[Uthaldria] Unholy War VIII: Unholy War. Unholy War.

[Faith Augustin]

10th Ymiden, 719
following: this and this

Unholy War
From the start of life
To my dying day
In the dark of night
And the burning light of day
It's a Bloody Fight
]But I can't walk away
I'm prime, for the front line
Unholy war. Unholy War.

The mirror which had held her and Alissa captive for an undetermined length of time cracked and, in that moment, the power of it broke. Alissa fell to her knees, sobbing and Faith knelt next to her, immediately. "It's alright, I've got you, it's over.. it's over." She cradled her friend for a few moments, until Alissa pulled herself back together. Faith didn't rush her, just kept hold of her friend as she cried out what she needed to. It was traumatic, after all. "What.. what happened, Faith?" Alissa asked, and Faith frowned slightly. "I don't know," she admitted, "But I think it's this mirror." Alissa nodded. "Lets get out of here, away from here?" The biqaj was not happy, not one bit, and Faith was inclined to agree.

Except.

"No. I think there's something behind here. Look. Look, can you see?" Faith frowned and leaned forward. "No, what are you looking at?" Yet, Faith was good at spotting details and she was sure. "Look, here where I hit it, it's broken behind the mirror and there's air blowing through." Alissa looked at Faith and tried, rather unsuccessfully, to see what Faith was seeing. "No. But either way, Faith, we should get out of here." Faith looked at the biqaj and shook her head, stubbornly. "This is a doorway, which is hidden. In a hidden Coven base? I'm not walking away now, not when we've suffered so damn much to get here. Besides, I want to know." Alissa sighed, looking at Faith; how did she do it, Alissa wondered? How did she manage to stay so focused, so determinedly damned focused? Faith - far too busy being that focused, as she examined the area in question. "Look, here, it is. Right, I haven't got time for this, neither of us do. We're going to kick it in."

Alissa looked at Faith in amazement. "Your solution is to kick it in?" Faith nodded. "Look, it's not thick. We can do it. Move out of the way, I'll do it." That got Alissa moving, the biqaj woman shaking her head and looking at Faith in almost-despair. "No. You're the tiny little pocket person. I'm the bodyguard. If there's any kicking in to be done, I'm going to have to insist it's me doing it."

Faith had to bite back a smile but, that was what she did as she stepped out of the way and Alissa kicked in the mirror - the back of it, it transpired, was a very flimsy thing and the hidden door crashed open. Revealing what appeared to be a sort of storage cupboard. Faith raised an eyebrow. "Should we rummage? I think we should. Let's rummage. "

[Faith Augustin]

It was a room. An actual room. Like most of the rooms here - as they would discover as they explored, which Faith insisted they did - it was largely empty. However, this room had not been stripped bare of it's contents and Faith immediately started looking around, because this room had been hidden and so, maybe, there was something worth hiding here. Alissa moved over, immediately, to where a corner where weapons were stashed, but Faith moved to examine the area where there were books, tomes and scrolls. She frowned as she looked, just reading the names of the things. Being who she was, Faith got organised quickly, pulling the books and scrolls out, carefully, looking at each one and then placing them in ordered piles.

Treatise on necromancy, on experiments. Those were the first things which caught Faith's eye. She looked, scanning the books to try and see if there was anything there which might be new. She didn't think so, on first glance, but she stowed the books away nonetheless. Anything which might be helpful, here, was something which she would study in more detail. Or, ask someone else to. And then, she looked at the pile of three books and two scroll cases on "Legends of Uthaldria" and "Beasts of Uthaldria." That they were here didn't seem odd to the young Zuuda, but what drew her gaze was the fact that the books had pieces of parchment, used as markers.

"Well, what are you marking as important, then?" Faith wondered and opened the book. And her face frowned, ever more deeply. "Oh, dear." It was a quiet, non-dramatic statement, yet Alissa looked up and disregarded the item she had been looking at, without question. "What's going on? What's the matter?" Faith lifted a hand in a gesture for Alissa to be quiet a moment. "Wait... this is... " Every word. She read every word and then turned to look at Alissa with something resembling nerves.

"So. Here is a book on Uthaldrian Legends and Beasts. It's got a page marker." She handed the book to Alissa, with the marked page open. Alissa read it, more slowly than Faith and a deep frown crossed the biqaj woman's face. Faith nodded her head. "Abanaxus, the Heart of the Mountain. That's... it can't be?" Alissa looked at Faith and shrugged. "Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, we know they've ordered large and specialist equipment. But.. how would they control a creature such as this?" Faith shook her head. "I have only one idea, and I don't even really want to say it." Alissa frowned, looking at Faith and then back to the book with an expression of dawning horror on her face. She shook her head as Faith spoke. "If they have a means of making it into a thrall?"

Alissa looked at Faith and sighed. "I really wish you hadn't said that."

