The Grey Dust

Heavens Fall

Looks fine, although maybe Crim would like a more expanded bio bit.

Blood Compact (Open!)

It had all gone well. Too well actually. So well that it was almost boring. Almost. There was hardly a challenge when they began, what little resistance they afford was done in by sheer and utter violence. Cutting off the heads of the snakes was merely a first step in the rise to terror, the tail and body was next.

"Not quite so my boy. He would retain all memories, yet I feel it is far more fun to torment him as his comeuppance for daring to bargain with forces beyond his reach. Are you familiar with the tale of Doctor Faustus? Of course you are, silly of me to ask. Yet just as I was more than fantasy of fiction as time would have you forget me, perhaps there is more to this doctor than that is written in plays of him? I have fragments of his journals after all..."

Oddly tangential. However Bedivere soon took the form of a wolf, his suit folding in on itself as his body changed and became much furrier. Not Fluffier but bristled with dark coarse fur, sharpened teeth and hunting eyes. "I shall take on the skin of a wolf in your Honor My'Lady and escort Lord Varomere here to scope the hunting grounds. I am certain he is more than capable alone, but I would rather be with him than watch Lord Shane enjoy his meat, and perhaps three wolves are sufficient enough for a pack... Hence... I depart for the moment with the Vampires."

A boy and his dog? Well if his dog was a rather large wolven creature which began to spread an uneasy darkness around the town as its paws silently advanced.

Heavens Fall

PLOT.

Heavens Fall

Ask you shall receive.
Though threats were waved.
Like the brushing of a moth,
off the shoulder of one's robe.

The Heavens were not a place for the Dark Gods. Though Powerful each one in their own right, the will of the Eldest was far more powerful than whatever it was Darko could muster. All it took was a little push, and the celestial space in which the council chambers sat would come to the aid of its servitors. The cosmic radiances focused their beams upon Darko as he stood, their lights concentrated uponthe darkness of his cowl to reveal him and his wickedness. To which the storm of storms began to swirl, the shining splendor and will of the First. A system designed to kep the Dark Ones out of the Heavens for the Guards were merely there to keep the Mortals from overthrowing the Gods one more.

"Ner'zhul." X spoke a name. Not just a name, so casually used, nor with any title to be added as he had often done with his fellow gods. No, this time he had opened his Ledger, a finger glazed over the sacred ink which marked the letters of the name, "be Silent." It was not of X to use his book so freely, the Ledger of Apotheosis was used last to cast of amongst them out, and perhaps it was the same book which would grant the Fallen his divinity back. Yet when X begins to use the true names, names of power, of being and hidden things, one had best thread with caution. A simple utterance and then one's godhood could be erased.

"Ner'Zhul cannot listen to the whispers if Ner'Zhul speaks too loud." Some awkwardly thrown in quip in a rather awkward syntax. Yet, there was a need to keep using Darko's name. "Ner'Zhul demands truth, yet deals in death. Seeks answers, ends life. The Truth Ner'Zhul comes at a price, all truths do. The Underworld throne below will be empty, Ner'Zhul joins the Light here. Life and Death were linked, but Death has conquered Life itself. For this the Light of the Creator will send Ner'Zhul back before the Throne is lost, but this punishment was not the worst fate. By the new star, Ner'Zhul shall find a new ally, but will lose a Throne. Go now Ner'Zhul, before the Creator whispers the wish to damn Ner'Zhul to know Death itself."

With a spectacularly cryptic explanation of an already strange prophecy, X was the worst possible person to come seeking for answers. Darko had made a miscalculation in expecting that the former God of Knowledge would do anything more than make a complexity easier. To add layers between the words, to speak the truth but conceal it within the riddle. All things were true, or technically true as X was the keeper of truths, yet what he had revealed to the assembly was only as much as they could deduce for themselves. Never a direct answer for the indirect god. But those clever enough amongst them could figure it out.

Darko had indeed left his realm to join them, and so X had spoke of this. But more so, was how Darko would find a new ally, at the cost of his Throne. Focus on the past for a moment and see that X spoke of the events in the Clash of the Gods, on how One was punished beyond all others, bound in mortal form and set to walk the earth. A former ally of Darko, bringer of death who without life, had disrupted the cosmic balance. From there, it could be gleaned that X prophesied that Darko will join the Gods of Light once more as the One to walk the earth comes. But of course X could never say this in such simple terms, he was bound by the secret.

