Annabel Lee Ch. 1: The Angels In Heaven Above

[BizzaroStormy]

Cage quickly approaches the man with the letter clutched in his hand. Poe?

[Ascension]

The man stirs in his sleep but does not wake.

You hear him faintly mutter the name "Reynolds."

[BizzaroStormy]

Hey! Wake up! he says in a forceful tone.

[Ascension]

He wakes with a start.

At the same moment, as if on cue, a crow lights on top of the tomb.

"What?!?" Poe exclaims confusedly. His voice is unusually raspy, especially for a man his age. He blinks his bleary eyes, trying valiantly to bring Cage's blurred figure into focus.

"You? Who are you? Please, please, leave me be! This poor soul has suffered enough torment for one lifetime..."

[BizzaroStormy]

We're from The Hammer's Edge. I believe you sent this to us... He holds up the letter.

[Ascension]

"What?"

He snatches the letter out of your hand and holds it up close to his face. He studies it for a long moment, and then the light seems to dawn on his face.

"Ohhh, it's you! I didn't think you would come! I had completely forgotten even sending you the letter!"

He puts a hand on your shoulder and struggles to his feet. Once he's up he releases his grip. Though he seems a bit unsteady, he should be able to stay standing without support.

"I suppose you've already guessed that this is my love..." he says, gesturing back at the tomb. His eyes begin tearing up even at the simple mention of her.

"But you didn't come here to hear me eulogize her. You're here to bring her back."

His lips spread in a toothy grin.

"Come! Follow me! I had Reynolds go ahead and open the gate just in case you came. I'll show it to you!"

He begins shuffling towards the edge of the cliff. You see that a narrow path downwards has been carved into it, presumably to provide access to the water.

[BizzaroStormy]

Cage increases his stride to catch up to Poe. This gate...you say its really possible to bring someone back?

[Ascension]

Poe's grin fades slightly.

"Well, we... we haven't tested that yet. That's what you're for. We know you can go through it, we know you can come back, and Reynolds says you should be able to bring her back with you... If you can't, though, I'll pay you just for trying..."

Confusion crosses his face again.

"By the way... uh... I wasn't exactly expecting you to come alone... Do you think you can handle this by yourself?"

[BizzaroStormy]

Well...I didn't. He points to the group behind him. His voice changes to a deep, echoed voice. Yes...we're never alone. Haha! After a slight pause, his voice returns to normal. This man Reynolds...would he be able to perform this task more than once?

[Ascension]

"Oh! I didn't see your friends there!"

He raises his voice to be sure that he's heard by the whole group.

"Come on, come on, you all need to come with me!"

To Cage in particular he says, "Well, I think he could open another gate if necessary, but this one will stay open until the wearer of this ring wills it to close for the last time. I'll give you the ring once we reach the gate, that way you can be sure that you won't get trapped on the other side."

[BizzaroStormy]

I mean...could he bring another back to life. He says, tightly clutching a locket in his hand. Unlike the others, im not here for the money. I'm here because you and I share the same goal.

[Ascension]

"Oh, my dear boy, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Poe says, his voice full of pity, "I wish you the best of luck... but you see, Reynolds just opens the gate. The bringing-back-to-life part, you take care of that. The way I understand it is this... The souls of the dead who worshiped The Nameless God in life reside within the walls of His Golden City. Ordinarily they can't leave, but ordinarily they don't want to leave. If you can convince a soul to leave heaven, it will take on an ethereal form... like a ghost, you see. If you lead that ghost back through the gate to our world and back to its body, it can reenter its corpse and return to life! That's why I had him create the gate so near her tomb!"

[BizzaroStormy]

I see... Cage remains silent until they get to the gate.

((Where the hell is everybody))

[RelentlessImp]

Zurktz slid off the horse and followed, laying his axe across his shoulders and resting his arms upon the haft. He listened to the rambling of Poe, looking faintly interested, but his mind seemed elsewhere.

"So, we're to infiltrate the city, rescue fair maiden, cut up a few angels, and escape?" Zurktz's eyes narrowed as he regarded Poe, glancing toward the tomb. "So. Exactly how did your lady love die, anyhow?"

[Ascension]

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Semi-retcon: I meant to say initially that Poe's voice seemed unusually raspy, but I forgot to mention it. Now I retroactively did.

After Zurktz's summary, Poe exclaims, "Precisely!"

Then, when the orc goes on to ask how she died, a storm cloud passes over the man's countenance. He looks up at the sky and raises a defiant fist towards heaven. Or actually not, since the gate to heaven is still a little ways down the slope, but metaphorically towards heaven.

"THEY TOOK HER FROM ME!" he bellows, for the first time in the entire conversation sounding as young and vigorous as he looks, "I wouldn't attempt to defy the laws of nature and the laws of heaven to bring her back if heaven and nature hadn't betrayed me first! An angel descended from the heavens with a raven perched upon his shoulder. With a wave of his hand a yellow-green cloud rolled over us. My poor Annabel fell dead on the spot, an--"

He suddenly doubles over coughing.

When he finally catches his breath, he finishes his speech, although doing so obviously pains him, "and I have been having these terrible coughing fits ever since. I feel so horribly weak... helpless... I have been wronged, wronged terribly! Even now the angel mocks me! Everywhere I go this raven follows me! You must... you must help me."

Sure enough, the crow which perched on the tomb earlier now circles overhead.

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Neillos, you (Yes, you and only you, not Zurktz, despite his greater Knowledge: Arcana score) recognize that Poe is describing the spell Cloudkill.

Also, Galdrie'al, you recall that the greatest of The Nameless God's archangels is sometimes depicted in art with a raven perched upon his shoulder or flying in the background. You can't recall exactly why, though.

