[Nexus] Random Places and Plots 5

[Devixer]

[Abbey]

One hour. Hopefully that would be enough for her to find the key. Hildur pokes around wherever she can - the library, any empty rooms, wherever she can get away with looking around.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

The only problem is that she's searching blind!

There's no way something that important would just be left out in the open, right? Unless of course the Nuns don't know what the key is for. Who knows! Maybe the dragon was locked down there before the Abbey was ever even built!

...

Wait...

One of the Archon statues in the sanctuary. He was holding a metal sword that looked kind of like a key. If Hildur recalls that detail she might sneak into the sanctuary to take it. And if she doesn't recall that detail she'll probably notice it when it is ritual time.

[Devixer]

[Abbey]

Hildur doesn't remember the Archon statue very well, so her search ends up being fruitless, and she grows increasingly frustrated throughout. She'll only notice the statue's sword-key via a sideways glance during the ritual, but once she does, her thoughts immediately turn to how best to take it.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

Oh fruitless, frustrating searches! But when the time for the ritual comes, there it is. Hiding in plain sight. An ornately crafted key made of the same strange greenish stone as the shackles and locks that bound the dragon inside the cave.

That just has to be it, right?

The only question is...

How to get it?

Maybe sneak in while everyone is asleep?

But what if there are people praying in the sanctuary all hours of the day and night? Then sneaking might be hard! Just have to wait and see...

[Devixer]

[Abbey]

It's probably a little predictable that Hildur wants to sneak in while everyone else is asleep, so she waits until nighttime to try. She stays in her bedroom for a couple of hours after she's supposed to be in bed, then takes off her boots so that she makes less noise as she walks.

She tries to sneak all the way over to the sanctuary. For someone who participates in a normally very loud sport circuit, Hildur isn't terrible at remaining quiet.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

Hildur is in luck!

There's quite the storm going down outside and with all the wind and snow pounding the abbey there's a pretty good chance that no one will hear her sneaking around. Though...

It might be somewhat nerve wracking when she is moving past the Nun's cells. Every errant floorboard squeak no doubt seems absurdly amplified to her ears.

But despite any jitters she'll reach the sanctuary without being caught.

And it isn't totally dark inside!

The room is lit by a number of small candles. Most of the clustered around the statues of the various archons.

Including the one with the key.

[Devixer]

[Abbey]

Hildur is of course a little paranoid, as she's never actually tried to steal something before. But she does eventually reach the sanctuary, and looks inside to see if anyone's there. If there aren't any Nuns, she tries to feel at the air around the key, to see if she can move it.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey Sanctuary]

Nope.

No Nuns.

It sure is a good thing that Hildur practiced the whole 'use the Force to move small objects' skill whilst standing on her head!

...she did practice doing that while standing on her head, right? Because that's the proper way to practice such things. Everyone knows that!

Anywho!

Without too much trouble she'll be able to lift the key free and float it over to herself.

Score!

[Devixer]

[Abbey Sanctuary]

Hildur takes the key in hand, all the while wondering why this seemed so easy. She immediately sneaks back over to her room, intent on taking her boots and backpack. She couldn't stay here anymore, she'd just stolen from the Nuns, and they would know it was her.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey Hildur's Room]

Yeah...

They sure would, wouldn't they?

Because it isn't like there's anyone else here to do it.

...is... Hildur really sure she wants to go through with this? If she leaves the Abbey with that key she'll have broken everyone's trust. Especially Agatha's. And Agatha has been so kind to her, doing everything she can to help her out. Brought her here, vouched for her, pointed her in the right direction with the Shaping...

Hildur could put the key back still.

And no one would ever know.

[Eadin]

Prison

Cat will take some time to think.
"You're right, we'll manage without weapons.."
Her teeth and claws will work just fine...

And now he's off to weapons guy, so she'll follow.
"Where do you think we should go, then?"

[Earl of Purple]

Necanth Prison

The guy who sells bonkers is an orc with stubby horns, dark blue skin and no hair. He's got a lot of different clubs on the table in front of him, and his table is flanked by a creature with three arms, legs, eyes, nostrils and mouths and tripartite symmetry and a short ogre with only one eye and a short tail. Both are armed with clubs of various types- the ogre has the largest piece of steel he can heft, whilst the three-sided thing has a wooden club with a nail in it in each hand.

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

At about the time Hildur's finished packing her things and is about to go, those thoughts start to creep at her mind. She couldn't betray these people, not her friends. But she made a promise to the dragon to help him, and she didn't want to break her word, either.

