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From: [e-mail] (Lance Dooly)
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Subject: STORY: The Tales of Dark Haven (Chapter 9)
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Date: 24 Jul 1995 09:47:02 -0400
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-------------------------- The Tales of Dark Haven ---------------------------
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-                                                                            -
- These stories are from an on-going E-mail campaign, and are currently      -
- maintained by Lance Dooly ([e-mail]).  New stories will be  -
- posted in rec.games.frp.archives and are available for anonymous FTP       -
- at tfnet.ils.unc.edu in /pub/dark.                                         -
-                                                                            -
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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------------------ Chapter 9: Mendahl and the Silver Lady --------------------
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(Arlon:)
"Let's be off to the Wide for healing, I also want to show these
things to Mendahl and relate our experiences."

Arlon will seek out Mendahl and give a brief description of the more
interesting things that happened during the battle - the resistance to
magic, the potion etc...

(Silver:)
Hearing that [Mendahl and gang are in the wide, aiding setting up a
'field hospital' for the clerics] from Tuft, Silver will immediately
head toward that direction, announcing to the party that she is going
there because she may be of some help in tending the wounded.  Turning
from seeing Tarok alive, still smiling, she looks to the Wide, where
she sees ...

(DM:)
Those of you talking about seeing Mendahl, look over to the Wide where
you last heard he was. He is still there, and is busily fussing over a
beautiful lady with long silver hair who appears HEAVILY wounded. She
is suspended by pure magical energy, which springs up in a purple
crackling well beneath her. The crackling energy now and then snakes
out to Mendahl who stands next to her with a grieved expression on his
face. While you watch, Adara Jheale (the innkeeper of Midnight's
Run) walks up, her face smudged with soot, her clothes rent. With her
is Lord Kael, also looking worse for wear, his armor hanging in shreds
and tatters about him. The two look down at the silver haired woman,
and gasp in shock. The three begin a heated discussion about
something.

(Dithion:)
Dithion says, "Yon stands Mendahl, let us go and speak with him."

(Shade:)
"Maybe this is not the best moment we can choose, Dithion" -
interjects the bard - "the powerful mage looks in distress for that
lovely lady.."  Realizing that no one is on the same line of thought,
the drow shudders and follows the comrades to Mendahl.

(Falrun:)
Falrun approaches Mendahl with Dithion.  While Dithion is attempting to
engage Mendahl in conversation, Falrun carefully examines the body
suspended in the air in front of him and tries to determine what it is
that has these three in such a heated debate.

(Silver:)
Like Falrun, Silver will also examine the woman floating in the air
carefully (considering the fact that she is "suspended by pure magical
energy, which springs up in a purple crackling well beneath her")

Silver will try to determine what type of hurt the woman has taken,
especially curious about her hair (which matches Silver's). "My dear
Mendahl, how has she been hurt - Poison?  Physical blow?  Mental
attack?"

Silver will ready herself once more to call upon her goddess once she
knows how she can best help.

(Kaeyar:)
On the way to the Wide, Kaeyar skulks around at the back of the group,
not taking any notice of the discussions the others are having.  Upon
arriving, he is fascinated by the awesome magical forces in use.  He
stares, and mumbles comments and questions, and hardly seems to notice
the woman who is so grievously hurt...

(Dithion:)
Dithion walks over to Mendahl (with the others I presume), and says,
when there is a break in the argument. "Lord Mendahl, my companions
and I would conference with ye, if ye have a moment or two."

(Shade:)
Shade bites his lips to prevent himself from cursing Dithion "Och guy,
we had better wait for him to ask us why we are here..."

(Arlon:)
Arlon to Dithion, seeing that he may be anxious to get a word in - he
would also say this if Dithion starts to say something to Mendahl
before he acknowledges us: "Dithion, perhaps we should wait for
Mendahl to recognize us instead of interjecting ourselves.  Their
attentions seem to be keenly focused on other things."

Arlon intently watches the goings on - the conversations and
especially the lady in the magical light.

OOC: Who has the bottle, with that liquid, at the moment?

(Tatiana:)
With immense relief that the Dwarf has survived, Tatiana turned in
mock anger and headed toward Mendahl with the rest of her friends,
although she stood quietly by observing.

(Dithion:)
He awaits his (Mendahl's) answer.

(DM:)
When you guys all reach Mendahl, Dithion rudely interrupts the ongoing
discussion.

"What do you want!" Shout Mendahl, Adara and Lord Kael simultaneously.

(Shade:)
"Forgive our impoliteness, master, may we be of any help to you ? As I
said, masters, if we can be of any help just tell us" - replies the
drow quietly - "when you will be able to dedicate some minutes to us,
we'd like to submit a couple of strange things to your knowledge."

(Arlon:)
Arlon: "Forgive our impudence Master, we are weary from battle.  I
hope the spell will pull her through, I know the feeling of when a
close one is seriously injured.

