A Promise Is Kept
Subject: Re: Noon, or shortly before...
OOC: I agree, that was really good. You guys can feel free to make fun of me--and given that this is being archived for the world to see I'm sure someone will--but I actually got a little choked up there.
Garyth watches Cadfael disappear down the ladder. This is it. He traces a finger idly down the hilt of his sword. Strange... He thought when this moment finally came he'd be nervous or afraid. And perhaps that would still come. But for now, at least, his hands are steady, his breathing regular. He simply feels ready.
Garyth takes up a position near the ladder, ready to descend as soon as it is time.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: Noon, or shortly before...
I just need a nod from Matt, and I can send out the next turn.
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Noon, or shortly before...
Cadfael pops up like a puppet and is ushered toward the ladder. There is no urgency to his step, the urgency is in the ushering. With the grace of a man who has done so a thousand times before he glides down the ladder, fixated on a single point on the bare wall. Compelled, he starts toward it.
OOC- Well, we're almost to something. Game on!
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Noon, or shortly before...
"Cadfael!" Mission whispers softly. He tosses the priest a small pebble from his pocket.
"You asked me which I sun I'd look to, priest. I'd look to my Promise."
Mission takes another pebble out of his pocket, throws it in his mouth and swallows. "Save my boy priest."
From: Matt
Subject: Re: Noon, or shortly before...
OOC: Sorry about the delays... been moving files from computer to computer, and computers from house to house. Lots of disruption. Knowing what the plan is, meaning that we'll exit the way we came and have to slide down that rope fast, I'm going to say that Tichenor would already be down the hole. If we had brought him up, Rennik would have had him lowered down again.
IC: Rennik stands and says a silent prayer to Mielikki for the strength and speed of a cornered beast, for that is what he surely is. Making sure all his gear is set and prepared, taking a few practice swings with the halberd, he'll give a nod that he is ready.
From: Ty
Subject: High Noon; A Promise is kept
Cadfael climbs down the ladder, the rest of the group hesitating in the room above. After a moment, his head pops back into the room and he says, "Be ready." He heads back down the ladder. Back down in the lower chamber the cleric moves to the wall, touches it, and without a sound a small door opens into the room. Looking out Cadfael can see that the door sits exactly in the dark shadow cast by one of the marble pillars. No one in the throne room even turns around when it opens. Standing in the shadowed doorway, he is able to get a partially obstructed view of Elise waiting by the altar.
A hush falls across the room. Men and undead near the main entrance step aside to form a corridor. Through it, Anileth enters the throne room of Pelor with the help of two large wights. The evil creatures half lead, half carry her through the spontaneous path in the crowd up to the altar. Elise watches her approach with dark intensity, and for a moment, almost does seem to be a creature of flame, rather than a woman. Anileth is led up to the altar, and lies down upon it, bathed in the red glow from Kor Garesh's prison.
Cadfael enters the room through the secret door. As he steps out, the party watches in horror from their vantage point as he moves into the crowd, appearing to be wreathed in a visible foul blackness. There seems to be nothing of the dour but faithful priest they knew at the beginning of the journey. Elise's words come back to Rennik. Is it possible that Cadfael came here to join with these evil beings? Would he have come this far with them just to help murder the child? No, it makes no sense. He could have betrayed them a dozen times in the last few days. If his intent is evil, there would be not reason to hide himself from Kor Garesh's allies. Mission almost follows the priest down the ladder, but Rennik grabs him by the shirt and says, "Wait."
Somehow, wrapped in his darkness, the cleric is able to pass through the crowd of undead and evil beings without hindrance. They seem to move aside for him without ever looking at him. He walks through them up to the edge of the dais, and stops.
On the altar, Anileth is giving birth. Her attendants tear her robes from her, revealing her twisted and withered body. Her undead corpse is a stark contrast to the vibrant vitality of Elise standing next to her. But no matter their appearance, for they are just different sides of the same coin, sharing the same evil intent. As Anileth screams out her birth pangs, Elise waits for the child, dagger held at the ready, waiting to cut its throat in the blood red light. It becomes all Garyth and Rennik can do to keep Mission from charging into the room.
Cadfael moves around the edge of the dais to stand less than ten feet from the birthing on the altar, and still no one appears to pay any attention to him. Rennik especially holds his breath. He remembers how Elise spoke so intimately of Cadfael. The accusations she made. Surely she would recognize him, standing half a dozen steps away? But she doesn't even look in his direction.
