Bittersweet Candy Bowl

The leader of the soldiers steps through the shields without any effort as he the spirits are addressed by Albert. He marches steadily towards Albert, stopping a foot away from the knight. Albert feels a horrible chill as he stands next to the spirit.
We understand you, although only I respond. We are the Others, the Forgotten Soldiers, long dead defending this hill from the enemies of Siilitie. Once the best our lands had to offer, our loss here long ago was a shameful defeat. We have been called upon once again to serve our emperor and redeem ourselves from the damnation we have been left to upon this hill. Until we receive our next orders we shall continue to defend this hill from the enemies of Siilitie.
His voice is as hallow as his eyes, and he begins to speak in the ancient dialect heard on the wind. As Mollith emerges from the tent, happily swinging her scythe through the air and laughing, the spirits all turn to face her. The leader turns to the girl as she holds her doll to her ear then hugs it tight. She waves to both the group and the spirits before she puts her doll on her shoulder and runs as fast as she can down the hill. The enraged soldiers turn to their leader who passes his hand through Albert. He faints to the ground almost immediately as the leader calls out to the rest of the spirits.
These people are travelling with the creature that took this hill. Kill them, kill them all and redeem our lost honour!

Dave backs away from the oncoming horde and then yells to his teammates

Guys! Are we going to fight or run after Mollith? We need to make a choice!

I think is better to retreat for now,cause we can’t fight spirit’s with physical attacks only if theres a alternative way to fight them.
Run to Albert and pick him up.
You guys saw what that spirit did to him right?

(I just realized I forgot my name)
(*Facepalm*)

Well running certainly doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me!

The archer speaks up after being slightly baffled by this whole business. His feet squish uncomfortably in the mud as he silently jumps from one foot to the other. Gulping quietly, he prepares to run if indeed that is what everyone decides what to do.

Susanna is distinctly shaken by their ethereal attackers being immune to both light and dark shielding. Realising that her efforts were futile, she drops the outer protection and, with her eyes on the advancing soldiers, urgently shakes the concentrating Jasmina.

“It isn’t working! Leave it! We’ve got to follow the others NOW!”

Through all of the commotion about whether or not running was a good idea, the wacky footsteps the adventurers can hear are a sign that at someone else thought it was a good idea. Carter ran as fast as he could, chasing in Mollith’s direction.

“M-M-Missy! Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

(HURP DURP I’M HELPING. )

Notices the two unidentified presences going back down the hill.

Oh no… were in danger again! Something in those two seem to be attracting the attention of whatever appeared just now. I guess it’s better if I run behind them and ask questions later.

Tries to catch up with Mollith.

(Buh… Keith)

As the group begins to turn and run the ghostly figures draw their weapons and march towards them, the leader himself in the direction of Mollith. Lieselotte quickly catches up to the young girl, swinging the child onto her shoulders before running ahead as much as possible to escape. Makar calls to the others to follow using his sword to light the way as they gain distance from the void that drained the light from the blade moments ago. As the group passes over the muddied fields around the hill, the army ceases their march. They stay on the hill, unmoving as they watch everyone flee. A safe distance away, they stop and look back to the hill, the ghostly figures barely illuminated by the moonlight gathered on the hillside staring after them.

Well… that…was…fun.Paulson huffs as he catches he breath after the run. He looks to the rest of the group and sighs.

What the Hell was that all about?!He yells as he glances back at the soldiers.

What is going on around here and why are those soldiers after us?

Man,we escaped.
Put’s Albert that he was carying on the ground.Delilah and Amaja was near.
Hope that he is okay.

“I just… wanted… to go… home…!” Carter said between gasps, cursing his own tiem masheen. As soon as he realized that the ghosts weren’t chasing them, he plopped to the ground on his back, still gasping for breath.

“O-kay…” Susanna ponders, “They’re immune to light magic, they’re immune to dark magic, they can’t be attacked with physical weapons, and I bet if we drilled the whole hill out from under them they’d just float there and wait.”

She turns to the group, deep in thought.
“I guess we know that they’re sentient, and seem to speak our language. It’s reasonable to assume they’ll understand it too. But unless any of you really fancy making a speech to something saying “Kill them, kill them all,”” she concluded, “I’m stumped.”

