RAIN DOWN

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mazeofthorns
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Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:10 pm

RAIN DOWN

Post by mazeofthorns » Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:33 pm

I follow death so death does not follow me
Wolves, Down Like Silver
Image
He looked at me, death did. He seemed capable enough. Hard strikes. Blood spray. Cursed as they were, they cursed him all the more. And death, death did not care. For an angel had set him upon this path. Angels are always worse than death.

“Useless to us now.” She hissed. Her anger so profound it became a tangible thing. It lashed out but not at me. Not at me.

I was lying on the floor. Like my cards, I had been thrown down and splattered with blood. I am almost certain the blood was mine. But who can recall one's own death?

The pain was terrible. They had told me I would beg for death. And I had. Hadn’t I?

Then the male came, all crackling with power at his fingertips. They were gentle fingertips as he examined me. His head shook, snowy white hair moving like snowflakes. Snow. It never snowed anymore. As if snow had never existed.

“His mind is fractured, dreaded one.” He said it like he didn’t care but his eyes, his horrible red eyes, spoke regret for seconds. Then anger for seconds more.

“Repair it then.” Dreadful, dreadful angel commanded.

When I awoke from the dream. I was near the bones of a sapphire dragon long dead. I had touched to make sure they were real. It seemed they were too small. Perhaps it had been a young dragon… yes.. maybe that was it.

I looked around. The walls of this drow place that I had landed in, melted away and I saw the entirety of the depths that they lived in. It was a vast space. More land than I had ever imagined. All underground. All in the dark. And the only doorway out lead straight back into the depths.

The press of metal on my neck itches. Sometimes I recall what it means exactly. Sometimes not. There is a short, stout man in green boots that speaks to me. I can see that he weaves. Like I once did.

I have in my possession a sweetberry. It means something important so I dare not eat it lest I forget.

I am broken into pieces. I seek to find them, the pieces. I seek to put them back together.

// Thanks to Asonia who gave the breath of life into this new character.
KALYIN -- "Black Cobra will aid your injuries should you stand close.... or he may strike you, depending on mood."

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mazeofthorns
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:10 pm

Re: RAIN DOWN

Post by mazeofthorns » Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:17 pm

The color of dreams
Heads Will Roll, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

“How do they treat you?”

I was in the waiting area. They had some extravagant name for it but I couldn’t be bothered to remember. I could hear the battle, the cheering, the sneering, the taunting. Deep entertainment. She put me down here every time. Even when I wasn’t put in the huge cage with a large drain in the center of the floor. I’m sure she thought it would frighten me. Let me know just how expendable I really was.

The first time I’d made her angry enough to put me in. To teach me a lesson I’m sure. I merely took hold of the enraged half orc’s mind and sent him after the spectators. It just so happened that the particular spectators in that area had been secret enemies of hers. It was an accident on my part. They were closest to where the brute had been standing when I dominated his mind. But… she took it as my apology. Of course I spent the next month with her torturer as she tried to find out how the hells I knew they had been her secret enemies.

“Do they make you fight?” Asked the elven female beside me. She was dressed in armor and had a rather large sword strapped to her back looking all the part of a warrior waiting to enter the cage.

“Yes.” I answered. I mean we were standing in the waiting area after all. Only those due to go into the battle cage stood here.

“You don’t remember me do you?” She asked and the glint of red from her eyes gave away the fact that she was not elven.

“I am usually kept away from the other fighters.” I told her and realized my handlers would not allow some random fighter to approach me. Further proof that she was not elven as she appeared. She must have paid them off, or killed them or maybe they worked for her.

“Names are important. They discern us from the tools that these collars are meant to turn us into.” She said coyly.

“Names?” I asked wondering where this might go.

“Names, yes. Names like.. Rain, for example.” She said as if it were the trump card to win her the game. “I will try to find you another cycle, Rain.”

The cheers for the little kobold going down in a spray of blood ended further conversation. Or maybe the disguised elf slipped into the shadows. I can’t be sure which. I fell asleep then.


I never know what I will find when I am dreaming. Lately nothing makes sense. People are talking and I can't quite catch what they are saying. Even when they speak directly to me. I think I used to understand them… didn’t I?

I was taller than most in this dream. The group were mostly short stout men. They had gruff voices and expressions. They looked like a back alley street gang and it took me several moments to realize the beardless one was a female. If a fight broke out I’d want to stand behind her I think.

In their midst was a slender lady. As soon as my gaze hit her she started to glow.

Wind swirled around her in a gentle maelstrom tugging at her hair and attire and lifting it up giving her an ethereal appearance. Everything around her froze in time as she turned glowing eyes to me, lifted her fingers in an elegant motion and… wiggled them. It was a little wave letting me know she knew I was there.

Then it was as if time skipped forward and missed her turning back around to the others. She was just no longer looking at me. I couldn’t be sure she had just wiggled her fingers at me. Maybe she hadn’t.

