knowledge (Arcana) (1d20+9=25)
Though I'm not sure if there's anythign Spellcraft can do in this situation, but if there is, Spellcraft (1d20+9=28)
[/OOC]

If neither yields anything fruitful, he mutters a brief incantation with a couple of gestures, casting a spell to search for any active magics.

[OOC]
Spell Failure (Armor) (1d10=2) (Whew)
[/OOC]

[Dr._Bob]

Taern looks shocked and perhaps a bit scared by your party's reactions. "Dead? Fizahn, what is your friend saying?

Djital, also looks dismayed. "Callos, my friend, do you not recognize me?"

Thokk reacts with anger. "What in the hells are you saying?" Thokk looks a little more closely at Hajih. "Is that my sword?" His eyes narrow as he clenches his fists. "What in Moradin's name is going on?"

The woman shrinks back slightly as the accusations fly, but she does not speak. Her perfectly formed eyebrows crinkle in worry, and her eyes dart from face to face in confusion.

Only Sedryn remains calm. He speaks softly and thoughtfully, as if to himself. "Dead? Hmm. That would explain many things ..."

"Friends," he raises his voice so that all can hear him, "I understand your suspicions, but rest assured, we mean you no harm."

"I can speak for all of us when I say that none of us are exactly sure how we came to this place. Each of us awoke here, without any memory of how we came into this forest.

"You say that we are dead? Well, dead we may be. How then can we explain your presence here? Perhaps you are the figments of imagination - fragments of memories, our friends and loved ones left behind. Or are you angels - servants of the Morning Lord sent to guide the faithful?"

Sedryn pauses, then turns and addresses his companions.

"Or perhaps we are all sharing some kind of group hallucination. It was obvious that the spring's waters had magical properties. Maybe this is some kind of side-effect? I recognize some of them, but not all. Can this all be a dream?"

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby, confident now that they are not merely a figment, slowly emerges from his cover. Stopping next to his... friends who are entirely alive, he gives a slow wave to those whom he knows to be deceased.

Could... could it really... be... them?

And... Sedryn... might he know... how he died?

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

Aeroz still keeps his crossbow raised. Dead friends coming back and still thinking that they are still alive generally wasn't a good thing in Aeroz's book. Still, he wondered how things would played out.

"I don't know about the rest of these guys, but I assure you I'm not any angel of any kind. Killed too many people to be one. And you said something about a spring. We're looking for one. Do you know where it is?"

Aeroz patiently awaits "Sedryn's" response. He keeps his eye on the two that he hasn't met, Taern and the other woman.

Well, Fizhan seems to know the woman with the spear, but I no one seems to recognize the other woman. I wonder, what if they are alive. What if they were brought here by someone or something, and the waters from that spring brought them back. Or maybe it's a trap. It's always a trap...

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Urgh... you're dead Sedryn... stop talking. You too Thokk, dead people aren't supposed to talk. Unless they're zombies... now go lie down or something... Mmurgh."

Darius is obviously very confused by this whole affair, he leans the nearest tree, rubbing his forehead.

[Zeal]

Hajih, Human Ranger

Holding Thokk's sword up in front of him with both hands, Hajih shrugs and replies to Thokk "Yeah, it is your sword, that is, if you are Thokk"

Flipping the sword around so it's tip rests on the ground, Hajih continues "In my experience, most people who have their heads crushed..." he points to Sedryn "...or are eaten by a ball of slime..." he points to Thokk "...or are shredded by a big stone monster..." he points to Djital "...Don't sit around camp fires swapping stories. So I think I’ll join the others in asking, who are you really?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos calmed himself with a great effort of will. After all he wouldn't be able to pierce this illusion if he wasn't able to stay calm and puzzle through all of this. People he had seen died where walking in front of him. Okay, he was a necromancer, he was used to it. But they where sentinet and seemed to retain all of their memories...

"Prove your real. Tell us something only the real you's would know."

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

"I don't belive any of this. There are to many inconsistancies. You all are dead, and unless your deaths where imagined, then you must be. And that!"
Elthan points to the fire, sparkling yellow and orange, contrasting agaisnt the grayscale of the shadows.
"This, is the plane of shadows. That should not be possible, nor should you.", Elthan appears quite confident.

Confused,"Wait, whats this about a spring?..."

