Dark Jack

The Prophecy

It's all right, Ashgan; you warned me that it would be like this for a while, and since the only one you've really been playing with is me, nothing in particular has been delayed besides Jillian's own storyline. I don't terribly mind inactivity as long as it's expected so that I can compensate for it, if need be, or just know that I don't have to worry. Frankly I'm just thrilled to be able to continue that part of the story at last! Personally I think I like Jillian and Gerald's story better than the companions' story at the moment, actually, because the two of them are so horrendously ill-equipped for the situation they're in and, despite doing their absolute best - Gerald mainly by analyzing how they could be as useful as possible, Jillian with sheer raw magical power - , they still lost. The companions have had it rough, sure, and have accumulated more than their fair share of physical and mental scars, but they've always managed to beat the odds. Don't get me wrong, I like that as well... it's just that there's a certain beautiful realism to the fact that sometimes your best attempt is still not good enough, and that even if you're the good guy, even if you do all the right things, one little detail can make the difference between triumph and defeat, in this case the fact that no one managed to reach Kevalorn.
Another thing that excites me about this is that it's so very different from what happened in a similar scenario in my novel! The battles were similar yet opposite, with vastly different outcomes that will affect the Planes on a huge scale. One of the main characters of the novel died in this battle, actually, along with several story-driving NPCs... not to mention that the Anaxim Forest has been destroyed and Hazzergash is still at large. It's entirely new terriroty for me. I love it!

And you picked a near-perfect time to end your hiatus too, with sartorous making his return and all.
Speaking of which: @sartorous: Yes, which I would prefer... that is the question, is it not? Slowing the story even further by playing out a sequence between Salas and Crone, possibly even desynchronizing his and Jillian's timelines even more than they potentially already are, or allowing a quick processing and conclusion to that part at the cost of a semi-important character only committing generic actions during it...
Neither option really appeals to me, actually, so I suggest a third one: Salas was injured severely enough during the battle (he could possibly even have been hit by one of Kevalorn's attacks but narrowly survived) that he lost consciousness and has been comatose in Gariel Downs since then. Crone will then find him like that, as the forest still burns around them, and therefore opt to evacuate him first - teleporting to the Jillian/Gerald scene - and then healing him, enabling him to regain his health and consciousness. That would negate the need of an IC sequence taking place in the burning/burnt Anaxim Forest altogether, as it would just be a matter of me writing a post of Crone arriving and healing him (it may take a couple of posts at most, but it should be quick), and then you reassuming control of him as he regains consciousness.
How does that sound?

The Prophecy

They're in Pelgaid now, some ways north-west of Pelgaid City by a small lake surrounded by a natural barrier of rocks.
...But I would prefer that you did not write about anything specific in regards to Crone's actions if you are going to write a catching-up post like that. Crone is a semi-important and very powerful NPC, so I would rather define her actions and persona myself. Don't detail her saying anything or showing any particular emotion since chances are that she would actually have said or felt differently than you'd presume. Stick to a very basic description; finding, healing, teleporting, done. The alternative would be me playing the role as Crone, which would probably take quite a bit longer than a single post skipping forward to Salas rejoining Jillian and Gerald.

The Prophecy

Simply disengaging the Wyrmslayer and escaping is always an option, of course, and an easily credible one at that; the only real issue with that solution would be that Salas would end up leaving the Anaxim Forest on foot, whereas Jillian and Gerald left on dragon wings... in other words, the characters closest to Salas would end up a day's worth of travel away at best. It could be done (presuming, of course, that it would not be out of character for Salas to do so; forcing a character to do something it would actually never do is never a good solution), but it may not exactly optimize the roleplaying experience for you.
The main requisites of my idea is that Salas survives the battle, either by fleeing Gariel Downs or by being injured to the point where the crusaders would ignore him for the most part, but stays within the forest itself. Escaping the fire would technically be possible, especially if he stayed in Gariel Downs where there are no trees nearby, and the towering Gariel Rock sheltering the area from the wind. The crusaders would move on soon after Jillian and Gerald's escape, by the time of which the battle irrefutably ended, and Gariel Downs would be safe; littered with corpses of crusaders, defenders and beasts, certainly, but relatively safe. Regardless the point would be for Salas to have remained in the forest, since Renold (the green dragon with Jillian and Gerald) mentioned to Gerald in an earlier post that the highest of the Guardians of Anaxim, Crone, stayed in the forest to finish some business before fleeing herself. It would be quite likely for Crone to go to search the forest for survivors and consequently discover Salas. Crone is also coincidentally an extremely powerful sorceress and healer, so she would be fully capable of mending Salas' wounds, after which she would be liable to teleport both of them to where her second in command - Renold - had gone, which just so happens to be where Jillian and Gerald are. That way he could rejoin those two immediately, rather than having to chase after them for who-knows-how-long until he caught up.