[JackMage666]

Neillos recalls his lore after hearing of the spell... Interesting, it seems as though his woman was a target, killed for some divine reason, and he suffers for it, too... Interesting indeed.... But the silly man is foolish, Neillos could "revive" his wife now!

"Sir, I don't mean to break hope, or anything, but.... I know a thing or two about death. And, what you're describing... Well, even if it were possible, a soul entering the body wouldn't be enough in itself... Bodies need magic to move once the organs rot... I mean, if she were to become animate again, she would die when no air could get through her lungs... If you'll allow me..."

Neillos reached into a pouch and pulls out a small black gemstone.

"I can animate the corpse through magical means, so it functions without those petty things like organs... Then, the soul will have a working vessel to return to!"

Neillos smiles widely. He's helping!

[Proven_Paradox]

Toryn falls behind as he attempts to erase that annoying red line behind them. How can one be covert when there's a gigantic red line following them?

As he finally catches up and hears the rest of the conversation, he shrugs and says to Neillos, "Why not take care a' the soul part first, aye? I've seen your 'revived' people. Somehow I don't think 'at's what Poe here's lookin' for."

[Ascension]

"NO!" Poe snaps, "I have no need of your black magic! Reynolds says the soul is enough, that its presence alone will restore the body. I have more faith in him than I have in you. Listen to the small one! I'm paying you for one thing and one thing only... the return of my beloved's soul."

[TeeEl]

Noticing Cage's unusually personal interest in the task at hand, Hiram hangs back and lets him do the talking. When Neillos chimes in, though, he sighs in exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "I knew it," he mutters to himself, bracing for the outburst he fully expects from Poe.

"Now see here, Poe," he interrupts when the man subsides. "Your story is a sad and sorrowful tale, truly tragic it is, but what you ask for is far beyond even the most learned sages. We've all seen some strange things among us... hell, we do most mornin's when we look in the mirror!... but you must understand there are some things we are reluctant to accept sight unseen. You seem to be mighty sure of this man Reynolds, for one. Is he still about? It would do a lot to set our minds at ease if we could converse with him ourselves."

[JackMage666]

Neillos pockets his gem and grunts...

"Wait... Can we see Reynolds?"

Something isn't right here... Souls being the only thing needed in medical science, a human killed by an angel casting Cloudkill, the madman still being watching... Something peculiar...

[Ascension]

Poe sighs.

"I wish I could introduce him to you, but Reynolds said he had an urgent errand to run in the Northlands... said he wouldn't be back for weeks... but I'd trust him with my life, and I'm paying you to trust me, which means trusting him by proxy."

[JackMage666]

"You are a fool old man. You're want for your wife to be returned has the potential to bring down the cosmos, by reducing the will of the Gods to something of a paltry manner. This Reyold could be a devil sent to trick you into doing this deed, using your love as the ultimate tool. You're very emotions could utterly unmake us."

Neillos looks coldly at the man, then smiles.

"So, where's the portal? I really wanna see what these angels bodies can do!"

[RelentlessImp]

Zurktz, very casually, smacks Neillos upside the back of his head, frowning.

"Must everything be reanimation with you? I'll admit, the swarms of your... creations... have proved useful from time to time, but they've never been a match for sharp adamantine. I've felled a few of your creations from time to time myself, if you'll remember, and I'm certain Angels could possibly be even better warriors than myself. On occasion." Zurktz grins that sharp-toothed grin that those who have battled with him know is his 'eager-to-fight' expression.

[Ascension]

"You don't think I was foolish enough not to check to make sure he's not a demon, do you? Oh, I checked all right. But he can say the mass and take the host like the devoutest saint. He wasn't harmed by holy water either. He's even a priest of sorts. He told me his goal is to unify the study of magic and the study of religion. He says that doing so would enhance our knowledge of both. 'Since the world is inherently magical, so too must the gods be inherently magical,' he said, 'When a priest studies magic, he grows closer to his god.' He called himself a... 'theurge,' or something like that."

[BizzaroStormy]

Cage takes a long drag on his pipe. He always tells people its tobacco but its a lie. To keep himself on top in a conversation, he needed to keep himself calm. The special herb always helped with that. Your overlooking one thing. Your walking corpses will at the very least hampered if they arent disentigrated by the overflow of holy energies.

[JackMage666]

"Ah, but Cage, we'll never know until we've tried! We're entering unanimated territory here!"

[RelentlessImp]

Zurktz snorts. "A -theurge?-" he scoffs. "That's like naming myself Duke of Nowhere, King of Somewhere, and Lord of Anywhere. It's a fanciful title, nothing more."

In truth, Zurktz was somewhat disturbed by the description, and tried to recall if he'd heard the title of 'Theurge' anywhere.

Spoiler

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Knowledge: Arcana - (1d20+13)[21]

[Ascension]

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Zurktz vaguely recalls his master once derisively mentioning a sect of wizards who dabbled in religion, calling themselves "The Mystic Theurges."

"He said there were others like him," Poe protested, "He said they were part of an established organization."

[RelentlessImp]

"Hmph. Pathetic," the Orc remarks with a sneer, unlimbering the axe from his side and planting the haft to the ground, walking with it as if it were a staff.

"I think we can do what you ask us. So, if this one to open the gates isn't around, I assume he's already cast the spell to allow us access to the Heavens. We should get started."

[Bellwether]

Asani follows the conversation eagerly, if silently. There's not much for her to say, past giggling when Zurktz talks about fanciful titles. She just has a large grin on her face of anticipation, and she fidgets excitedly. Finally, she nearly explodes, "Well, come on! Let's go!"