She sits down on a mossy boulder, still thinking. Her eyes rove across the group; fortunately everyone escaped unhar-
“Urk!” she exclaims, nearly sliding inelegantly backwards off the rock. “We’ve got to do something for Albert!”

After coming to a stop, she placed Mollith back on the ground, who had been laughing happily the whole time she was on Lieselotte’s shoulders. She walked over to Albert, feeling his pulse for to find it alarmingly weak.
It seems like the only one of any real sentience was the leader, the one that spoke with us. I could be mistaken though, but as long as we don’t approach that hill again I don’t think they will be able to catch us. Albert is alive, but whatever they did to him seems to have left him quite weak.
She pulls out the scroll she managed to take from a tent before the spirits had appeared.
Perhaps this can give us some insight on what to do next, since there appears to be no way to be rid of those spirits, I am at a loss as to what our next actions should be.

After running like hell from the spectral army, Theresa flops down on the ground face first, the day’s events and her lack of sleep leaving her exhausted. She takes notice of Albert’s weakened state, tilting her head towards him.
Poor guy… I’d hate to see what would’ve happened if that thing actually attacked him instead of just waving his hand through him. Then again…would there have been a difference?
“Do you guys think they can kill us?”

Get’s up and leave Albert’s care for Delilah.
I think he need your care miss.
Konar leaves them both and go sit under a tree near the group.

As the Soldiers stepped through the shield,jasmina had already begun backing up and by the time the leader had waved his hand through albert ,she was halfway down the hill after they had started attacking them she tried to heal albert ,but failed because of how weak she was now.She put her hand on her head for a moment and sat down after they were off the hill.She didnt know what to do and was as confused as everyone else,these things couldnt be beaten,at least not yet..

i aint got nobodyyyyy

What Lily still exist? Yes Folks it’s true. You’ll have to forgive my lack of posting:I’ve been doing nothing but moving very heavy furniture the past few days, and dealing with some ancient drama from an earlier chat whenever I had a chance to get online.

Yeah it hasn’t been pleasant.

Anyway much to everyone’s surprise, the big gang presently trying to discuss what the hell to do finds a certain hedgehog casually walking down from the hill. The Spirits not making move against her as she trots on down making a visual inspection of everyone as gets to the bottom, not seeming to pleased, though clearly more worried then anything else.

She, for the record, has been around the entire time. She didn’t just vanished, so please don’t act surprised or spit out hated remarks that she did ‘nothing to help’. While she’s been sticking to back helping out where she can, our dear hedgehog princess has been THERE despite her player not. Just as the other afk players have been.

“Well…. that was an unpleasant conversation. The one case I ‘like’ that ‘Princess’ nick name” (one I’ll need to role play out with Rukral Later over IRC….) “… but at least it was a…. little informative. What you’re looking at my friends is what our ‘enemy’ intended to summon… and seems almost finished in doing if my count is right. They are the greatest warriors this nation ever knew reborn. Though what worries me more is what they intend to DO with such a force…” her eyes falling on Theresa “They most certainly could if they tried….though trapped on that hill until the ‘Emperor’ tells them other wise….loyal soldiers even in death. But given my lack of a migraine I’m pretty sure my brother isn’t anywhere nearby to -give- that order, thank whichever of the thousand gods gave us that blessing. But.. the bastards behind this likely have a way around it… so lets not get too comfortable…”

She makes her way over towards Albert next giving Jasmina a glance before kneeling down beside him “…He… he should be fine… given time my dear. Right now I think you’d be better off getting some rest yourself…. as for what we do next…Next…..”

She stands up straight again with some effort speaking in a more bemused tone “next… someone better find that drunken Fool Hannibal for me. I will -not- deal with more of this crap with an empty jug! I know full well he’s got the spirits or ale stashed away to fill it” She gives the jug on her hip a few taps smirking all the way “… after that….. After that… well…”

She rubs his chin for a few moments looking a little uncertain before remembering a small detail “… Lady Lieselotte. I seem to remember you finding a scroll during the chaos of all this… I don’t suppose you’d let me have a look?”