(DM:)
Shade and Arlon begin apologizing and explaining, and the triad
visibly relaxes.

"What is it that you want." Speaks Lord Kael.

(Arlon:)
"I will be brief, we found this potion near one of the strangely
transformed natives, they seemed impervious to 'normal' weapons and
even the weapons they carried were transformed; but alas these were
destroyed in the magical fire.  We thought the potion may be of
interest to you."

(DM:)
The lady suspended by the purple energy cascade appears to be wounded
physically. Large gashes and rends cover her body, here and there bone
shows through, or the pearly membranes of internal organs. Not a
pretty sight.  As you look closely, it appears the energy well is
slowly mending her body and the discussion appeared to be on the best
action, whether this healing would be sufficiently fast, or whether
they should ask a high priest to come and help, disrupting the current
spell.

(Arlon:)
Well, Arlon will wait - for a little while anyway - to see if he can
discuss the liquid in the bottle with Mendahl (and debrief him on
other things).  If there is time tonight to discuss it he will,
otherwise he will ask Mendahl if he can see him in the morning (when
the sun is up, I suppose it is still night).

(DM:)
Hmm, just to give you guys an indication, it is now about 5 am in the
morning, and the sun's rays begin to pierce the light grey sky.....

(Keilan:)
While the group stands about interrupting important personages, one or
more of you may notice that Keilan is no longer present.  Indeed the
observant might recall that he didn't join the flock of intruders.  In
any case he is no longer in the Wide.

(Silver:)
OOC: Silver does not notice that Keilan is not around, she is too
     preoccupied with other matters. Is Tarok with us still, or has he
     got hit on the head by a falling wall again 8-).

(Silver:)
With a very concerned look on her face as she surveys the extent of
the damage that this woman has taken, she turns to Mendahl and says
urgently "Please, allow me to assist - I can act as a channel to allow
divine healing to take place."

(Arlon:)
"Hey Silver, why don't you send some healing over this way". Arlon is
scratched and scorched, down 6 hps.

(Silver:)
Silver replies with a smile "I'll do that later, over the dinner you
promised me !"

(Arlon:)
Arlon smiles back with a slight nod to his head.


(DM/Mendahl):
"Okay, what is it that is so interesting you got."

(Arlon:)
Arlon holds out the container toward Mendahl.  "I can discuss the
other things with you later if you wish, Master."

(DM/Mendahl to Arlon:)
"Now I do not have time to look into such things. It is interesting,
those creatures you battled. We had problems with three other such
groups, but our methods to their demise were so destructive as to
leave no recoverable trace of them or their possessions. I would be
very interested in seeing the potion you liberated. Come to my tower
some time tomorrow night, or (looking at the arriving sun) rather this
night. At my tower I have the proper equipment to attempt to see what
it is. Also you might want to see Daermon S'Zrida'hn, our Drow friend
who owns the local alchemy store. He is quite knowledgeable on the
subject of potions and Necromancy both. As I can see from your own
drow friend, you have no qualms of speaking to one, and know not all
are twisted and evil (this with a slight acknowledging nod to Shade).
For now I will stay at the side of Shilara, and then will have to
sleep."

(Arlon:)
Arlon replies to Mendahl "Thank you for your patience Master, I will
do as you suggest."

(Silver:)
I ask them earnestly once more to let me bestow the healing powers of
Mielikki upon Lady Shilara. "We owe her such a great debt, will you
not let me help ?"

Meta: I *really* want to try this, but will eventually bow to their
      judgment if they choose not to accept my offer.

(DM/Mendahl):
"Please, do not heal the Lady Shilara while under influence of the
spell she is. It is a regenerative spell that we hope will be able to
cure her. She was at death's door, and we were afraid of losing her to
Death. She (Lady Shilara) is the silver dragon that helped us so much,
and she cannot be raised by mortal magic should she cross the
threshold into the dark domain."

(Arlon:)
Arlon jumps a little bit:
"Silver, I am sure they are doing all they can for her, even so you
would probably need to wait for the current spell to reach completion
- calm down."

He then gives the trio of leaders an apologetic smile.

(Silver to Arlon:)
Silver looks with a slightly pained expression to Arlon as if to say
'please, don't think me *totally* stupid'.


(Arlon:)
"I did not mean to offend you, you appeared over-anxious - to the
point of interrupting the current spell."

Pausing for a moment, he adds "If you are any indication of what your
god is like, I would like to know more about her."

(Silver:)
Silver will soften her expression to Arlon considerably, and then
smile gently at him, before turning back to Mendahl and the Silver
Lady.

(DM/Mendahl):
"Lady, please, do not be so pushy, this spell must finish ere another
should be cast upon Shilara.

