We Are Seen

Log Info

• Title: We Are Seen

• GM: Aftershock

• Characters: Cuemoni, Fidget, Rune, Tlanexhuani, Zeke

• Place: Temple of Daeus

As Zeke secrets Fidget deeper into the temple for security, he sends Cuemoni - with a soft touch of her head to his own - off on an urgent errand to gather Rune whom he trusts with her weapons to keep all those safe who have gathered. He knows that the trance to come will weaken him a lot, and someone needs to keep Cuemoni safe.

So he gathers everyone into the chamber for the ceremony, a small bowl of water sitting on the floor, the room full of the sharp scent of exotic incense that Zeke can already feel expanding his mind. He settles into place to meditate, allowing his mind to open to the divine...

His body goes rigid a moment later, his eyes lighting with a holy glow that makes him look blind but to him it is as if every sense has merely changed. Become sharper and duller all at the same time. Expanded to limits that make no sense to his mortal mind. "BEGIN."

This is the voice of Daeus, the Dragonfather.

Cuemoni, having helped in setting up the room and having retrieved Rune, is seated next to Zeke, keeping a careful eye on him. The turquoise-scaled sith-makar sits all the straighter-backed as she hears the voice that leaves her Cihuaa that is not his own.

"I will record the answers given," she murmurs quietly to the gathered, "so that you may focus on asking the questions, Fidget." To facilitate such, she has a delicate paintbrush in claw, a scroll of paper, and a well of ink, suitable for the purpose of recording.

GAME: Rune rolls sense motive: (7)+9: 16

"Oh, shit, already - I should have written something - wait, it's started... uhh..." Fidget, frazzled by recent events, slightly more threats on her life than usual, and that whole thing upstairs, struggles with the sudden requirement for concise, coherent thought. "Oh! Can the Fae I'm bonded to be killed...by me...and allies I could reasonably bring?" She stumbles a couple times during the question as she realizes she needs to be more specific, anyone can be killed, in theory.

One question fired off, Fidget turns to the other present, "Someone get me something to write on, and a pen or crayons or a knife, something to write with!" How do you write with a knife? Best not to ask, or stand too close to a goblin who's asking.

It is more than a bit unusual for Rune to be summoned to the temple of Daeus, but she is quick enough to answer the call. As such, she comes fully armed, with weapons strapped to her back and armor buckled across her torso. An arrival that leaves her curious as she looks to where Zeke is lost in magic. Then, her eyes settle on the brightly colored Goblin of the bunch. Squint.

"You didn't..." She states, and then reaches a hand up to rub at the bridge of her nose, "You did. Fuck." Apparently, Rune had some idea of what Fidget had been planning and just how badly it could go. "I warned you not to..." She stops and just shakes her head, "Doesn't matter, what's done is done."

She takes a slow breath, reaching into her bag and pulling out some loose sheets of paper. A few are selected to be shoved back into the bag, while the others are offered towards Fidget, along with a pencil. "I'll take guard duty. Hopefully Zeke's magic can shed some light on things. Just... be careful." Dealing with the Fae is always dangerous. Rune draws her weapons and steps back, watchful.

"NOT BONDED, BUT OWNED, TO WHOM CAN DIE WITH EFFORT." Zeke's voice is booming in response to Fidget's fractured question. A clear, concise response at least.

"Like hell I'm owned!" Fidget booms back at the voice, god or no, that statement inciting some fury from her panic, her razor teeth gritted against it. After a moment's pause, and no response, she realizes it's waiting on her again, "Fine. Question. Would killing him even help?" she asks the voice, not needing the paper just yet to formulate her questions since these at least are on the top of her mind, she does glance over at Rune, "Of course I did. I can't solve the problem if I don't figure out what he's up to, can I?" then a pause, "Oh. Wait! That one doesn't count. It wasn't for you!" she says, hoping this deity was one of the few who weren't disgustingly strict about the minutia of the rules.

The booming voice that comes out of Zeke is enough to make Rune tense a little, her hands clenching on her weapons. She takes another of those slow breaths to calm a suddenly racing heartbeat and reaches her hand up to touch her pendant. At the very least, her patron deity is not nearly so intense.