Anileth screams again and again, a terrible screeching sound that cuts the ears like a knife. The crowd begins to chant, a throaty, heavy counterpoint to her cries. In a move that makes the collective hearts of the party leap into their throats, Cadfael walks up the stairs of the dais to stand at the foot of the altar. And still, no one looks at him. Elise stands across the altar from him less than three feet away, and doesn't spare him a glance. He is actually standing between the wights, and they only shuffle a bit to move aside for him. Mission says, "Something is wrong. That isn't right! We have to go out there!" Amazingly, it is Rennik who speaks for the priest. "He is a madman, but he's not lied to us yet. He stands exactly where he said he would stand on this day. We give him more time to prove his intent."
The screaming and chanting seems to go on for an eternity. And then, one final scream, and Cadfael reaches out and takes a baby from between the lich's thighs. There is silence. Promise is born.
It is impossible to see the child itself from either the observation room above, or the crowded hidden doorway below. The priest's broad back hides it from view, but the effect on the room is instant and obvious.
Everything stops, and for a single moment to short to be measured, everyone can *see*. The power of Promise is revealed. In that instant, Mission knows that his son will never be trained to fight. That he has been born as one of the Kaishin, the holy men wise from birth. They are the teachers sent by the ancestors of the Path to guide the Path during times of change. Not more than seven of them have been given in the thousand year history of his order. They always signal a time of great tumult, and each is born with a different gift. His son's gift is the power to show people, not what is, but what could be. The promise of their futures, if they will only take hold of them. Nor did the moss ground lie to Mission when it called his son's name Redemption. For that is what Promise will be to his father. Redemption. Mission knows that his life from this moment on has only one purpose. To protect his son in his work. To stand by his side while he teaches and guides, and sets the Path on whatever new course it will follow. He sees the man that he can be. Strong enough to help his son bear the terrible weight of his responsibilities, strong enough to protect him from those who would return his wisdom with evil. Bound more tightly to the honor and traditions of his people than he would have thought possible. He can be redeemed both as father, and as servant of the path.
Each member of the party sees what they can be. The potential of their future. All the bright, shining possibilities that await them if they accept their better natures. It makes them weep with the beauty of it, while not hiding the high cost the path to enlightenment will take from each of them. It is truth, but it is the best possible truth.
For Cadfael, this realization is accompanied by his last vision.
He feels his soul lift out of his body, drifting above the throne room. He can look down and see himself, standing motionless with a small pink babe in his arms. In his new spiritual vision, he sees himself as a being of bright and shining light, with a black corruption creeping in located on his ring hand. Even with that corruption, his heart still leaps to see how beautiful his true self is. But, all around are the black and empty husks of those who worship the Garesh. Their beauty lost forever. He sees the incredible power and fury of the being trapped in the pillar, raging at the bonds laid on it by Pelor eons ago.
He sees the past:
The halflings had grown to incredible heights of power and knowledge. One of their foremost wizards, in his study of black mysteries, made contact with the terrible being Kor Garesh. Though it was never his intention, this contact allowed the abomination to enter the world and it wrought havoc on the halflings city, devouring the souls of the fallen and growing ever stronger with each murder. The people retreated to the temple of their god (they called him Kalkin, but Pelor is the name Cadfael knows), and begged for his protection. The priests gathered around the throne, and when the demon entered, called on Kalkin with a single voice. This God heard their cries, and imprisoned the creature in its sheath of glass, forever to be tormented each day at noon when the light in the temple penetrated into its prison to burn it.
But time passes, and memories of horror fade. The halflings came to realize that incredible power pulsed in the black pillar sitting in their temple. Experimentation led them to understand that this power could be tapped. Over time, increasing use was made of the energy available (though they might have been horrified to know that it was the souls of their own fallen that powered their magics). Great wealth was conjured in this way, wealth to fulfill every dream. Their wizards became the most potent in ten millennia, tapping the seemingly inexhaustible power of the pillar.
But, as so often happens, "too far" is not seen until one is past it. One of the halfling wizards, a man named Murkath, tried to bore a tiny hole in the pillar to allow greater access to the power within. The pillar cracked, and a large section fell away, bathing the wizard in the terrible red light. His soul was lost in an instant, though he remained alive as a slave to the abomination. The power granted him by the demon made him the greatest wizard in the kingdom, as long as he continued to bring souls to the altar for feeding. His dark influence shattered the previously peaceful realm, and a war broke out that lasted nearly a century. When it was over, the city lay in ruins. Only Murkath's followers, the soulless slaves of Kor Garesh, remained at the mountain. The rest of the halflings fled into the forest rim, and watched the evil jungle slowly grow up and cut them off from their former homes.
Kor Garesh remained, though the power he had granted Murkath for the war left him nearly drained. Over the centuries, he would feed on the children of the remaining tribe, slowly growing in power until he was strong enough to make another bid for freedom. Kor Garesh has grown very strong again. He calls to those whose evil makes them willing to trade their soul for the small bits of power Garesh gives in return.
