[D&D 3.5] - Legends.

[Vox Clamantis]

Lu Xian

In a moment, Captain.

Turning to Guillaume and Samantha.

It would appear that we have no time to unravel this mystery further. Although I am bothered by what is going on here, our errand is surely more urgent.

He begins to walk towards the stables, saying over his shoulder:

Perhaps when our time is our own, we can return.

[Xanos]

Everything is as it should be at the stables. The horses are all there. You're free to depart if you wish.

[Tyrael]

Captain Shepard

Shepard gets his gear back together, mounts up, and awaits confirmation from everyone else before heading back out along the road.

[llamamushroom]

Nirmaat Yantra

We have to go now? But what about the ghosties?

Thinking it better to leave that sort of though to himself, what with his alread tenuous comradeship with the shepherd, Nirmaat decides to skip the part where he looks vacantly into the middle-distance for an hour and get right to the part where he develops a bruise on his shoulder from Grathita's urging.

"Oh, give it a rest!" he murmurs to his sphinx as he walks out the front door. It's a good thing he's a fast learner, as he's able to put up the contraption onto Bella in comparatively record time.

After only 12 minutes, he's strung up in his basket, and is shouting his way to the shepherd's side.

[Vox Clamantis]

Lu Xian

After saddling his mare, Lu Xian leads her around to the front of the inn. He wraps her reins around a post and steps inside, looking for the innkeeper. He has one last question for the man.

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

The priest manages to haul himself up into the saddle, availing himself of the help of a stable-boy.

[Fishy]

Adar

The dwarf likewise saddles up.

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

Ahuhi shrugged, they didn't really need his help, and truely...the dead didn't concern him. He mounted his horse and brought it around with the rest, pulling up beside Shepard

"Watch go alright last night hmm Hound?"

[MistressBaerne]

Samantha mounts, giving her Catelyn a piece of meat before she slips into a bag to sleep.

[Tyrael]

Captain Shepard

Shepard nods. "Well, the streets were quiet, and since you didn't kill anyone in their sleep, I'd call it a win-win situation...but old habits die hard, hmm?" He gives Ahuhi a penetrating stare.

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

Ahuhi grins widely

"Well, untill this is all done and over with, I won't be killing anyone. The mark one me really does put a damper on that plan. But at least there's two of you here that arn't on the list."
Ahuhi gives a wink

"And you, you posion using scamp. We're going to have ourselves a rematch, without tainted daggers. Wonder what the lot of these people would say if the noble watchman was found using such things huh?"

[MistressBaerne]

Samantha had been listening with half an ear to the conversation; her interest had been perked by Ahuhi's use of the words "noble" and "poison" in the same sentence.

"I don't see any problem with augmenting one's weapons, if there's a good cause for it. May I assume that you were...initially unwilling to join our expedition, Mr. Ahuhi?"

[Tyrael]

Captain Shepard

Shepard gives Samantha a grimly humorless smile. "I'm the one who brought him in. Let's just say his past caught up with him. My job here is to protect you, Lady Greywater, and to make sure this chap doesn't try anything funny."

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

Ahuhi shrugs

"I didn't have the option of being less then willing. The people I work for and who raised me told me I had to come with you. How it happened was even gussed it. The "Put on a show but fall" order really is binding don't you think?

Now I myself am a fan of posion, but are you telling me that you would be alright with your personal protectors lacing their blades with posion? What would make them different then us other then who gives em their coin. If you really don't have a problem with it then I absolutly misjudged you Blue Bloods.

But at the very least the Hound tells the truth about some of it. He brought me in, and the nobles of your castle cleaned me up and gave me a get out of jail free card if I helped you lot with what ever it is you need me to do. With this handy seal"

Ahuhi rolls one of his coats baggy sleeves up, and though his arm was marked with tattoo one stands out of the regular black ink

"I can't kill any of you while this is on me, so it's really in my best interest to protect you all since it dosn't work the other way around."

[Tyrael]

Captain Shepard

"There's lots of ways to betray people without actually killing them," Shepard retorts dryly. "I'm here to see you don't actually try any of them."

[MistressBaerne]

Ahuhi

Ahuhi shrugs


Now I myself am a fan of posion, but are you telling me that you would be alright with your personal protectors lacing their blades with posion? What would make them different then us other then who gives em their coin. If you really don't have a problem with it then I absolutly misjudged you Blue Bloods.

"Mr. Ahuhi, poisoning one's opponents has been an accepted practice amongst the nobility for centuries. And let's not forget, I myself have made a study of the methods by which a mind may be poisoned by spells. Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Ahuhi, Captain Shepard."

[Fishy]

Adar

"Difference between Comerade Shepard and you," Adar grumbles, approaching the limits of his patience again, "Is Shepard knows there is a difference."