(Silver to Mendahl:)
"Of course I understand, I would not be so presumptuous as to
interfere with powers beyond my knowledge. I offer my services, and
those of my Goddess, if you feel you may have need of them. If you are
beyond doubt that you will not need the help I offer the Lady Shilara,
then I shall help some of the others.  Her power and beauty are a
thing to behold and must not be endangered."

Silver will await his response before either helping Shilara or the
others in the field hospital.

OOC: The motivation behind Silver being so insistent here is that
     Silver remembers their conversation as we arrived - [.... the
     discussion appeared to be on the best action, whether this
     healing would be sufficiently fast, or whether they should ask a
     high priest to come and help, disrupting the current spell.]. She
     is slightly taken aback - do they not think her powerful enough
     (how would they know what she is capable of), or do they scorn
     her Goddess ?

(Silver:)
What happened with the Lady Shilara ? Did I actually cast my spell on
her to aid her curing, or was I finally convinced not to bother with
it ?

(DM:)
Nope, Silver did NOT cast the spell..

(Shade:)
After talking to Mendahl, Shade suggests we all need some hours of
restful sleep....

(Arlon:)
Arlon will then go back to the Commons for some rest. On the way, he
asks Shade "Would you care to go with me to see this Daermon
S'Zrida'hn about the potion's properties, later today?  Then I would
go see Mendahl later tonight.

Speaking of seeing anyone, where is Keilan?"

(Tatiana:)
Tatiana took an involuntary step backwards away from Mendahl and her
friends.  She pursed her lips as if she was stung by something sharp.

*I knew you should have gone straight to bed!* Tuft's thoughts came to
her.

*I didn't hear you say anything along those lines?* she thought back
empathically.

*I thought it was obvious, even to a dullard* his thought were colored
with playful sarcasm. *It's probably only a strangely colored healing
potion anyways.  Besides, Mendahl fared worse from the battle than you
all did*

*Look, I'm tired and I don't need to hear these discouraging words
right now.  These are my friends and I'm sticking by them even if we
do make fools of ourselves by thinking we are more important than we
are*

*Fine have it your way, I'll be roosting in an abandoned tree I found
earlier before all this racket started.  Really you humans are up at
ungodly hours*

Tuft's mind flitted away and Tatiana didn't try to maintain the
connection.  She put on her best smile (when appropriate) and
continued to observe quietly.

(Arlon:)
Then I will continue going back to the Commons (what is left of it)
and get some rest.  "Well, that was certainly an interesting welcoming
committee."  "I haven't seen a fire show like that since that red
dragon I saw wipe out a small town, it had a severe personality
disorder."

(Silver:)
After the battle, Silver feels desperately tired, but will not want to
return to the Commons to rest until she is sure that all the wounded
have been checked over and are not in danger of dying during the next
few hours.  Once that has been done, she will return to the rest of
the party.

(Falrun:)
After the long battle, Falrun too feels the exhaustion creep over his
body.  "I've spent longer times awake during a battle but now that
this battle is over, I too will head back to the Commons for what rest
is available."

With those words Falrun turns with the rest of the party that is
headed for the Commons.

(Kaeyar:)
Kaeyar waits impatiently for the others to stop pestering Mendahl.  As
they break away and head towards the Commons, Kaeyar mutters to
himself, wondering if the group will get charged another gold coin to
use beds that they haven't even used once.

"Of course," he says, "I'm now in a much better position to pay...
Plucking corpses may be beneath the rest of you *snort* but nobility
sure doesn't pay the bills."

(Silver:)
With a wry smile, Silver acknowledges Kaeyar "Without doubt you are
ever the practical one, Kaeyar. I would not call it nobility, but it
does indeed have it's own rewards."

(Arlon:)
"The dead have no need for trinkets, would we not take the treasure
hoard of a fallen foe; and if you remember I was the one who openly
suggested the idea.  There is nothing ignoble about it, some people
just draw the line before others - its just a mind set.  We need to be
practical now.  Good job Kaeyar."

Arlon wondering if he was able to get a trinket before the swift
handed Kaeyar retrieved them all?

(Kaeyar:)
"I wonder if the Commons is even in any shape for us to use..."

(Silver:)
"Indeed, my friend, indeed. I shall be here for a while yet, so if you
have any news about our accommodation, then please be so kind as to let
me know. I shall be with the wounded for a couple of hours yet."

(Kaeyar:)
OOC: If we need to pay at the Commons again, Kaeyar will give a native
     trinket to anyone who is short of cash, and smirk.  If the place
     is trashed, he'll retrieve any stuff of his that he can find (and
     loot any more native corpses :-), and head to the Wide.  If we're
     sleeping at the Wide, he tells Dithion to wake him after
     Dithion's watch...
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------------------------------- End of Chapter 9 -----------------------------
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--
*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*'``'*,..,*
Lance Dooly
[e-mail]                         "Not I," said the cat.
Physics/Chemistry/Philosophy   (PCP?!)