The indecision is biting at her, and for a time, she is unsure what to do. But eventually, she decides that she just can't take this. Hildur will sneak back to the Sanctuary and put the key back. Much as it pains her to do this, she can't betray the Nuns' trust.

[Rebonack]

[Prison]

And at Cat's comment regarding not getting weapons Fredrick sorta twists on his heel, whilst looking at the map and heads off in another direction!

"Of all the various places I think New London sounds the least overtly hostile. To us at least," he comments. "Because obviously neither of us are elves or goblins or whatever."

Obviously.

"I would rather avoid all the crossbones places until we get a better feel for just what we've been dumped into."

He'll glances back at Cat and ask, "What about you? Where do you think we should go first?"

That's the question of the day!

[Abbey]

Did Hildur make the right decision?

The wrong one?

Is it right to leave the dragon chained inside that cave, broken and forgotten?

Is it right to betray the trust of her friends?

The key is returned without incident or conflict. Except maybe the conflict raging in Hildur's heart. This seems to be quite the perplexing problem. What if the dragon speaks to her through her dreams again? Will it know that she had the key and left it behind? How will she tell it that it'll be left down there alone forever?

But how could she ever face Agatha again if she stole from the Abbey after being given everything so freely?

[Devixer]

[Abbey]

Hildur just returns to her room, not even bothering to try and be silent anymore. She's basically just going through the motions until she reaches her bed. Instead of sleeping, however, she just curls up and starts sobbing, as quietly as she can. She has no idea what's right in this situation, and it's causing her a lot of pain.

That pain will keep her from sleeping for the entire night. She alternates between crying and just laying still.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

What a miserable night.

When Hildur doesn't show up for the morning chores Agatha comes into the room to see what's wrong? And it becomes obvious in a hurry that something is wrong. People don't cry through the whole night and look anything but terrible come morning.

The Nun will rush over to the woman's bed, concern etched deeply on her features!

"Oh no! Hildur! What happened? What's wrong?"

She wants to know why her friend is in pain!

That always makes her sad.

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Hildur looks and feels miserable, as is expected. For more than a few moments, she seems to ignore Agatha. That or she just forgot how to form sentences last night.

Eventually, she manages to choke out, "I'm a horrible person."

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

Agatha's expression changes from one of concern to one of concern AND shock. "What?"

She'll sit down on her friend's bed, reaching out to put a hand on her.

"No you aren't! You're one of the least horrible people I've met! How could you say something like that?"

Oh no!

Now Agatha is starting to feel distressed!

And that's downright terrible.

"What happened?"

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Hildur barely feels Agatha laying a hand on her. Heck, she barely feels anything right now.

She almost starts to explain about the dragon and how she promised to help, but then she remembers that it told her not to. "I-I can't tell you." That's all she'll say, and she goes into another fit of sobs.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Can't tell her?

That's cause for even more alarm.

What could have happened yesterday to do this to poor Hildur? Agatha is at a loss. But instead of trying to pry forward she instead leans down and embraces her friend.

No words will be spoken.

Because no words will need to be spoken.

Hildur will be free to cry.

Because sometimes crying on the shoulder of a friend is all one needs.

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Hildur continues to cry, though she soon returns Agatha's embrace as tightly as she can. She'll keep at this for quite a while, but eventually she lets go of Agatha. She's stopped crying, but she certainly doesn't look any happier than she did before.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

She might not be any happier, but at least she has someone there.

It's...

Too bad she can't talk about it though.

Agatha, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what in the Emperor's name happened the other day. It isn't like anyone else is up on the mountain. It's just the Abbey.

That and Maarsukaal's prison.

...

"Oh Emperor's mercy... Maarsukaal..." Agatha's eyes go wide as she looks straight into Hildur's. "You... You didn't meet a dragon, did you? Locked inside the mountain?"

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Hildur jerks up, and her response is a simple, "No! Of course not!" Given her emotional state, though, it's pretty obvious that she is lying.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Yeeeeah...

That totally isn't obvious.

Agatha gives Hildur one of those, 'really?' sorts of looks before sighing. "And it must have told you not to tell us about the meeting, too."

Another sigh as the Nun fiddles with her silly nun-hat. "Hildur... this is my fault... I should have warned you that Maarsukaal is locked away up there on the mountain. It's just that everyone knows the story about how she was imprisoned there and it sorta slipped my mind that you aren't from this land..."

