Forgotten Freedom:15
Last Plot -- Plot Line Home -- Next Plot
Aboard the Forgotten Freedom, exactly six-months since Naz'roth destroyed Ullzul. Micheal and Dooj are busy harrassing Redshirts, Pholly has exploded, Devon is writing more poetry and practicing his chat-up lines, Lisa is preparing to smite Michael and Jarlot's Drunk ... again.
There is a flash of green light and a sound like tearing silk, a small vortex of shadowy energy hovers just above deck, from it the sounds of battle can be heard.
Dooj: What the?
(Theres a horrible Roar and a Shadowy entity emerges backwards fighting off something, it moves with lightning speed, two deadly Kamas flashing with black fire, the shadowy entity collapses in a pool of blood, the shadowy figure stands still, his two kamas dripping black blood.)
Jarlot: (rises and draws his sword drunkenly) Avast!
(The Shadowy entity rocks on his feet and falls face first)
Jarlot: Well ... THAT was easy.
Kithle: (coming up from below deck) Well let's get a look at him. ( the vortex closes)
(Kithle walks up to the body and turns him face up)
Kithle: I thought he died.
Jarlot: You know im getting tired of all thease re-accuring villians, throw him over board.
Kithle: No, wait, there's a journel on him, and there's a note nailed to it.
Ahem
Dear Crew of the Forgotten Freedom, IF you are reading this then I have reached you safely, I won't bore you with the details of how I survived and how I got here, I'll just give you the basics; After the explosion me and Naz'roth where drawn into a fell dimension named DISNEY WORLD, within we fought with foul creatures and the like, we managed to escape into the plane of shadows, we journeyed for two weeks untill we reached Dolurrh, where Naz'roth was put to rest, though it seems I'm not to die, I have some task to perform. They gave me back my equipment and a corpereal form, Naz'roth's power still remains within me and so does his knowledge, for the past twenty years I have been trying to return here, I have traveled to all the planes. I have fought demons, angels, Daelkyr, creatures of nightmares, the very ground I walk on, the very blood within me. I have had my mind messed with, probed, I have been beaten, tortured, almost cooked on three occasions, hung and beheaded all for the knowledge I carry. I seek some time for solace apon your fair ship captain.
PS. My mind is unreadable so don't try Kithle or Kanatash or any other mind readers you've picked up.
Lisa: Twenty years? But for us it's been only six months!
Michael: He does look older, and that scar across his face proves some of what he's saying.
Kithle: I vote we throw him overboard.
Norbaz: Me too, I have no liking for his kind.
John: I vote against, he may be evil but he saved our lives.
Klaz: I vote against, the bugger deserves to heal before we toss him over board.
Lisa: I'll have to vote against, he's defenseless, he deserves a chance at least.
Jarlot: He did save out lives, let's put him in a cell, oh and one of you read his journal.
(In the cotainment cell (new and improved) Sa'vor comes to, his hands are handcuffed behind his back)
Sa'vor: Oh great, I'm in another cell, on another hellish plane, I wonder where?
(Slip enters)
Slip: Awww, look, the wounded and beaten half-dragon has awakened, I've read your journal, heartbreaking, really, it's such a sob story.
Sa'vor: Yet more mind games and torture, save it, the quori were better, let's just cut to my excape. (rises)
Slip: Look, it's impossible. Give up.
Sa'vor: (raises his hands behind his back as if to place them over his head, actualy that's exactly what he does, he circulates his hands completely over his head with a horrible SNAP noise, he then flips over Slip and places the chain of his handcuffs around her neck) All right, where am I and who are you?
Slip: (coughs) The Forgotten Freedom and I don't exist, remember?
Sa'vor: Really, this is probably just another mind game from some fell power, it's all an illusion in my mind.
Slip: It's not, you really are here.
Sa'vor: Okay then, prove it, what was I doing last time I was here? What's my name?
Slips: Defeating Ullzul and your name's Sa'vor.
Sa'vor: (realases the cuffs from her neck) So why the cell?
Slip: They don't trust you.
Sa'vor: And you do?
Slip: Slightly, though you could probably kill me and escape.
Sa'vor: Indeed, I could, but to what end? I'm here now, I'm safe ... Ish
Slip: From what?
Sa'vor: I... I can't say.
Slip: Go on, I know you want to.
Sa'vor: NO! I will not, their names can't be spoken unless you wish them to be here, and I don't think you want that, ever.
Slip: Norbaz will be here soon, to give you your food, and then the captain wishes to speak to you, and remember, I dont exist.
