Chapter 10: "Search and Recover"
Tonight was a night that will go down in the history as one of the most bizarre and brave nights for the heroes of UOAlive. As the clock struck 7, more adventurers than had been seen in quite some time gathered around the fires in the Luna Refugee camp setup by the mages of Wind.
"Where is Morwen? Step forward!"
The Magistrate of Wind made her first appearance.
The adventures gathered around as she spoke.
She told them of their resolve, that their world could have been cracked apart has they not found the relics, and the harsh truth of Luna.
"Luna has fallen", The Magistrate said with a stern face.
"Our only hope now is to contain the evil magics seeping from the ground in what we call a timeloop..."
An adventurer blurted out their inner most thoughts with a shock,
"What is a time loop?"
The Magistrate, without getting into too many details explained,
"The stars, the moon, and the sun all rotate, expressing what we experience as time. When we have the Relics from inside the walls of Luna we shall use them to cast a shadow on the one light city of Luna to stop all time itself. Destined to repeat itself for an eternity in order to save the rest of this land. This way the maddened creatures won't even know they are secluded from our world."
The words stung like daggers to those still holding out hope that Luna could be saved, but the Magistrate saw this on their faces and immediately spoke sharply and to the point,
"If you do not do this now, the Shard itself will shatter, and the world you know will be gone, as well as everyone and everything you love in it. I hate to tell those of you who still bolstered hope, but Luna was lost the minute the old rune library exploded. But it is not about riches and awards anymore, it is about your survival and the survival of the entire Shard!"
She asked if there were any other questions but everyone remained silent now awaiting their next instructions. They understood the brevity of the situation ahead of them.
The magistrate of Wild pointed toward to 3 Potions of Weightlessness on a table in front of her.
"We have been able to create 3 potions of weightlessness to help you to retrieve the relics and release them from the foundation of the library. You have two relics and three potions... do not miss."
Suddenly a very brazen voice could be heard,
"they will, bunch of incompetent fools..."
There he was, Surveyor John... Alive and well... well mostly, his legs were made of a forged gold metalic color, his face covered in burns and his hands wrapped showing no skin at all. He rode a new golden steed as well, I guess he got paid afterall...
"Surveyor John here, will be escorting you to the Relics as I am unable to enter the city" the Magistrate said to the shocked sounds of the audience around her.
"How can we trust this guy?!" shouted someone in the crowd.
"If you are all dead, I don't make money you fools. So don't you worry your tits off about me, I will get us there. Plus m' new legs haven't failed me yet" - He smirked as he took a swig of his last bottle of @Schuyler Bain 's ale.
Surveyor John gathered the 3 potions for safe keeping as they all prepared to enter the city.
Immediately upon reaching the gates, rats, snakes, rodents sprung up from the earth!
"I HATE RATS!" - Surveyor John proclaimed, it seemed the city was still manifesting fears from nightmares.
They made their way through the current wave of beasts and made quick work of many in their path.. until John's breath chilled. The air infront of him froze. And as he turned to ask if anyone else felt a chill he saw the breath of his brethren freeze as well and the ground burst open with Ice Demons and Elementals from all over!
They fought hard and made their way to the steps of the broken library.
"MARVIN" John yelled.
Morwen stepped forward, and he handed her the first potion. Alas, she slipped and it fell from her hand cracking on the floor.
The entire groups gasp was enough to send shivers up their spines without ice demons around them.
2 potions left... John was not ready to give it to Malvin again. He looked for his "friend"
@Schuyler Bain he handed him a potion and said
"Last chance to get this, otherwise we have to use the last one for the collar as it is more important!"
Bain felt the pressure of the moment as as he lit the magical cocktail, forgot to let go of it as he held it over the remains of the staff on the ground.
*EXPLOSION*
"Did you just blow your hand off Bain?!" - John said in a gasp...
But regardless, the staff remains came free from the magic bonding and were able to be carried. But something was amiss and Arch Daemons began to summon around them as the foundation of the library shook violently below their feet. Then earth elementals. And then stone! The library itself was becoming the enemy! But the Arch Daemons... these had not been seen since Duma was last seen in the flesh. But the adventurer's were not worried about this as they were focused more on their fate once again lying in the hands of Morwen, since Bane only had one usable one left.