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

Guillaume strives to maintain a steady pace on his horse.

"'Poisoned by spells.' A pungent phrase, my Lady. You are speaking of the ability to reshape thoughts? A fascinating, if somewhat disconcerting, study."

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

"I have no reason to lie to any of you. I don't even make it a practice within my own ranks. You have to trust the people that live beside you. And you all started off not really ready to trust me. Besides, the rest of you are so uptight we could fire arrows from your lips.

But a question, Miss Greywater. If thats the case. Then why lock my people up in cells and beat them and execute them? They do the same thing you do to your people, we just make a profit out of it. You get land and titles, and I get money to run a brothel or an opium den. Whats the difference between you and me?"

[MistressBaerne]

"In a word, structure. As I'm sure Mr. Guillaume will agree, there is a method to all the madness - call it luck, call it fortune, call it divine will, but nothing happens entirely by chance. Our places are determined in part by our birth, but what we do with those positions of authority is not. The only moral choice is to enforce peace and security. To protect those less fortunate."

Samantha's voice gained a slight, indescribable quality towards the end of her short speech, as if she was reciting something she'd learned a long time ago.

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

Guillaume smiles a bit thinly. Perhaps I am getting a bit uptight. But that kind of recreation would have to wait.

"I hear this kind of argument all the time, Mister Ahuhi. But...Just because a very few manage to find ways to evade the law, doesn't negate the need for the law. Or its many benefits to the greater part of society. The killing of others for profit is not good for the nation.

"You've said yourself that you have to trust the people beside you. I wholeheartedly agree. And one of the most powerful tools we have to procure that trust is the law - a consensus that simply disliking a person, or standing to gain slightly from their death, is not sufficient cause to kill them. Or do you agree with the philosopher Hatchert, who posited that there is no such thing as a society?"

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

"So divine law or willful mandate places one into a position of power, not the agreement of the common man? Nothing you've said differs from what we do. We offer peace and safety on your streets. Its when others disagree with the methods we employ that we start to get conflict."

Ahuhi then turns to the priest

"You say that killing for profit is not good for the nation? What are we doing now? We all are getting something for this. Thats payment. We are all going into a place that dosn't follow -your- laws, and we are killing them so they don't kill all of you. Forgive me if I am mistaken. The Crescent has been in their land for years, doing the same thing there as it did in your country. So, in a manner of speaking...I would agree with the man. Yes, there is no society. There is just one world. We're all apart of it. Your code...my code...who'se to say which is right? But just as you'll live and die for yours. I'll die for mine."

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

"You say that killing for profit is not good for the nation? What are we doing now? We all are getting something for this. Thats payment. We are all going into a place that dosn't follow -your- laws, and we are killing them so they don't kill all of you. Forgive me if I am mistaken.

The priest's smile widens.

"You are indeed forgiven. I have no intention of killing if we don't have to. And I have asked for no payment for this service, but merely an assurance that my expenses will be covered."

The Crescent has been in their land for years, doing the same thing there as it did in your country. So, in a manner of speaking...I would agree with the man. Yes, there is no society. There is just one world. We're all apart of it. Your code...my code...who'se to say which is right? But just as you'll live and die for yours. I'll die for mine."

"But you understand that this is not a series of individual codes of conduct that I speak of, but a written and commonly understood law? Either you consider yourself a part of this world - and subject to the laws of the land in it - or you consider yourself separate from the world, and not subject to the laws. Try as you might, you can't have it both ways, my friend.

Guillaume is now clearly enjoying the conversation.

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

"Your a man that has my respect Priest. Not the common lot that can look at the king's offer and not be tempted. You could have anything you want, and ya still want nothin?"

Ahuhi just whistles, a strange sound, almost like a rolled r

"And thats just the thing ya? I don't wanna be part of your world. Your "rules" and your "regulations" have no meaning to me. The point of a sword and the command it carries is what I grew up with, your rules stand in oposition to everything I was taught. And no offense Priest, but so does your church, and all the others in this world. Not that I have a problem with you because of it. Just can't stomach it."

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

The priest is now leaning forward in his saddle, his enjoyment evident.

"You are too gracious, Ahuhi. I want many things. But a few coins in payment from the king is not one of them."

"And how can you be sure that none of the churches match your beliefs? I have spent years making a study of the world's religions, and my understanding of them remains woefully inadequate. If you dismiss all religions out of hand - even the ones you don't know - aren't you closing yourself off to possible inspiration and good ideas?"

"Further, if you truly believe that there is no law beyond that of the sword, with the threats and brutality that that implies, how do you explain the evidence of people not behaving in that manner, yet thriving? There are no locks to the rooms in my seminary, and yet somehow, no one comes in and steals my clothes at night to sell on the street. Does that mean that we are, all of us, simply fools for not grabbing all the belongings we can?"