[Phasm]

Lissa

"THE SPRING! Great Baravar Cloakshadow, they found the spring!" Lissa pops up from concealment, beaming blindly. Inside, though, the gnome is considerably more skeptical. 'Ni te pharkalu, quo lun verra lu.' Ten to one these are really some sort of shapeshifting guardians that protect the spring, or judge whether you really need it, or some such thing. Because Thokk's really going to come back after having his body totally destroyed by a hideous black slime monster... yeah right. That kind of thing only happens in tales. She stumbles down the hill toward the group, still beaming. First things first. Lets see if Elthan's right, and some illusionist is playing silly buggers.

Lissa attempts to locate Thokk by touch and give him a big hug. "Oh, Thokk, this is such a wonderful surprise! We all thought you were dead after that battle with the lich and his four driders! And Sedryn! Who bashed in your head, man? Did you ever finish preparing that spell? If you did, would you cast it for us? And Djital! Great good gods, that was the most spectacularly stupid stunt I've heard of in a long time... and I think it saved a life. Congratulations. Now go calm Callos down, he just about went berserk after you got mauled." Heh, any number of opportunities in there for them to trip up. Okay Lissa, think about Something Else in case one of them is reading your mind. Ooh, favorite topic- yummy halfling!


OOC: Will save vs. illusions: check = 20 ;D For a regular Will save, just subtract 2.

The phrase Lissa quotes is Gnomish from Races of Stone: "If you see it, it's not the right 'it'." More loosely translated, "don't believe your eyes" or "appearances are deceiving". I thought it appropriate for a cleric of a deity of illusion. :)

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

This is insane. I can't deal with comrades who have died gruesome deaths returning fully whole on another plane comprised entirely of shadow. This is just too much for me.

I'm not getting paid nearly enough for this.

Achkby leans againt his spear and closes his eyes tightly. He shakes his head vigorously, blinks a few times, and looks again. They're still there.

"None of them are any magic I'm familiar with..." he announces a tad bit uneasily.

[OOC]So you know, posting might be a bit sketchy through Thursday evening, everything's happening this week.[/OOC]

[Dr._Bob]

The last thing Sedryn remembers is falling asleep in the caves after praying for the power to detect evil. Thokk remembers fighting the drow mummy ("a she-bitch, not a man, as you well remember!") and being grabbed around the neck before he "passed out." Djital remembers little other than seeing Darius fall and feeling the adrenaline rush through his veins as he charged the stone troll-beast. Taern's last memory is of having her hand amputated by the bebilith in the cave under the Grey Keep.

All four of them seem disturbed to hear that they are supposed to be dead.

"Somehow, the spring must have brought us back. Look!" Taern shows her regenerated hand. Her tattoos stop at her forearm. The flesh from the forearm to her fingertips is pristine. She flexes her fingers to show that they work perfectly well.

Djital, too, has been healed. Both eyes are an icy blue, as they had been before he was cursed into the form of a drider.

[hr]
Sedryn recounts how he and Aeroz and Wottworte and Lithandrill witnessed the theft of the serpentine dagger (later identified as the Kris of Sethra). He also describes how the Mulhorandi attacked the Sea Lion, and how Sheyra's escorts sacrificed themselves in order to fake Sheyra's death in the hopes of giving her a new chance at life.

Sedryn's description of Sheyra's fights in the Mud Bowl and of being swallowed by the tendriculos seem too authentic to be the product of an imposter.

Likewise, Djital recounts several anecdotes of his experiences with Callos before they were turned into driders that slowly convince Callos that, impossible as it may seem, the person he sees in front of him is truly Djital after all.

[hr]
Only the chestnut haired woman does not speak. She seems bewildered by the discussions, as if she does not speak Common. Linda approaches her and begins to speak to her in some kind of dialect. The woman's violet eyes light up, and she immediately responds in the same tongue ...

Linda appears shaken as she turns back to the rest of the party. "This woman is, or appears to be, someone from my past. Someone I thought had died long ago. How can this be?"

[Elmorwen]

Sheyra

Sheyra finally speaks up. "You said you found the spring," she says, "I think it would go a long way towards getting us to trust you if you helped us cure Lissa's eyes." Despite her cautious tone of voice, she seems overjoyed at the thought of her dead companions being given another chance at life.

OOC: Sorry about the lack of posting. Between classes and perpetual illness, I haven't had time to do much. Real life's a huge pain, isn't it?

[Dr._Bob]

"The spring is just down this way ..."

Taern and Sedryn lead you down a gentle slope to a quietly babbling brook. Following the brook a short distance to its source, they point out a small crystal-clear pool. The surface of the water is still and mirror-like, reflecting the angular geometric tree stumps and branches.

