"We need as many allies as possible....Ingram was an ally who seems to be dead now" Muir points to the floating specter the griffin is concerned about "Our former companion mentioned that in order for Vox's isle to stay together someone of giant descent needs to take Vox's rune....I do not know enough about what he meant but perhaps that is a way you could help? I do not know what curse has been bestowed upon you or what you did to earn the ire of the Raven Queen but every good story ends with redemption....."
Muir responds before Vin has a chance to, giving time for his temper to abate a little.
"Quite, Ingram there does not appear unconscious, rather his body has been taken by Dec. If it can be returned to him, that is the first thing as Muir says. Beyond what Muir has asked, information. You seem well informed about the history of this realm, the Djinni and even the current events with Nivara. Is there anything we are missing? And as for how to take down the liche, we were hoping you might know something that could help with that", he says, adding to what Muir has asked.
"But even more, the army that is being raised to counter Nivara's undead army needs champions, and it needs protecting from the abilities she can bring to bear on the battlefield. If you have fought Nectyran before, you likely know more of what to expect in that regards than us".
As Vin asks that Ingram's body be returned to him, Elthana looks towards the ghost, hope for him coming back. She then waits silently as both of her friends are doing a great job making the teams point come across.
"oh Ingram will be fine..." She says as she waves off the accusation nonchalantly and takes a seat upon her Dias once more. "Merely another defence, one can't attack whilst having no body and the aspects are very protective of me... Bastards won't let me die. DECLAN!" She shouts out and suddenly all light is gone from the room. Everyone with dark vision watch as a massive cloak of blackened feathers, ash, and dust descends upon the spectre.
Decay, the aspect of bodily death looks upon you all with hollow voids for eyes that peer from a porcelain white vulture skull. Then he speaks, a low grumbling whisper that sounds like it it strained through dry and tight chords echoed by the rattling of bones. "You are doing well Vincent, stay your anger and you will have your ally." And then he is gone. In his place, looking cold but surprisingly brave despite his recent separation from his body and even more recent separation from his clothes, stands Ingram. The griffon immediately rushes forward and gladly headbutts Ingram who is summarily knocked to the ground and jumped on by the relieved bird. "Does anyone have my clothes and armour?" He manages to ask through the griffons preening and coping.
"The issues of the lich..." Daudi begins once again in her droning voice as if nothing happened, "If you have managed to get the djiini and their isles on board then you have a chance. One good thing is that it won't be like the war against nectyran. His forces are his own and those with him are also locked away In the Shadowfell. Nivara only has access to what and who she can turn here. But if she completes her ritual and becomes the next nectyran, then not even the raven could stop her... The ways which I can help are as follows. I could separate Elthana's soul from her body for safe keeping. But it would make her vulnerable. I could take on the rune of Vox Tontritor and see to it that this realm doesn't fall into the abyss, but I'm not sure if the raven will let me sacrifice myself to such a burden. There is however one other giant who could try. Though his lineage is not a strong one, he technically is the last of his people, and named after a famous child of Lim." She nods to her brother who has no idea what is going on, is still very angry but seems happy enough that the group is talking on his behalf, he doesn't notice the group looking at him as he is still glancing warily at his shadow.
Vin is relieved when Dec returns Ingram's body, and he feels a little pride when the aspect of the Raven Queen gives him a little praise. With things seemingly going their way, his temper continues to subside.
"Good to have you back", he says to Ingram, before turning his attention to Daudi and her offers of help.
He is a little bit lost as to what to choose, and looks to Elthana first to see how she reacts to the idea of her soul being kept safe. He also looks across to Ö with the others.
Elthana breathes a sigh of relief as Ingram is back to himself and smiles as the griffon reacts the way it does.
She walks up to him and drops his items at his feet, doing the best to avert her eyes to try and help with his awkwardness of the situation.
Once that is taken care of, she listens to Daudi closely. She feels her chest tighten at the mention of removing her soul, unsure of how to react. "Um.. how would you do that exactly?"
Her last revelation is even more surprising as they all look to their friend they cannot communicate with well, she wonders what he would feel about this.
Ingram thanks Elthana and quickly tries to dress properly. Once he has done that he resumes his translating for ömertyr catching the cloud giant up on what has been said during the conversation.
"Charon, the soul aspect could do as Decay just did with Ingram. We could separate your soul carefully and store it away from your body but as I said it would make you vulnerable. Both your body and your soul. It's a type of should cage. Though your body and memories would survive you would lose some of what makes you, you. You may lose certain skills or abilities, things tied directly to who you are at the very heart of you. On the other hand your soul within this cage would be vulnerable to manipulation of whoever holds it. I would suggest someone you trust implicitly, someone who can be away from the clutches of Nivara and possibly this while realm..." Daudi frowns, not sure that the suggestion is the right one but offering it regardless.
