Library: Let's Negotiate Terms

“The Friggin elves are pushing in. By the time this is order well all be speakin’ that slanty tongue. It's like listening to a crow lick a donkey’s ass and then bragging about it.” 

The voice was in the softest tones – barely louder than a lover’s sweet cadence, though as sharp as an angry rebuke from the heaven’s themselves.

Branches whipped unimpeded against Whisper St Claire’s weather worn face as he crashed through the thick woods. His diatribe seemed to fueled his strength. For three days straight he had ranted and pushed through the thick underbrush, the staccato steps propelling him against nature itself.

Whisper never acknowledged the badly burned man who he dragged behind him in the make shift sled.

You should have let me die. Whisper couldn't read the man’s mind nor could he decipher the moans.

“No. No. No.” Those were the only words the man had screamed when Whisper applied salves to the terrible wounds.

Whisper continued to crash through the underbrush. A single man dragging another single man - nothing for warring factions to note.

“You can hide the outside,” Whisper ranted, “you look into an elves’s eyes an they’re evil.” Whisper continued to will himself forward and Radegast continued to will himself to death.

“Fuckin elves. Always the damn elves.”

Radegast watches the battle end. Where ever his mind is. Who really knows where a warrior’s mind goes?

"A coward. I knew it. Well it figures that bastard would disappear as quickly as he appeared." Elby sniffs the air and notices a scent of smoke. "Fuck not another fire Stones." He turns to where Stones is face down on the ground. Elby hops off the base of the statue, a slight grimace from the wounds sustained in battle crosses his face. 

He rushes over to where Stones lies. "Radegast, we need to deal with that fire and heal Stones. I can do either, provided you get rid of that barrier. Which do you want to deal with?" Elby rushes to Stones and is ready to either heal him or douse the fire with his cloak. “Move quickly my friend, I don't want a repeat of the Happy Swallow.”

Elby rolls Stones over until the warrior is flat on his back in an unintended funeral pyre as books burn around him. Noienna has vanished and Stones has a dream-like expression on his face. Perhaps at peace for the first time in his life.

Radegast wordlessly lowers the barrier.

Elby uses his cloak to put out the fire that is Stones. Years of dealing with camp fires provides the Halfling with the skills to avoid burning himself. Taking herbs, ointments, and a few spice rubs he manages to bring Stones back to consciousness.

Stones eyes open slowly. “I am grateful to you as well Elby, for bringing me back from the brink.  Please allow me to return the favor.”  Stones attempts to heal the others as best he can.

Radegast continues to eye the damage in the room. He seems unsure.

The group rests. Using surges to get back to maximum strength.

 “Noienna…” Stones mutters aloud, “if I die with you inside of me, I’m sure one of our friends here will cut you free.  There is need to fear such a fate, unless we all perish.  But it seems you are not willing to let that happen, for which we are all grateful.” 

Noienna slowly ascends from Stones’ neck. Once again the odd two-headed beauty and the beast. “It’s about time I got a little gratitude.” It is in her haughty over-sensitive manner that you have all become used to.

 “Now, about this place….” Turning around the room, Stones soaks in the fact that upon these shelves sit lifetimes and lifetimes of knowledge.  “There must be thousands of souls trapped in here!”  His anger rising at this awareness he becomes the Stones you have grown to know, quick to anger, and dangerously impulsive.  Then something slows him almost immediately and his face becomes a twisted mask of indecision with a tinge of fear.  “How will we find Suresh among all these volumes?  And how to protect them while we search.  That book…” He looks to where the ashes of the burned book were scattered.

“That soul…Noeinna, is it gone forever?  Is it…?  My actions…”  Stones balls his fist.  “This is an EVIL place!  We must free these souls, but how?!”  He gazes up, not realizing he has walked over to the statue of Noeinna, and realizes how beautiful she appears, “And you Noeinna...how do we free you?”

He walks back to the crumbled ruins and examines the books on the shelf, careful not to touch anything, and tries to interpret and mystical symbols or magical patterns.  He draws upon everything he learned from Suresh, hoping to gain some understanding, some insight.  With Suresh at the forefront of his thoughts, he makes a methodical tour of the room, looking for anything that may give him an indication of the book that holds Suresh’s soul…

Radegast calmly announces. “I am going to burn this entire place to the ground.”

Noienna finally speaks.  “All you need to do is – oh no!”

Her voice rises in alarm, causing the hairs on your necks to stand on end. She disappears into Stones’ body.

Archers appear in the room on the balconies. Adorned in bright red outfits including masks they are identical save for their locations. Bow strings have been drawn into position. Even with the bookshelves they have positioned themselves where the group is in the middle of a kill box.

Stones draws his sword and tries to put his back to the statue.

The friggin elves. Caudata grinned in a half crazed expression. May be all elves descend into madness. Elby had never met an elf before. He had heard stories of course. Though no stories included a wild eyed elf who drank dwarf spirits.

