The Union of The Serpent, The Second Generation.

[Cogito]

Math

When Gloria begins to order Math turns towards the totally out-of-place-looking feast. "Well that is something. Come on Gray, let's have some ourselves."
After having loaded two plates with as much food as possible Math takes a seat, puts one plate to the ground beside him, and starts to eat slowly from the other.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Having finished her dinner, Gloria rises and quickly snatches the bowl of strawberries from the table. With a self-satisfied swagger, she resumes her spot under the tree to sit and munch.

[Cogito]

Math

After Math has finished his meal he takes a short walk before finally turning in.

[WhiteKnight777]

Umber

Umber watches the others eating from above, and eventually drops down out of the tree, picking up a few choice slices of beef and savoring the taste, along with a goblet of red wine, his eyes half-lidded as he savors the taste. He sighs contentedly, relaxing against a tree, licking his fingers clean with a long red tongue that darts agilely from between crimson lips.

Delectable... even though it doesn't satisfy anymore, one still finds the flavors quite enjoyable.

He chuckles again, and gives a little shudder Though it's nothing like the crimson... not than anything ever is.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Taking aim, Gloria tosses a strawberry at the vampire perched in the tree.
"See," she says, around a mouthful of fruit. "That's why people don't like vampires. You're all 'children of the night' and 'ze blood...it makes zuch...beautiful music.' " Gloria sets down the now considerably emptier bowl and crosses her legs as she wipes her fingers off on the grass.
"It's like if you were made of pudding, and all of us went around saying how we've got a sweet tooth."

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias grins, his hand snaps out to grab the strawberry, biting in and licking the red juice from his fangs with gusto.

Oh come now... I don't live up to stereotypes that badly. In any case, from what I understand being bitten isn't all that unplesant either.

He grins, the dim firelight reflecting off his face, an image at once handsome and slightly savage

Besides... in response to your comparison, I don't mind being bitten back.

He chuckles lightly, up in the tree again, enjoying the repartee.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Ooh, a sleazy one! Does he think all that oil will grease the way?
Gloria glances over at the others, then back to the tree-perched dead man.
"Uh...huh." She says, slowly. "Well, I'll sleep a lot better knowing that."
With that rather lame comment, Gloria sets her bowl aside and closes her eyes, preparing for sleep.

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

The vampire gives a wicked chuckle, winking at Gloria. It's hard to tell, really, whether the slick, oily veneer he wears is serious, or intended in irony. He grins wide, addressing them all, his eyes glimmering in the fading light Don't worry, children, and be untroubled in your sleep. Uncle Alamandias will be watching your slumbering heads. He grins wide again, standing amidst the tree branches, suddenly slipping back into the shadows, nigh-invisible in the darkness.

[TheMeanDM]

The lumi's head swivels around to face the remainder of the group.

"As will my eyes." Ozzariem says simply. His head swivels back toward the fire.

He speaks, almost into the fire "I am curious, who were you before you became a vampire? Do you remember?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias' normally cheerful face changes to a scowl for a brief moment. Unfortunately, no. And every priest and spellweaver I've ever sought out has been unable to divine even a scrap of information.

[The Necroswanso]

(Everybody disappeared huh? ANYWAY, for those of you still around...)


For a second, your thoughts seem to freeze, like time had stopped for a moment, waiting to let some poor soul hop onto bandwagon of exhistence on this plane, but it soon passes and you shrug it off as being tired, even those of you who don't sleep fealt a bit fatigued.
However you toss that idea out the window when your attention is drawn to the fire, by what could only be described as the sound of one poking at it with a stick. In fact a gentleman, who had no previously been there before, was now sitting there.
He wore long blue pants, that hung lazily around his laqured black boots, his entire upper body was wrapped in bandages, showing only his left and right hand, which poked out of gold bracers addorned with a scarab. You noticed however, there was no skin of muscle on the left hand, only bone, and it was the hand he poked at the fire with, but with no stick. As your gaze proceeded upward, it ended in a soft face, with a square jaw, curtained by long golden hair, and housing dark green, hollow, eyes. This man, was in fact, not truly there.
As you turned your attention to him, you noticed he was looking intently, angrily, surpisedly, at Gloria, but when he spoke, a terrible, empty voice, you knew he spoke unto all of you.
"Well now children, sitting out in the wild, with a fire, making all manner of noises... Didn't you know; there is a Wumpus near by..."