"Well.. it's too bad Sam has left already..." Elthana comments softly. She has her hands clasped in front of her, letting Daudi's words fall over her. It was honestly the vulnerability of the soul that made her think this was a worse situation than what they already had. How could she protect it if she was more vulnerable and so was the fragment? How would that be any better unless she could get it out of here with someone she trusted.
She looks to her friends. She would trust any of them, but she doesn't want them to leave her too. She shakes her head no.
"If something were to happen to Elthana, and we will obviously do everything we can to stop that in the first place, would Charon be able to collect her soul before Nivara can claim it? If Charon is keeping a close eye on her", he asks a little uncertainly.
"I know there is usually a delay between someone passing and their soul being collected, hence I still have my soul, but does there have to be?".
Daudi thinks for a moment. "I don't think it would be a certainty. Not unless the soul was whole, see moving a soul is all well and good but collecting a soul... That only happens when the soul in question is not owned. The hells are full of souls passed around like currency. Are any of you willing to gamble that in the grand scheme of things Nivara doesn't have claim to that piece of soul...Besides what you are suggesting would mean both Nivara and Elthana die. Permanently. Any resurrection would happen with a new soul...
Muir pipes up “Sam is a friend who thought he’d be better used elsewhere. I’m hoping he took my advice and went the realm of earth to help find himself. So the other options…first why are you cursed here that you couldn’t take up Voxs place to keep the isles together?”
"There might be another way, but I am also not keen on it. This ring..." He removes the ring on his finger. "This ring that I've lent you before to try to keep Nivara out of your mind, has another function. If you die while wearing it, your soul becomes sealed inside. And once Nivara was dealt with, well I believe I have enough of a grasp on life and death to bring someone back. But... there are two problems." He looks at Elthana. "The first is that I'm not certain reclaiming your soul from the ring would be as easy as getting it back from Charon. Or maybe it would be easier. But the bigger problem is that I don't like a solution that involves your death. Still, could be a precaution. But Daudi, you mention another solution. A giant who could take on the rune of Vox Tontritor..." He looks at Omertyr again.
Listening to Gewyn, he agrees that as a precaution the ring might be useful. That was what he was getting at as well. Not a proper plan, but a failsafe.
He waits for Daudi to respond to Muir and Gewyn before asking his next question.
Daudi raises a dark purple brow at Muir, "though I refuse to do anything for them. I'm still a champion of the raven... If I took control of the realm it would be like the raven herself took over, this isn't the Shadowfell it's not their seat of power. A move like that, It could spark some kind of celestial war, there are rules in place where the gods are concerned. All that and that's if the entire process doesn't tear me apart and render me some kind of half entity, I'm not descended of primordials and neither is he" she points at Ömertyr. "He is however named after a descendant of Lim, I know that means nothing to if he could manage it or not, but the story of the original Ömertyr is an interesting one.
As I said before, Lim is the elemental plane of earth, naturally when a realm is born it becomes home to those who occur there, in Lim it is dwarves, gnomes, orcs, goblins, Duergar, drow, goliath and the like. It is said that one family of each of these races were made from the very stone of lim himself and so had the bloodline of the primordials in them. Vox never thought to do anything similar and I'm not sure about the other siblings. Ömertyr, the original was a Goliath, one who became a leader in eons past, it is said that when the dwarves of lim were on the brink of extinction Ömertyr gave his life to save the race, though I know not the details of how, but from that the name Ömertyr became synonymous with that of great sacrifice in the face of dire circumstances, one of martyrdom." Daudi looks to her brother who is getting s word by word translation from Ingram, who is now thankfully dressed to a certain degree of decency, she walks to him and places a hand on his shoulder. Speaking to him in giant. Ingram scoots toward the group and gives a low volume translation as the siblings speak.
"Brother you came here for help, but it is you who must bear this burden, the last of our kind here in this realm."
"Sam warned me of the struggles of Vox, said she was some kind of undead but she remained conscious, Nivara made sure she could still keep the realm together. But... If Nivara goes so do we, all of us, I'll do it if I can but I don't know if it will work"
"Brother you know that there is no other."
"There was... Vox spoke to him, in his dreams. She said she sensed Lim upon him, reminded her of her brother. But he left, he made some mistakes and couldn't work things out, they couldn't work things out either, it was a bad fit and I let him walk away. We all did."
Ingram glances away from the pair for a moment trying to gauge the reactions of the group before continuing.
"Brother I will be there if you need me. After losing him and spending all this time grieving I found that the only thing I was doing was making sure I was alone. Isolating myself and wallowing in my own mistakes, you were right, I should have gone to Vox instead of the Raven, I should have let go of Arne instead of fighting death itself."