All this, Cadfael sees in an instant, and then he is caught higher, up through the mountain, above the world. He sees the billions of souls as tiny sparks of light. Snatched farther away, he sees the many worlds that circle his sun, and then many suns with many worlds, until he feels his mind cracking apart. And then, finally, a place of quiet peace and warm light. His mind sees it as a great hall filled with beings of incredible beauty. All of them serving another being, though of such bright light that it cannot be looked upon. His mind feels a gentle touch, and he looks up to see the face of the Solar who once visited him in a dream. "Look," is all it says, with an expression of sadness on its wise and ancient face.
Cadfael sees himself as Pelor sees him. He sees the noble creature of light that he is in the eyes of his god. He sees the terrible hurt it caused these beings to let him suffer the burden of evil he has carried for so many months. But he also sees the millions of bright beings, like himself, that would be snuffed out. And worse, their bright inner fire lost forever in the bowels of Kor Garesh's blackness if the abomination ever broke free into the world. He sees that a being as terrible as Kor Garesh still has its patrons. Other beings of even greater darkness and chaos, who would love nothing more than to see the slaughter Garesh would bring to the world. Even to see the demon devour enough souls to ascend to godhood itself, and join their foul ranks. Cadfael is also given to understand the complex rules of behavior the gods place on themselves to keep their wars from shattering the worlds, as they did once long ago. He can feel the anguish Pelor felt as he foresaw the coming rise of Kor Garesh, his eventual escape from the prison Pelor had placed him in. Pelor searching for an indirect way, one that will not start a war with the evil gods he opposes, to stop this rise.
And finally, he sees a small ring, bearing some petty but dark corruption, brought into the presence of a good and noble priest. While half a world away, a foolish young monk with a special birthright begins a terrible chain of events by falling in love with a deceiver. In these two seemingly unrelated events, Pelor sees a chance to shift the tide. He takes one tiny action, or, in this case, inaction. He allows the priest to be taken by the corruption that will get him into this room, at this time, with a chance to save this one child.
"Was all of this worth the suffering you bore?" The Solar asks. "Yes. The souls of countless millions make it so. But that does not make your sacrifice any less. When your time has run its course, we await you here in the Bright Halls, with an honored place if you wish it."
The being takes his hand, "We must return now. There are still tasks awaiting both of us. Get the child free, so that his father may return him home to safety. The world will be a better place with Promise in it." It says with a beatific smile.
In an instant, Cadfael returns to his own body, clutching the baby in his hands.
The aftermath of Promise's birth is evident everywhere in the hall. Anileth is on fire, burning with a pure white flame, as the power she intended to sell her son's soul to gain leaves her. Whatever vision Elise was granted has left her on the floor, sobbing like a little girl. All around the hall, the men and halflings have similar looks of terrible distress. Clearly, the vision of what these men could have been, and the terrible price of their short sighted search for easy power, has undone them. The undead look stunned. Those closest to Cadfael have burst into dust, as though he had turned them. Those more distant have been knocked flat, and lie motionless.
Cadfael hears a tiny *tink* and looks down. His ring, split in two, lies on the floor. A thousand pounds of weight, weight he had not even realized he was carrying, fall from his shoulders.
A familiar voice in his head says, "Go."
Even as it speaks, Cadfael can feel the dark fury of Kor Garesh awakening and exerting its power on those in the temple. It screams at them in a soundless fury, the image of all the companions split open on the altar while Kor Garesh feeds on their souls slams into their minds. The undead begin to stir...
From: Ty
Subject: High Noon; The Sitch
Cadfael is holding a small, sort of bloody baby and is standing right next to the altar of Kor Garesh, in the middle of about 200 groggy but angry undead creatures and evil people.
The rest of the group is up in the observation room.
Tichenor is down at the bottom of the elevator shaft, wondering what's up.
Please deliver actions going forward. The DM hand is going to get very light for the rest of this particular quest.
Thanks!
From: Raja
Subject: Re: High Noon; The Sitch
Sa'id watches the ceremony in silence. Pelor, he thinks, it is interesting that you put so much in the hands of men who have so little time for you. If I redeem myself here it is for my own satisfaction, not yours. To dispel my own guilt, and perhaps to accomplish something worthwhile in the process.
He mutters a short prayer, careful not to let anyone see or hear what he is doing.
The baby is born. Sa'id does not move or speak. Then the undead begin to stir, and Sa'id instantly wishes he had memorized his spell of command several more times.
OOC:
Ty, can Command Undead be cast through the glass? In any case, Sa'id will wait to watch Cadfael before deciding what to do.
Nice writeups and subject line allusion, not that it needs to be said. :)