Journal Entry November 1 st
session
Of sand and acid
Nell leaned against the
stone wall of the stair well, running her slender fingers down the
flat edge of her seemingly enchanted extending blade. In her group's
battle with the stone elemental she had attempted to attack and had
the lithe blade deflected by a massive stone hand, she expected the
metal to be damaged.
The blade had no damage of
any kind, the edge was still razor sharp. She looked over the flat
end her eyes passing over the group she had been adopted into. A very
unique band of people no doubt, she was used to working alone but in
this case she needed the backup.
The blade slid back down to
a more dagger sized length in silence and her eyes lingered on the
Bullywug, The Big Cheese he was known as. Nell didn't know his real
name, on the street real names were worth little. This Big Cheese was
known as a very powerful magic user in service of one of the War
Lords, the same she was working to topple and replace.
Best not to reveal she was
masquerading for the same master, The Bullywug had not seemingly
recognised her so far.
The party was taking a
moment to breath and tend to wounds and Nell took the opportunity to
slip into the stairwell and start going down it. The stone steps
where dusty, more so than the rest of the surroundings.
“I will accompany our
sneaky elf!” Jacob stated proudly, Nell heard his heavy foot falls
behind her and she audibly sighed.
“If you must Jacob, I'm
sure I'd be fine” Nell poured exasperation into her comment but
gained a sense of safety. Having the heavily armoured Watcher of Helm
at her back was reassuring.
Nell felt a tingle in her
nose and placed her hand over her face stifling a sneeze, as she
moved into the next room at the foot of the stairwell she crouched
down. Sticking to the darkest points in this already almost pitch
black room her elven vision swept the area.
The air was filled with a
dusting of very fine sand, the normally stone paved ground was
covered in a layer of the same fine soft sand.
Nell stepped into the room
making no sound at all, the sand cushioning her steps. A figure
shared this small area with her, it's form indistinct. A shifting
humanoid form of ever moving and pulsing sand.
She started backing around
the stairwell as the figure raised its shifting arms, the air filling
with more of the soft light sand. Nell sensed a change in the air,
something was about to happen. She glanced behind her and noticed
several large urns, each was very old looking but they seemed solid.
Nell was no fool, she knew
what was about to happen and would not be able to help. Best that she
get to safely and ride out the storm.
Deftly hopping into the urn
she gathered her cloak and took out one of her daggers, gently
driving it into the pottery pinning her cloak over the top.
The urn began to rattle as
the outside was effectively sandblasted. Nell felt around in the sand
at her feet and felt the cool smooth hardness that excited her more
than anything else.
“What have we here?” She
examined the glowing gem in her palm, it was cold to the touch and
radiated a cold light.
“You my dear will fetch a
very nice price.” She slipped the gem down her top and into a pouch
secluded there. The chill of it made the hairs on the back of her
neck stand up and she smiled at this,another step closer to building
her criminal Empire.
She drove her fingers
through the sand at her feet, the storm outside the urn intensifying.
With the rattling ringing in her ears her fingers found purchase, a
bottle of some kind of liquid and a statuette
of a bird. Around the neck
of the statuette was a ring, a simple ring of sliver.
Nell pocketed the statuette
and the bottle her attention on the ring, as she removed it from the
little bird it changed size to fit her. She smiled and slipped the
ring on, her hand felt a touch lighter.
“A magic ring? And pretty
too” Nell found nothing else in the urn and waited, a few minutes
past as she pressed her ear to the side of the urn listening to the
storm outside. She could make out someone shouting about Thor and the
storm dropped.
A rushing sound and then
silence, like a thousand sand timers emptying at the same time. Nell
waited a few moments and pulled the cloak from the top of the urn.
She paused a moment and
reached into the sand at her feet, smudging her cheeks and running it
through her hair.
Climbing out of the urn she
strode over to the stair well, announcing loudly “My what a
horrible storm, it pinned me to the wall!”
Nell loved a good disguise
and although these people where her allies it never paid to dull ones
own sense of cunning.
She rejoined her companions
noting that Jacob looked as though he had been swimming in the sand,
it he pulling at his shoes and empting them in the darkness. Nell
laughed to herself and thought about the loot she had secured, all of
this could be used to usurp that Warlord so she could take his place.
“ Don't be a hero”
Jack had said to her one night. “At no time do you face an enemy
fair and square, leave that to the noble of heart.” Jack's tone had
been dripping with sarcasm, it was clear what he thought about noble
people. In fact he seemed to dislike most people he could not use,
Nell should have listen to her instincts about that.
