duskshine749

[ C R A W L ]

Overload
>Tim doesn't want to take an unexpected dip so he carefully moves to B14 and that's it

Broken Seals
>Fear moves to B13, careful not to get burned as he does so

[ C R A W L ]

@Mae I'll pass, don't wanna be front line

[ C R A W L ]

>Tim moves up to B6 and allows someone more agile or knowledgeable to try their hand at the machine before he does

Silvermoon Pier Alliance: SPA.

"You know, I'm starting to think you just have a thing for devilishly handsome men," Morthos teased Jax as Fear answered Ophelia's question.

"Well it's nice to meet you all, and yes, we have been having some trouble lately." The town was mostly quiet owing to the fact it was around midnight, but the sound of guards around the perimeter could be heard if you listened for it. "For some time now we've been ravaged by an archdemon and his brood. We recently discovered his location, a cave not too far east of here. Lady Rieta thought she would be able to dispatch the demon, and I urged her to wait for us to get a team together, but the other morning she was just gone."

Morthos could tell Fear was taking this personally since he was head of military and also head of his mother's security. "Uncle Fear, the guards said something about the lord never leaving the manor. Who's running things if my mom isn't here?"

"Ah yes, that would be your uncle Damakos," Morthos could tell from his voice that he was not happy with this outcome.

"I see," Morthos didn't like it much either. His uncle had been eyeing the throne his whole life. He was the younger twin brother of Rieta, so she was always destined for the throne, not him.

"Here we are, Xerxes Manor," Fear announced as they came up on Morthos' childhood home. The place was huge, he had told Jax he didn't live in a castle but that was mostly on a technicality as the manor was about as big as what someone would expect of a castle. It was clearly an old building but it had been upkept very well over the years. "Morthos you know where the rooms are, rest for tonight and tomorrow we can begin making plans to save your mother."

Morthos wanted to argue but he could feel the night catching up with him, "fair enough, good night uncle Fear, this way guys." They entered in to the grand hall which was dimly lit so it was hard to make out any real details, but Morthos knew this manor inside and out. They started up the stairs to their right and towards the guest rooms.

[ C R A W L ]

Broken Seals
>Fear moves up to B2 and takes off his awesome snake skull helmet. If things start getting dicey he can put it back on
>Scavenge room B
"If I find another skeleton I swear to the gods," he mutters under his breath as he looks for some goodies

Overload
>Tim is determined to be able to move more than one gosh darn space

[ C R A W L ]

>Tim moves up to A10 and just chills

Silvermoon Pier Alliance: SPA.

Ophelia had voiced Morthos' concern and he just shook his head, "I'm not sure, my mom is the ruler here so she'd be the Lady, not the Lord, unless..." Morthos trailed off for a second, could his fears finally be realized? "No, no never mind, we'll figure it out once we're inside." He chuckled at Jax's question, "no, Fear isn't really my uncle, he's actually my godfather, so he's basically family. The one I got the books from was my uncle Damakos," Morthos had actually been surprised how easy it was to get his uncle to lend him the books, he seemed in an unusually good mood when he asked about a month ago.

He'd have to grill Roxas later about whatever he was on about, was someone following them? For now the guards were coming back and Morthos saw behind them Major, no not Major anymore, Colonel Fear. His skin was red like Morthos' but where Morthos had a more vivid red Fear's was much darker, almost like the colour of dried blood. His hair was jet black and was long like Morthos' was before he got his big makeover with Jax. He was wearing armour, a shield on his back and a khopesh holstered on his waist. "Uncle Fear, can you please tell your men that I'm your godson and to let us inside?"

Fear walked up to Morthos and squinted slightly, as if he wasn't sure he was who he said he was. "Do I need to get you your glasses old timer?" Morthos saw the guards tense up at this, and with good reason, when it came to his soldiers Fear was a no nonsense kind of guy. But Morthos knew what he was like when the uniform came off. Fear laughed and pulled Morthos in to a hug, "Morthos, good to see you, glad you've still got your same sense of humour." He turned to his men who were giving each other confused glances, they'd clearly never seen Fear in this good a mood before. "Men, this is my godson, son of Lady Rieta, and your young Lord, Morthos Xerxes."

The guards were unsure whether they should apologize, bow, kneel, so they instead just stammered and tried to do a combination of all those things. Fear turned back to the group, "now, Morthos and friends, come, I'll take you to the manor, you can introduce yourselves along the way." As they walked by Morthos said to the guards who were trying to apolozie, "look, you didn't know, it's fine, now as you were, continue guarding my town."

[ C R A W L ]

Fear on Broken Seals

Tim on Overload

Silvermoon Pier Alliance: SPA.

