Topic: Into the Mountains - Heldric (Read 74085 times)

Drakilian · « **Reply #50 on:** November 24, 2015, 08:36:12 pm »

Andreas sets off to search for the described items in the second floor - though Heldric doubts he knows what "True glass" or "Smiling in the twentieth way" or "the third prime angel's preferred tools" or "the symbol for ice" are. Mostly because none of these things are, to Heldric's knowledge, actual things. Possibly some obscure arcane methods having to do with whatever way these mages worked their magic.

"The tunnels are no great secret, the only reason I bring them up is that they get somewhat confusing and should give you more of a chance of escape - or at the very least, you'll be able to avoid the Tremere down there. There's a trapdoor in the basement marked with the - now useless - protective symbols of force and fire."

Forge · « **Reply #51 on:** November 24, 2015, 10:25:12 pm »

"Well that will do, survival comes first and I have no desire to fight." He begins heading down to help find the artifacts before planning to go right to the basement, he pauses though "Unless you want to come along?" He does not really like the idea of ghosts but someone knowing the way through the tunnels might be helpful.

Drakilian · « **Reply #52 on:** November 30, 2015, 09:29:11 pm »

The ghost shrugs.

"Sure, why not. If you keep the helm on a little longer you might even meet the other residents here. Though I'll warn you that they are not so sane as I am. The deaths of my apprentices were not as... clean, let us say."

Forge · « **Reply #53 on:** November 30, 2015, 09:36:32 pm »

Heldric shrugs and begins heading down to the second floor with the helm still on to see who else is around.

Drakilian · « **Reply #54 on:** November 30, 2015, 09:45:10 pm »

Descending to the second floor, Heldric finds Andreas curled up into a ball in one of the rooms they'd previously searched, his eyes closed furiously shut. He soon sees that the reason for it is a molten mass of spectre that appears to be whispering something or another into his ear. Immediately Heldric recalls Andreas' phobia of ghosts (he'd been given away in Krakow).

"Oh come now, that's just rude! We cannot treat our guests so unkindly as this can we Tristan? Get off of him now, shoo!"

The archmagus makes a flipping motion and his dead apprentice falls back on its partially intact arm, sliding away from Andreas.

"Had his bones turned to liquid and his blood boiled, poor boy melted like candle wax."

Forge · « **Reply #55 on:** November 30, 2015, 11:12:23 pm »

"Andreas, get up!" Heldric orders, he is loath to use orders on Andreas but this is a Time that needs the extra command to overcome the fear "Ignore the ghosts, they will be kept in check." He adds forcefully, hoping his visage is enough to trick the less learned of the ghosts in the area.

"We are collecting the mentioned artifacts then leaving in the tunnels as fast as possible, so the faster we do, the faster you are free of the ghosts."

He then sets about finding the artifacts himself "That is indeed an unfortunate death, it would even greatly inconvenience me to have that happen, I'm not sure I could heal internal combustion." He adds to the mage who appears to still have abilities, against other ghosts at least.

Drakilian · « **Reply #56 on:** December 05, 2015, 02:18:44 pm »

Stopping with his shaking, Andreas uncurls his boy to reveal that he was clenching to himself a strange, perfectly crystalline glass skull with a slight indentation near the top, its teeth curved into a most unsettling smile.

"I feel as if few are not inconvenienced by internal combustion. Ah, wonderful, he has the skull! Now, where did that other fool leave the hourglass, hmm? "

The ghostly sage moves away into another room to search for the thing while Andreas hands Heldric the skull.

Forge · « **Reply #57 on:** December 05, 2015, 06:43:13 pm »

"Thankyou Andreas, and do not worry, the ghost will not bother us for a while now." He carefully stashes the skull within his clothing and waits to see where the wraith returns from.

Drakilian · « **Reply #58 on:** December 05, 2015, 09:38:11 pm »

Putting the skull away into a pack Heldric's attention is grabbed by the ghost mage's exclamation - "Come in here, i've found it! Don't dally now, they'll be here rather soon."

Forge · « **Reply #59 on:** December 05, 2015, 11:44:12 pm »

"Come Andreas" he pauses again "Run and Fetch Mr. Whitey as quickly as you can then come this way, the ghost didn't go that way but enemies are coming so be fast."

