A young chap about town and his playing of the cards

Last week’s installment of the prologue is here: http://gentlemanccg.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/dungeons-and-dragons-prologue-2/

Dare we enter the temple? I had never before seen such a place. Evil permeated around the entire place but we were certain that whatever it was we were looking for…this “artifact” was here. We stepped over the threshold and before we had time to think the door closed behind us. There was no indication of a way out, so we pressed on.

Columns lined the outside of this evil place; it looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. On the floor a skull symbol with a hole for the mouth, down the hole: who knows what? A memory sparked: this was one of the symbols of Bane. This must be the place! This was when we noticed the blue spectral form of an elf on a dias at the other end of the temple.

We spoke to the elf in common, hoping that he would understand. The lack of response led our half-elves, the ranger and the rogue, to try conversing with the spirit in elven. It was at this point that myself and the dwarf dropped out of the conversation. Although the dwarf, being a natural enemy of all elves (this dwarf in particular), he started to grumble about “the elf said this the elf said that”. To be honest I stop listening after a while when it comes to the dwarf.

Our half-elves began relaying information back to us from the spirit. Apparently this was a high elven temple, and one day an artifact came to them from…a tear, in a glass vial, that was shed by the god Bane. The elven specter seemed little interested in non-elves though, and when I tried to ask it a question through one of my companions the question was dimissed immediately. The conversation continued, with the dwarf ignorant of the fact that the sprit could not speak common.

“Ey, elf!” He cried, “what can we do to get the tear?”
“I HAVE A NAME DWARF!”

The sound echoed around the chamber. The elf could indeed understand us. It was at this point that we learned his name was Samil, and that he was appointed the guardian of this temple. He guarded the tear against the evils it would spew forth given half-a-chance. This was where we came in. The spirit was weak and needed our help. He needed a sacrifice to make himself stronger. We explained that Karazad the Black and his horde of Orcs was on his way here to steal the tear and he simply stated that this was why we needed to help him.

It was at this point that we realised the sprit had been corrupted by the tear. It’s not that he was lying about getting stronger, he sincerely believed what he was saying, and he was not of evil intent by nature given his sacrifice initially to guard the tear in mortal and immortal form. This is the effect the tear has on you. It corrupts. You change. After being in its presence you won’t feel the same again. The power.

Anyway, we also realised that of the columns around the room, one of them was broken, and a blue glowing light was escaping. We reasoned that this must be part of where his power was coming from, but we needed to make him realise that we needed to take the tear out of here. Using all of our skills with diplomacy we managed to convince Samil that we were not evil, but he himself had become a vessel for it.

Samil agreed. He reasoned that the tear would be safer with us, but not one of us could touch it without feeling its corrupting influence. The only way was for one of to fuse with his spirit. This extra layer would protect us from the worst of Bane’s corruptions.

Only one problem, who would take the tear. This burden could destroy my very soul, but being a follower of Ilmater I couldn’t let anyone else take this on. I said I would do it, and the elf stated that in order to complete the ritual I would have to kill him. Even though he was a spirit already I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of killing him. The elf stated that he wasn’t in pain and willingingly offered himself for this, just as I did. It tore my soul apart but I did it, the moment my sword struck his neck it became solid, and the vapours that formed his being vanished…into me.

I felt somewhat strange, but not too different. I knew the spirit was safe inside me, but that was all. With haste we made our way over to the hole in the floor. The others lowered myself and the rogue down to the tear only to find, as we suspected, it was highly trapped. Disarming them was a simple task for our rogue, and before we knew it I had the tear in my hands.

Now, how to get out of this place. I wondered if the spirit inside me would know, but since it was just an aura or sorts and not a being I could converse with, I was unsure of how to proceed. I put my hand on the door and asked it to open in a moment of desperation. Lo and behold…the door slid back and we emerged from the temple with the tear and a mission: we must destroy the Tear of Bane!