"We need as many allies as possible....Ingram was an ally who seems to be dead now" Muir points to the floating specter the griffin is concerned about "Our former companion mentioned that in order for Vox's isle to stay together someone of giant descent needs to take Vox's rune....I do not know enough about what he meant but perhaps that is a way you could help? I do not know what curse has been bestowed upon you or what you did to earn the ire of the Raven Queen but every good story ends with redemption....."
Muir responds before Vin has a chance to, giving time for his temper to abate a little.
"Quite, Ingram there does not appear unconscious, rather his body has been taken by Dec. If it can be returned to him, that is the first thing as Muir says. Beyond what Muir has asked, information. You seem well informed about the history of this realm, the Djinni and even the current events with Nivara. Is there anything we are missing? And as for how to take down the liche, we were hoping you might know something that could help with that", he says, adding to what Muir has asked.
"But even more, the army that is being raised to counter Nivara's undead army needs champions, and it needs protecting from the abilities she can bring to bear on the battlefield. If you have fought Nectyran before, you likely know more of what to expect in that regards than us".
As Vin asks that Ingram's body be returned to him, Elthana looks towards the ghost, hope for him coming back. She then waits silently as both of her friends are doing a great job making the teams point come across.
"oh Ingram will be fine..." She says as she waves off the accusation nonchalantly and takes a seat upon her Dias once more. "Merely another defence, one can't attack whilst having no body and the aspects are very protective of me... Bastards won't let me die. DECLAN!" She shouts out and suddenly all light is gone from the room. Everyone with dark vision watch as a massive cloak of blackened feathers, ash, and dust descends upon the spectre.
Decay, the aspect of bodily death looks upon you all with hollow voids for eyes that peer from a porcelain white vulture skull. Then he speaks, a low grumbling whisper that sounds like it it strained through dry and tight chords echoed by the rattling of bones. "You are doing well Vincent, stay your anger and you will have your ally." And then he is gone. In his place, looking cold but surprisingly brave despite his recent separation from his body and even more recent separation from his clothes, stands Ingram. The griffon immediately rushes forward and gladly headbutts Ingram who is summarily knocked to the ground and jumped on by the relieved bird. "Does anyone have my clothes and armour?" He manages to ask through the griffons preening and coping.
"The issues of the lich..." Daudi begins once again in her droning voice as if nothing happened, "If you have managed to get the djiini and their isles on board then you have a chance. One good thing is that it won't be like the war against nectyran. His forces are his own and those with him are also locked away In the Shadowfell. Nivara only has access to what and who she can turn here. But if she completes her ritual and becomes the next nectyran, then not even the raven could stop her... The ways which I can help are as follows. I could separate Elthana's soul from her body for safe keeping. But it would make her vulnerable. I could take on the rune of Vox Tontritor and see to it that this realm doesn't fall into the abyss, but I'm not sure if the raven will let me sacrifice myself to such a burden. There is however one other giant who could try. Though his lineage is not a strong one, he technically is the last of his people, and named after a famous child of Lim." She nods to her brother who has no idea what is going on, is still very angry but seems happy enough that the group is talking on his behalf, he doesn't notice the group looking at him as he is still glancing warily at his shadow.
Vin is relieved when Dec returns Ingram's body, and he feels a little pride when the aspect of the Raven Queen gives him a little praise. With things seemingly going their way, his temper continues to subside.
"Good to have you back", he says to Ingram, before turning his attention to Daudi and her offers of help.
He is a little bit lost as to what to choose, and looks to Elthana first to see how she reacts to the idea of her soul being kept safe. He also looks across to Ö with the others.
Elthana breathes a sigh of relief as Ingram is back to himself and smiles as the griffon reacts the way it does.
She walks up to him and drops his items at his feet, doing the best to avert her eyes to try and help with his awkwardness of the situation.
Once that is taken care of, she listens to Daudi closely. She feels her chest tighten at the mention of removing her soul, unsure of how to react. "Um.. how would you do that exactly?"
Her last revelation is even more surprising as they all look to their friend they cannot communicate with well, she wonders what he would feel about this.
Muir pauses a moment to let Elthana hear that option before asking more questions and weighing in.
Ingram thanks Elthana and quickly tries to dress properly. Once he has done that he resumes his translating for ömertyr catching the cloud giant up on what has been said during the conversation.
"Charon, the soul aspect could do as Decay just did with Ingram. We could separate your soul carefully and store it away from your body but as I said it would make you vulnerable. Both your body and your soul. It's a type of should cage. Though your body and memories would survive you would lose some of what makes you, you. You may lose certain skills or abilities, things tied directly to who you are at the very heart of you. On the other hand your soul within this cage would be vulnerable to manipulation of whoever holds it. I would suggest someone you trust implicitly, someone who can be away from the clutches of Nivara and possibly this while realm..." Daudi frowns, not sure that the suggestion is the right one but offering it regardless.
Vin sucks air in through his teeth and shakes his head, making it clear what he thinks of that plan. He doesn't like it.