(She walks out)
Sa'vor: (in his thoughts) So, I'm back, they'll find me eventually, all these years of running and I can't stop them, they are the shadows, they are the fear, they come and you can never stop them. (out loud) Two by two, they march, Two by Two, Can't be stopped...
(In the mess hall, a debate is going on.) Jarlot: Clearly he can be dangerous, but we can't just throw him overboard.
Michael: WHY NOT! He's far more dangerous than you all think, I've read some of that journal, he speaks of some kind of trigger, something within him, he has something that someone or somthing wants, they followed him for TWENTY YEARS, listen to this: "I hear them coming, never gone, they dwell in the shadows, they cannot be stopped, they want the key, which I don't have. They dwell in the shadows, they are the shadows alive, I will know them by their symbol; the Closing Dark."
Kithle: Clearly something's after him, but, from what I've read of his journal he's mostly harmless as long as he doesnt revert to one of his five mind frames; what we have christened the Killing Machine.
Lisa: We can't kill him, its immoral.
Devon: So's having whatever's hunting him find us as well.
Andrea: Wait... what was that? (listens)
Jarlot: What was what?
Andrea: That noise, it was a faint clink and then a alarm noise that was.. cut off ...
Ketler: Oh god, he's escaped!
Jarlot: Then let's find him.
(A redshirt walks down a shadowy corridor, followed by the shadowy form of Slip)
Redshirt: ( holding a crossbow aloft and spinning around constantly in fear) Here dragon, here dragon ( whistles as if to attract a dog) where are you?
(A voice from the ceiling)
Sa'vor: Here.
(Redshirt screams and looks up, fires and misses, Sa'vor drops from the ceiling and silences him by draining his blood)
Slip: You didn't have to do that.
Sa'vor: (wipes his lips) I did, I was hungry, mortal food can't sate me anymore, and Norbaz's food isnt exactly food.
Slip: How come you need blood to sate you?
Sa'vor: Long story, read about my year in Mabar if you really want to know (throws down the husk of the Redshirt)
Slip: So why did you escape? (comes out from the shadows)
Sa'vor: I don't like people talking about getting rid of me, I've had too much of that already, believe me, once you've heard it over six hundred times, you learn to escape quite quickly.
Slip: So you are leaving?
Sa'vor: Clearly I'm not welcome, and anyway, I have to keep moving (stops and stares hauntedly over Slips shoulder, he quickly shudders and growls) GET AWAY FROM ME! QUICK!
(Slip backs away)
Sa'vor: RUN!
(She runs, Sa'vor drops too his knees and writhes, Jarlot's footsteps can be heard as he walks up to Sa'vor's Writhing form)
Jarlot: Seems you've placed us in a peck of trouble.
Sa'vor: (groans) I... know... I'll... leave... soon (screams) It's not safe for ...you... you must ... LEAVE! NOW! (Howls)
Jarlot: (Raises his crossbow) don't think so, you'll have to control yourself, or I'll have to shoot.
Sa'vor: It doesn't work like that... ARRGGHHHH!... it's like clockwork sometimes... (stops writhing and Rises, his fangs and claws lengthen)
Jarlot: Well, looks like it's nap time then. (pulls at the crossbow trigger, a bolt flies towards the form of Sa'vor, stiking him in the side)
Sa'vor: (roars and attempts to cut Jarlot in two, Staggers and colapses)
(The next day, in Sa'vors cell) Sa'vor: (graons, clutches his head, rises, finds himself on a bed in his cell)
Slip: You can't be that dangerous, if the captain hit you with a tranquilizer bolt.
Sa'vor: Do you have some strange fixation with me or are you just here to irritate me?
Slip: I'm here because we're the same, we're both of a half-breed nature, and we're both outcast amongst the crew, me, because I don't exist and you, beacause no one trusts you.
Sa'vor: So, what do you want? Some kind of alliance? You want me to help you? Is that it?
Slip: (sighs) We could come to a mutualy benifical arrangement.
Sa'vor: Let me guess, you help me escape and I take you with me and we find some kind of new airship and we start our own crew?
Slip: No, I want this airship, we should take over
Sa'vor: Look, I'm not in the mood for this, I'm tired, I'm beaten, I have a horrible stomach ache; I don't think that red-shirt was that benificial to my health.
Slip: Fine then, How about, I bring you redshirts or blood or prisoners and YOU help me by teaching me some of the magical secrets you've learned.
Sa'vor: Well, I'm not going to get blood with the captain watching me so, yes, I'll teach you, but first I'll teach you to shield your mind, Kithle's probably going to start listening in, and maybe half of the crew (groans) I think I'm going to be sick (retches) god, what was this redshirt eating!