The Prophecy

I don't know if the fact that his weapons changed is a "problem", it's just a little lacking of continuity. When you make your characters I give you a lot of freedom to make them as you want them and give them whatever items you want them to have, but once the character is made... well, new items don't just materialize out of thin air. His new weapons would have to have come from somewhere, and quite frankly Salas himself would need a reason to switch his previous set of equipment for this one. (Not that thinking of somewhere he could have acquired new weapons from would be particularly hard, considering the battlefield littered with nearly two thousand crusader corpses that occupies what was once Gariel Downs.)
Poisoned, passed out and nursed back to health... how long do you imagine this would have taken? It sounds like a rather long process to me, and with the characters Salas shared the scene with (Jillian and Gerald) only around half a dozen hours or so has passed. Besides, it would leave some rather gaping plot-holes and inconsistencies to use that explanation, such as how he survived the confrontation with the Wyrmslayer (he could just have let him go, mind you, since the Wyrmslayer did not really want to fight him in the first place), how Salas was poisoned (wyvern venom kills quite quickly, as does the rangers' poisoned swords, and druids are capable of neutralizing these poisons in a matter of seconds) and how and why a druid survived and felt obliged to help Salas (the Anaxim Forest has been burnt to the ground, and all of its inhabitants have been killed; the likelihood of a lone druid surviving (and of this druid having stayed away from the battle, its occupation considered) is slight at best).
If you can't think of a way that Salas could have escaped the destruction of the forest I may be able to help; it would even provide a plausible way for him to be reunited with Jillian and Gerald, if that is what you want.

The Prophecy

Ah, I didn't even think of that... the roof of the barracks is stone-tiled and flat (I think I already described it as flat, possibly repeatedly, but I don't trust my memory). Concerning Zerulic architecture, note that it was the exterior walls that were mainly white/beige/cream colored; the interior walls tend to be much more individual, just as the furnishing is.
Your link seems to give a 404 error when I try it, but I think I know what you understand. I don't like when rooms are lifeless like that, either... nor do I like exaggerated order, for that matter. If a room is meant for people to live in, I like to be able to see that such is actually the case. Cleanliness and order is nice to an extent, but where there is life I want to be able to see that life. I feel the same way about gardens, really... Almost everyone else that I know want to control their gardens, cut down their trees and bushes, keep their lawns neat and tidy, exterminate weeds when they appear, but I personally prefer the appearance of wild nature over artificial construct. It would take something pretty extreme for me to fell a tree or remove a bush, and as long as the grass isn't tall enough to hide potentially dangerous things beneath it, I like it that way compared to when it's short.
That's another reason that I never want to have to live in a proper town, let alone a city; that, and my self-diagnosed mild enochlophobia (fear of crowds) (I can be in a crowd if I have to, but I'll usually get increasingly anxious the longer I stay there and ultimately start hyperventilating and feeling a greater and greater urge to flee). Oh, and the light pollution. I like the stars, and I like being able to see them; I think they are immensely fascinating.

The Prophecy

I'm here, I'm here, I've just been a little preoccupied... and as of late a bit under the weather as well, but I am constantly stalking around here and keeping myself updated on what happens. For some reason I've been surprisingly successful at finding excuses not to post anything, even though they were things that obviously required my response, such as a question aimed directly at me. But since my presence has become uncertain, I will prove it by being here now.