He then heads in the direction of the wraith himself.

Drakilian · « **Reply #60 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:44:40 pm »

Andreas eagerly hurries down the stairs, not wanting to stay up here any longer.

The wraith is waiting in the next room, standing on top of a ornate bed that's been caved in.

"Hidden inside the mattress. Fool apprentice, you can't hide your weapons inside of other things. Takes too long to use them in emergencies. Better to take the risk and leave them out in the open, really - at least you can grab them there, and few know the nature of our weapons anyway. Grab it quickly, the storm's gotten stronger. They're reaffirming their enchantments on the place to keep anyone inside from flying away."

Forge · « **Reply #61 on:** December 08, 2015, 11:23:44 am »

Heldric doesn't waste time and immediatly digs around to find the second artifact "How far is the tunnel entrance from here?" he asks while the searches

Drakilian · « **Reply #62 on:** December 23, 2015, 11:05:08 pm »

Not having the time for any particular amount of subtelty, Heldric simply rips open the mattress - following the sage's instructions - and finds the timepiece within.

"Not far, now hurry!"

The sage makes his way down the stairs with urgency, and Heldric feels compelled to follow. On reaching the ground floor thunder sets the tower shaking, frightening Mr.Whitey (who had come to Heldric on his re-appearance).

"Come now, lightning shouldn't normally strike in snow storms, this is magic at work!"

As he moves down into the basement Heldric is stuck by the subdued but still-present stench of rotting corpses. It is prohibitively cold down here, which would explain why the stench is so closely contained, but also great discomfit to Mr.Whitey. The sage, seeing Heldric's worry, tut tuts - "I'll keep him warm, don't you worry. I am no so helpless as all that. Here now, the entrance to the tunnels are under the bodies on that mound over there."

The mound in question is a small pile of bodies that Heldric can only assume were the chantry's mortal servants and guards before the attack - and are now the chantry's spectres and ghosts. The dead here do not react to Heldric's passage or fearsome presence, but simply wait and stare dully at their surroundings. Images of a defeated past more than souls, really.

Andreas moves the bodies aside with great squeamishness, revealing a trapdoor frozen with blood that he struggles briefly to rip open. It's then that Heldric hears a loud crash coming from upstairs.

The sage frowns.

"It seems they're here. Good luck."

Forge · « **Reply #63 on:** December 24, 2015, 04:28:54 am »

Heldric immediatly moves to enter, casting cloak the gathering on all his allies to try and hide them for long enough, he sends them down first before finally closing the trapdoor behind him. Before closing it he pauses and looks at the bodies, then quickly props up a couple so that when the door closes, they will fall back on top of it to obscure it again. He then rushes to the front to follow the ghost's instructions through the tunnels.

"Andreas, if you hear the trapdoor opened or destroyed behind us, try and see if there are supports you can bring down behind us!" He adds quietly before again ensuring they are all cloaked.

OOC: edited for a small obscuring of the door, it won't do much but I can see him trying it. Also he doesn't carry two bags of lamp oil, trip wire and flint trigger mechanisms around with him at all times sadly...

Drakilian · « **Reply #64 on:** December 31, 2015, 08:19:57 pm »

OOC: Sadly XD

As Heldric sets up his cover-up, cloaking himself in the process, he manages a voice upstairs issue a quiet command. It is a miracle of circumstance that he manages to catch it, a woman saying - "I want every room in this tower torn apart, kill whomever you find and burn the body. Why the hell Etrius doesn't just let us tear it down is beyond me."

A vibrant hum and a sort of cracking sound accompanies the woman.

"Vidam, make sure Mercurius knows what's happening, have him send in the rest of the stone soldiers if we need them."

"Of course, Lady Epistatia," someone answers obediently.

Heldric slides into the tunnel, and carefully lowers the door shut.

"Oh that's not a good one," The sage says to himself.

Forge · « **Reply #65 on:** December 31, 2015, 09:27:15 pm »

Heldric heads down the tunnel and waits for the group to be a short distance away, at least far enough for voices not to carry easily and asks "so who is that and just how dangerous will they be? Oh and Adreas, be very ready to collapse the tunnel behind us as we move, survival comes first."

