[Taocow PBEM] Chapter XIII - Of Prophecies and Visions

Aaron Clausen mightymartianca at gmail.com
Tue Jul 31 20:43:00 BST 2007


> [Osiris]
> "All hell can break loose tomorrow." Osiris says.  "I'm going to
> sleep in a real bed tonight, goddesses, demons and who-knows-what be
> damned. I do suggest, however, that we keep this all from the Prince.
> They're good people, but that Bruth has got me more than a little
> disconcerted."
> [/Osiris]

> [Ted]
> "Agreed and I would not be surprised if this Bruth-character knows
> something important."
> [/Ted]

> [Amanda Connors]
> "Believe me, he knows something.  I'm a reporter, it's my job to
> pick up on things like that.  He practically screamed 'interrogate
> me, I'm a bad guy' at dinner."
>
> She considers Carlos' words, then sighed.  "Can we have an update
> soon?  I've heard the name Rath-Iren over a dozen times now, and
> about this Goddess almost as often.  In all the excitement, I know I've
> forgotten a few things, but I don't think I'm much closer to knowing
> what's going on than I was when Pierre and I broke out of that CS jail."
>
> "That bothers me."
> [/Amanda Connors]

> [Carlos]
> "Bien, gracias. I saw ...a...stone wolfen... Rath-Iren is in the Land
> Where Hell Riseth.  In three days  the Time of Fire will begin. That's
> all I know. Whatever that means, I can't tell. I think we should get as
> much fire power as we can and head to this Rath-Iren."
> [/Carlos]

> [Ted]
> "As I recall, Rath-Iren is a temple somewhere south of here, but I
> cannot remember where.
> [/Ted]

[Osiris]
Osiris sits himself down awkwardly, a hiss of pain escaping his lips.
"Age and injury." he says.  "Like I said, it's been thirty years for me,
even if it's been only a few for you."

"Do you remember when I caught up with you a few days ago under Old
Chicago." Osiris says.  "Things have been pretty crazy since then, and
this is the first chance we've had to talk.  Well, I have a few things to
say
before the Prince comes, and before we run off to catch Bruth."

"I gave Bongo a scroll to protect when you left me in Ireland." he
continues.  "But I remember the words well, for my master sent me
on a quest to Old Chicago, which is how I met Bongo, Alex, Lady
Frost, Rod, Kyle and poor old St. Pierre."

Osiris closes his eyes and begins to recite:

"'There are few tales that survive out of the horrific years that followed
the Apocalypse.  Humanity barely survived the unleashing of titanic mystical
powers and the beings that followed them.  Most of the old cities were
abandoned,
left to the monsters that crossed into our dimension from the rifts.  Old
Chicago was one of the great cities of North America, and though it was
rebuilt, the original city was left to rust and decay.  The
Coalition's only concern was to assure that no power could ever again use
Old Chicago, with its ley lines, to threaten humanity again.'

'But out of the dark years survived a tale of Old Chicago, a tale of a time
when it was the center of a demonic empire ruled by Vlykath the Warrior, one
of the K'murd-faka, those demons who served Chaos and sought only to bring ruin
the Megaverse.  Vlykath possessed a wealth of treasure, and most precious of
all, a blood-red stone the size of a man's fist and the shape of a heart.
The stone had a single flaw shaped like an eye at its very center.'

'In the end, however, Vlykath's rule failed and his empire ended. His body
was buried in his throneroom deep beneath Old Chicago, with all his riches, and
the Jewel of Vlykath tied to his brow.  None of the tales go much
further.  Some
say that a few of his worshippers still linger,  generation after
generation, tending his body and awaiting his return to life.  Others say
that his tomb is lost, that the last of his worshippers were long ago driven
off by other powers.'

'But there is a dark prophecy that goes with this, that Vlykath was not the
last of the K'murd-faka, and thought another will rise again and seek to
spread Chaos across the Megaverse.  He will seek the Jewel of Vlykath, and will
bring it to an ancient place, the Temple of Rath-iren, and there will
set the Megaverse aflame with a war unimaginable.'"

Osiris sits silently for a moment.  "After you left me in that chamber
in Ireland, I was taken prisoner.  That pale-faced horror that keeps
pursuing us questioned me for weeks, using magic and just plain
torture.  I can't say how I survived, or how I kept my tongue.  That
demon is terrible, as I'm sure Talas can tell you."  Osiris shivers,
as if feeling some new pain.

"I finally managed to escape, though I had little more than rags on
my back.  I made my way to England, to the court of Camelot,
where I was restored to my health by men not that different in
ethic than me and my fellow Cyberknights.  It was upon my
journey home that I began to have visions.  A woman would
come to me and tell me that I must meet my old friends in
Old Chicago."

"It was always my mission to seek for the Jewel of Vlykath.
That was why I was sent to Old Chicago in the beginning.
We never found it there, because this demon, this K'murd-faka,
had clearly found it.  The woman told me that the demon
seeks to destroy the Coalition, to bring about a new cataclysm
which will spread throughout the world, and into the Megaverse.
It is at Rath-Iren that he will do this.  I suspect that some of us have
a key to this puzzle one way or the other."
[/Osiris]

-- 
Aaron Clausen   mightymartianca at gmail.com
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