"This place used to be a beautiful forest," Morthos lamented as they walked along, "but now look at it. The trees are dying, the fog makes it impossible to see, I bet the Nentir River is all sorts of screwed up. Once we solve this demon problem you'll all get a proper look at my home." He sighed, he couldn't even think of the fact they were on a mission right now. Someone else could go through any official details they had, right now Morthos was on the warpath to his home town to find out if his mother really had left and to find a way to save her if she had.

The walk was quiet, which just made Morthos more weary, the forest was usually so full of life but now it seemed the animals had retreated. Hopefully they had retreated, and not had something else happen to them. After a bit of walking they made it to the front gates. the town was surrounded by stone walls tall enough to keep you from being able to see the town inside. There were two young looking men standing guard at the gate, looking somewhat nervous. The one thing Morthos took from their appearance was they were both human looking, which wasn't an issue considering the town was about 75/25 tieflings to non-tieflings. The real issue was Morthos did not recognize these men has he'd been away from home for so many years.

"Halt! Stand your ground, state your intentions!" The man tried to sound imposing but his voice cracked slightly partway though the sentence. Morthos held up his hand to his companions to signal he could handle this.

"Fear not, we come as friends. Your Lord has returned, no allow me and my friends entry." Morthos hated pulling the Lord card but it was probably the fastest way to get these guys to lighten up.

They looked at each other hesitantly, "the Lord is in the manor, he never ventures outside the walls. Whoever you are you're lying." At that point they raised their swords, this was not boding well, Morthos was more annoyed than scared for his life. He couldn't see his friends as he had taken a step forward to speak to the guards but he held out his hand to stop them aggressing.

"Look, I don't wanna hurt you guys, so tell you what. You call up Major Fear, get him to come down here, then if he gives you the okay we'll fight, deal?" One of them lowered his sword slightly, "do you mean Colonel Fear?"

"Ya, him, must have got a promotion or two since I left home."

The two men huddled together and whispered some things before the one said, "fine, we'll call him. But you all stay right here." They walked off and Morthos breathed a sigh of relief as they did before turning back to his friends, sorry about that, but don't worry, when Uncle Fear gets down here he'll know it's me and we'll get in no problem." The Colonel wasn't really his uncle, but most of the high ranking officials had been around so much his whole childhood they were basically like family.

One thing they guards said had bothered Morthos though, but he didn't want to interrogate them further. His mother was the head of house, meaning they should have a Lady, not a Lord, so who was it they were talking about?

Silvermoon Pier Alliance: SPA.

When Jax slapped Morthos that shut him up right quick, and was exactly what he needed. She went off to confirm the mission was to be theirs and Morthos took a minute to just take some deep breaths and calm himself down. Jax came back and assured him she would do everything she could to help. It felt good to be close to Jax like this, which promptly ended when she realized how close they were and stepped away from him. "Right, I'm probably just overreacting, the posting didn't say she'd left yet, she's probably fine." At least he hoped she was.

"So, ley lines, not sure how much you all know but I'm just going to explain what's up with them because honestly, it'll help me calm down to talk about something I'm knowledgeable about." He took a deep breath to center himself once more before explaining. "So, ley lines are natural things and are all around the world. Some span continents while others are barely the length of a town, and they contain immense magical energy. when two or more lines cross it's called a nexus, SPA is built where it is because it's on top of a large ley line nexus. Some people can tap in to this energy to strengthen their magic, but it's very difficult, I tried once when I was younger and nearly killed myself. But, I do know a way to travel along the lines, at least from nexus to nexus, so I can get us from here to a spot near my hometown."

When he was done that he actually did feel better than he did before, "so, if everyone is ready I can actually do it from here. Like I said, the SPA nexus is huge." Once everyone was good he had them all gather around in what looked like a group huddle, with arms around each others shoulders, he of course made sure Jax was next to him so he could keep her close during this part. "So this is going to feel strange if you've never been the subject of teleportation magic before. Everyone experiences it a bit differently, but in general you can expect to feel like your body is being stretched in strange ways, see lots of strange colours, and you might get sick when we show up on the other end, I did my first time. So get ready, 5..4..." He didn't bother finishing the countdown, instead he initiated the spell and took them in an instant from the girls' home to the nexus near Dunwich.

"Sorry, I also find it helps if you're not expecting it. Once you're all feeling better we can..." He trailed off, he was just noticing the scenery was nothing like what he remembered. Everywhere was covered in a dense fog, he could barely see more than 10-20 feet in front of him. He did see the sign he was expecting though, pointing which way Dunwich was. He created a small fire in his hand which helped basically none but it made him feel better. "Okay, it's this way, stay close. Also, this mission won't pay as much as maybe it should. I'll cover the difference out of pocket if you guys want, I don't mind, I just want to help my mom."