(arghh gotta go afk and I can’t even do anything anyway
don’t try and wake me up unless I’m here nut I’ll be auto-played by Delilah, Liselotte, or Lily if you really have too)

Having opened the scroll, she frowns as she attempts to read the foreign dialect. She turns to Lily, handing over the parchment without hesitation.
You will probably have more luck then me, I could not understand a single figure on it.

Lily takes the parchment with a similar lack of hestiation, yoinking it from the top and reading it over quickly, actually smiling a bit as she comes to the end. “..Ahh.. poor fools. If they had just summoned some ancient demon they wouldn’t have this problem…” She tilts her head a bit as an after thought comes “though… they’d likely need to sell their souls for -that-… and I doubt these bastards have any to give…”

She hands the scroll to Lady Lieselotte as she begins to explain, someone finally coming over with her requested refill as she goes on. “It’s quite simple my dear. They summoned an army that only the Emperor can control..” she takes her first sip from the jug, seeming to flinch for a few seconds from the strength of the brew “…..sadly my brother isn’t exactly the type to listen to -anyone- about -anything- so they’re pretty much screwed without some sort of magic to control him. Shame he’s only got air between his ears so the magic is surely working wonders… which is more or less what this note is about.”

She gives a shrug “Summoning isn’t quite done yet, so they have to keep the peace for now, keep my brother controlled. Which means…… to solve all this we -don’t- need to go to the resting place…. but rather the throne room to free my brother of the spells they cast on him…”

(there’s a little more boring Exposition to come. But I felt I’d let people get a word in during my ramblings)

So we have to save another person in a castle from unwanted magical interference.

Shrugs and reloads crossbow

At least its something we’re good at.

She frowns and crosses her arms as Lily tells them of their new destination
So what you are saying is, we need to go through the capital, and into the castle where your brother is to free his mind. We are enemies of the Siilitie Lily, we would have to fight every guard and soldier in the capital to get there.
She begins to pace back and forth, deeply frustrated by the situation.
This is a suicide mission, we would never make it past the gates.

“Good thing we won’t need to go through them then. There’s another path… straight into the throne room, skipping past all the guards….. that only royalty.. like say… the princess of the shimmering lands… know about. Magically sealed so only those of royal blood can open it, let alone know about it….”

She gives a wide shrug “Once again the whole Princess thing works to my benefit… Ugh… I’ll never stop hearing that damn name at this rate. Hopefully McCardell.. you’ll only need -one- of those bolts. One dead adviser, one freed brother, one order from him and this entire mess is over and done with…. though…”

The hedgehog glances left and right leaning towards the vampire as she discusses things in a quieter tone “You seem to have earned the girls trust as have I…..I can’t trust that doll… that -monster- to bring him to the very center of my kingdom… and with the poor girl practically his willing hostage…I could never… I’m sorry I can’t go into more detail for that. If you could watch over her here while we go off to do what needs to be done?”

She straightens her robe a bit.. clearly uncomfortable with what she was to suggest next “.. as much as I’d hate to admit it… if we do -fail-… that -thing- is the only thing that stands a chance to stop them… better he be here for it..”

The dancer was only starting to go up the side of the hill when the rest of the party dashes down the side. Seeing the unconscious Albert being carried by one of her companions she doesn’t know nearly as well, she abruptly turns and dashes after them, her skirt flapping out behind her as she goes down the hill far faster than is really safe. Somehow, though, she keeps her footing, skidding across the sodden grass behind him. When Albert is let down and Jasmina tries to heal him and fails, the dancer cries, pushing her face against the fallen warrior’s chest, then giving him a kiss on his clammy lips, warm tears sprinkling down onto his whiskers.

Jasmina feels something strange happening,as if someones life force is being drained and their energy being sent to her.She opens her eyes wide as she realises what is happening,somehow the healing process starting draining alberts life from him,she doesnt know how this could’ve possibly happened but she feels his life starting to fade.He will soon be dead.

Paulson listened to Lily’s explanation while quietly nodding. He looks over the tired and worn out group and sighs heavily at their misfortune. Finally he looks over to the fallen knight, his wife draped over his chest crying, and Jasmina looking quite distress at Albert. The archer walks over and sits on his haunches while speaking to Jasmina.