"There's a difference, Fidget. I'm bonded, by choice. You, not so much. The Fae can be dangerous in that way, stealing control of the unwary and forcing compliance." The rogue responds in quieter tones, as if she didn't want to disrespect the ritual being performed.

"There are other ways to figure out what someone is up to." Rune winces slightly, "And, you should be careful about your questions. Zeke is using a lot of energy to act as a conduit, so don't waste the effort he's giving you." She advises.

Zeke is indeed exerting a lot of energy, and it shows in the tenseness of his muscles and the absolute stillness of his body save for the rise and fall of his breath. "SIMPLY KILLING HIM WILL NOT HELP." This is probably not the response that Fidget was hoping for, followed quickly by an answer to a question she never meant to ask. "THIS IS UNKNOWN BUT UNLIKELY."

GAME: Cuemoni rolls Perception: (17)+8: 25
GAME: Rune rolls perception: (20)+33: 53
GAME: Fidget rolls perception: (19)+11: 30

There's the sound of a click-click behind the door that leads to this room. The sound of footsteps perhaps? Quiet, but present.

Cuemoni writes down the answers received with the brush of ink against the scroll, but the noise draws her attention. Her golden eyes flicker to Rune. "Door," she says softly, careful not to phrase it like a question, but clear in that there was something there that should be investigated. The line of her body is that of a person ready for anything to suddenly happen.

Fidget hisses through gobbo teeth at the second answer, and mutters after a moment's pause to parse her words as definitely not a question "I... knew that." Apparently the Gods have yet to discover the rhetorical question. Well, she mostly knew it. Now she mostly, mostly knows it, since the god wasn't sure. Fidget is, against her nature, trying to put all her focus on the task at hand, and while one ear flicks curiously at the sounds nearby, she doesn't even turn to look at it. "Question. Is he, the fae, intentionally misleading Thoth?" she'd never trusted this Fae, nor his claim that he was just helping the metal bird out. She adds context for the others, "He's... not a question ... bound me to assist Thoth, and I think he's up to something."

There is a twitch of one ear a second before Cuemoni offers her warning about the door. Rune is already turning towards it, throwing the lock into place before stepping back. "Everyone heads up. On your guard. Something bad is coming." She looks towards the door with her weapons still drawn, knowing full well that it may not be so simple for Zeke to extract himself from the ritual.

There is a heavy feeling against her chest, one that seems to press against her ribs. "I don't know how to explain this but... it feels like someone is going to die." With that ominous warning offered to everyone.

"I get the feeling someone isn't happy you're poking about." Rune mutters, getting into a fighting stance and keeping herself between the door and the others.

The room turns completely and utterly black. No sight. Even the tell-tale glow of Zeke's god-lit eyes is gone. Ones hand could not be seen before their face. Nothing. Yet Daeus continues to answer Fidget. "YES." No more, no less, but perhaps nothing more is necessary. There's a sound like the doorknob moving, but the door is locked now. Claws or nails drag over the surface of the door in an eerie manner.

"You can keep me out, but to what end?" The voice is familiar to but only one of you.

Zeke responds. "TO DELAY THAT WHICH COMES NEXT." Which... sounds rather ominous really.

Cuemoni snarls lightly at the doorknob, rising from her seat. She retrieves a talisman, a carefully-constructed miniature shield, the size of Cuemoni's clawed hand, that dangles from a chain of white and wooden beads. A golden symbol that resembles the sun over a pool of water, rendered in lines of turquoise paint, is centered on the shield. She points it at the direction of the door.

"Back!" Cuemoni snarls. "Back, unwanted interloper. This shield does not permit you, this one does not permit you into this chamber. Back, away, vanish and vacate this sacred place! Back! You are not wanted nor welcome!"

A look of dread flickers over Fidget's face as she recognizes the voice, she whispers "Here. How did...no. Can't." under her breath, avoiding an accidental question, even as it seems like it might not matter. Then Daeus answers the Trickster's question. She's halfway to her feet, getting ready to fight, when she realizes that for all the Fae is here, doubtless with murder in mind, he hasn't stopped the ritual, not yet at least. She yells out, to make sure the fae hears her and the answers clearly, "What are his weaknesses?! What does he FEAR?" She pushes back her own terror to give him a fiendish grin in the candlelight, "I'm not alone this time, Trickster. There's six of us now against you, your lies and your tricks." Around the room counts Fidget, Zeke, Rune, Cuemoni, Tlan, and... who?