Caudata stared over the pungent waters of the swamp. Elby had expected a sweet elven voice when he first met the elven ranger, not the thick noise of what sounded like a wheel less cart being dragged across gravel. “This is a good place to die - these waters change a man. Old magic. Demon magic. God magic.”

Caudata was naked now, only a long bow in his hand. Nearly seven feet tall and completely hairless he gave the impression of being an oversized reed in the swamp.

“Everyone calls it something different. Only an elf can walk into the madness and come out sane.” He looked over the waters.

It’s a swamp. Elby kept the thought to himself. It’s like arguing with my father. Pointless. Instead the Halfling tried to see what Caudata saw. He saw nothing.

Caudata handed his bow to Elby. “Yours. I don't need it where I'm going. I'll walk with demons.”

With those last words Caudata disappeared into the swamp.

There are times in a person’s life – man, woman, child, or anyone else – when he questions his or her sanity. These are one of those times.  

Elby examined the bow he held the bow in his hand. A good bow.

Elby slips off the base of the statue where he was sitting to the ground (J11) and quickly notches an arrow.

Five others walk into the entrance, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and all are in the room. Even a simpleton can recognize confident warriors – especially armored warriors with swords already drawn. In the front is a woman – that is about the only characteristic which sets the group apart from one another.

Cold eyes dart about, though to the warrior on the far right his eyes linger on Elby for a moment.

The leader is a woman - she is still stunning, though her beauty is fading, having been marked by crow’s feet around her eyes and a face that holds the placidness of a frozen lake. She is adorned in chain mail and a holding a quarterstaff. Her eyes widen in surprise as she says, "Radegast?"

The woman that calls out Radegast gets Stones attention as well as she seems to know Radegast.  Stones turns to the warrior, "Radegast, are we gutting some more flunkies here, or what?  Because I can just as easily burn the whole place down..."

Elby glances over to Radegast, "Um Radegast, friend of yours?" He then turns back toward the woman and her group.

Radegast’s cool mask has slipped and a tidal wave of emotions seems to wash over him. This is a conflicted man. Disbelief. Horror. Shock. Joy. Anything is possible.

Stones seems to have forgotten about the statue, but is mumbling to himself and you know he is talking to Noienna, "what the hell is going on now?" 

Fuckin elves. Always the damn elves.

Stones shifted his weight to his right leg, careful to avoid too much pressure. The last three blows from Brin d'amour had not drawn blood – though each blow resulted in blood congealing just below the surface. The blood would then lead to knots, then to terrible cramping, then to Stones defeat.

Stones did the calculation in his heads. If Brin landed no more blows the muscles in the calf would spasm first, then the quad; within one minute the right leg would be useless. Stones lifted his own quarter staff - he hated this weapon as much as he hated sparring against the elf. I’ll land a blow if it kills me.

The reward for an attempt at offense was that Stones noted the short shuffle of Brin’s leather boot as the elf shifted his weight forward. It was nearly indecipherable – the result of an elf’s natural physical gift combined with military training. Most people wouldn’t have even registered the movement.

Not that it helped Stones. The quarterstaff whistled through the air once again, landed in the exact same spot as the previous blow.

It gave Stones only thirty seconds. The two continued to circle one another. The feet tell everything. 

Fifteen seconds. The pain was excruciating.

Stones drew his quarter staff up once again, providing the same whole in his defenses as before. He watched Brin’s foot shuffle forward slightly. Instead of attempting to defend the blow Stones took his quarterstaff and tossed it straight at Brin.

Complete instinct. Brin was so surprised he barely deflected to blow.  The slow defenses gave Stone an opening. The warrior snaked his arm forward, grabbing the elf’s staff and yanking it from him.

The open hand slap caught Brin squarely. More humiliation than brute force the elf opened his eyes wide. The punch from Stones that followed...THAT was brute force.

Brin crumbled. Stones grinned, which turned into a grimace as his leg gave one final spasm before giving way completely beneath him.

Stones sees the woman’s boot move. It is only the slightest of movements. The woman takes a single step toward Radegast. To some it could be a harmless step of friendship. To a warrior trained in the pits and with a thousand battles of experience it is an aggressive maneuver.

Stones blinks out of existence for a moment. He reappears behind the woman and puts his sword to her throat. All it will take is one simple movement.

The woman’s eyes widen in surprise. The surprise of a seasoned warrior caught off guard. The second the sword touches her throat the archers in the balcony disappear.

“Let’s negotiate terms,” says Stones with a grin.

Note
A few moves ago you picked up

Two ritual scrolls: a scroll of Raise Dead (this should be Animated Corpse) in a bone tube and a scroll of Consult Mystic Sages wrapped in leather. 

·  A small glass vial wrapped inside the Raise Dead scroll holds 500 gp worth of residuum—just enough to perform the ritual once