Drakilian · « **Reply #66 on:** January 02, 2016, 02:25:13 pm »

"One of Goratrix's apprentices. Near as I can tell, he's the vicious bastard responsible for turning House Tremere into what you are undoubtedly familiar with now. He and Tremere and some of the other council members were afraid that the old magic was losing its power, and with it their immortality spells had begun to fail. So they took measures. Tremere loosed his mages to find whatever means of assuring their immortality possible, and Goratrix found vampirism, though how he turned himself and Tremere and all the others without getting turned by a vampire is far beyond my ken. He's a bastard, but he's a brilliant one, i'll give him that.

Now his apprentices, they're right bitches every one of them, and Epistatia is likely the worst. Sent on imprisonment and capture missions mostly because she can always use the souls for her experiments - literally, she's more than dabbled in necromancy, and was expelled from the house for it long ago. Guess Goratrix took her back in when they went undead themselves."

While the sage drones on nervously - and indeed it is nervously, for he is fidgeting and it is obvious why; such a woman could prove a danger to the ghostly man even in death. How loathe old instincts such as survival are to leave even those who have already failed it - while he drones on Andreas raises an eyebrow at Heldric's orders, and makes a booming gesture around his hands.

"He says you don't think that'll be a little loud?", Mr.Whitey rumbles.

Forge · « **Reply #67 on:** January 02, 2016, 04:57:24 pm »

"If we haven't made it far enough down branches or twists and turns before they come for us, noise will be the least of our worries. Obviously if we are far enough away to probably prevent immediate chase then we won't collapse it." He pauses "Attract some animals like rats, they are smart enough to get a command to make a lot of noise and run down a tunnel if they see somthing following us. A different direction from us obviously."

Heldric is quite for a moment while he listens, details of the Tremere will be useful to his kind once he spreads it through their networks and he tries to commit it all to memory "So they became vampires through their old magic, did they want this curse that badly or did they not understand all of the implications..." He mumbles before trying to sound confident again "So other than running away down here are their any magical defences or do we just flee the mountain? Obviously I am fine with either, survival is first and I do not wish to battle whoever killed you."

Drakilian · « **Reply #68 on:** January 04, 2016, 03:06:56 pm »

The dead man scoffs,

"As if she could match me! I was old before she was even initiated into the arts! No, Etrius himself killed me, bringing me down on what I suspect were Tremere's orders. He's Tremere's favorite you know, always was his favourite of his seven apprentices."

Then in a short breath and largely muttering to himself,

"Well, eight."

Andreas sends a chittering sound echoing down the tunnels below the tower and Heldric hears the enthusiastic reply of the tiny four-legged diseased vermin as they gather up around him, reminding him far too much of himself when he had been living in that disgustingly filthy cave out in the middle of nowhere.

"There is no way out of the mountain through here, i'm afraid. Deemed too much of a security risk. The only way out is through that front door, unless you would care to dig."

Forge · « **Reply #69 on:** January 04, 2016, 04:09:12 pm »

Heldric sighs "So we are simply hiding until we think it is safe, yourself included if there is a necromancer present. She is no Capadocian but I think neither of us wish to run into her right now".

Heldric continues on, letting Andreas and Mr. Whitey deal with the vermin for now. He thinks about how he will be reporting this is he survives "You sent me into the middle of a Death Trap battle between mage-vampires" wasn't going to cut it.

He sighs aloud "Well I am learning a lot while here at least, how long down hide here before they leave, or do we just wait a couple of days then check?" he asks, already expecting the trapdoor to cracks open any second.

Drakilian · « **Reply #70 on:** January 05, 2016, 01:38:02 pm »

The sage nods.

"I suppose we just work our way deeper into the tunnels, hope they don't find us."

The thud of impossibly heavy footsteps are heard coming from above.

Forge · « **Reply #71 on:** January 05, 2016, 11:09:56 pm »

Heldric instantly stops making any noise and hand signals for them to continue as deep as possible into the tunnel. Running away from a probably impossible battle against seasoned enemies who came ready to battle powerful mages is not only his personal preference but also what his path demands. Survival first...

Drakilian · « **Reply #72 on:** January 06, 2016, 02:57:58 pm »

The little party moves lower into the mountain, followed by a little gathering of rats. It isn't long before Heldric hears the sound of the trapdoor being splintered open.

