text / un: starkov

[peasant]

the good news first: rhys and i found the princess of kilnan in the castle and woke her. she's with us right now. the castle was designed to protect her against her mother's soldiers trying to force her back home, which is why it's been so tricky. it's meant to alert remi — her uncle, and the wizard we came looking for — to any unwanted guests, which would be us.

the reason he hasn't come to greet us is that he's asleep. aureliah — the princess — should be able to talk her uncle down before he throws us all out into the mud. he's trapped behind an entrance sam's group found, but aureliah should be able to unseal its magic.

i think more of us should be there when it's opened, just in case something goes wrong with the orb.

the bad news: the orb's name is phyllie. remi made a deal with her and fed his own arcane energy to her in exchange for curing a curse that was placed on aureliah and her mother, but something went wrong during remi's bargain and that energy was transferred from the orb to aureliah instead. that's the reason she has her uncle's magic, and why her mother is so eager to use her daughter as a weapon against kilnan's neighboring countries.

the queen thinks kilnan will be better protected if she can force her daughter to learn war magic. it sounds like remi has been searching through dimensions to find the "right world" (for him and aureliah to hide? we don't know what he meant) but the orb has been draining him of his energy.

from what aureliah said, he feeds "phyllie" monthly. the princess and i think that's the price he's chosen to pay for keeping the curse at bay.

the worst news: i don't know what will happen if we break the bargain remi has made, but i'm sure it can't possibly be anything good. aureliah's life force was given to her by the orb, and the wizard who cast the curse in the first place was killed in the war. so that's a dead end, but maybe someone has a better solution we can offer remi once he's awake.

[ as per this npc thread! feel free to threadjack and hop around threads here to your hearts' content. ♥ ]

Comments

[peasant]

honestly, that's the best idea we've had so far. i think you're onto something.
do you think the orb will really agree to those terms, though? after what it did to eleven ...
it sounds like it's more preoccupied with taking whatever it can from us.

[starer]

Depends on how we phrase it. Right now, it's having to rely on Remi. That can't last forever. It comes back with us, its only got to rely on the other orbs.

They can talk to us in our dreams. Maybe it's time for some of us to go back to sleep again. Find a way to meet up so we can talk to Phyllie as a group.

text; un: eleven (have a threadjack in here)

[savingthrows]

I could help with that.
I reached it before.

[starer]

No.

[Okay, not the right word to use with her. So take #2]

I know you want to help. But it could've killed you, kid. If we end up doing something like this, I need to know you'll be safe.

[savingthrows]

I'm stronger than you.

[starer]

I know you are. You're also the only one who could help us find each other in our dreams.

Doesn't mean I like the idea of you risking yourself like that again though.

[peasant]

so, tricking it into believing that we're the better option?

if some of us do try to go back into the dreamscapes, we would need a group to stay behind and supervise us. preferably those who have abilities that could be helpful in waking us, and anyone who still has their antidote.

[starer]

Not really a trick if it's true.

I've got one shot with me still. And I know someone who can wake people up who'll be pissed if she can't help. That's at least two who can go so far.

[peasant]

i'm guessing you mean eleven. she's got quite the feisty spirit.

i know someone who can go into minds and wake people up that way, even if he won't be happy to be left behind, and sabriel still has her bell. i'm not sure i'll be of any help staying out here, so i'll volunteer to go back into the dreams with the group.

[starer]

Nice way of saying she's stubborn.

That's at least three of us covered. Two if we want to keep the antidote as back up. Got anyone else in mind?

[peasant]

i like that about her. i only like it a little bit else when she's trying to get herself in trouble.

[ pot, meet kettle. ]

i'm not sure. finn has a special connection to the orbs that could be helpful in talking it down? we have to make sure it isn't going to see us as a threat to it or its master.

[laviny]

Do we really need to go to sleep to talk to it? It talked to me while I was awake.

[starer]

I've only ever talked to them while I was sleeping. If it works while we're awake, I ain't gonna say no.

[laviny]

It seems to, but we would need to be careful to be sure it doesn’t view us as a threat. It will protect itself.

[peasant]

what did it say?

[laviny]

I yelled at it for hurting Sam’s Redwing and asked it if it didn’t want to be whole. It said, "Not yet. Feed me."

[peasant]

oh. so that answers whether it's going to find the idea of coming back with us appealing or not.

[laviny]

Maybe. But I wasn’t trying very hard to convince it. I was angry and scolding it.

[peasant]

honestly, it sounds like it deserved it.

[ rude orb. ]

so, step one in the plan: don't make the orb angry.

[laviny]

[This orb is SO rude.]

Yes. And trying to grab it without permission will make it angry.

[peasant]

it's not like the orb cheri had, then.
maybe because this one hasn't gotten an equal trade-off yet, if it's so hungry for magic.