The floor, walls and ceiling of the first room of the barracks lower floor are all made from wood, whereas the second room (the pantry) has three walls of stone similar to the ones found upstairs, with the fourth wall (the one shared with the first room) being wood.
As to the architecture of Zerul - by which I assume you specifically mean Zerul City - well... Eh, I just tried tried to do some quick research on architecture to find something to reference, but it's too much of a bother for me right now to get past the volumes of results specifically pertaining to religious buildings and castles to find something about more common structures. But generally the Zerulic citizens favor cleanliness in their buildings more than those of the other duchies, making white, beige and cream the predominant color of exterior walls there, usually with gable roofs with shingles typically made of wood, although wealthier structures - particularly those situated in the northeastern central part of the city, where the Magic Academy of Zerul lies and sorcery generally runs rampant - are known to use slate shingles instead. Walls are typically made of stone, and while load bearing walls are usually relatively solid, Zerulics like windows; the bigger and more numerous, the better. They also like arches, and many windows and doorways (with those that can afford it) have arched tops, and if they do not have protruding frames all the way around they can at least be expected to have an exterior windowsill, the most popular color of which is currently red. Walls are almost exclusively made of brick, and the shape of buildings is usually relatively squat, with buildings often being elongated and more rarely squarish, but always rectangular, and usually no more than two floors tall, meaning that each building takes up more horizontal space than the buildings found in the other cities; basements are relatively common, but usually small. The Zerulics are not fond of columns but, once again, like arches and fountains, and as such these can be found in most wealthy estates, which also like to boast of neatly trimmed and utterly domesticated gardens that are obviously artificially arranged (I hate those...). Towers are rare and reserved for important official buildings, the only ones to have more than one being the Castle Zerul and the Academy, and are always circular in shape and with conical roofs at their tops.
This is all mainly pertaining to the middle- and upper-class of the citizens, though... Obviously these kinds of homes are expensive, though slightly cheaper in Zerul than most other places. Less extravagant homes usually still have stone walls, though often in the natural color of the stone, with far fewer windows but still with wooden shingles; wooden walls and thatched roofs are rare and are almost exclusively found at the outskirts of the city. They are also smaller and much more ordinary in most respects... generally something like what we are used to seeing in movies and such as the homes of peasants.
Was that a satisfactory description? Did I miss something?

@sartorous: I should have responded to your posting your CS earlier; I let myself postpone that bit for far too long and with too little justification. I'll add a link in the OP... But does my memory fail me, or has Salas' weapons changed? My memory is not good enough to pick out other possible inconsistencies, but something in the back of my mind tells me that he had a different selection of armaments before...
Also, any thoughts as to how he survived the Battle of Anaxim Forest, or where he is going to go now?

The Prophecy

Where to start... meh, I'll just take it in the order it was written in the first place.

Shienvien said only removing the heart or head kills, but losing any other organ could be rather permanently extremely unpleasant

Since the time I established this all the way back then I've actually expanded upon the effect of removing of removing parts of vampires, particularly the removal of their hearts and/or heads. Now, mostly nothing has changed in regards to removing organs from before, and carving out a vampire's heart or beheading them will still technically kill them, although this death may be less than permanent on its own. A vampire will die in the sense that it completely ceases to function and enters extreme dormancy when one of these is removed, but in the event that these were returned before the vampire dried out - which would render it irrevocably destroyed - they could be ressurrected. In fact a vampire could be carved to pieces and effectively killed, yet be capable of reanimating to their full strength as long as they were prevented from running out of vampiric blood (the heart is the one exception to this; with it, any blood would do, since a vampire's heart converts mortal blood into vampiric blood).
So by this new mechanic beheading a vampire or removing its heart would actually only incapacitate it; letting it bleed out, burning it, subjecting it to sunlight or stabbing it in the heart with a wooden object are the only ways to prevent revivation (the part with the wooden object makes sense; I was slightly disappointed that no one tried it back at the church so I could demonstrate that).

Shienvien said although with, say limbs and such, where does what begin or end?

As long as vampiric blood is applied to the outer limit of an injury, the vampire will regenerate that entity to completion if given enough time... that is, if a limb was severed, for instance, a severed bone would extend and rebuilt its own shape, but not any bones past that. In the example you presented with the forearm being cut off at the middle the forearm itself would regenerate to the wrist, completely rebuilding its body up to that point, but not past it; the hand would not regenerate on its own. Other, more extensive entities in the body such as veins/arteries, tendons and so forth would also restore themselves, but only as far as the shape of the body allowed, meaning that in the example above the regeneration of these would stop at the wrist as well, rather than grow past it and create a horrible incomplete excuse of a hand. Removing a solitary muscle as connection points, as you said, would remove that muscle permanently unless it was returned, in which case it would reattach itself. Generally speaking any part cut off a vampire could be returned to it and reattached with the application of vampiric blood.
I realize what this implies and yes, a vampire could technically slowly and unbelievably painfully clone itself this way, by removing incomplete parts of themselves (pieces of bone, muscle, skin, organs, etc. rather than whole ones), keeping supplied with plentiful vampiric blood (somehow) and eventually reassemble the different parts to an entirely new vampire. It would literally take tons of blood and a very long time to do this, but it is theoretically possible. A vampire having an arm cut off at the middle of the forearm would also present a slight problem if the one wanted to reattach the hand after somehow having preserved the arm for a while and likely having regenerated their own forearm, since both the severed part and the intact one would have its own complete forearm. It would be necessary to sever the hand at the wrist to actually reattach it... or their own arm at the elbow, though I can't imagine why they would do that aside from the greater risk of the severed arm bleeding out compared to their entire body.