The breeze found me then and it was cool. I shivered as it brushed past me. It was from her. And as soon as I thought that she was just… there. She reached out a finger and touched my arm.

Gods. Gods she was real. She was real and /inside/ my dream. The wind whispered to me. The breath of meaning in the air was the first thing that made sense. “Your name is in the wind…” I said, barely audible.

“The wind only carries ashes and dust.” She replied. “And- and weak wails, in- in the final days.”

She burst into color in my dream of black and white. Her eyes were a bright hue of magenta. So much so it hurt to look directly into them. Her hands bright red. Such a lovely crimson I was swept with emotion that I didn’t realize I’d been holding in. To see color after such a long time in black and white made my heart ache. I wanted to weep or laugh. Undecided I was able to do neither.

“The wind…” I told her. “...carries tales of you.”

Her expression turned thoughtful for a moment then she spoke. For a split second I knew what she said. Then it was gone leaving me frustrated. She spoke again something different and once again it turned into smoke before I could understand it. She laughed causing a brief gust of wind and the meaning was carried away before I could catch it.

“Name him! Name himself!” She demanded.

“You stole my name, don’t you remember?” I replied to the brightly colored reality in my dream.

"No- No, no NO NO! She stole no names! Her name WAS stolen!" She admonished me.

“You took it with the wind. You said I didn't need it. So you called me Rain.” I told her as her nearness began to bring color to me as well.

"Is- is, is it only going to happen, tomorrow, in a year- Or- or in a thousand years. But which witch will do so, and which Rain will find- find himself nameless?" She asked.

“Time... time is jumbled.” I told her as time had paused around us. A moment became an eternity. “They think it runs in straight lines. But we know. We know differently.” And I smiled.

"Oh- oh, oh they do. They do so, so they do." She glanced around at the gray surrounding our little circle of color. "Yes- Yes, lovely man- lovely, charming. And- and fancy man. Fancy." She reached up to my shoulder and she touched me.

The color exploded as a tornado crashed into everything. It was as if in restarting time sped up in a torrent of wind and debris. I tried to throw up my arms to protect myself from the deluge of fractured color but I was too late. It had turned to gray ash and the angel was gone.

Somewhere in the darkness she spoke one last time. I couldn’t tell it if was a shrieking scream or a caressing whisper. "Ye-es, he- he is welcome, to The House of Bones, lovely- Lovely Rain."

// Thanks to Asonia Elmanesse (Slave) & Wheua Xun'viir. Superb. Just… superb.
KALYIN -- "Black Cobra will aid your injuries should you stand close.... or he may strike you, depending on mood."

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mazeofthorns
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Re: RAIN DOWN

Post by mazeofthorns » Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:04 pm

Death and Fire
Make A Shadow, Meg Myers

“Rain.” She whispered in my ear. “Rain, rain, rain.” A mantra until I became aware.

I was sore and bruised. Ruined clothing in a black, blue and sticky wet red clung to me like arcane ooze. It took me a few seconds to recall. Dracolich. Yes. Pale master kobold and a dracolich. But that was as far as that memory went. No wonder I was sore.

The temple was something one would see in the slums where slaves and the imperfect or lessers would end up. The kobold that was speaking to me was a surprise. He claimed to want to guide me to my master.

Master? The silly creature meant Mistress. But instead of leading me to the elegant structures that housed drow in the city he led me into a building I didn’t recognize. He had mentioned Tiamat. I knew who that was but I couldn’t remember if they were an ally of the House.

I knew it wouldn’t be long before the matron figured out what I was hiding. I’d had to be creative. Torture had a way of pulling things out and serving them up - right into the mithril tipped, blood red fingernails of the Dreaded One.

The longer I could be seen as some half-arsed hack of a mage, the better. Yet, I knew, I knew sooner or later… someone would catch on. Who was it that said that desperate times call for desperate measures?

Was this when it would happen? When I would be discovered? Was I being stolen? I didn’t wait to find out. I saw the soft light of an opened leyline.. And hopped the hells in.

I realized I had fallen asleep when I saw life. At first it appeared as a man with a spider. “It is the realm we inhabit. This isle is a great crucible I've come to wager... fire and death are its great contenders.” He had warned me. Next time I saw life it was a lovely lady with auburn hair and glowing white robes. She said my name and looked at me.

I was instantly in a city. It was dark. Still in the caverns but the city… the buildings… the people… were of the surface. I wanted to thank the lady with auburn hair and glowing robes but a large boulder had replaced her. A very sturdy, very large boulder.

So I listened. The common trade language sounded to me like some distant melody. So soothing and slowly familiar. Was it wrong to recall it just to be able to hear it without any harsh accents? I should be more careful with my dreams but I miss the little things.