"Well.. it's too bad Sam has left already..." Elthana comments softly. She has her hands clasped in front of her, letting Daudi's words fall over her. It was honestly the vulnerability of the soul that made her think this was a worse situation than what they already had. How could she protect it if she was more vulnerable and so was the fragment? How would that be any better unless she could get it out of here with someone she trusted.
She looks to her friends. She would trust any of them, but she doesn't want them to leave her too. She shakes her head no.
"Might I ask a question?", Vin says to Daudi.
"If something were to happen to Elthana, and we will obviously do everything we can to stop that in the first place, would Charon be able to collect her soul before Nivara can claim it? If Charon is keeping a close eye on her", he asks a little uncertainly.
"I know there is usually a delay between someone passing and their soul being collected, hence I still have my soul, but does there have to be?".
Daudi thinks for a moment. "I don't think it would be a certainty. Not unless the soul was whole, see moving a soul is all well and good but collecting a soul... That only happens when the soul in question is not owned. The hells are full of souls passed around like currency. Are any of you willing to gamble that in the grand scheme of things Nivara doesn't have claim to that piece of soul...Besides what you are suggesting would mean both Nivara and Elthana die. Permanently. Any resurrection would happen with a new soul...
Who is Sam?"
Muir pipes up “Sam is a friend who thought he’d be better used elsewhere. I’m hoping he took my advice and went the realm of earth to help find himself. So the other options…first why are you cursed here that you couldn’t take up Voxs place to keep the isles together?”
"There might be another way, but I am also not keen on it. This ring..." He removes the ring on his finger. "This ring that I've lent you before to try to keep Nivara out of your mind, has another function. If you die while wearing it, your soul becomes sealed inside. And once Nivara was dealt with, well I believe I have enough of a grasp on life and death to bring someone back. But... there are two problems." He looks at Elthana. "The first is that I'm not certain reclaiming your soul from the ring would be as easy as getting it back from Charon. Or maybe it would be easier. But the bigger problem is that I don't like a solution that involves your death. Still, could be a precaution. But Daudi, you mention another solution. A giant who could take on the rune of Vox Tontritor..." He looks at Omertyr again.
Vin nods but says no more on his plan.
Listening to Gewyn, he agrees that as a precaution the ring might be useful. That was what he was getting at as well. Not a proper plan, but a failsafe.
He waits for Daudi to respond to Muir and Gewyn before asking his next question.
Daudi raises a dark purple brow at Muir, "though I refuse to do anything for them. I'm still a champion of the raven... If I took control of the realm it would be like the raven herself took over, this isn't the Shadowfell it's not their seat of power. A move like that, It could spark some kind of celestial war, there are rules in place where the gods are concerned. All that and that's if the entire process doesn't tear me apart and render me some kind of half entity, I'm not descended of primordials and neither is he" she points at Ömertyr. "He is however named after a descendant of Lim, I know that means nothing to if he could manage it or not, but the story of the original Ömertyr is an interesting one.
As I said before, Lim is the elemental plane of earth, naturally when a realm is born it becomes home to those who occur there, in Lim it is dwarves, gnomes, orcs, goblins, Duergar, drow, goliath and the like. It is said that one family of each of these races were made from the very stone of lim himself and so had the bloodline of the primordials in them. Vox never thought to do anything similar and I'm not sure about the other siblings. Ömertyr, the original was a Goliath, one who became a leader in eons past, it is said that when the dwarves of lim were on the brink of extinction Ömertyr gave his life to save the race, though I know not the details of how, but from that the name Ömertyr became synonymous with that of great sacrifice in the face of dire circumstances, one of martyrdom." Daudi looks to her brother who is getting s word by word translation from Ingram, who is now thankfully dressed to a certain degree of decency, she walks to him and places a hand on his shoulder. Speaking to him in giant. Ingram scoots toward the group and gives a low volume translation as the siblings speak.
"Brother you came here for help, but it is you who must bear this burden, the last of our kind here in this realm."
"Sam warned me of the struggles of Vox, said she was some kind of undead but she remained conscious, Nivara made sure she could still keep the realm together. But... If Nivara goes so do we, all of us, I'll do it if I can but I don't know if it will work"
"Brother you know that there is no other."
"There was... Vox spoke to him, in his dreams. She said she sensed Lim upon him, reminded her of her brother. But he left, he made some mistakes and couldn't work things out, they couldn't work things out either, it was a bad fit and I let him walk away. We all did."
Ingram glances away from the pair for a moment trying to gauge the reactions of the group before continuing.
"Brother I will be there if you need me. After losing him and spending all this time grieving I found that the only thing I was doing was making sure I was alone. Isolating myself and wallowing in my own mistakes, you were right, I should have gone to Vox instead of the Raven, I should have let go of Arne instead of fighting death itself."