The pool lies in the center of a small glade. Trees rise up on all sides while their branches arch gently over the pool, forming a cathedral-like protective ceiling. The warm yellow glow from the campfire is visible not far away. All is quiet and peaceful.

If a location can be said to have an "aura", this spring seems to positively radiate safety and comfort.

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa pumps a fist in the air, grinning madly. "YESSSS! I'll finally be useful again! As soon as I'm cured, I fully intend to thank all of you properly." She cautiously finds her way to the pool, and sighs in content upon feeling the calming aura. "Mmm... this place feels good. I bet it's just brimming with positive energy. Wonder why it's in the Shadow Plane?" The gnome shrugs, then kneels down by the pool. Did the gloamings say to drink the water, or bathe my eyes in it? Hmm, I don't think they did. Well, my eyes are the affected part. Lissa carefully washes her eyes with the waters of the pool.

[Dr._Bob]

Lissa kneels by the pool and gently washes her face, the cool water soothing her eyes. Her heart leaps as she begins to be able to make out light and dark. She keeps washing, and gradually her blindness dissolves, like cobwebs being swept out from under a bed.

She raises her head and blinks rapidly to bring her eyes back into focus. The first face she sees belongs to Sedryn, who stands beside her, beaming.

"Is that better?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

Its too much. Even though he believed that Djital was actually standing there before him it was too much. He couldn't possibly understand how this had happened since it was far to bewildering. Instead he merely walked next to Djital in brooding silence, his agile mind desparatly trying to wrap itself around this puzzle.

[Phasm]

Lissa the unblinded!

With a wordless, joyous squeal, Lissa jumps up and wraps herself around Sedryn's waist in a full-contact hug. "I CAN SEE! Thank Baravar, I can SEE again! Omigods, Sedryn!" The high-strung gnome bursts into tears. "You were dead... I saw you, your head was all smashed in and everything... and I tried to find out who did it, I really did! But when I cast the spell I got blind, and that really sucks, I don't know how other blind people put up with it, and we still don't know who did it! And then Thokk, and Djital, and omigods!" Lissa clings even tighter to the cleric's waist, sobbing. Evidently the emotional dam just broke.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

Unimpressed, "Okay, so it has some healing abilities, but to the extent of reviving the dead? In color? I can understand rejuvenative properties, but a spring altering the nature of a plane(at least to those who have benifited from it)? I suppose thiers only one way to see it's full properties."

From his bag, Elthan pulls out a small, blue, rectangular box, and from that a dead and shrivled mouse. Holding it by the tail, he dunks it into the water to see what happens.

(OOC: Amazingly, a fluff item finds a purpose. I guess we could have added it to our food supplies when we where starving, but who would really eat a box of month old dead mice?)

[Dr._Bob]

Sedryn kneels and returns Lissa's embrace.

His smile is genuine as he embraces her small frame. He leans back and wipes away her tears. "I am fine, brave one. And now, so are you!"

[hr]
Elthan conducts an experiment of his own, dipping one of his preserved mice into the spring. At first, nothing happens except that the mouse gets thoroughly soaked. After a few seconds, however, the mouse shivers and its eyes open. It squeaks excitedly and begins to wriggle. Elthan drops the mouse in surprise, and it scampers off into the woods ...

[Elmorwen]

Sheyra

Sheyra's heart leaps when she sees the dead mouse return to life. "Amazing!" she cries, "I've never seen anything like this. Now if only we had the body of that tendriculous-boy..." Upon mentioning that, Sheyra realizes something. "Wait a minute... how is this possible? Thokk's body was destroyed and we burned Sedryn in his funeral. Even if that weren't the case, who took the bodies to this spring?" She turns to Sedryn. "Was anyone else here when you woke up?"

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn walks to the spring in stunned silence. He watches Lissa and the mouse heal surprised. This spring is amazing! It still doesn't explain how everyone got here though. Someone should think to cast detect magic on them though. "Wow Taern, how have you been? Any clue how long you've been here? Do you still have Aercalad? Sorry for drilling you with questions, but I haven't seen you in a long time. I'm sure you have plenty of questions for me and I'll answer them all in due time. We're still hunting Sethra. How did you all meet? I know Thokk would have introduced you to Sedryn, but Thokk died before we met Djital, and I have no idea who the other woman is." Fizahn waits for Taern to finish answering his questions and will answer any she asks.