[Faith Augustin]

Faith could only agree in wishing that she hadn't thought it, either. But there it was, out in the open. She looked at Alissa and sighed. "If it is that, or if it's not, we need to get this information out there." Faith immediately opened up the Echo Scroll that she had and started to write. It was just too big a risk for her not to do so, after all. As Alissa continued to read, Faith's mind was whirling. She knew that this was big and, potentially, something which would change the outcome of this war. So, breathing in, Faith wrote what she needed to and then, she turned her attention back to her friend. Alissa had read the information again, and Faith reckoned that the expression she was seeing on the biqaj's face was probably mirrored on her own. This was not good, not at all. But still, they had to maintain focus here.

"What did you find in the weapons?" Faith asked and Alissa shrugged. "Nothing exciting, just some junk, really." Faith frowned when Alissa said that because she'd seen her holding what looked like a good short blade to her. "Alright, well, lets swap over in case there's anything else that you can see here, or I can see there." It made sense, to check each other's work and so, Faith moved over. It was there, the sword in question and she knew that it was well balanced just by looking at it. Lifting it, she frowned in surprise that Alissa had such a strange reaction to it - Faith liked it, it felt right in her hands.

There were other things there, too - some books about magic which Faith put in silk and then into the Domain Bag. There were scrolls with maps, which she took and, of course, the information on the creature. They knew that there was something going on here in Uthaldria, but they didn't yet know what. This might be the very thing which tipped the balance. There were also a few books on alchemy, which she picked up. Faith was cautious, wrapping everything in silk, putting them in their own Domain Bag, just in case. She wasn't prepared to take any risks.

When she was sure that they'd stripped the room of everything they could, Faith looked at Alissa and said, rather grimly. "I'm going to collect up that mirror. That one we were standing in front of." Alissa looked in surprise. "Why do you want to go anywhere near that thing?" Faith understood that reaction - she truly did. But equally, she knew that they had to have a more clear focus. "Beacuse I don't know how it did what it did, and because what it did worked, or nearly worked. It's a disease, a weakness." Faith smiled as she grabbed a bag and started to collect up pieces of the mirror.

"And like any disease, we'll only beat it when we understand it. That's the bottom line, isn't it?"

Alissa looked at her and sighed. "I wish, sometimes, you'd just .... " Faith grinned as she continued what she was doing and Alissa helped.

[Nursia]

An excellent thread. Your style of writing is really starting to build on me. I particularly enjoy just how quickly you manage to tonally shift from drastic, mind-shattering visions, to faint hope, back to crushing implications, and back to hope once more. It portrays a certain lack of control that makes a scene have a beautiful amount of chaos within it; you start to feel what the characters feel.

I'm glad this particular thread is at the end of my review batch. You did very well, and I hope that I get to see just what Faith does with this shocking revelation!
Faith

Rewards

Knowledges:
Research: Double check each other's work.
Tactics: Get information out quickly
Tactics: Know your weaknesses
Tactics: Never let fear rule your actions
Loot:
Loot: A number of books, scrolls, maps, etc. Broken bits of an enchanted mirror and a sword. This is part of the War of Death and Souls Event and, as such, Aegis is going to determine the exact nature of these.
Renown:
+15, major necromantic discovery
EXP:
+10

Feedback

Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.

Player #2

Rewards

Knowledges:
Wealth:
Renown:
EXP:

Feedback

Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.

[Pig Boy]

The sword felt right in Faith's hands, true enough... But there was something about it that brought a doubt to the back of her mind. Like this weapon wasn't quite all it was or even could be. Perhaps it was needing tempering, or it's point of balance just a touch off center, too far into the blade to make it comfortable to wield. The blade just... wasn't right. Had the Coven done something to it?

Yet something in her thrilled to the touch of the blade, a vague intuition that told her it would be key to her endeavors in this war, if she could only pull it out of the right hat, for lack of a better analogy.

The fragments of mirror that Faith and her helper gathered felt light and almost incorporeal as they were slipped into her baggage and tucked away. They could pick them up easily enough and stow them away safely in their baggage, but there was something strange about the fragments still. Like their spell had not been completely overcome.

If at any point the mirror fragments got near the sword's blade, a light, eerie humming could be heard. It caused a sense of dread to anyone who witnessed it, prompting those of lesser wills to avoid such brushes. It would take one of iron will and strong of mind to overcome such mental blocks.

Luckily, for the living, they had Faith among them.

!

Message from: Pig Boy

You've got the Truthblade, and pieces of an enchanted mirror. But there's something off about the Truthblade, as if it isn't the right 'version' for lack of a better word. Make a separate thread which I will mod, to figure out how to fix the sword. Invite whoever you like to this thread or you can handle it alone. Until then, it can't be used to its full ability. I will now go on to move the Truthblade to the wiki in the Dev thread.