He comes across several intersections, the sage informs him that each leads off into various different storerooms that either hold alchemical reagents, food, weapons or were meant to hold some of the chantry's guardians (most or all likely destroyed by now).

The pursuers are easily heard, obviously several extremely large, extremely unsubtle servitors of the tremere.

Forge · « **Reply #73 on:** January 06, 2016, 03:41:59 pm »

Heldric whispers "Send the rats making noise down towards those side tunnels, hope there are some guardians left to fight with our enemies."

He glances around as they move "Everyone look for some we points or struts in the tunnel, if we see one, quietly weaken it more, our enemies are huge and heavy so will bring down the weakened tunnel." he looks at the sage "No Pit-falls? Or anything we could use as a trap in the alchemical reagents?"

Drakilian · « **Reply #74 on:** January 09, 2016, 11:13:44 am »

The sage puts a hand to his ghostly beard, "Unless you count the highly volatile explosive materials, I wouldn't think so."

Forge · « **Reply #75 on:** January 09, 2016, 12:44:42 pm »

"those would be perfect, some of those might do serious damage to our pursuers. Are there any we can get too without being cornered?"

Drakilian · « **Reply #76 on:** January 10, 2016, 11:11:46 am »

The ghost looks at him with some surprise, "Oh, I was not aware you were adept in the handling and use of extremely volatile alchemical reagents! Perfect then, let me just lead you to one of our more delicately stocked rooms, since you are so obviously skilled in their usage...".

Heldric cannot tell if the old man is being sarcastic or not.

Forge · « **Reply #77 on:** January 10, 2016, 12:28:39 pm »

Heldric immediatly assumes sarcasm after some thought since he is a nosferatu "I don't need to know a lot, I just need to move a small pile. Of them into the corridor and cover them with a cloth." He grumbles

Drakilian · « **Reply #78 on:** January 11, 2016, 02:05:16 pm »

"I really should have emphasized how volatile the materials were. We would never touch them directly, only handle them telekinetically and with special suits. You could always just lure the big bastards into the rooms you know?"

Forge · « **Reply #79 on:** January 11, 2016, 02:23:04 pm »

Heldric Pauses "THAT volatile? Ok point out the way to the rooms with the most volatile and dangerous rooms and I'll have Andreas lure them with the rats" once close Heldric directs Andreas to send the rats in with with the simple commands of "make noise there" and others with the commands "Hide there, when things much bigger than you enter, push things off ledges at them" with the hopes that if their massive stomping doesn't trigger anything that the rats might start a chain reaction.

Drakilian · « **Reply #80 on:** January 11, 2016, 02:47:12 pm »

Andreas critters away at the little horse of rats, and they move away into the tunnels. The three of them move their way deeper in then, moving along constantly.

Heldric notes a horrible stench beginning to trickle into his realm of perception, and the ghost starts talking again, while Heldric spends a willpower point to resist the helm's madness.

"Demonic energies here. These tunnels weren't carved out by us you know, the whole place was a Nephandii Hive. They were dedicated worshippers of the great demonic entity Kupala. The Order burned this place to the ground in a terrible war a few thousand years ago and cleansed the place, but their horrid resonance still hangs around at the lower levels of the hive. Surprised they - woah!"

The mountain shakes briefly, and dust falls down around Heldric and company. A ment later a loud boom comes crashing down through the tunnels that lead upwards.

Forge · « **Reply #81 on:** January 11, 2016, 03:49:05 pm »

"Somthing nasty enough to even give ME a sensation of smell is definitely still lingering." he listens to the boom "That sounds powerful enough, time we checked the damage, if we got blocked in I will need to remove the helm to avoid madness"

Drakilian · « **Reply #82 on:** January 13, 2016, 08:46:08 am »

The ghost looks at him askance, "What do you mean?"

(Assuming Heldric informs the ghost of his disability), "Interesting. Perhaps the stench is spiritual in nature. Or maybe it's because you're wearing the helmet and your senses are attuned with the spirit world."

The ghost wrinkles his nose,

"I can assure you it's much worse now than when I was still among the living."

The arch-mage's spirit nods along with the rest of what Heldric says, "Sounds fine to me. Up then?"

