Jalil says, "May I ask, Random, if you know... What god
did/does Mordecai worship?"
Random says, "That is almost another story in and of its
self, but I'll attempt to tell it quickly. Mordecai was branded with the mark of
Taath. He had been very, very young when he was indoctrinated into that temple, and
itwas before he met Lorin, the human woman he fell in love with. As she was dying of
a disease which had striken that entire village, Mordecai pleaded with Taath, and stole
thousands of silver to back his pleas for her restored health. But Taath turned a
deaf ear on such pleas, and left Mordecai to watch the woman he loved painfully die.
Thus, he was not well disposed to Taath."
Turaniel sighs.
Kyrena hugs Jalil.
Jalil cries.
Random says, "Anyhow."
Jalil says, "Sa would NEVER do that to me..."
Jalil cries.
(Turaniel comforts Jalil.)
Random says, "Mordecai was frozen by those words spoken
by his friend. The idea of continuing what he had said left his mind, and Kyle left in a
huff. The crowd that had gathered was still murmering, when Kythor returned and saw
Mordecai. Laurana, Kyle's wife, had been attempting to console Mordecai when Kythor
stated that he intended to return the death he had been given. Mordecai turned to him and
said he did not realluy care, if he wanted his life he could have it. Kythor was
annoyed at that, but took it as an opportunity to be cruel. And so he set out
casting his Jackals upon Mordecai to burn him to death. Laurana tried to heal him, but
could not match Kythor's magick, and in the end Mordecai died, which sated Kythor's taste
for revenge and he left. Some minutes later, Mordecai had healed the wounds and was back
on his feet. Laurana was terribly upset at all this, but Mordecai did not seem to
care.Shortly, Kyle returned and was very quiet, not answering his wife's pleas for
sanity. There was still somewhat of a crowd, and they of course turned again to see
the spectacle. After a very few moments, Kyle screamed in rage and lunged at Mordecai with
his sword. Mordecai fixed his gaze on him and halted the attack mid swing. One
of the spectators, a Leuian hand cleric named Macavity, saw this as a good time to
intervene and delivered a powerful blow to Mordecai's head, killing him yet again. After
killing him, he knocked Mordecai's sword away and made a move to pick it up, but was
stopped by Junior, a Thuggian who had also befriended Mordecai. Junior picked up the
sword and stated that anyone who wanted to try and take Mordecai's sword would have to pry
it out of his dead hand. By this time, Junior was a renknown warrior. Needless to
say, no one seemed terribly interested in the sword any longer. Mordecai soon was back,
and Junior returned the sword.The night dwindled down to day again, and Mordecai sunk
deeply into despair.When the next night came, Indigo, a very powerful Leuian mage, sought
out Mordecai to tell him that the swords he had taken from Hex were badly cursed.
Artaxerxes and Ariellyn and [sic] sought her aid, thinking that something like that might
be the case. A meeting was set for Indigo and Ariellyn to attempt to call upon
magick and the power of Rinanni to remove the curse from them. When the time came about,
Indigo was no-where to be found. Which was not
uncommon, she had many very pressing duties and was prone to being called away. And
it was left to Ariellyn and Artaxerxes to call upon the power of
Rinanni to remove the curse from the blades. The diamond sword was placed upon the alter,
which seemed to recoil at its touch, and Ariellyn began praying to Rinanni to clense the
blade of it's evil history. A bright emerald glow surrounded the altar, and when it faded
the sword looked both the same, and somehow much cleaner. The second sword was placed on
the altar and again Ariellyn called out to Rinanni. This time the glow became so bright
none there could look into it, but before turning away, Artaxerxes saw it grow outward to
envelop Ariellyn as well. When at last it faded, the sword was gone, and Ariellyn was
lying very still upon the floor. Artaxerxes let out a cry, and fell to his knees by
her side, and took her into his arms.After some very harrowing moments, her eyes fluttered
open, much to Artaxerxes' and Mordecai's relief. Her Lifemate helped her to her feet
and held her very closely to him. After a time, she said simply, that the sword had been
the one which bound the spell cast upon her, and that she had been freed from it. The
brightness of the moment could not quite reach Mordecai though, for he knew that Hex would
seek revenge for the unbinding of the spell, and that the Dhuuvghal's anger would fall
upon him. After the night his friend had attacked him, Mordecai had grown very
distant, and had taken to venturing outinto the night alone.On several nights he had met
with another Muatana, who's name was Esteban, and the two had had some small
conversation. Esteban seemed to know a great deal about the goings on, and the
nature of Dhuvghaal, yet he would say very little. On one of these nights Mordecai met yet
another of his kind, who's name was Lilit. She was good company in the dark of the
night, and they went deep into the thieve's guild to lose their worries in simple
combat."
Kyrena says, "Not Lilly Aeneath, Random?"
Kyrena says, "[spelling?]"
Random says, "No, Lilit Vargisholt."
Random says, "After several such nights, fighting the
endless idiots who attacked them in the guild, he confided his situation to her. As
it turned out, she knew Esteban well, and seemed to think that he would be able to help
against Hex. She said that once, long ago, Esteban had killed, in as final a manner as a
Dhuuvghal can be killed, Hex. She arranged for Mordecai to meet Esteban in the Rose
Eternal, in the Merchant's Circle."
Kyrena says, "More than a simple death, Random?"
Random nods to Kyrena.
Random says, "Around this time, I had started having
strange visions. I kept seeing the temple of Rinanni in ruins, and Hex was somehow
responsible. I told this to Ariellyn, and I suppose she told it to Mordecai. I
also told Aremaia, but she was unruffled. She said it was just a dream, and if it wasn't,
well, the temple could be rebuilt."