Time has no meaning in a dream and sometimes people drift in or suddenly appear in the middle of a sentence. But not these. They leaked into my dream like they have done before. Pretending to be elven but I knew better. I knew them to be drow. Even still, I answered questions. The easy ones. About the pale master. About the dracolich. About the kobold.

Yet not about other things. Hidden things. Things I can’t find. And somewhere in the distance, I heard bells sound. Rich, smooth, harmonic… celestial. Like a cool breeze on an impossibly hot day, like a warm cup of tea on a cold morning the musical tones soothed me.

“I think all these runes are his…” The lovely willow tree rang like a crystalline glass tapped by a silver spoon. “I watched him write shadow shield.”

“Brilliant.” The stronger oak tree’s tone was a bit lower but in perfect harmony with Willow. “Absolutely Brilliant.”

They were not drow in disguise. I worked harder to focus. Thank the Lady they weren’t drow. “Where… where am I?” I asked them.

“You are in the city of Cordor, on the surface of the isle of Arelith. More specifically, you are in the guard barracks, in a room they have that is warded against any and all teleportation.” Oak said.

Damn, I didn’t even know where that was. Had I traveled that far? To some part of the map of Faerun that I wasn’t familiar with? I took hold of the heavy metal around my neck. “No teleportation… because that hurts.” It was silly but I felt better holding onto it as if my touch might lessen the chance of the horrid thing heating up like a chain lightning. Which, it wouldn’t. “Cordor.” I said the unfamiliar name again. “How did I get here?”

“We don’t know how you got here. We were hoping you knew.” Oak said and Willow nodded.

I had to concentrate but i found it. “Damned dracolich.” I said.

“Yeah.” Oak agreed. “A dracolich summoned by a kobold pale-master killed you. You told us earlier, remember?”

I tapped my temple. “It’s a little jumbled in there.”

“At present, you are safe from the slave callers.” Oak said.

“What name is on this thing?” I couldn’t recall. So much was missing… lost… hidden.

“Rugnar Dwarf-smasher.” Oak said and Willow nodded.

A sudden flood of relief washed over me. “A duergar.” Somehow I was no longer in the clutches of the drow. I had no idea how that had happened. I was too tired and sore to go looking for that memory.

“Is there anything we can do for you at this moment?” Oak asked and I was certain that he and I knew I wouldn’t be staying. Better I returned than to have them use the collar.

I wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. Rail against the entire situation I found myself in. All the time in the depths, years maybe? Being smart, careful, clever. Surviving things so horrible I hid most of them in dark rooms with heavy locked doors. And when I manage to find myself back to the land of the limitless sky, among people and not monsters… I could not stay.

Instead I tried a light hearted answer even though my chest felt as if several hundred pounds of adamantine were sitting on me. “Ah… a bath?” I fingered my torn and bloody shirt. “Another shirt?”

They lead me back outside. Goddess, outside. I felt little droplets of water and looked around to see who might be splashing at me.

“Rain.” The lovely Willow said by way of explanation.

Something… clicked. It was loud in my mind though no one else would hear it. I couldn’t breathe. I had been calling myself Rain but forgotten what it meant. I had forgotten what it was. So I stood there. My hand was out, palm up, as if by magic. Water attempting to gather into a little pool in my palm. “Rain.” I repeated quietly as I turned my face to the sky to feel the cool droplets strike my skin.

“Does that mean something to you?” Willow asked.

“I made them call me Rain.” I told her tipping my head back down so I could look at her. “So I could remember that there was a surface. It doesn’t rain down there.” I didn’t think that my tears could have possibly stood out against the water of the rain but I gave my face a rough swipe with my hand anyway.

I decided to go to sleep in Blessed Seahaven. But this name was as twisted as I was. In truth it is a place in the lower dark. The Kuo-toans claim it. There was nothing blessed about it for one of my kind.

I lay on by back, arms behind my head. She sat on my chest cross-legged. “Rain, rain, rain.” She sing-songed at me in her tiny little voice. “What is my name?” She bounced, impatient.

She liked this game I had devised. I gave her a name that would bring up some strong important memory. She’d been seventy-eight, Second-Passage-To-The-Right, Deck of Cards… so I told her her new name. She giggled. Then she flitted up to my ear and snuggled into the hair there.

And I, I pulled out one of my specially made charcoal sticks and wrote a few things I wanted to remember. I picked places where I could hide the names I’d learned within other ramblings. To my mind they would stand out like finding a fly in your cup of tea.

Then, past weary, sore and hurting, I let sleep claim me.



// Special Thanks to all of those who played a part in Rains latest adventure.
Slishk Spinescale
Miirixien
Bognar Dwarf-Smasher
Hutch Krakengärd
EverBright MorningStar
Augustin Dish
Jadoth Dawnfire
Astra Starlock
Sven Eicher
Even the smallest part in RP can turn out to be a big factor in shaping a character. Thank you all.
KALYIN -- "Black Cobra will aid your injuries should you stand close.... or he may strike you, depending on mood."

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