Nerd Pride Radio

Shortly after returning to the central area of Runeforge, Kay takes a deep breath and realizes that she no longer feels that tightness in her chest she felt ever since they stepped beyond the mist and truly entered the Halls of Karzoug.

"Oh... I don't feel weakened anymore... that's so nice..." she blurts out.

Eldthor comments that he, also, no longer feels invigorated, and a brief discussion ensues about what mechanism could be at work in this strengthening/weakening trend they have noticed. The fact that in the two halls they have entered the people impacted by the effect have been people who, undoubtedly, have a strong personal relationship, makes it very curious.

Dwyn seems hellbent on figuring this puzzle out... For a woman who insists that she's a simple farm girl who just swings big weapons and doesn't lift the heavy material in terms of "thinkin' and stuff", she certainly does like her a good puzzle... and gets her teeth in and doesn't let go like an Orc with her tusks clamped on a slab of rancid meat... Ugh... I need to think of better analogies!

The conversation drifts into how our personalities or backgrounds might have impacted which one of us was strengthened and which was weakened.

"Well yeah, the first two have been obvious pairings among us. But it's weird that in one married couple you'd have one person weaker or stronger relative to greed. Illian, do you think your life, which maybe has had more twists and turns in experience than Dothan's, could have had more experience with envy, while maybe she has been quite free of those things so far? Maybe it refers to things in our pasts?" Dwyn asks.

"Or it is about the magic type of that area," Dothan suggests.

"Well..." Illian shrugs, "I suppose that I was jealous of her father... that's a kind of envy."

Dwyn responds to Dothan. "Magic type for that was Abjuration because that was the key I had. Not really sure what abjuration is to be honest."

Kay looks down, closes her eyes, then looks back to her companions. "Well... I did spend a portion of my life as a thief... That might make me 'weak to greed'."

Dwyn's eyes widen, "Okay okay now we are getting somewhere - but you were on the streets, you kind of were thrust into it. Maybe even if that's not part of your life now, it was a past thing that explains."

Dothan shrugs, "Doesn't matter. Our data set is too small."

Kay nods, "So next we'll go into the "Lust" area and see who is weakened and who is strengthened... Should be illuminating..."

Dwyn crosses her arms and grumbles.

Dothan's eyes twinkle as she teases her old friend, "Well, if we enter Sorshen's area and find out Kay is also weak to lust, then maybe we're on to something."

Kay sticks out her tongue, rolls her eyes, and goes about preparing to rest. What Kay doesn't mention... yet... is that these pairings also involve the two people who, for a period of time at least, wore the Sihedron medallions.

We know that these medallions have some connection to the Runelords. The Scribbler told us that they were "given to favored agents of the Runelords who are to be used as proxies".

Is it possible that the Runelords were able to use those medallions to spy on us? Were they able to learn about me and my relationship to El and Illian and his relationship to Dotty? If that's the case, then they'll know that I consider Dotty like a sister and Uncle Il like an uncle... so it's likely that we might be paired in one of these areas... Hell, I consider Dwyn and Hal to be like family now, as well. I'm even starting to feel the same way about the Anna and Sam, even though we haven't known them for very long. Hell... I'm sure they knew my father... One of them might even be related to him for all I know! HAH! They could literally be family... imagine that?

Kay walks over to where El is putting down his bedroll and joins him in his preparations.

It's amazing how exhausted I am... We just rested, but I feel like I was walking with weights on in there... Not to mention dealing with Illian after he looked into that pool! Gods! That was scary. I thought he might leap right in!

Sensing his wife's preoccupation, Eldthor reaches out and brushes a stray lock of hair from in front of Kay's eyes and secures it behind her long, delicate ear. "Copper for your thoughts, Cara?"

"I'm not sure they're worth that much..." she laughs and looks away. "Right now they're kind of a jumble... It's just... I'm just really amazed at how much the energy drain seems to have taken out of me... that and chasing around after Illian after he looked into that pool! He reminded me so much of Dothan when she loses focus! He was like a restless little kid... Makes me wonder if I ever want to have one." Her face heats and she turns toward her husband, a blush rising on her cheeks. "I mean... if I end up pregnant I'm sure I'll be happy... but..."