The voice that calls from the other end of the door sends a shiver down Rune's spine, confirming some of her suspicions with only those words, alone. She /really/ needs to have a word with Thoth again about just what sort of danger the automaton has gotten themselves into.

"Be careful, sister. Ward as you can, but stay behind me." She warns Cuemoni, knowing full well that Zeke wanted her here to make sure that the others were protected. Even though she cannot see the danger in the darkness that surrounds them, Rune can hear the positions of the others, and she's tracking those.

"Deep breaths, Fidget. We're here. You're not alone." Rune reaffirms.

Tlanexhuani did not know what to expect in the presence of the Dragonfather, even if by proxy. The best proxy. The bluescale has many questions of what is happening, but it is not his place to be asking. This was all arranged for another. He is here to protect kin. Of course, that doesn't mean he can't also insight from the answers. Answers to questions and comments that he immediately regrets insight of.

A low growl rumbles from him within the darkness and a step is taken towards Zeke and Cuemoni... or where he recalls them being. Suddenly his focus is no longer on the questions and answers, but on what might be in here with them.

GAME: Fidget rolls fortitude: (10)+5: 15
GAME: Cuemoni rolls Fortitude: (3)+6: 9
GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls fortitude: (20)+10: 30 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)
GAME: Rune rolls fortitude: (7)+10: 17

The voice within Zeke answers Fidget. "COLD IRON." It seems that this makes sense at least, given that Fidget has been calling this thing 'fae' this whole time. "THE TRUTH." The clawing at the door stops then, and Fidget feels cold to the very marrow of her bones. Everyone feels cold.

Cold.

So cold.

The grave opens in the room, and it swallows one whole.

Cuemoni's shield shatters. The wooden sound of it cracking is sharp and full. The next sound that comes is the sound of her body hitting the floor without anything to break it, and the sound of Zeke.

Zeke screams.

"CUEMONI!"

And then suddenly 6 was 5, Fidget's eyes flash wide with shock at the abruptness of it, a life snuffed out in an instant. She's trapped between sadness, fear and rage - and only one of them is useful right now. There are no deep breaths for Fidget, "You bastard. You wanted to stop us from finding out what you were up to. Well, you're a little too late. I might not have the whole picture, but one of the things you commanded me to do was to protect Thoth. And you've been lying to us, and to them. So I know what I need to protect them from." she asks her next question as though it were a spell to lash out with, "What truth does he fear?" she demands, her voice quavering in the middle with pain repressed. This was all her fault, after all.

The cold is a familiar feeling. The cold of the grave that sometimes still lingers in Rune from time to time. Enough so that she seems to know it like an old friend. But she does not expect the target that it chooses.

"Shit... SHIT!" Rune calls out into the darkness. "Zeke. Zeke I'm sorry. I can't do /shit/ against magic. I'm so fucking sorry." He'd asked her here to protect them, and in that much, Rune has failed. That is the one weakness that Rune has when it comes to creatures like this. She has no way of stopping the sort of magic that can snuff out someone in the blink of an eye.

"Leave them alone!" Rune calls out, turning in place. She has no way of knowing where the magic is coming from, but her teeth clench.

The chill makes Tlanexhuani shiver. Even were there light, he probably would not understand what is happening, but snout and eyes dart to and fro in ever-increasing worry.

Then there is the collapsing of a body to the floor nearby, causing the bluescale to freeze from pure dread far more chilling than the cold.

Then comes the wail that is, to him, even worse. Yet it thaws him as dread turns to ...something else.

"COWARD!" he bellows, straightening himself up tall and spreading his claws and turning to face the darkness in challenge. "This one is here! This one is without name! This one owesss! See this one!"

It can't be too little, too late. Not again.

Zeke is exhausted. Zeke is so tired that everything aches. He is cold. Bitterly cold in the dark. Alone.