Some thing wrong? He whispers to her as to not alarm the dancer. You look like a worn out rag to me.

Feeling a change in the ether, Susanna joins Jasmina at Albert’s side. A moment’s study is all she needs. Unable to show her true sadness in front of the friends she is meant to be supporting, she bottles her sobs up and tries to put on an efficient demeanour. She almost manages it.

“He’s… he’s no longer in a position we can deal with,” she slowly intones. “We’re going to need some extremely strong magic. A-a-and the only place we can get to with any speed now is into that castle. In any case, he’s not going anywhere… like.. that…”

Susanna sways a little at the sadness she feels, and brushes against a familiar fur. She doesn’t need to turn; the gentle warmth and flow of strength tells her who it is.

“Right.” she says with renewed feeling, “We’re going down this tunnel, Lily. We’re going now, and we’re going FAST.”

(I’m back, and I finally got my laptop!!)

The paladin just stares, dumbstruck, at what transpires in front of him. When Albert is knocked unconscious, he snaps out of his stupor just in time to notice Lily’s plan of attack.

“Princess, I have just one question; do you think Lieselotte and Mollith will be able to hold their own for as long as that will take? I mean, not that they aren’t competent survivalists, as we’ve witnessed, but only you know anything about this enemy and I’m just a little nervous.”

She looks to paulson then over to albert again and whispers in paulson’s ear

I tried to heal him,and failed and now something happened,i don’t know what.His life force is being drained..I..

Tears well up under her eyes but she tries to hold back.

I failed,and now he’s probabaly going to die.
And although she heard susanna she didn’t respond.Until she took command .

Right..we should be moving! She stands and wipes the tears away.

{{Game declared paused to all players via IRC from Rukral}}

[And yeah. Game is paused again folks. Interacting and dicking around posts still allowed, but nothing to advance the plot as our GM has a family emergency to deal with. Which we can forgive… I mean really such things take priority over a silly internet game right?

Lets hope things work themselves out]

((Is relationship interaction allowed you think cause we really need to figure out this love triangle before the end.))

((Only on a flashback level, I think. This isn’t the moment, in-world.

“During their walk to the hill…” ))

With the sudden retreat from the hill, Amaja glanced over to the spiritual horde at the foot of the hill, it struck her as strange they would move no further from that place. She just hoped it either stayed that way, or they didn’t do something foolish like releasing them from their apparent bonds to the hill. She stares intently towards them until she felt Susanna brushing up against her in her speech, turning her head to see the confident Burmese, smiling brightly in response to her sudden air of authority. Feeling herself become more confident as well she looks around to the others hoping they all were feeling the same invigoration.

Delilah is trembling by the body of her fallen lover, tears running down her cheeks. The dancer is adept enough at magic to know what is going on, though it is not clear to her that it is Jasmina who is killing her lover, rather than the ghosts. With a trembling hand, she slowly runs her fingers over his chest, listening to his weakening heartbeat.

He feels so cold… not like he usually does.

She looks up at the others, distraught.

((OK, since everyone wants to talk in the present moment, I think we’ll quietly invoke ‘Talking Is A Free Action’. So as long as the game’s paused, no time passes, Albert stays the same, but vast chunks of text can be spoken.

That’ll make things easier. I hope.))

Hannibal, who was quietly following the group for the whole escapade, now chooses to speak up.

So our master plan is to leave behind one of our most capable fighters and stroll into the throne room after being declared enemies of the state? I doubt we will encounter no resistance. If the borders were closed, then there must be something new going on in the palace. I recall during my days back in the RG the throne was protected my the most capable fighters-yours truly included-that were on constant guard. Even by bypassing the defenses of the capital, I don’t like our odds. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t think of anything better, but an alternative would be nice.

(Right then. Might have heard already but I’ve been put in charge of bringing this role play to its dramatic conclusion so I guess you can call me the Game master now? Hey whatever works.

Given tomorrow is a City-Wide Holiday where I live, with no resumes to pass out, or furniture to be moved (Which is what I spend a good chunk of Today doing) I’ll be spending the majority of Wednesday trying to bring this game to a close. Though for the time being it’s still in ‘Talking is a free action’ Pause mode.