And with those words, did the Light cast Darko out of the Heavens as X closed his Ledger.

"Those who wish for peace, must prepare for war."

Blood Compact (Open!)

Well, Bedivere collects artifacts himself.
He would have already pursued this path should he believe it work for him.
It makes no sense that, such a stone randomly appear as a plot hook given Bedivere's history.
Thus to negate this falsehood...
Logically since he hasn't quite ruled the world yet, he finds no interest in the stone.
Most likely because he does not believe it to be able to work for him.

After all, he's lived far longer than Martin and has quite sometime to do research on mythical objects a collection of which he houses at Camelot's trophy room.

If Bedivere did after all use the stone, it would make him incredibly OP and the RP would be over in a matter of minutes as Bedivere kills/converts/enslaves every last human in the course of about 40 days and 40 nights, throwing a new dark age of vampires to effectively end the power struggle as there is nothing one can do to stop him as his one major weakness was rid of by the stone.

Also, given that it is from Martin, who is a human, Bedivere's elitism would scoff at using a weapon given by a human. There is no honor in using the boon given by the humans to kill the humans. You've effectively become their puppet, and Bedivere is not a puppet by far... (Well he is, for the Pale Lady.)

Heavens Fall

Well, unfortunately X knows all, and frankly he doesn't see Darko as a dark god. All gods are both good and evil, their motivations are their own, and their powers unique to their purposes. Secrets are both malicious and benign, so is death, shadows and other things. Hence reading between the lines of the interaction, though X mocked Darko's powers over death (as things persist after death), it also served as a warning to him to consider his place as the Lord of Oblivion is to come.

As for reasons as to why X would know of Darko's intent, just as Darko has control over the forces of Death and when a life ends, X controls the realm of knowledge. He is Truth and sees through the veil of deception. Nothing can hide itself from X, for it is he who hides things. Not by shadows, nor by deception, but rather by striking out memory of events as they happen, such that to the rest of the universe it never did.

What he does not know does not exist, or perhaps Should not exist, and even then things which should not exist are listed in his books, and thus he knows of them and their existence.

Blood Compact (Open!)

You are not impressed by Bedivere's torture techniques?

Very well then. He shall offer Martin one of two methods for the first night to endure.

1) Using a 7th century BCE iron kopis, which was recovered from the salty waters of the Mediterranean to the point of being dulled and rusted, Bedivere will take his time to cut Martin's flesh, flaying him alive with a rusted razor effectively and waiting for the tetanus to set in. From there, he would artistically disinfect certain parts of Martin's body with a bit of concentrated lemon juice while drinking a bloody lemonade, humming along as he prepares to bury Martin alive in a coffin and proceedes to dump salt over the man's body and seal the coffin for the night. Enjoy the pain as the tetany clenches your body in awkward position against the coffin.

2) Applying a Tracheotomy. Bedivere proceeds to insert a breathing tube down Martin's windpipe and seals it up from his nasal passages. Then he encases's Martin's head from the chin up a glass box before proceeding to fill it with water continuously while a projector flashes against the glass in a strobe-like manner.

Blood Compact (Open!)

Torture? Oh course not.
Well, not official at least.
He may be subject to some less than humane treatment.

Although probably we did have several vampires taste Martin as a snack...
Is his blood safe to drink?

Table of Monsters

"I'm not quite sure about the goblinoid, but... The Caiwas... Its presence with our group is most welcome indeed, this will give me ample time to study its physiology up close. Oh so many things to examine and report about, I should probably draw us up a schedule to make sure we..." Yes, R'Lyeh ever the researcher. It may have been slightly off-putting for someone just joining the adventuring party to be seen as some sort of specimen to most likely conduct painful and excruciating experiments upon. But that was the norm for the S'Augwin, a new discovery was to be studied ad nauseum.

Some time later, with much hobbling and probably an observational note to observe the flora they pass along the way back to the town. R'Lyeh had managed to remove the current spearhead he had and replaced the metal point newly forged after some tricky fitting. Polearm design was an educational activity taught to every S'Augwin as they where the best weapons to use effectively on land and sea. The Aerodynamics in the water made it difficult to swing a sword, but thrusting and piercings actions would be less affected.

"Okay then, where do we go from here? I cannot return to Aug'Toor until I have recovered my tablets, they'd pull my funding if I did."

Project: Unified protectors (Super hero)

Bookmark for interest.