He remembers a time like this. A time when time meant nothing. When all the world was pain and cold and loneliness. Remembers love like an ache left unrequited.

In the dark he finds Cuemoni and holds her. Holds her against his own body and tries not to mourn her. Not yet. Not yet. They have a hundred years yet.

He has no answers for Fidget. Not anymore. He whispers to Cuemoni, to her soul, to her spirit tied to his own. "Come back. Come back to thissss one." He begs her to return, coaxes her with the light granted to him by the Dragonfather.

Not yet.

At the door there's a sharp thud. "No more answers for you Nameless." Those in the room will find that they can not remember the name of the goblin in the room. She has one... surely? Or maybe she's not real. "You promised to serve me a year and a day. You swore and now what was yours is mine. I take it. I keep it."

The goblin feels cold. Empty where she should feel... something. Something... something she can't remember.

It's faint at first. The cold in Cuemoni's scales is far too cold for a druid of flame. She is far too still for a body that is ordinarily full of movement, full of life.

Yet comes breath. One, shallow at first. Two, shallow again. Three. The third is the fuller breath of life. Golden eyes open.

"Ci... huaa." Her voice is so faint. But then her eyes nictate again. She draws a stronger breath. "Cihuaa. Cihuaa." The title for which Zeke is, said like a charm against the dark and death. "Cihuaa..."

She lives.

The question didn't work, and she can't see what the Fae is doing, so Nameless rummages around in her ruffles for something to help, and pulls out a... rock. It was supposed to glow, light up the room, but Fidget's shiniest rock doesn't even glimmer in the aura of darkness. A wave of despair floods over her, and her knees almost give out. "No, you can't take..." something, something that the Fae stole, and it was important to her, but it's gone. "I won't be owned." she cries out, and tries to draw on her magic to fight off this foe - for lack of a clever plan, she resorts to a stupid one, she sort of knows where the Fae is.

"Rune, default solution!" the Nameless goblin warns cryptically as she belches flame towards the door. The rogue was fast, she'll be okay...

GAME: Rune rolls reflex: (20)+19: 39 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)

Guilt and anger surges in Rune, but at least she is not alone with that. She can sense it in Tlanexhuani as well. She can hear the pain from Zeke. Blinking against that grief, she continues to face herself towards the door, keeping her weapons close.

Though Rune knows what the Fae has done, she can do little to avoid what seems now to have been inevitable. She knows the goblin once had a name, but what it is, no longer exists in her memory. Pressing her lips into a thin line, Rune focuses on the moment, knowing that this is the least of their concerns.

Thankfully, Cuemoni's voice whispers in the darkness and it lifts some of that guilt. A word that is achingly familiar in the Makari tongue. "I'm so fucking sorry." She appologizes the Makari and her mate, somewhere in the darkness.

And then, the goblin is shouting. "Defaul... Oh shit!" And Rune hits the deck, because she knows that the goblin's 'default solution' is 'kill it with fire'.

GAME: Fidget casts Dragon's Breath. Caster Level: 8 DC: 21
GAME: Fidget rolls 8d6: (20): 20

Zeke knows that more is happening in the dark, but he can hear the breath of his mate and that is all that matters to him. He wraps her in his arms and turns his back on the sound of fire and yelling. Of voices and combat. He will shield her with his own body. With his magic, and his faith. No further harm will come to her. "Cihuaa." He murmurs back to her gently, and tells her that he loves her. Over, and over.

Once is never enough.

Tlanexhuani turns his attention to the thumping door. That sound he can follow and he starts to move that way. The sounds of Cuemoni's renewed breath and the word she utters give him a brief pause. And some hope. He then resumes his steps towards. Perhaps just shy of a sudden gust of heat that he can feel rather than see. Another pause before he calls at the door, "What do you want?!" The thing may have just answered that, but always best to be sure. Even if it isn't a pleasant answer.

The door explodes outward, but there's nothing in the dark. Nothing. Somewhere someone laughs mockingly. Somewhere there's the sound of fire eating. Somewhere... But there's only dark.

Eventually the dark does fade, but it leaves emptiness in its wake. A nameless goblin, a pair of hugging sith. And questions. Too many questions.