Jalil says, "Aremaia.. Was she High Priestess?"
Random nods to Jalil.
Random says, "Mordecai had his meeting with Esteban, in
the Rose Eternal. Lilit and Mordecai told Esteban about Hex having returned, which, of
course he knew. They tried to convince him that he should kill Hex, but he was not
at all interested in the prospect. He said that he had no reason to kill Hex.
Mordecai told him that Hex intended to destroy Rinanni's temple, to which Esteban
laughed. Esteban was, he said, quite unconcernedd with the state of
Rinanni's temple, and told Mordecai that if Taath's symbol meant anything he should not
care either. Mordecai said he had forsaken Taath, and all other gods, to which
Esteban informed him he should not be so certain he was not doing Taath's will.
Lilit
intervened in the discussion and asked Esteban, who was an Assassin by trade, how much it
would cost to persaude him to utilize his craft on Hex. He informed her, very
matter-of-factly that his standard retaining fee was five hundred thousand gold.
Lilit, unruffled, said she thought the money could be raised, but asked if there were any
other sort of arrangement that could be made. Earlier, Mordecai had mentioned that Hex had
given Witold a Fang of Rhangkorre with which to kill Strangeangel. That was the one
thing that had seemed to make any difference at all to Esteban, who had said upon hearing
that tiding, `He DARES bring a Fang into MY city?'
At the mention of possibly striking
another sort of bargain, Esteban mentioned that he would waive the retaining fee if they
would get for him the spent Fang. Lilit mentioned that when Witold had slain Strangeangel,
at the very alter of Rinanni, Artaxerxes and Kyle had killed him and Kyle had take the
broken shard of the Fang. So, a new plan was set into motion and Mordecai knew his
purpose. He and Lilit struck out and found Kyle, who was with his wife and Artaxerxes and
Ariellyn at the time. They told him that with the broken piece of the Fang, they may
be able to put an end to Hex. Kyle went to where he had stored his things and
retrieved it for them and then the two Muatana returned to the Rose where Esteban was
waiting.Lilit handed him the broken dagger and he stood and informed them that they did
indeed have a bargain, that the deed requested would be done.
A day passed and Lilit,
Mordecai and Esteban met again. This time Esteban talked of how the Bane would be
soon full upon them, and spoke of the importance of a safe place. He took them into
the sewers and showed them the Island, where they fought Gaurdians for some time.
After, Esteban was called away on some errand or other, and Mordecai and Lilit returned to
the thieve's maze, where they most frequently hunted thieves.It was that night, that
Mordecai realized that he was beginning to feel something more than companionship with
Lilit, they spoke briefly of such things. Lilit said she to saw the beginnings of
something more than friendship. Shortly after she was called away on an errand, and the
two would never see each other again. There were still several hours left to the night, so
Mordecai went back towards the town square.
On his way there, the steady realization
that his life was going to end soon came upon him. It was not something he could
define or put reason to, but it was there. Knowing this, he sought to make peace
with what he could, and found Kyle. Mordecai made his peace with Kyle, and gave him a suit
of armor that he had recently purchased. After that, the two of them went on an
excursion with some others into the sewers, and for a while he was able to put doom out of
his mind.The night ended, and turned to day, which turned back to night. This night,
the impending sense of doom had grown till it filled him. Hastikhan, another of those who
had befriended Mordecai, found him staring despondantly into the distance, and they spent
much of the night talking about Mordecai's life before he came to Spur.As the sun began to
rise, Mordecai left, Hastikhan had long ago fallen sleep. The Muatana went to the
Hostel, where he had waited for Artaxerxes the they had killed Hex, and the sense of doom
faded into numbness. He heard some sort of commotion in the town square, and went to
investigate, ignoring the sun burning brightly in the sky. There, in the square, Hex
was waiting for him. They exchanged such pleasantries as such advisaries do. Things like
'Prepare to die' or 'Now, I'm going to kill you.'
Well, at least Mordecai did, Hex seemed more amused than anything else. With due warning, Mordecai laid into Hex. Raining blow upon blow into the San with the very sword that had killed them both once already. Hex was surprised by the ferocity of the attack, and was driven back into the hostel. Several people followed, intent on seeing the battle. Mordecai continued his assult on the Dhuvghaal, and it seemed as though he might succeed in killing him again, when suddenly one of the blows struck the obsidian mirror that hung about Hex's neck, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Outraged at the release of Strangeangel, Hex withdrew the second talisman. He used it as a weapon and struck at Mordecai, knocking him to the ground, and killing him.
Mordecai's spirit hung over his body, he knew that whatever was coming would prevent him from ever returning, and was about to simply give up. Some shadowy form caught his attention though, and he was certain it was Lorin, the woman he had loved so long ago. In
that moment he knew she was waiting for him and he screamed, ghostly and defiant at Hex,
`Finish it Dhuuvghal!' To which Hex thrust the talisman deeply into Mordecai's
chest. A few moments later, the Muatana's body turned to dust and he was gone. Two days
later, Esteban placed Hex's head in the temple of Taath as yet another trophy, and a day
after that, he used the spent Fang in another way. He used the Fang to summon back Dazrada
Soros."
Turaniel scowls.
Kyrena blinks.
Talbor growls.
Random says, "Esteban has since dissappeared from the
land."
Random says, "Dazrada was found horribly mutilated deep
in a secret tunnel shortly before the man calling himself Soros arrived."
Random says, "And I suppose you all know the rest of the
story."
Revised: September 02, 1998.
Copyright © 1995 by Mythic Entertainment.
All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective
owners.
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OROS