RP:Mindcraft, Part II
Background: Gualon’s faithful poor have prayed for deliverance in the form of new houses to replace their decaying tenements. But an old curse lies dormant in the area, necessitating intervention from the Devout’s Guild. And while they’re there, why not lift up an ax and chop wood for the cause? ‣‣The swamp alone is filled unseen dangers, but for those same dangers to be compelled to attack those that dwell in the area daily because of a curse? It’s worse than walking through the Nameless Desert in the middle of summer! Help those that cannot help themselves by finding the source of the curse, soothe the savage beasts that storm their houses, tend to the injured and help rebuild the damaged homes so that the poor can have a roof over their heads again!
Synopsis: Zahrani and Ayras find the source of Gualon's problems, a strange artifact that brings a unique challenge.
The Swamp
Upon entering the sage’s hut, the temperature seems to drop, and the pungent smell intensifies. Sitting in front of an illusory flame is an old man in a tattered robe. His beard is long, unkempt, and crawling with what appears to be a nest of centipedes. He appears as though he hasn’t moved in weeks. Floating before him is...honestly, it’s hard to tell. It looks like a large dodecahedral gem, but the fact that every facet is absolutely black, absorbing every particle of light touching it, makes it nearly impossible to make out how many faces there are. It just looks like an ever-shifting hole in the world. The panther keeps her eyes locked on the sage, certain that she had just seen him move. His beard twitches, scattering the centipedes to who-knows-where, saying in a raspy voice, “Meaningless...all of it. It all ages and fades...” He looks up at Zahrani and Ayras, his eyes completely black like the artifact before him. The void-like substance oozes from every pore on the man’s face, cascading out of his eyes, nose, and mouth in a nightmarish display. His form is consumed, and without warning, blackness consumes the entire room. Whatever this force is, it isolates the spellblade and the paladin from the outside world, and from each other.
Zahrani's Perspective
Zahrani could see, hear, or feel nothing. ~Did I just...die?~ she thinks to herself. That would be strange, if she could still think. Seconds later, she appears to be laying in a prison cell, covered in rags, a cold stone floor beneath her. The smell of old hay, filth, stone, and fear accosts her keen feline nose. She leaps to a standing position, walks over to the prison cell door, then turns back towards the opposite wall. Another prisoner, a human male, shares the cell with her, leaning against a bale of hay.
“Don’t bother,” the man says in a weary voice. “They nearly killed us when you tried to get out last time.”
The cat narrows her eyes, having no memory of this alleged exchange. Then again, she has no memory of being in a prison cell until now.
“And don’t give me that look,” he says. “You should know that theatrics and heroism are meaningless here. They took everything from us. Might as well be comfortable with whatever time you have left.”
With a pfft sound, the panther shrugs and says, “Let me know how that goes. I’m never comfortable unless I’m breaking free of whatever holds me back.” ~Think, Zahrani. You were trying to help Gualon, and you were going to meet the old sage, in a village...~ The woman clings to her memories of what happened before. She could feel them slipping, even before getting off the floor. Had everything been a dream up to now? She closes her eyes, trying to focus on what had transpired up until now. Not just what she had seen, but the sounds, the feeling of humidity from the swamp, the smell within the old hut. Sure, there had been the stench of atrophy and immobility coming from the old man, but there had been something else. Sage (the herb) had been burning somewhere in the hut-
Her eyes shoot open. That smell, like a vivid memory returning in an instant, floods the feline’s nostrils. It’s as if it were right under her nose at that very moment. She turns to the man, her cyan eyes glowing brightly in the dark, “Do you smell white sage burning?”
The man slowly steps towards her, a look of concern on his face, “What…? Are you having a stroke?”
“I mean...maybe?” the panther responds. That said, she’s not sure she likes the way he’s walking towards her. As she focuses on the smell of herbal smoke, something strange begins to happen to the cell door in front of her. The metal warps and vibrates in an unnatural silent manner, as if physics itself had no meaning. Without thinking, she reaches out to touch the door, and before she can even blink, she’s on the other side. The door is immobile once again. The cellmate peaks through the bars, and says “How...how did you do that…? Nevermind. If you can grab the key, you can get us both out!”
The panther finds a key hanging on the wall nearby, yet as she grabs it, everything she sees, hears, and feels in that moment begins to make less and less sense. What is she even doing here? How had she gotten out so easily when this man couldn’t? The questions get pushed to the back of her mind as she focuses on her goal: freedom. She turns the key, and the male human carefully slips out of the door. “We...really shouldn’t be doing this...what happens if they find us again? Our punishment will be...”
