Sigil

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Yes. From above, no less.

<ahem>

He's been on the road for a while, all by his lonesome. Cut the big guy some slack.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Keystone

Location: Yellow Rose Temple, deep interior

Interacting With: Persephone, Yomdi

Keystone readily stifled a smirk at the apple meeting the floor with a dramatic, almost exothermic reaction. The fruit had to be nearing the end of its culinary usefulness, exploding the way it did after a short drop. The brawler imagined that, having been stuck underneath Yomdi's robes for enough time, he might also not be as constitute as he once was.

Still, exploding fruit was pretty funny. Especially to a man with simple humors such as Keystone. Not the kind of funny that makes one collapse on the ground in a gasping heap, possibly soiling one's undergarments in the process, no, but the guttural reaction of a man having seem something abruptly satisfying, snorting, and returning to a resting mood (be it a fraction more amused than before).

He supposed it was his turn, then. Being no stranger to breathing techniques and rather impressed with the potential application of manipulative air, this was actually a bit exciting. In Keystone's experience, his own internal winds mostly manipulated him, not the other way around. He looked to his hand, still clutching two rich, brown chestnuts. Yes, these would suffice.

As if flipping a coin, Keystone thumbed one high into the air and stepped underneath. The slightly streaked, dark edible seed flew high, tumbling and spiraling about above his head. Keystone adopted a nigh stance, arms in front on his chest and feet shoulder width apart. He forced his mind to slow, synchronize with the beating of his heart. The nut seemed to twirl upwards with less acceleration, winding down yet still traveling at the same rate.

It seemed to pause, if only for a fraction of a second, before starting back down.

Keystone took in a fast but gentle breath through his nose, feeling the air gust into his lungs. It galvanized him; set off his body and soul's ability to harness his own life energy to perform tasks others would deem martially impossible. He was One with his chi.

A surge of adrenaline, lancing through him like liquid greatness, dilated his eyes and sharpened his perception. He could pick out the individual grooves and imperfections in this chestnut, this tiny spark of life-that-could-be. Keystone opened himself fully to the possibilities of the moment and let himself believe.

The chestnut descended further. Faster now, as his perception came back in sync with the world around him. Keystone drew from his inner reserves of power, released a tiny stream of his spiritual energy upward, and exhaled gently towards the nut above him.

It bricksmacked him. Hard.

Much harder than it should have. Point of fact, it felt like he had just punched himself in his own face. The lingering Chi he had harnessed dissipated, returning to the ley lines of his form. An emotion that did not seem his own echoed in his failure to keep the nut aloft; something akin to betrayal. Less "you must die for your transgressions" betrayal; more like parental disappointment.

Keystone went horizontal well before he struck the floor. The chestnut seemed to press down on his face just a little harder before rolling unceremoniously onto the floor. Dazed, if but for a second, Keystone kicked himself to a standing position and glanced about, expecting an attack.

Another second later, he looked to Persephone. A trickle of blood from his nose stood as the only physical manifestation of recent beatdown he received from an afternoon snack.

"I'm not thinkin' that's usual."

Forgotten Realms: Tales of the Dead

Arguing with the tragically obtuse was draining. Keystone had experienced an interesting and less-than-ideal morning so far, and he was impatient to put both it, and this city in the road dust behind him. At the same time, he felt that his adventuring companion deserved better representation than he was getting.

"It ain't respect to call a fallen hero vermin. It ain't respect to ignore that he bled and died for you tosspots. It's sure as bloody hell not respect to not keep his personals safe for family and friends. He was only half Man, but you're not half the man he was."

Keystone pushed past the guards on his way out, grunting a monotone "'xcuse..." Without stopping, the broad (and particularly annoyed) man turned his head to the side until he caught the older guard in his peripheral vision.

"He even get benediction, or did you lot just toss him in a hole and throw dirt on 'im?"

It didn't matter, really, though he figured he probably should stop. For all of his posturing on what was respectful, getting himself into a melee with Telflamm soldiers in a graveyard was surely the opposite of respectful.

Keystone tried to content himself with the memory of reciting Raa's name to the creature that did him in, shortly before beating it back into the afterlife (albeit barely). He failed, naturally, as cold anger had taken hold of his thoughts and didn't seem to want to let go. Perhaps, when all of this was over, he'd return to reclaim the Half-Orc's bones and lay them to rest elsewhere, either with Raa's people or his own. Remained to be seen, but that idea gave him some comfort.

Returning to Saran and the horses, Keystone's humorless expression said what needed to be said for his experience graveside. "There was an Inn, place where they stuffed the refugees when we first came to Telflamm. It's on the way out of town; we'll give a quick check there about his effects. Whether yes or no, I'm making for the other side of those walls."

