...two brothers approach a great burial mound outside Niania. They make their way carefully, sometimes stopping to consult an old map, sometimes to make themselves less obvious to the winged beast they are certain circles above them.
The older questions his younger sibling "Are you certain this is the right area? They fought at the first Arena..."
"They fought here originally. Their no-account manager convinced them they could return and restart Niania's arena, along with all of their junior associates. That was before he sold them out to the Witch. When She was done with them, she left them there..." and he nods toward the great mound.
"And the fetish?"
The younger brother pats a pocket, "Here, still potent, and we'll be putting it to the test soon enough...if that beast above us remembers you, of course."
"We can only hope," said the elder. "Their mascot still remembers them enough to stay near their resting place...he could remember me as well."
They make their final approach, ignoring the obvious entrance and making their way to a small depression in one side of the mound. There they stop and wait, still as stone, and a cry rings out from the low clouds above and the beast who has tracked their progress across the moor stoops from above.
It is the size of a dray horse, serpentine, and falls from the sky. The brothers let out the breath they had been holding as the beast lands in front of them, surprised even now that one or both are not dead.
The wyvern-thing regards them with bright eyes, talons gouging the earth and tail lashing, turning it's oddly hawk-like head from one to the other. The older brother removes a glove and extends his bare hand, slowly, eventually touching the beast's beak near it's nostrils.
He speaks softly, for some few seconds, in a language foreign to Alastari "Easy....you remember me, don't you? My brother and I are here to wake your old Masters..."
moribund Unchartered Poster
Joined: Dec 15, 2004
Posts: 18
Posted:
Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:39 pm
The beast nuzzles the outstreched hand of the older brother, who nods to his sibling to begin.
The younger of the pair parts the overgrowth and digs away at the side of the mound. Once the beast seems pacified, the older joins him, and by mid morning they have uncovered a stone door just large enough to crawl through on one's knees. It is some time before they can pry it open.
The elder speaks words of small power, and a witchlight preceeds the two down the tunnel. It's watery glow shows the way clogged with roots, and the brothers make ready their tools to clear the way.
"The wards are down," says the elder "I'll be surprised if the place hasn't been robbed."
"I won't," replies the younger, nodding his head toward the beast.
The two are finally ready, look at each other once as if confirming a final decision, and make their way into the tunnel. They cut away what cannot be pushed by, sweat and curse under their breath, and after opening a second stone portal come to the chamber at the heart of the mound.
The witchlight is made brighter, and joined by several more that the elder hangs in the air. Within the chamber are a score of figures wrapped in funeral shrouds, resting on beds of stone. They are still as death, like the weapons and armor that lay at their feet.
The older brother wastes no time, tracing a circle on the floor in the center of the chamber and writing inside it's circumfrence. As he does this the younger passes to each of the figures, cutting shrouds away from faces and sketching a small symbol on their foreheads. He notes with some jealosy the still youthful features, all looking the same as the last time he saw them almost twenty years before.
His task complete, he rejoins his brother in the center of the chamber and removes the fetish, placing it on the floor just so. As he does so, the chamber seems to hum, a vibration felt more than heard. He turns to his brother and says, "This is beyond us, you know."
"Since when were you the voice of reason, Aleric?" responds the elder, a smile on his face. With that he extends his arms and chants in the same alien tongue he used to address the beast outside. His younger brother chants as well, though in counterpoint and in the Delarquin language.
Time does strange things, as does space, and the two brothers have means beyond what they thought possible.
The witchlights have gone out, replaced by a glow from the chamber itself. It is strongest around the twenty stone platforms, upon which the figures now stir.
One struggles free of it's shroud, sits up, and notices the two now exhausted brothers in the center of the room. He regards them with hard eyes, recognizes them.
"I know you, spy..."
Last edited by moribund on Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:02 am; edited 1 time in total
I did, but then I got distracted for seven months (hardly a drop in the bucket considering I had been inactive for seventeen years). I'm in Talcama, and just starting back in Mordant next turn.
I did, but then I got distracted for seven months (hardly a drop in the bucket considering I had been inactive for seventeen years). I'm in Talcama, and just starting back in Mordant next turn.
Welcome back! Mordant is starting, ever so slowly, to grow again! Last turn, we were up to 7 teams. Not too shabby from 3 a few turns ago!
_________________ Lord Xiang
Delarquan Loyalist;
Shadowspire (81), Telorinthe (83), Aruak City (11)-somebody has to give the Andorians acid reflux!
Polarius Grandmaster Poster
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Posts: 867
Location: Alabama
Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:05 pm
Lord_Xiang wrote:
Welcome back! Mordant is starting, ever so slowly, to grow again! Last turn, we were up to 7 teams. Not too shabby from 3 a few turns ago!
Wow! Your return has certainly brought the live back to Mordant. It must be tough having so many enemies!
Just kidding!
Polarius
_________________ "...no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave..."
- George W. Bush
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
- John F. Kennedy
Wow! Your return has certainly brought the live back to Mordant. It must be tough having so many enemies!
Just kidding!
Polarius
Ya think? But if it brings Mordant, the arena that started it all, back from the brink of obscurity, I can deal with it. So, when are YOU coming to visit?
_________________ Lord Xiang
Delarquan Loyalist;
Shadowspire (81), Telorinthe (83), Aruak City (11)-somebody has to give the Andorians acid reflux!
Polarius Grandmaster Poster
Joined: Oct 13, 2003
Posts: 867
Location: Alabama
Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:17 pm
I'll try to make an appearance sometime after the f2f. Until then I'm busy prepping in other places.
_________________ "...no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave..."
- George W. Bush
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
- John F. Kennedy
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Ya think? But if it brings Mordant, the arena that started it all, back from the brink of obscurity, I can deal with it. So, when are YOU coming to visit? 