[TheMeanDM]

Slightly startled by the appearence of this phantom stranger, Ozzariem rises.

"And who are you, sir, to seat yourself at our fire? Please, introduce yourself and state your business."

[Cogito]

Math

Math turns towards the fire, solowly at first, then in one swift motion when his dog begins to growl. While the man takes, Math's eyes wander between the blade at his side and the skeletal hand that is poking around in the fire.
"You're the same guy who popped up behind us today? Why are you watching us?", Math asks directly after Ozzariem has finished. He sounds mainly curious, if a bit annoyed at the interruption of his sleep.

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias looks at the stranger, his eyes running up and down his concealed form as he raises his voice from the concealment of the tree.

In addition to those questions, another: What's a Wumpus?

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Gloria is on her feet in an instant, and with one quick motion she retrieves her metal sphere from her pack and grips it in her hand. Almost instantly, she's engulfed in the silvery substance as it flows to cover her entire body except for her golden hair. Standing like a golem of some kind, she watches the stranger with an expression unreadable.
"Who the hell are you? And what's your problem?"
For the moment, however, she hasn't drawn a weapon. Indeed, she doesn't seem to be carrying one.

[The Necroswanso]

The illusion of the man snarled angrily, it becoming a little clear that he intended to have questions answered, not the other way around.
"The question, Math isn't why I'm watching you, but what you want from me? You carry my brother's sigil are you not? That opens only two doors in the vast infinity that is the planes, and mine is one of them! So unless you killed him, you must be comming from him..."
His glare intensified on Gloria, it looked like he was saying something, but it was hard to make out.

Listen checks please.

He's drawn out of his muttering.
"..and a Wumpus, is a beast I created, with side affects... Suffice to say if you see it, you'd better hope it does not see you..."

[TheMeanDM]

"So you are Necron the Lich, if you clain Elrick (sp?) as your brother. True?" Ozzariem says.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Gloria rests a hand on her hip.
"The hell? No way you don't know if you're the real Necron; the real Necron would know already. And where do you get off saying "You should be dead?" You don't even know me."
Gloria scowls beneath her metal skin, and just for a moment...there's a flicker of ashen gray from just behind her, then nothing.

[The Necroswanso]

The man grins.
"Necrom D'Latrange, or, in life, Grethos D'Latrange. I never did like my name. And it is Duke Necrom to you shiny."
His grin turns sadistic at Gloria, and his eyes begin to glow a sickenign shade of green.
"Oh, but ofcourse, I must have mistaken you for someone else." His voice became biting, harsh, and as he spoke his malicious grin grew wider, too wide for the standard of human facial flesh.
I will need a will save from you Skenardo.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade
Gloria shudders as the oily waves of the Lich's Will press against her mind, but then she shakes her head. Her mind is still her own, but there's a definite newfound respect in her voice as she speaks again.
"Er, all right, your Lordship. We're from your brother, who wants us to ask you about a paladin of the South who has the demon-cutting sword." she clasps her hands behind her back.
"It would save everyone some time and effort if you could help. Please?"

[The Necroswanso]

The lych's eyes dart at the ground quickly, as if he were thinking. He seemed to be mouthing something to himself, but all the listen checks in the world produced no information.
After a moment, he looks back at Gloria.
"I know of no such 'demon cutting' sword."
The lych stood up, his form rippling slightly.
"I have matters to attend to. Don't wake the Wumpus."
Necrom took a step away from the fire, but moved toward Gloria instead, he stopped besdie her, no longer looking at her. When he spoke up his voice was cruel, malicious, and the fire seemed to give off less light as he did so.
"and I said you should be dead because you should be. What; did you think it was by chance that some adventurers just so happened to let you go? NO! You were a failed test, a stain on my records, and before I could deal with you some paladins came looking for me. You're only here by chance..." And the image faded away, the fire returning to it's original glow.