She was being used by her
so called mentor.
Nell drew the covers up
to hide the heat in her cheeks as a candle flared to life, bathing
the room in a flickering yellow glow.
“ The difference between
you, me and a hero is this” Jack was not looking at her, he reached
to the table and lifted a glass of the cheap wine they had stolen to
his lips and took a sip.
“ A hero feels the blade
slip into his back, we feel the hilt of that blade in our hands” He
paused a moment.
“ Understand
Nelliranduwyn?” he let the question hang in the air. Nell watched
him and nodded, he turned and smiled that charming crooked smile of
his. “You don't, yet. But you will”.
Nell understood, she knew
full well what her betrayer mentor had meant and yet still she wanted
to be the hero, deep down she wanted to be the one that saved them
all. Even after all she had been through, perhaps this time she would
learn.
The frosty winged lesser
elemental had pierced her neck, the freezing point of it driving into
the bone of her clavicle. She had attempted to engage it in a
surprise attack, it had failed. She had not counted on it being able
to fly and out manoeuvre
her.
The chill spread through her
bones and she felt her body going numb, dropping to her knees she was
strangely pain free. Darkness edged her vision and she collapsed face
down into the chilly pave stones.
Nell felt the pull of the
afterlife, she still had so much to do but she was tired. Perhaps it
was time to move on, to see what opportunists there where in the next
life. She wondered if Jack would end up getting his comeuppance and
weather her companions would defeat this terrible tower.
“Helm! I beseech you heal
this poor creature!” Nell heard the call to wake her, her body
filling with a sense of peace and relaxation. She opened her eyes and
saw the face of Jacob, he stared confidently down into her eyes sure
of the power of his God.
Nell could move, she
whispered “Thank you” and did the only thing she knew how, she
crawled to her hands and knees and slipped under the large man and
away into the cold room. With a deft leap she landed in one of the
barrels and hid there, looking through the gaps in the wood.
Jack ran his human
fingers through Nell's hair as she straightened her disguise, the
attention to detail was bordering on the obsessive. She wore a
Priestess of Trishina robe, her skin had been dyed to give it a
slightly blue hue. She would infiltrate the temple of those sea elves
and take the icon of their Goddess. It would fetch a nice price on
the black market, and she would prove to Jack she was a competent
thief.
“ Remember
Nelliranduwyn, no good turn goes unpunished” Jack smiled and nodded
to her. “You are ready, bring me that icon”.
She
watched Jacob and The Big Cheese battle this frost elemental, they
seemed to have the upper hand. It was a smaller creature and nothing
like the hulking horrors they had faced before, Nell brushed the rime
from her cheeks and looked on.
The
Bullywug began to cast something, Nell had no grasp of magic so was
not prepared for what she saw next. An orb of acid formed in front of
the Fogman and flew at the elemental, striking it dead centre.
The
elemental had no time to cry out at all, it evaporated instantly the
acid bursting on contact and showering in all directions. From her
point in the barrel Nell was safe, Jacob who had been in contact with
the creature however was not.
The acid
rained down on him and began to eat into his armour, the room filling
with a sharp hissing sound. Nell watched in horror as Jacob's armour
held but the liquid seeped into the gaps and joins, to the man's
credit he did not cry out.
Nell
leaped out of the barrel and rushed over to Jacob's side, he had
fallen where he stood his face smoking as the skin was eaten away.
His body twitched spasmodically as the stink of burning flesh filled
her nostrils, Nell put a hand over her mouth and tried not to gag,
turning to the Bullywog she cried “Do something!”
Jacob
had began to seize his arms and legs shaking uncontrollably, Nell
placed a hand on his chest and tried to keep him still. The armour
there was cold to the touch and her palm burned slightly, she ignored
the pain and kept looking at the face of the man that had saved her.
“No
good turn goes unpunished.” She whispered, glancing at the Cheese,
he was every bit as ruthless as the street reputation had suggested.
She would have to be careful around him to be sure.
The
Bullywug took out a wand and pointed it at Jacob muttering some words
Nell could not understand, the acid stopped fizzing and her palm felt
the cooling touch of water.
“Stay
close” The Cheese stated as he clutched at a strange looking rod.
“Heaven!”
the Frogman commanded, Nell felt herself being griped in a
teleportation field and moved away from this place. To where she had
no idea and her hand slipped to the hilt of her enchanted sword.
“magic...”
Her words hung in the air of that cold room, though there was none
there to hear them. (picture is of Nell in her Priestess of Trishna disguise)