Shienvien said It should be rather hard to tear sizable holes into clothes just climbing buildings...

I just imagined that with the walls of the building apparently being rough enough for a man to climb up and find foothold on, it would also be rough enough to potentially catch and rip clothes, particularly if one was to throw oneself bodily at it. I'm not saying that it would be inevitable, just that it was a possible risk. Besides, the hole wouldn't need to be very big... just a small bit of vampire-skin being subjected to direct sunlight would be enough to pretty much spell its doom, considering that the skin would burst into flames in seconds, which would at the very least be liable to expand the hole pretty quickly.

Shienvien said I wonder, though, how much would full clouds dampen sunlights' effect on vampires? These only scatter sunlight, but don't really block it entirely.

You're right about that. According to my hastily-executed research on how much a heavy cover of clouds would actually scatter sunlight, I'd estimate that a vampire might last about three or four times as long as usual under these conditions. They would still suffer the same fate, it would just take a bit longer.

The Prophecy

A vampire does require their blood to be actually applied to their wounds (from the wound itself or by extracting it from elsewhere) to trigger their accelerated healing, which is why fire is such an effective way of weakening or even destroying them. Cauterizing the wound would mean that Morgan would not regenerate that particular wound as rapidly as he usually would have unless he was injured somewhere else for him to bleed and apply blood from.

Although admittedly I'd think that it would be much more worrying that a hole was rendered in his clothes - in this case they would even be burned through - allowing part of him to come into direct contact with sunlight... which would be far more lethal to Morgan than any flame. Actually he's incredibly lucky that he hasn't ripped his clothes while climbing around those buildings, or he might have burst into flame and melted before he ever had a chance to do much of anything.

The Prophecy

I was mistaken, the woman concluded when the magical senses she had focused on the presumed Fixer told her that he abruptly vanished in a quick burst of energy. He can teleport even without being able to see. That complicates things quite severely... particularly since I can't even tell where he has teleported to.
The most she could do in response to the disappearance of the other was to immediately deviate from her course and remove herself from where it would be obvious to assume she would be. Without breaking her pace the ducal agent immediately veered left, jogging quietly out of the way while staying near the center of the area, since she did not want to go too near the buildings she knew surrounded them and create extremely visible shadows to betray her position. Then, lowering herself into a crouch while holding her unique runesword up high, she endeavored to be as quiet as possible and be as small a target as possible. If her enemy rushed his retaliation against her and targeted where he expected her to be there would be nothing there, since she had already removed herself from that area, and if he was calculating enough to realize that he could track her by the immense source of light that could not function without direct contact with her skin the sword would be located some ways above her and slightly to the right, making the reception of a critical strike unlikely.
Effective as this tactic proved just moments later when she heard the telltale sound of a light, thin metallic object hitting stone - likely a small bladed weapon propelled in her presumed direction that missed - all it ultimately did was to win her a little time. She could still be located by tracking the source of light or by any other senses than sight, and even if she stayed still and quiet someone with superhuman sense of smell or heightened ability to feel magical energy would likely be able to pinpoint her location relatively quickly, even if they were blinded enough not to be able to see where the light was coming from. Luckily she was already familiarized with the other's magical signature from before, so finding it again only took a few seconds; by the time she heard his missed attack hit a wall she had already located her known opponent again, although the other one continued to elude her.
I'll have to worry about the other one later, she decided, bringing her sword down in front of her quickly and pointing its tip at where she could sense the masked man's soul. Hopefully it will be a while before their eyesight recovers even if I disable the Brihjal-seal. Although, disabling that before attacking will leave me vulnerable for a moment while I switch runes... It's better to avoid that window. This will take a lot of my energy and carry a high risk of killing him, but it's safer for me. I must continue to function to serve the master. I will aim at chest-level; that way his eyes might be intact for me to confirm his identity as the Fixer.