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

Ahuhi removes one of his blades, a well made scimitar with flames dancing along its sharp edge, the handle a dark crimson

"A sword. Is more then just this blade. In fact, this piece of metal is nothing, this...this is not a sword."

As if to drive home his point, the blade slips back into his long coat with little sound.

"The sword of a man or woman is not here in this world in a form that kills people. It is his intent to take what he desires. Even if there is a return in the end, the desire of Want, and the action of Take forges the true blade of a sword. A man who has never picked up a weapon in his life agaisnt me with the same weapon will lose. Is it because of the training I have undergone? No. Desperation is a better trainer, it whets the blade. His intent may be the same as mine but that is why his blade is weak. I do not desire anything he holds. My intent to kill him is pure, for I know I need not slay him there. Thus the blade I have forged to strike down his life is one with an edge that can cut god!"

Ahuhi's voice has clearly raised, his fist held into the air

"You hold a blade, Priest. As does the Hound and the noble lady. You all have Intent. Just because you do not show the sign of a forged sword does not mean that you yourself can't live by that. Are there not churchs that destroy and burn others? Their intent is Conversion. Their blade is Domination. The Nobles blade is Law. And it is a blade broad and heavy that strikes down the "nails" so that everything stands within its place, and does not oppose them. The blade of a Family is Tradition. A thin sharp piece of Intent that shaves off all that which they see as "against their lifestyle" leaving only a shaved and smooth surface for which to continue their legacy.

My blade....it is the formless shape. The shape that creeps into dark spaces. The shape that hunts for the imperfections of all other blades, and worms its way into those cracks. It is not a blade of strength or comformation. It is the blade of Desire."

[llamamushroom]

Nirmaat Yantra

Much of this conversation had unsettled the little gnome. Blades that are only projections of the mind? What does he mean?

Speaking aloud for the first time directly to Ahuhi, and quaking in his basket with each syllable, Nirmaat called out,

"I don't think I understand you. Are you saying that each and every person in the world has their own special kind of blade, based on what kind of person they are? Why do you believe that? I admit I haven't seen as much of the world as you, but perhaps 'blade' is too strong a word; maybe just tool? I wouldn't say that Lady Greywater had a sword in her mind - perhaps a chisel. And the worst Guillaume could have would be a brush. We aren't all instruments of destruction - I know I've devoted my life to creation."

[Innis Cabal]

Ahuhi

The gnome had actually spoken up, Ahuhi was visably surprised

"No...not exactly. If you had to pick up a sword and use it. Your will would make that blade stronger...sharper...better. Priest has his sermons. But his sermons would be dull and ineffective if he was not Intent. You'd not be able to make...those things if you did not have the Intent to do so.

I would lose my life if I was not Intent on killing the things in my way. A battle of swords...is not a battle of just physical weapons. It is a battle of will. Faith is meaningless if you don't have the will to beleive it. Law itself! It means nothing if you don't have the will to keep placing it before the wants and desires you hold!

The Blade is your Intent! Your Intent to cook. Do you go into cooking with the will to make a crappy dish? NO! Do you go into battle with the intent to just win by a little?! NO! You go in with your fullest Intent. And when that is not enough, your Blade is weak. You can not strike the final blow on the battle against the flambe. Your big debate on the floor of congress goes against deaf ears. You get a sword in your eye, and you bleed to death namless and forgotten. Your...thing breaks and gets strewn across the floor a complete failure!

You say that not all things are meant to destroy? What about the metals you melt? That is destruction. What about beating an opponent even in friendly terms. You've destroyed...broken...his or her resolve on an issue. Even faith can be boiled down to this. You have to battle against tempation. Destruction is not a negative only."

[Vox Clamantis]

Lu Xian

The slight foreigner rejoins the group after having finished his conversation with the innkeeper, just as the gnomish inventor begins speaking. He says nothing, listening intently as the assassin replies.

True victories come from wielding that blade against oneself, not others. Slaughter, the creation of beauty, these things are meaningless when done for greed or ambition. What we must defeat is the desire to do them for ourselves. To kill for survival is nothing but bestial instinct. It is not murder, but it is not right. To kill to prevent injustice or to uphold the law, that is right. To kill for money or advancement...

...that is murder.

The strength of your will is less important than what motivates it. Some men are born strong-willed. Some are born weak. I respect the weak-willed man who stands for something more than the strong-willed man who lives only for himself.

[Fishy]

Adar

Adar guides his pony to one side, making room for the mystic beside him.

"Is possible, I think, to spend your whole life fighting, and winning, and hate every moment of it."

He's addressing no one in particular, though he takes a moment to give Lu Xian a slight nod before continuing.

"I do not 'cook' because I love cooking. Or to make a beautiful dish, or to be best cook in the world. I have no Intent. I cook because my family is hungry."