Though if you guys want to role play the trip through the secret passage, or even minor encounters along the way you’re free to~ just save the actually arrival at the Palace for tomorrow ehn? Anyway here have a little IC post from Lily at least. Feel free to auto her a little if I’m not present and it holds things up)

Lily gave a sigh “… well… it doesn’t ‘quite’ lead directly into the throne room itself… but a small shrine one or two rooms away from it. We won’t have a million guards on our heads right away…..just maybe three or five seconds after…maybe ten or twenty if we manage a clever disguise or illusion spell….” Not suprisingly not many laughed at that joke. Lily included.

“… I wish I did have a better plan Hannibal.. but there’s no quicker path to do what needs to be done in the time we have. But look at it this way… if we stop the Adviser we won’t NEED to worry about escape. We’ll be praised as heroes, the soldiers will be ordered to stand down, and I’m sure my brother will give you all the wines, weeds, and whores your little black heart could desire. Sounding a bit better now?”

Susanna rapidly trawls through her journal as the others discuss the moments ahead. Spells of growth, Sigils of meditation, Octagrams of Kraken resistance, (Why the hell am I keeping that damn thing?, she ponders), Inscriptions for calling thunder… Ah…

“Got it,” she murmurs, over a page of closely-written notes on movement magic. The subtle satisfaction of finding this, together with Amaja’s gentle breathing at her shoulder, causes her to involuntarily purr. Suddenly ashamed at herself, she spins to check Delilah hadn’t heard.

Amaja peers over Susanna’s shoulder into the scrawled text in her journal looking. Unable to make out what is written on the page, she presses closer to her friend to see if she can make out the scripture before her. She glanced up to her friend with a puzzled expression, unsure of what she ‘got’ from the illegible notes in her journal.

She didnt know exactly what else to do from here and thus began meditating

After guiding everyone away from the hill and the enraged ghosts, Makar kept gaze at the dead soldiers standing in front of them while he listened to the others speaking about Albert’s status and their new destination. After making sure what was their plan, the korat looked down and placed his hand under his cape. Thoughts started to flow as the noble knight stopped listening.
The last thing I want is Mollith making another carnage out of the inocent people from Siilitie… but only Lily and Lieselotte may be able to keep her desire for “playing” held down… Lily is obviously coming with us, so that means it’s Lieselotte who will stay behind to take care of the necromancer… what if Lieselotte don’t be able to do so? If she’d be slaughtered by Mollith?!
Clearly showing fear in his face, he looked at Lieselotte’s back and forth pace for a few seconds and sat down, crestfallen. With his eyes closed, he focused on his thoughts once more.
I hate to decide so, but that’s it. Lieselotte will stay behind with Mollith while the rest heads towards the castle. I’d like to stay with her, but my support is going to be more worthy with the others.
Tsc…
Delilah will keep yelling that I don’t care about nobody if I’d say that bluntly. It would be just like after Sunday’s sacrifice…
An unpleasant memory returns to haunt the Lord once more, reopening old wounds. Shortly after that, another disturbing one made tears start to escape between Makar’s eyelids. He took his hand out from behind his cape, holding a clay bottle as big as the one Lily just refilled, embraced himself with his free arm and started to sob painfully.

One month ago, before heading into the woods and start their legendary journey, a boy handed the humble korat a bottle. Thinking it was just a ordinary bottle, he simply kept the suply under his cape and forgot it’s existence. After that journey, while venturing with nobody else but Lieselotte, he took a small sip of the drink and found out that this same bottle had a strong healing. After some research, he found out that the drink was an ancient potion that could heal anything…

… Including vampiric curses.