Eldthor leans down and kisses her, stopping her rambling and deepening the coloration of her already red face. When the brief, tender kiss is over, she sees the combination of love, humor, and understanding sparkling in Eldthor's gorgeous green eyes. Kay smiles, reaches up to caress his cheek, and shakes her head. "If we do have children, I hope they have your eyes... Hey..." she knits her brows and rubs his cheek, "your beard hasn't grown at all... has it? This place is so strange..." She shakes her head with a sigh and they go back to setting up their bedrolls.

As they finish their preparations and lie down to rest, Kay sighs and decides she shouldn't keep her suspicions to herself any longer. "You know, El... I think there might be another explanation for the pairings of who has been weakened and who has been strengthened."

"Oh? What's that?" Eldthor sits up on his bedroll and opens his arms.

Kay takes her husband's invitation and crawls into his lap, luxuriating in the warmth of his embrace, if only for a few moments. She rests her head against his broad chest, closes her eyes, and twirls a lock of his blonde hair around on her index finger while she launches into her explanation.

"Well, it was Illian and me who wore those Sihedron medallions for so many weeks, sweetie... And remember what the Scribbler said about them? They were "given to favored agents of the Runelords who are to be used as proxies." What if that means that all the time we were wearing those things, the Runelords were somehow able to spy on us and that's how our relationships are known here and why we're being targeted in pairs like this? And it was Illian that was weakened the first time and me the second time. We were the ones wearing the damned things, and the people we love the most in the world were strengthened... And, El... sweetie... I have to admit that there were times in there when I really felt like you weren't acting like yourself and it scared me. I don't know if I was just being paranoid because I knew you had something influencing you, but every time you did something that seemed... I don't know... cocky or brash... I felt like it was some outside influence pushing you to do it... I just had this fear that somehow the Runelords were trying to take you away from me... It was probably my normal paranoia getting the better of me..."

She sits up straight, puts both hands on his shoulders, and looks into her husband's eyes. "Please! Tell me it was?"

As Kay was talking about the medallions and his behavior in the hall of greed, Thor wondered if there really is something to her concerns. Why did he feel strengthened in there? He never really thought of himself as being particularly prone or virtuous in regards to being greedy, he just felt... normal. And why had he felt a desire to enter the workrooms and craft things? How did he even know he could do those things?

As he feels Kay shift in his lap and begin to turn to look at him, he quickly focuses his mind on soothing her, smiling at her. "Of course it was your paranoia! Nobody's trying to take me away from you, and they wouldn't be able to even if they did try!"

He bends down and gives her another kiss, and as she settles her head back onto his chest, the smile slowly fades to a slight frown as he contemplates her ideas...

As he contemplated the collection of human (mostly) remains carried deep in his bag - ancient dust inside a dimension inside another dimension..._ Hal felt his attitude about the place shift, hard. He watched Illian finally sleep, a day after loosening his affliction, now visibly afflicted, and shook his head.
Where before he felt that Thassilon might have been a gateway to some higher effort for human achievement, the libraries, the insights. He was now entirely contemptuous. Their striving had eaten them alive. Their civilization hadn't civilized them. They learned nothing from all their learning. The capricious deaths of the possibly transformed, even if they had originally been fish, had convinced him of their utter selfishness.
This place was a cathedral to self importance and disregard and disloyalty,..and cruelty.

Illian shifted and smiled, perhaps slipping further into innocence, or madness; the wizards were stirring, and Hal finally allowed himself some repose.

When he awoke, he retained only a shred of his original intent: that parley might be possible with survivors, that rescue or escape might have some value for someone who had been trapped, willingly or otherwise.
As they entered the huge cavern of lust, however, the flying demons and rows of cages convinced him that this place had absolutely nothing to offer. That it was time to erase any possibility of a return of any sensible fragment of Thassilon. The language he had just mastered became just like Infernal: a way to understand, to penetrate, to destroy an enemy. There was a demon at the heart of this chamber too, at the heart of each of them, that needed to be banished from the earth.

He whispered a prayer, "Iomedae, grant me your strength of heart and clarity of vision, that I may protect my friends as we obliterate any trace of this horror." There would be no parley.

[ooooooh Im so excited! I missed this earlier and just read it all now! So good! Bravo to all!]