The man’s voice, despite his outpouring of doubt and negativity, feels surprisingly comforting and familiar in such a cold, miserable place, so the panther allows him to follow for a time. The prison is labyrinthine, and the pair avoids corridors where they hear footsteps or see torches. Zahrani feels like she’s having an unusually difficult time navigating through. Something about this place, everything really, feels wrong. After a couple dozen twists and turns, the two find a doorway and give it a shove. Light washes over them and then...they find themselves back in their cell, the doorway locked behind them once again.
“Dammit!!!” cries the man. “Why did I think that was a good idea?! I’ll be stuck here forever! I knew it was...meaningless! It’s all for nothing!” The man kneels, pushing his head against the far wall. The words ‘meaningless’ and ‘nothing’ echo through the prison corridors.
Zahrani inhales deeply, closing her eyes. Hay, filth, stone, fear, frustration...the white sage still peaks through the veil. ~What’s even real anymore? Has my brain finally broken on me?...Do these questions even mean anything?~ Her eyes slowly open, looking down at the despondent human. Trying to trust any of her senses at this point certainly seems meaningless. Her instinct is her only fall-back, the animal side of her. It whispers, ~Do something unexpected. Damn the consequences.~ She approaches the man with soft footsteps, and like a wheel of (mis)fortune, her base emotions cycle through her head. Desire...Fury… Both, just for fun? Which would she use in her act of spontaneity? Does it even matter if she can’t trust her senses?
The man turns, only to find the cat helping him to his feet. Taking his face in her hands, she leans forward to plant a big smooch right on his lips. The human is tense, then he relaxes for a moment. Zahrani pulls away from him, staring at him for a moment. With a confused look, he says, “Um...I-”
SMACK! Before he can even get another word in, the woman’s right hand finds his left cheek. Her cell mate loses his balance, and as he falls to the ground, his body cracks with the sound of shattering porcelain. Breathing heavily, a new figure rises from the shards of man, like a moth emerging from a cocoon. The figure turns, and Zahrani is face-to-face with...herself. At least...something that looks exactly like her. The presence is more familiar to the cat than anyone else she’s encountered. Whatever is happening to her, it’s causing her to face a difficult part of herself. The facet of her being that’s always at risk of an existential crisis.
The Other Zahrani has a look of despair mixed with frustration, and the questions pour out like water from a broken levee. “Why…? What’s the point of any of this? How do I know I’m not already dead, and my brain is just constructing all of this for me as it shuts down? What if the Nameless Desert actually claimed us 2 years ago, and our mind builds an eternity of adventure to cope with the Void bearing down on it…? Was Lithrydel ever real?”
The paladin approaches her mirror image, wrapping her arms around the figure in a warm embrace. “Shh…..shh….” After a brief moment, Rani responds to her existential crisis, “If everything is truly meaningless, then what’s the point of worrying about all of that? No matter what’s happening to us, whether we’re already gone or if we’re still flesh and blood, all of this...either way, everything we perceive is ultimately all we have left.” With a weary grin, she ends with, “Might as well enjoy it and do something that feels right and good.”
The Other tenses for a moment, then sighs with resignation before returning the cat’s embrace. “You always know what to say...it’s like you know me or something.” Rani laughs in response, before saying, “You want to get out of here?”
Her doppelganger exhales and says, “I guess we might as well.” An amber light surrounds the two versions of Zahrani, their forms merging into one being. The cat is whole once more; everything starts to make sense again. She turns towards the cell door, but in its place is the floating crystal from the sage’s hut. It rotates, its inky black surface becoming decorated with elaborate fractal-like markings that glow the same color as the paladin’s divine aura. Her self-acceptance, her unpredictable animal instinct that connects her to nature, and her desire for freedom seem to have left their mark on the strange artifact.
The veil of illusion vanishes, and the feline finds herself in the hut again. A smile forms on her face as she smells the burning sage once more, her eyes turning towards the herb that rests on an alter nearby. Meanwhile, the old sage slowly moves groans from his seated position, his old joints popping randomly from having not moved for so long. Whatever hold the artifact had on him and the swamp seems to have been removed thanks to the intervention of Rani and Ayras.
Zahrani checks the elder’s vitals, concluding that he’d be fine after he gets up and stretches for a bit. Grabbing a box from her traveling pack, she carefully secures the artifact within, intent on bringing it back to the Sanctum for further (careful) study. The paladin steps outside for a moment, listening intently to the surrounding area. Things seem to have quieted down as a result of...whatever that crystal had just put her through.
This is a Devout's Guild RP.