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias chuckled in the tense silence that followed the lich's disappearance.

What does that have to do with anything? In my experience, chance is one of the most vital and intrinsic forces in history anyway. For want of a nail and all that.

He sighed, hopping down from the tree where he was perched, landing gracefully, cloak fluttering about him.

So. What are we to do?

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade

The silvery woman slowly sinks to the ground, sitting with a clank. She wraps her arms around her knees and hugs them to her chest, her expression unreadable underneath the silvery mask. Silent, she remains seated and hunched. A faint metallic rattling reveals an almost invisible shudder running through her body.

Perhaps it's a trick of the firelight reflecting off her skin, but faint ribbons of shadow seem to curl and waver about her metallic arms and legs in the dusk.

[TheMeanDM]

"The king said Necrom would be able to tell us who this paladin is. Either that was not the true Necrom, or he is testing us. I believe we will need to complete our journey in order to...glean...the information required." Ozzariem says plainly. He walks over to Gloria, his glowing light preceeding him. He places a reassuring hand upon his traveling companion.. "Are you alright, lady?" his voice has lost it's matter-of-fact tone, and instead seems to be more compassionate and concerned.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria Blackblade

Gloria makes no reply, and gives little indication that Ozzariem's concerns were acknowledged or even perceived. She continues to rock back and forth slowly.
Suddenly, the shadows coiling about her limbs coalesce, and an oily blackness engulfs the shining surface of Gloria's armor.
out of the sanguine cloudiness covering Gloria's head springs another female face, this one ashen gray and cruel though indistinct, as if viewed through frosted glass.
"Get your hands off me, you tool," it snaps with a voice harsh and heated,"You smell like chains."

[Cogito]

Math

Math continues to look at the place where Necrom had been only moments before, so he at first doesn't notice Gloria's strange behaviour. When he does, he recoils a few steps. After a look at the others he slowly walks up to her and kneels directly in front of her.
"Who are you?"

[TheMeanDM]

Following on Math's question, Ozzariem says "I am not a..tool...I am a Lumi" he looks down at himself "and I see no chains on me." in a puzzled tone.

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias' eyes narrowed as he considered the woman. Interesting. Very interesting. Chains, eh? Hmmm... Perhaps. But too soon to tell.

I do believe she meant it in a metaphorical sense. In any case, its her choice whether or not to tell us about her private bussiness.. though I hope that if theres anything that might endanger the rest of us, she'll enlighten us as to it.

[The Great Skenardo]

Gloria (?)
The visage distorts for a moment behind the frosted effect, and then a snort.
"Stuff it, you mindless little" her voice deepens for a moment, and dips into a harsh collection of jagged syllables that sting the ears like barbs
(In Infernal)

Spoiler

Show

"Things only half-suited for the slaughterhouse, you-"

And abruptly she switches back to common
"-All smell like chains and filth. You can all rot in the deepest pit o-"
The voice trails off and the face behind frosted glass flickers and dims as her voice gets quieter. The tide of shadow recedes from Gloria's silver form until she sits just as she was earlier, she shakes her head. With the motion, her golden hair flies.
Silently, the aasimar extends her hand and once more the liquid metal flows into her palm. There's little of her recent bravado in her bearing as she stows away the globule into her pack once more. In the silence, she stands, loose hair covering her face. Then, with a sudden savageness, she snaps her head upright to glare at the others through the curtain of her golden hair, a touch of redness about her eyes.
"That never f-cking happened, All right?! she shouts, her voice thick with some emotion hard to guess.

[WhiteKnight777]

Alamandias

Alamandias simply smiled, his eyes glimmering mirthfully. Taking off his hat, he offered a low bow. Of course not. Could a gentleman do aught else? He appears to dismiss the whole incident out of hand, and moves on briskly. I suggest we get some rest and move on in the morning. As our luminescent friend says, I believe we still have quite a journey ahead of us before we get any answers.