Forge · « **Reply #83 on:** January 13, 2016, 11:50:34 am »

Heldric nods, leftover demonic energy this strong is not a nice thing to hang around for any length of time "Up, and relatively quickly. There is a risk we face someone investigating the explosion but let us hope they do not care for their own creations."

Heldric begins walking quickly upwards, doing his best to keep a eye and ear open for potential threats.

Drakilian · « **Reply #84 on:** January 15, 2016, 07:43:14 pm »

Keeping himself obfuscated (along with the rest of his crew), Heldric makes it back up without any issue. He does find his fears confirmed, however, when he sees the path he'd taken up blocked by a sizeable cave-in.

"It seems the explosion was bigger than expected", the ghost hums to himself,

"The shock must have caused the cave-in. Probably more than one, in fact. Are you strong enough to clear the way?"

Forge · « **Reply #85 on:** January 15, 2016, 09:04:24 pm »

Heldric eyes it up then turns to Andreas "what do you think? I'd help but you'd be doing the heaviest lifting." he tests moving some rocks out of the way to see if it is stable.

Drakilian · « **Reply #86 on:** January 17, 2016, 02:15:56 pm »

Andreas shrugs, and steps up to and begins clearing the rubble, flinging aside massive stones and frighteningly large boulders like an angry child might fling their toys.

"Quite the strongman you've got there", the ghost says, impressed.

"Has to be as strong as some of the golems we used to have guarding the chantry. Before Etrius and the rest of the council smashed them apart and ripped the enchantments from our walls, at least. How'd you come across him?"

Forge · « **Reply #87 on:** January 17, 2016, 09:09:31 pm »

"Simply put, Andreas is my brother." He pauses but decides to add a little detail "Not by birth, but brother by blood now and strength is not his only ability by far." He watches Andreas work for a few moments "so how likely is it that we will encounter mages on the other side of this pile, or would they consider investigating that explosion themselves beneath them?"

Drakilian · « **Reply #88 on:** January 19, 2016, 05:54:42 pm »

"Quite a devoted brother", the archmagus mutters.

"If i'd asked my brother to follow me on a journey to a cold mountaintop to investigate dead ruins he'd tell me to go Fark myself. If I asked him to destroy the supports to the tunnels we dwelt in and then set off a massive explosion he'd tell me to doubly Fark myself. We weren't that close though."

At the mention of mages - "Ha! As if those blood suckers could be called mages! Hedge magic, trickery, their talents are limited to ritual and discipline. A True Mage would strip the flesh from their unholy bones and set this mountain ablaze. The council members may have felled me but the weaklings here can barely qualify as apprentices."

The mage take a small break from his boasting, "though I will admit that in this diminished state, they might pose some small threat. In any case, it is beyond likely that they are now investigating the basement. Hopefully you killed enough with that little ruse that we have some hope of escape."

It's while he's speaking that Heldric hears Andreas almost dance back from the rocks, dropping a massive piece of stone that sets the ceiling above them raining down dust. It seems Andreas' cowardly sense for the undead trumps Heldric's functioning sense granted by the helm. The room has grown considerably colder (quite the achievement given they're in the frozen tunnels under the mountain) and a little breeze starts to flow through the previously dead air. The ghost frowns.

"It would seem our necromantress has decided to exercise her personal strengths in this search."

Forge · « **Reply #89 on:** January 19, 2016, 07:07:31 pm »

Heldric sighs "So now the spirits come for us too, hopefully this helm is useful, and if you have any abilities against other spirits you may want to employ them too as if we are underwhelmed that necromancer will likely target you. I believe cannot shield us from their eyes as I can mortals."

"Andreas, we need a path, the faster we have one, the faster we can escape from here at speed. I will attempt to keep the spirits at bay once we move" he then mumbles, let us see what use this helm is..."

Drakilian · « **Reply #90 on:** January 22, 2016, 09:05:56 pm »

The first of Lady Epistatia's dead things pass through the walls before Heldric finishes instructing Andreas to clear the way. He sees the first ghost as it appears, passing through the rock as if it were air, it's will and spirit bound by the necromantress' power.

Heldric's presence seems to stop the wave of dead like a wall. Confusion runs among the spirits, and then fear.

