|
Hush...
Posted: 20 Mar 2006 04:19 AM |
((OOC: The following information is known only to select PCs.))
It had started months ago, but no one had paid it any heed. Ever since Conn and Jubei had blown open an entrance into the workshop in the Hush Tunnels, they had begun to appear in the stone. Stone hands, clawing their way up from the ground. Strange formations in the rock. A cross-legged Gnome here; a face in the wall there.
No one went into the Hush Tunnels much. They had only ever gotten attention when Lady Lillian had been kidnapped, and when the Academy refugees had arrived shortly after. At the recommendation of the Sunbringers, the Novus Aristi had pulled back their forces into a smaller, more concentrated and more easily defensible zone.
Haven was immense. It had once held nearly the entire Paladin Order of Midor.
They could not ignore them any longer, though. As any Dwarf or Gnome can tell you, stone is a living thing. In the cataclysm that had nearly destroyed the world, Haven had come alive. Months after that, Lillian and Tonan had decided to move the military side of the Aristi's operations to Haven once more. The changes to the area had been puzzling; minor puzzles, nothing more.
But in the months since then, the changes had grown steadily harder to ignore.
And now they could no longer be ignored.
People stirred outside Haven's impossible labyrinthine doorstep. The stone sensed it. The stone reacted to it.
And slowly, slowly... in that plodding yet inexorable way that stone has...
...The stone moved to defend itself against the intruders... |
|
|
  |
|
|
Gone
Posted: 20 Mar 2006 09:03 AM |
They had ceased to use the Hush Tunnel exit weeks ago, ever since Grace had chased away the floating skull. When Rayinor Liam had set up Haven the year before for the rebellion's use, one of the deciding factors had been the numerous exit points. Of course, the rebel army had been thousands strong; they'd been capable of defending all the chokepoints. The Novus Aristi were very few, and with more and more of them going abroad, the permanent occupants of Haven were growing fewer.
Nevertheless, they maintained a picquet over the Hush Tunnel exit to Ikarian Bay. And so it was that one morning, a young Herald reported to Sir Tonan that the exit was simply...
Gone.
Not caved in. Not destroyed. The stone had simply sealed itself as if it had never been. New avenues opened themselves. No one had seen it happen.
Topside, the land shifted as well. It was a phenomena that Haven's occupants were familiar with: the defensive outer ring of moving land. But this was different.
This was a shift within Haven itself.
Those hands. Those hands clawing up through the ground, they were sprouting all over the mountainside now. The stairs to the command plateau vanished. And yet no quakes shook Haven; as it was with the moving ring of land, it was as if the earth and stone were fluid. The changes were seen and yet not felt.
Haven was living up to its name. |
|
|
|
|
|
The Stone Sentinels
Posted: 02 Apr 2006 09:55 AM |
They'd stepped down from yellow to green mode and life in Haven had more or less settled down when they appeared.
Stone ones. Clay ones. Formidable magma ones that oozed up from the lava falls. Lumbering and monstrous, they began to patrol Haven's lower regions and the mysteriously silent Hush Tunnels.
Golems.
~*~
He was now determined to just abandon the place, which had gone from being a reasonably secure fortress to a potentially lethal hazard. But Haven had other plans. As Phillippe strode quickly across the command plateau towards the command tent, he found himself balked by a wall of stone that materialised from the ground as if made of liquid.
For several precious seconds, his attention was focused entirely on the impossible wall that had sprung up before him. He didn't see the hands rise out of the ground until they had grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him down through the stone.
It was an odd and frightening sensation, to pass through stone as if it were water.
Then, suddenly, he was through. The blur of black and grey was replaced by a familiar misty white, and he landed in slow motion in the workshop of the Hush Tunnels.
"Terribly sorry about that! I didn't think you'd come if I asked nicely. And, well, golems... terrible at communications, they are. So unreliable when it comes to delicate tasks. So you see, I had to fetch you myself."
The voice was deep and grating, in contrast to its babbling and amicable tone. Phillippe turned.
The gigantic statue of the sitting Gnome that had been uncovered months ago by Jubei and Conn when they'd opened up the workshop regarded him with a beaming expression.
"No need to introduce yourself! I—that is we—already know," it went on cheerily. "Now, look. You're all getting worked up about the changes around here... yes, yes, must be very alarming for you... didn't think you'd take it so badly. Wait!"
The living statue cut Phillippe off before he could even ask a question.
"You're going to say... mmmm...." It assumed a mock-meditative stance, eyes closing in concentration as it pointed its forefingers to either side of its head. "You want to know who I am, what I am and what I want! Do you want to know? I'll tell you anyway even if you don't."
"Ah... I would... appreciate it if you could answer those questions, yes," Phillippe said hesitantly. In all the decades he'd spent in the diplomatic corps, they'd never mentioned having to deal with anything like this.
The statue clapped its hands. "Splendid! I am—well I was—well, I'm not exactly... but you wouldn't understand! Call me Merrigo Rand and we'll leave it at that, yes yes! Not that I'm him, I'm just a statue of him, well not exactly even that... but as to what I want! Why, I'm here to help, as you've no doubt noticed!"
The statue spread its hands in a magnanimous gesture. "Lovely idea, this... what did you call it? Illumine Alliance of yours. Oh, we've heard every word you said in the command tent. Rather squishy in there, by the way, remind me to form a chamber for you somewhere. Listen. We like this idea. And we're ready, or soon we will be, to open up again. We're happy to let you romp around topside but you'll have to vacate the tunnels. For your own safety, you understand."
The statue struck a thoughtful pose, resting its bearded chin on the knuckles of its right fist. "So I guess what I, what we're, saying is this. The Alliance. We want to be a part of it. Deal?"
"Ah, I'll have to talk it over with the rest of the Council... but yes, I think they will accept," Phillippe replied as he recovered from his shock.
"Haha! Marvellous!" Merrigo grinned. "Oh, we'll all be great friends! It's been ages since I've had anyone to chat to. So. I hear you've been thinking of opening this place up to more people. Let's see what we can do about securing it, hmm?" |
|
|
|
|
|
A Rumour
Posted: 04 Apr 2006 07:45 PM |
There is a rumour quietly going around the lands that the fabled and little-known Haven (who many maintain never existed and was a prank by a wizard who animated a floating skull to see how many it could fool) has shut down operations.
It is said that the place became far too dangerous to inhabit and was overrun with strange magics and gigantic stone creatures that were difficult to harm, and had the ability to move through rock as if it were water.
They say that the Aristi have fled and moved operations to far-off Urdunnir. Inhabitants of Icy Vale confirm that they have been seeing movement outside their walls, travelling furtively westward, skirting the southern edge of the frontier town and heading in the general direction of Coldheart Canyon and the Nothari'in Mines, beyond which the vast mountain ranges of Urdunnir lie. |
|
|
|
|