Ignoring the pain it caused her to crouch like this, her knees aching terribly from being in this stance, the woman quickly gripped her the wrist of her right sword-holding hand with her left, taking another second to aim her blade carefully before whispering: "Caihl tergrim, harteor.*"
What happened next was nearly instantaneous and barely even perceivable to the human eye, even if the one watching had not been blinded by the light. Upon the release of this new glyph the emission of light from the blade abruptly stopped, shrouding the area in a regular daylight that seemed dark as a cloudy night in comparison to the incredible luminance that had just occupied it.
Only, the radiance did not truly stop being created, but was now merely contained; the blade itself retained an appearance as though it had turned blindingly white, as though the light wrapped around the sword tightly rather than shine everywhere, creating a very compact area of searing light. And then, still within a split-second of the change having begun, the light seemed to rush down the length of the blade, congregating at the tip of it in an even more miniscule point, before shooting outward in a beam that was a fraction of an inch thick, less than four hundredths of it, and moved in a perfectly straight line as an extension of her blade. Aimed at her opponent as it was, this beam was liable to burn straight through his feeble flesh in just a second. It would leave a quite small hole, admittedly, and instantly cauterize the wound for him, but if he tried to evade it as he was liable to upon feeling the pain... it would cut straight through all the flesh it passed across. This laser was immensely powerful; if she maintained it for more than a few seconds she would not only deplete her energy-reserves extremely quickly, but also end up burning through the buildings behind her target and possibly cause undesirable damage to Zerulic property and citizens.

*"Penetration seal, release."

The Prophecy

See, I read your question relatively soon after you had written it, sartorous, but I decided to take some time to think it over... to sleep on it, even, hoping to come up with the fairest, most diplomatic and reasonable solution for this matter for you, the other players, and myself. It took a little time, but I think I have arrived at an acceptable compromise for all parts involved. You can decide freely whether you want to resubmit Salas or a new character, although if you return Salas you will need to have a believable explanation ready as to how he survived and escaped the Anaxim Forest... IF you agree to the following terms.
One: If you take more than 48 hours to reply to this post, that's an automatic, unnegotiable "no" and will mark your permanent departure from The Prophecy. Taking a while to post IC is completely understandable considering the quantity and quality that is expected to be written, but checking for new posts can be done in a matter of seconds, and a quick OOC remark can be made in a couple of minutes. When you ask a question as important as "may I rejoin this RP?", I would say that it is common courtesy to check back quite often immediately after asking it and replying to the person giving you permission. Last time you never really did that, and we didn't hear from you for over a month after you asked if you could rejoin. That is unacceptable, and if that is going to be standard with you the RP will do without it, because that is aggrevating to me and players possibly being held up waiting for you.
Two: You must swear to that you will never simply disappear again. If you are going to be a player that just drops one post every several months and then disappears off the face of the world in the meantime, as you have been thus far, the RP is better off without you. Players and myself have waited and been delayed immensely several times waiting for your replies that never came, and I won't have the enjoyment of other players sacrificed for the participation of one player. If you can't be as active as usual for a while that's fine, we all understand that real life must be the first priority, and we all let ourselves be delayed by it from time to time... but once again, dropping a quick OOC remark to let us know of this circumstance takes neglectable time and allows us to compensate for your absence rather than just wait impotently for progress in events that never occurs.
Three: When I ask if you are still here - and you will be included in "everyone" - you will tell me if you are, or I will assume you've left and remove you from the RP permanently. I'm fair when I ask and usually give relatively long time to respond, but expect a response I do. If you can't even drop a "I'm here", I'll have to assume that you aren't here.

I may sound like an absolute ass, but I can't simply say "welcome back" and let you rejoin unconditionally anymore. Your activity, and the way you have announced your absence - or rather, the lack of announcement of absence - has been unacceptable, and when a player goes missing like that it affects everyone else in the RP. I need to know that this won't continue. I'm sorry if this discourages you from participating in the RP, but I have to set the RP itself above the individual player. Accept the terms and you may rejoin; if you won't or can't, you may not.