Heldric may have no idea who the Penitent general is, but these spirits certainly seem to recognize his aspect. Even being the recent dead that they are, it would seem such a powerful spectre commands influence.

Forge · « **Reply #91 on:** January 22, 2016, 09:40:15 pm »

Heldric walks towards them slowly, hoping to push them back by sheer fear of his presence. He does not speak incase he gives the game away. He also hopes Andreas resumes digging...

Drakilian · « **Reply #92 on:** January 23, 2016, 10:49:20 pm »

Heldric's approach sets the spirits inti a sense of unease. Most of them shy away from him and look as if they wish to either flee or defer to him. Most.

One of the spirits, either too far bound by it's enchantments or seeing through the helm's nature, heads right for Heldric, ghostly hands outstretched.for a second Heldric falters - there is nothing he can do to actually stop this ghost, and if it touches him it's game over...

An itch starts at the back of Heldric's neck, and he gets most uncomfortably cold. He hears the archmage's voice, but now in his head.

Alright now leech, open your mouth, we're going to scream.

Forge · « **Reply #93 on:** January 24, 2016, 02:09:41 am »

Heldric has nothing else to go on wo opens his mouth and spreads his arms in what he hopes is a dramatic and menacing manner.

He also thinks very hard at the voice "Leech? You know that is the least original insult?"

Drakilian · « **Reply #94 on:** January 25, 2016, 07:17:29 pm »

"It was that or ugly. I picked the kinder one."

Out of Heldric's opened mouth erupts a high, piercing wail that hurts him just about as much as it hurts everyone around him. And hurt them it does.

From the edge of his periphery, slightly obscured by his own helmet, Heldric sees mr.Whitey begin thrashing about as the high pitch burns the albino's sense of hearing. Andreas fares little better, forced to curl into a ball and holding his arms tight against his ears. Were he mortal Heldric feels as if his ears would bleed from the damage. As is he feels his eardrums explode and it is an act of will that keeps him from curling up like Andreas in front of the ghosts. Though he doubts it would have mattered.

However badly it had affected his companions, the ghosts suffer from it sevenfold. The one which had come closest to Heldric takes off screaming, clutching his hands to his ears, and seems to grow paler. Bits of him tear off and fade away, reminding Heldric of Father Kazimierz' obvliviation by Seelie. The others follow it soon after.

In his head, as he spends a minute amount of blood to repair his ears, he hears the archmage chuckling - "hahaha, still got it!"

Forge · « **Reply #95 on:** January 25, 2016, 08:39:53 pm »

"Effective." he says, heading over to Mr. Whitey to give him a blood point for healing, Andreas can heal himself. "and ugly would be an understatement not an insult, I know my on visage".

He let's Andreas heal then announces "While the necromancer works out what is happening let's move quickly." He indicates for Andreas to resume clearing the way and assists with the smaller rocks.

Drakilian · « **Reply #96 on:** January 26, 2016, 09:49:06 pm »

Mr.Whitey eagerly laps up the blood, shuddering as he does so. Andreas resumes work, though he now appears to regard Heldric with that same scared suspicion he would regard the other ghosts with.

He really has to wonder at the fact that he never knew about this phobia of ghosts his blood-brother had.

"Hideous? Heart-wrenching? Horrific? Vomit-inducing? Reminiscent of incest gone terribly wrong?" The ghost keeps on rattling off increasingly worse descriptors of Heldric's appearance while Andreas works.

Forge · « **Reply #97 on:** January 26, 2016, 11:28:53 pm »

Heldric ignores the mage for the time being and instead concentrates on Andreas, he really is overreacting about the spirits, he is dead himself afterall.

"Andreas, why are you so afraid of ghosts?" He asks as they work

Drakilian · « **Reply #98 on:** January 28, 2016, 03:49:57 pm »

Andreas stops his work for a second. He closes his eyes and shudders, then lets out a guttural snarl that mr.whitey rapidly interprets - "They're the ones so horrible that even hell wouldn't take them."

Forge · « **Reply #99 on:** January 28, 2016, 04:43:38 pm »

Heldric really has nothing to reply to that as they work but after a few moments he says "Andreas, we are dead too but still here, not all undead are the completely horrible ones"

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Author Topic: Into the Mountains - Heldric (Read 74085 times)