The Lord never told his Lady the truth, fearing that she would feel even more guilty than he already was, and decided to keep the guilt to himself.
I… I could have… drunk that potion… and prevented… Suday’s sacrifice…
He rose and cleaned his face from the tears. Makar walked towards Albert, asking Delilah to don’t worry, and made his friend take a sip from the bottle.
It tastes really bad, but swallow it no matter what, you heard me?
Secure that Albert was fine once more, Makar recommended that he should take it easy, since the amount he drank wasn’t enough to heal him completely. The knight placed the bottle under his cape once more and turned his gaze to Lily.
So… the plan is that you’ll lead us to our next destination while Lieselotte is left behind with Mollith, right? He rhetorically asked.
Makar stood in front of the vampiress and held her hands. Unable to find words to express what he wanted to say, he gulped and hugged her tightly. Releasing her shortly after, he turned back to his comrades and took out his sword.
Let’s go, then! It’ll be worse for us to waste any more time. The last thing I want is someone here dead, so we’d better hurry. Spoke briefly as he turned to Lieselotte for a moment.
Lily? Which way is the secret path?

(I’m gone once more. Sorry for don’t posting anything sooner, but work takes my time. Anyone can autoplay Lord Makar.)

She watches wide-eyed as Lord Makar walks over and gives Albert some of that life-saving fluid, trickling it between his lips. As her mate’s breathing becomes more regular, she gives Makar a hug and whispers thanks into his ears before sinking down beside her knight, stroking his head slowly with her hand.

((I am going to bed and won’t be back until 1700 GMT-7. Albert, Amaja, Lily, and Lady Lieselotte have autoplay priviledges.))

Lily walks over to Delilah giving the kneeling Dancer’s shoulder a squeeze, and her usual reassuring smile. Her eyes soon come to Makar giving the holy knight a nod “About time someone said as much. Perhaps you have a use after all hm? Come on everyone gather your things, and lets see if we can finally end this non-sense.”

A small smirk before glancing towards two Strong lads of the party. David and Konar should do “You two help carry the man would you…?” the two hopefully moving to do just that, Sir Albert tagging along for the ride for now.

Just before they all leave the hedgehog gives our Vampire one last glance, the little girl beside her seeming utterly distracted and uncaring of what’s going around her as she plays her own games. “Don’t worry. We’ll bring the fool back alive… heh… and the Jester too though I’d call yours the bigger one” She smiled, she waved, and she started her walk.

The trip through the woods was uneventful enough. Leaving those around to discuss things (feel free to RP out chatting on the way if you like ;p) If Albert should be left at the mouth of the tunnel under Delilahs care… or brought with them under the hope that they can kill the adviser quickly… giving them access to greatest healers of the country.

Both choices have their risk and burdens… and in the end it seems a choice best left to the mans wife no?

About an hour or so later Lily abruptly stops stating simply “Here we are….”

Those around her looking quite confused as that around them seems to be nothing more then more woods, grass, and dirt, even more so as she starts to sing. A simple little lullaby, in a language only a select few of them can understand. Short, sweet, and cute… though Lily was clearly out of practice.

But as she sung the ground slowly started to shake. The Earth starts to shift and move. Tearing and twisting as it if were water not stone thanks to spells cast ages ago. Finally the path reveals itself:A simple stone path and a wooden door, Lily carefully walking on down, it seeming to glow for just a moment as her hands are placed upon it, her royal blood causing it to open reveling the long dark, underground path before them.

A grim looking place that has not been touched for ages….

“.. Well then… Susanna you had a spell or two to speed up our walk didn’t you? Everyone’s legs would welcome it I’d say.”

(Bam Fun times huh folks? Free feel to role play out the walk here if you want. ‘Talking as a free action’ as always. I’m going to give Susanna some time to respond herself and dramatically pose her ‘Tunnel traveling spell’ but if it takes too long I’ll Auto it for the sake of keeping the game moving.

Most people are sleeping now I realize but I figured I’d have this here in advance now ;p)

Our Archer walks silently with his arms crossed during the trip to the castle he focuses hard on the ground as he tries to figure out his own problems. He can either choose the sweet and beautiful Jasmina who seems more than a little taken with him, or the fiery and loud Theresa who he has been waiting on for years. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and once he makes a choice he will not be able to back out of it. Finally he turns to the closest of the girls that are fighting for his affections and speaks.

((Who ever starts talking to Paulson first I’ll talk to. Time to finish this.))

(didnt paulson sit down by jasmina and ask how she was???!?)

((When we were sitting down. Now we are moving on to the castle.))

Paulson what are you doing?
asks the little white dog, who suddenly is walking alongside the archer during his dileme