Everyone gathered around Morwen, the silence palpable.
John yelled: "NOW"
Morwen tossed the potion from the top steps
3...2....1....
1 potion missed.
1 Potion took off a hand
The last potion .... A PERFECT THROW!!!
The gorget of nightmares, seemed to lift from it's weighted place in the lava and float all the way to Morwen's pack!
John a gasp,
"let's get out of the city now!"
They quickly made their way toward the gates they entered. But wave after wave of the nightmares they faced, decended upon them in greater numbers this time, and just as they were about to get to the gates... THE SPIRIT OF DUMA appeared!
And with that an army unlike any seen before of Arch Daemons amassed upon the adventurer's. So many that the screams of them falling from their steeds before they could even swing their axes once could shatter glass!
Everything they worked for seemed hopeless and the heroes fell one, by one, by one… then all of a sudden..
With a snap of the fingers snapped back to the edge with John saying “Don’t miss you git” looking over the collar of nightmares once more…
John turned to Malvin... confused.
Did they all just have a collective dream and awake at the same time? What the hell just happened?
He ordered a retreat back to the Magistrate of Wind... one potion still in hand, he decided it best not to repeat what could only be a foretelling of things to come?
They went to the Magistrate of Wind to discuss. She was shocked to see them back so soon. "Do you have the Relics?"
When they told The Magistrate what had happened... they fought their way into the city, they got all the relics, Duma appeared in spirit... they died... she knew what had happened, her worst fears had come to life, Duma was alive.. In a sense and their waking nightmare was a reality.
Because they freed and wielded the Duma 's Skull Staff, when the Captain Bain fell and took his last breath, his last thought turned to truth, "My fackin hand is burned to hell, and I am out of rum", a side effect of a magical staff of this magnitude occurred. He summoned a dream state(the same Duma often spoke of)… a waking nightmare. He triggered the Time Loop that the magi of wind planned to use the staff itself for to trap the monsters in Luna and now... Duma as well.
The magistrate of Wind continue to tell the adventurer's how lucky they were to have that staff but also how this changed everything. She asked for the staff and began to infuse it with magics to cast the first part of the plan into motion.
But with this troubling news and the foretelling of Duma’s appearance, if they freed the collar from the base of the Library floor, they knew that it would release Duma from the Libraries grasp ofn them! They could not go back for the Collar of Nightmares, Duma was too connected to it.
But with the staff The Magistrate of Wind was able to infuse, she began to tighten the grip on the portals spilling evil into the world.
The staff itself proved powerful enough to protect the doorways of Luna from allowing any of the evil to continue spilling outside the gates and also create a new energy that will be used to help the adventurers in their battle. Easing the pain of the battles significantly.
But this was only a patch and the start of a very difficult journey for the adventurers. As larger evils spawned inside the gates and the adventurers fought valiantly to defeat the waves,
As they became less and less organized and their unity / group effort waned the Magistrate of Wind decided it was time to regroup her own thoughts about these monsters, sent by Duma, from wherever they were being held beneath Luna! The heroes continuing to bash everything inside the walls of Luna. As The magistrate saddled her royal steed, and John disappeared into the night as quickly as he appeared, you could hear the Magistrate mumbling to herself...
"But now that we know Duma lives, this changes everything. How will we get that collar of Nightmares?! How will we capture not only the energy of evil in Luna, but now Duma’s spirit itself, less Duma becomes UNCHAINED."
Her portal back to Wind evaporated the sounds of metal and magic flying in the walls of Luna still heard from miles away as the adventures still scattered throughout, smashed on the waves crashing against Luna with a sheer effort of brute force and resilience.
We can only hope the effort seen tonight wasn't for naught and they can all work as a group again to make their final push, using the one relic they did get, knowing exactly who their enemy is now, utilizing these new found comradery, and knowing who they must defeat to end this nightmare. They must put to sleep DUMA once and for all!