Whoops!

"Dragons are beasts of Discord. Like that yeti you saw on the mountain. But much stronger. And much more clever. And horrifically evil. Maarsukaal was so powerful that not even Archon George was able to slay it, so instead he imprisoned it inside the mountain forever. This Abbey was built to guard the entrance to Maarsukaal's cage."

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

"So... so it was lying to me, manipulating me to free it?" Suddenly Hildur feels a little better, if only because of the excuse she now has that Maarsukaal is evil. "It talked to me in my dreams," she says. "How is that? Is it because I'm attuned to Air?"

[Rebonack]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Though do recall that Maarsukaal said that the Nuns would brand it as evil. That they fear what they don't understand. Maybe Agatha's story is wrong and the dragon was imprisoned for an unjust reason? It was a long time ago after all. And Agatha obviously wasn't there to see it happen.

Maarsukaal, however, was.

Agatha nods. "Dragons are clever monsters. And you had no way of knowing that it was evil. There are lots of creature that look like dragons down in the Nexus that are downright kind after all."

All sorts of things in the Nexus!

"Maarsukaal is very powerful. Or at least it was. Probably the oldest Air Dragon in the whole of the world. And your spirit is more powerfully aligned to air than any person I've ever met. So that must have linked you to the dragon somehow."

But that doesn't seem right... Hildur felt kinship with the dragon. She could feel its heart beating with hers. She could feel the wind blowing through its veins. She could feel the longing to touch the face of the sky again... There must be something missing from Agatha's story. Something she doesn't know.

Or... maybe Agatha was lied to. Maybe she doesn't know what really happened.

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

"I... I think I'm connected with Maarsukaal in more than just dreams. I looked at her, and I knew things... felt her emotions, knew what she wanted... I don't understand it." Hildur slides her face into her hands, now both sad and confused.

[Rebonack]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Agatha wrinkles her nose a bit at that. How could have the dragon linked itself to Hildur? She just doesn't know... Doesn't know much about dragons in the first place aside from the fact that they're bad.

Really really bad.

So then what...

Suddenly an idea comes to the Nun!

"Hildur? Could you get your focus out? And just concentrate on it? The way you do to feel the wind and stuff?"

Should Hildur do so she'll find that she feels even more at one with the air than she did just a few days prior. And drastically so now. Enough so that it may even startle her. As if every breeze and every current that caresses the whole mountain were awaiting her call.

[Devixer]

[Abbey - Hildur's Room]

Hildur does so, and her reaction is appropriately startled, in that she suddenly straightens up and drops the focus. She scrambles to pick it back up, and just whispers, "I can feel... I can feel all of it. Every breeze on the mountain. But what does that mean?"

[Rebonack]

[Abbey]

Agatha winces at that proclamation. While she isn't sure she has an idea of what that might mean. And if it does in fact mean what she thinks it means... well, suffice to say that would be really bad.

The Nun reaches out to put a hand on Hildur's arm. "We need to go see Mother Martha right away. I'll do my best to explain as we go," Agatha says as she rises to her feet, holding out one hand to help Hildur up. Should Hildur stand Agatha will sure enough begin explaining as she goes.

"A dragon is born from spirits of greed clinging to a person and that person giving in to that greed rather than being cleansed of it," Agatha explains. "There's a ritual, the Ritual of Alms, that is held in the capital of each Fiefdom every year. And that ritual is mean to remove those spirits," okay... so... "Once someone becomes a dragon they seek out people with powerful spirits to consume and enslave so they can grow stronger themselves. And... I think Maarsukaal might be doing sort of the opposite of that to you."

Which is probably bad.

"It felt you coming near to its prison because of how strong your spirit is. And knowing that it's trapped in its cage it began breaking off its own enslaved spirits and sending them drifting down the mountain to you. That would explain how you've been learning so fast. And if you found Maarsukaal's cage... if you touched Maarsukaal. It could have poured even more spirits into you. The dragon is trying to take you, Hildur. Either it would get you to free it and then eat you, or it'll pour ALL of its spirits into you until YOU are Maarsukaal. Either way the dragon gets free again."

Hildur will probably feel... something strange. A sudden spike of anger and distrust. Agatha is afraid of how powerful she's becoming. She's going to try to take Hildur's power away so that she'll be helpless again. Hildur should flee the Abbey, she can fly and the Nuns can't. Just get far far away where they won't be able to follow her. Where she'll be safe. Where she can continue to cultivate her new-found skills.