The young man's flesh feels unnaturally warm to the touch, for all its pallid and wretched appearance. As he is tended to by the Kraken's faithful, golden eyes open up abruptly and he turns aside, gasping for breath and trying to take in as much of the precious air as possible. His mouth puffing, he slowly relaxes as he takes ahold of his predicament and lets out a muffled groan, shivering and trembling as his fine orange robes prove no match for the freezing, gnawing gales howling around them.

He finally manages to bring himself to a sitting position, his golden eyes ablaze and wrought on the Esquimaux. His mouth, scarred and covered in hideous burn marks opens and a grating rasp echoes.

"Thank you."

“You can thank me by listening soon to the Tentacular Gospel. Right now, though, we need to get you out of this cold—if that proves even to be possible.” Gundrabu gives the strange fellow an appraising look. “I would like to know what manner of man you are. I’ve never seen your kind. But you are man enough for me to see that you need Kraken’s healing. If you’ll submit to its embrace, for a moment. You need not become a worshipper just yet.”

If the tattooed man remains compliant, Gundrabu heals him for [clatter] 4 hp.

fireinthedust wrote:

Iron Ranger wrote:

fireinthedust wrote:

"A lantern, and a torch? Flames mean mortals. Whether friend or foe, we'll have answers. Be ready for battle or trickery, but make haste!"

He tries to manage as well as he can with the storm, leading Tetranna as safely as he can, given she's Ixian and not a Kimmerian like himself.

Kondor points his lantern and sword through the cemetery. Sol and Tetranna stay close behind. Beside them desecrated earth is upturned at the headstones, deep holes where once faithful priests slumbered. 

The gate hangs open, and beyond 100 yards on the western trail to the great Shankshill mtn, a ramshackle wooden sled holds 3 large furred dogs. They turn at the intrusion and take their barks to new levels.

Fifteen feet beyond 3 dark figures are slumped around a torch aflame...
 

Kondor approaches, covering them in his lanterns light.

“Ho there, strangers,” the kimmerian warrior calls. “Who are you, and what brings you to this death-cursed ruin?”

Kondor is formidable even for a barbarian, holding a lantern in one hand and a sword in the other.

Tetranna moves into support position, withdrawing her strange transparent crystal weapon. Its network of tightly wound copper wires and tiny, glowing filaments a bright orange in her hand.
 

Eirvit wrote:

_Oh thank you, Clutching Khalk-xu, another potential convert!_ “Hail, doughty swordsman. My name is Gundrabu, servant of Kraken’s Trembling Tendrils. This unfortunate here”— nods at the albino—“and I have not yet exchanged names ourselves. So I cannot speak for this victim, but my dogs and I seek a night of shelter in this ruin. It may be that Kraken has pulled me here to minister to you.”

“You’ve found only a cursed ruin, haunted by evil, and bound by an eldritch frost upon the land. Until the curse is lifted this place is perilous to the living. Bring that one and your dogs this way if you wish to live, and rest at our camp. Or fly this place before it corrupts you into a cursed un-dead, if you can.”

Kondor heads to the albino, and lifts him to his feet before inspecting him. The tattoos remind him of Emrals eldritch skin patterns.

“What are you? A wizard?”

The albino man seemingly regains his senses and his wits, as Kimmerian, Esquimaux and Ixian converse around him. The man's face is hideous to behold; a gaunt patchwork of pallid, milk-white skin, marred with hideous burn marks, gutted bluish veins and fiery golden eyes, eerie and unbecoming of all things Natural jutting out of his skull-like cranium. Yet here and there, the albino's features hint at something much more regal and once beautiful; a largely untouched aquiline nose and a gently curving chin, an oasis of beauty in a vast desert of hideous and almost profane deformity.

The young man wipes blood- and ice-rimmed blond plastered hair away and stands up unsteadily, and speaks in a rasping voice. His words are those of Eras Past and Lost, bearing an archaic inflection: "Honour and blessed warmth to your House and hearths, strangers. I am Igrest of the Conflagration, a Pyroclast in the service of Helios, the Sun Lord. I owe you my life; and in the Great Isle of Atlantis, whose waters were always sweet and where laughter was always abundant, a debt incurred is a debt served. If Khalk-Xu, the Dweller of Dimensions, ordained my salvation today at your hands *he nods to Gundrabu in curt acknowledgment* so be it. Strange are the ways of the Gods in this broken realm."

The young man coughs some blood as the Kraken's blessings take hold and fully heal his wounds. "You may keep the dagger, for it was a poisoned gift; and ere the poison undo you too *he points to the now empty cartridge*, I foolishly took great care to remove it. But expect little result of your dire zealotry, servant of the Clutcher of Worlds Far Away and Beyond, for word of your debased rites has reached my ears and even in such dark times, I find your ways uncouth. Yet an ingrate I am naught; so for the sake of such, I will stay my tongue."

The scarred albino gathers his furs and tries to return a semblance of decorum to himself, pulling his furs around him. You all notice that a wisp of a candle's flame, heatless and pale, flickers at the center of his right palm.

"And what of yourself, Warrior? Your tidings are dire, and as a Pyroclast, an adept of Flame Righteous I take grave note of them. A profane ruin, marred by eldritch frost and unraveling, tainted curst grounds? Then perhaps you are in luck; and so am I, for I am an adept of the ways of Fire and such a dire ruin fills me with purpose renewed. I will gladly accept your hospitality. Let us move inside, so we may trade more words on the matter; but first I must see to the Bell itself and its profane blazing light. Perhaps answers lie there, before moving inside."

Finally, the Atlantean offers a curt nod to the woman, and gathers the remainder of his belongings about, and slowly starts for the sanctuary's Bell, which was alit with red light minutes ago.

 

Last edited by Holy_Rage (1/06/2020 6:14 pm)

Tetranna watches the wizard like a hawk, then after his nod, spits in the snow.

Gundrabu add 750 XP for Dagger +2, Venom.

Igrest add 2000 XP for leather book. 

“None can escape Kraken’s Constricting Claws,” Gundrabu grumbles at Igrest’s dismissive tone regarding his deity. Then he says, more loudly, “I thank you for the dagger, sorcerer. I’m amazed that I made it all the way here from the Plain of Leng without one. Rope. That’s another item I overlooked..”

He walks up to his team. “Let’s go, Amarok, Karpok, Wayok. Hopefully we have a roof tonight.”

Getting back into the sled, Gundrabu directs his team down to the ruined church.

Last edited by Eirvit (1/06/2020 7:51 pm)

"Hold that tongue, you cursed child..." she snarls, reaching into her bearskin and pulling forth a string around her neck with rancid, unknowable innards tied around it, "or I'll hold it for you."

"And I know that you did not eat that thief back there...and yet his body was still warm, melting the ice where he lay. Curious, how came you by his dagger after all?" she leads.

She holsters the Paralyser in her bearskin and follows at a careful distance as the throng retreats to the Sanctuary.

Last edited by Iron Ranger (1/06/2020 9:55 pm)

fireinthedust wrote:

Ooc: can Kondor see the leather book? Is it Emrals book? Did they find Malaks body?!

Kondor does not see a leather book...nor in the excitement of the moment inspect a body.

Last edited by Iron Ranger (1/06/2020 10:12 pm)