It was funny, really. Keystone hadn't thought much about knightly types before. The mixed-blood Paladin had struck a chord in him, however. He wished they could have spoken more.

Justice League: Futures End

Thank you! Devil's in the details. Admittedly, only my Luchador had the bent for music, but it does rather set the mood, doesn't it?

Hey, there's an idea... provided he survives the Titans thing, maybe El Sasquatcho can make a guest appearance!

Forgotten Realms: Tales of the Dead

Keystone pressed hard on the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, as if warding off a headache. He forced his growing irritation down into the pit of his stomach, and attempted to maintain an even voice.

"For Gravy's lumpy sake... All the walking corpses that was just about town, this Knight gets snuffed in single combat with the monster what made 'em (trying to save your sorry arse, at that). You're tellin' me he's been buried two days and his grave looks fresher tossed than that."

He leaned in a little closer, dropped the volume of his voice somewhat, and stared at the older soldier with his sword halfway out. "Hows about you tell me what could possibly be the worry?"

The greatly annoyed brawler looked down to the soldier's sword, and back up to his face, raising his eyebrows and giving an unimpressed expression. "For the meantime, you can direct me to his personal effects. His full name of Sir Raa TelNimras, Lion of the Whitehorn, Paladin of Mielikki. And I'm his next of."

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

@Salrynn

us19.chatzy.com/71784860614104

The RP's private chat room. Thought you might need this.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Now, if THAT is a Monk ability Keystone can learn, sign him up. I can scarcely imagine the exercises necessary to train for it, but it sounds like a hell of a hold-out weapon.

Justice League: Futures End

We're clear to post now? Thanks for the heads-up. I'll get on something later today.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

It's true. Nobody throws a nut like Keystone.

Forgotten Realms: Tales of the Dead

"Thirty is reasonable?" questioned Keystone, ignoring the man's rant and counting out coin, intentionally clinking loudly. "I didn't get a nod from my lady about forty, makin' me think there's worse than insult you're shoveling. Price is a reasonable thirty. Two more for your trouble. And I'll try not to take injury to the fact that you called that lady a servant right in front of her. And me."

***

Rather sheepishly, Keystone realized that he was riding an animal capable of depositing a stone-and-a-half's worth of crap and insoluble fiber into a place of sacred eternal rest, right at the moment the soldiers alerted him to his dreadfully uncouth social faux pas. "Sorry 'bout that..." he grumbled, dismounting and fumbling the reins over to the more experienced Saran.

He held sympathy to the younger soldier. Not a lot he'd show openly, granted, but he'd been on guard duty in the past during times of conflict. It wasn't where anyone really wanted to be, especially if they were younger and of low rank. Days and nights of keeping as raptly attentive as possible was exhausting work, despite not moving around much. Keystone looked to the younger man and nodded knowingly.

The older man, on the other hand, he wanted to drive a brick through. It was not the time nor the place for him to physically correct the ramblings of the bigoted, however, and he did have information that Keystone needed. He narrowed his eyes at the elder soldier, thanked him for his time, and moved to leave.

As an afterthought, he called to the younger guard, "Ey, boy!" and waited for him to turn before continuing. "Not every greenskin's vermin, y'know. And not all vermin's got green skin, neither. There's those that'd show you a better path, if'n you needed one."

With exasperation he refused to show outwardly, Keystone honestly wondered if the vast majority of the people in Telflamm were bitter, judgmental, sociopathic, prejudiced practitioners of self-serving asshattery, bit and determined to drive him into a state of percussive psychological maintenance as he drove his ham-like fists into their craniums and torsos until bare, simple concepts (such as "Don't Be A Total Bastich") could be communicated by means of good, old-fashioned, reliable, negative reinforcement. He quickly banished the thought, though allowed a strange smile to linger as his brain clung to the image of a few choice people from his recent adventures in the city stuffed into a sack and whacked repeatedly onto a section of the city wall until the bag grew dark and slick from the fluids of the crushed and maimed within.

But back to business.

Keystone scanned the row of markers where the soldier had indicated, locating Raa's burial site readily. He knelt, paying his respect silently for a long moment before rising. Carefully, he regarded the soil. The priest at Tyr's temple had mentioned burying the chunk of steel with Glith's blood seal in consecrated ground. If any ground nearby was consecrated, it's be this. Likely it was blessed again either just before of just after his interment two days prior.

And then it hit him. The ground was freshly disturbed. This did not bode well. Keystone produced his original money pouch, the one that held his silver coins, and emptied the contents into another. He grabbed a few handfuls of the soil and stuffed it into his now empty pouch, and rose.

With some urgency, the massive pugilist returned to the two soldiers on duty, and half requested, half demanded to know why the grave was disturbed.