(Allen appears out of the shadows near the cell) Allen: He ate Norbaz's mystery meat special this week. It was quite tasty, if you ignored the fact that it was made out of a combination of the lowest quality possible troll, Jaela, changeling, shifter, cockroach, and dragon meat. And don't worry about me, I'm just going to my secret laboratory to put the finishing touches on my lastest invention. (Allen then disappears back into the shadows)
Kanatash: So, Kithle, I was wondering something.
Kithle: Yes, what is it?
Kanatash: I know you have a thing about Pholly and you have tried to kill the little timebomb more times than I care to count. Personally he doesn't bother me but my incorporeality protects me from most of his explosions. However I was wondering why you don't just eat his brain and get it over with. A few crew members would probably be angry but I doubt any action would actually be taken against you.
Kithle: I gain certain traits and abilities from the people whose brain I consume remember? This is Pholly we're talking about.
Kanatash: Ah, point taken.
Kithle: I don't like being so much weaker than this most recent form of the dragon. I can't attack directly, I need equalizers. I'm immune to magic, so I don't need to worry about that, my stealth is still better than his. That leaves his unknown psionics, mental shield, long list of immunities, and overwhelming physical power; hmmmm. Well, let's start with positoxins, holy water, and enough garlic for a batch of 12 alarm d'Norbaz. OOOH, create running water spell; that'll get him.
Elemental: When Do I get a fugging name?
John: How abo-
Elemental: Not you, prissy.
Redshirt: AHHHHHHhhHHHHH
Elemental: Chalky, what have I told you about using me as a roasting pit.
Chalky: Don't worry, I dried him out beforehand; he isn't gonna do anything unpleasant.
Elemental: Yeah, we don't want a repeat of last time. It took forever to get rid of the stink.
Redshirt: HEEEEEELLLLLLLP MEEEEEEEE!
John: He is screaming awful loud.
Chalky: As I said, nothing unpleasant.
(In the dead of night, as the crew sleeps and Kithle plots, Sa'vor is currently training Slip)
Sa'vor: You're not concentrating enough, you have to be calm, let your mind reach out to everything around you, feel their life forces, touch their minds.
Slip: When did you draw that symbol? ( points at a symbol of a Circle with two diagonal lines through it)
Sa'vor: (Looks at the symbol) I... didn't ..... oh no, this is not good.
Slip: What is it?
Sa'vor: It's the Calling Dark, you know how in the deep places of the world the dark is different? Well, these symbols represent entities from the plane of shadows, there are millions of them, this is one of the worst.
Slip: The Calling Dark?
Sa'vor: (pauses and silences her) Shhh, listen
(The voice of a young girl of about three calls out in the distance)
Girl: Sa'vor? Where are you?
Slip: What happens if it finds you?
Sa'vor:(his face in shadow) We die. We need light, lots of light! (creats orbs of floating light to banish the shadows) this should stop it from coming
Slip: SHOULD!
Sa'vor: It's a 50/50 chance, it's either that or die horribly
Girl:(nearer now) Sa'vor? Where are you? Sa'vor?
(Dooj sleeps in his bed, he's awoken by a girl's voice calling his name)
Girl: Dooj? where are you?
Dooj:(gets up) How the hell did a girl get onto this ship? (opens the door to see a little girl standing there)
Girl: Found you!
(Doojs screams fill the night)
(Kithle sits in his room, Dooj's screams echo)
Kithle: What in Khyber? I bet that half dragon has something to do with this!
Kithle:(hears the girl's voice) That can't be good ...
(Exits the room and goes to Sa'vor's cell, opens it and enters)
Kithle: I'm sure your responsible for this!
Sa'vor: For what?
Kithle: For that voice! It's calling us!
Sa'vor: Oh *********************, this is not good at all, don't follow it what ever you do!
Kithle: Why ? It's just a little lost girl!
Sa'vor: Have you ever heard of places so dark that at night you can hear the very shadows call your name? There are such places, this, is a embodiment, it's a entity of pure evil and shadow. The Calling Dark, look at the symbol! (points at the Calling Dark symbol)
Kithle: Its just a black circle with two diagonal lines through it. What's so... is it oozing blood?
Sa'vor: Yes! It's oozing blood, its hunting us, Kithle! It's after us! It can't be stopped! It can't die! It just is! It is forever! It never sleeps!
Kithle: So? we could just run.
Sa'vor: That's the problem! I've killed it twice, I've spent twenty years fleeing it and its siblings.
Girl: (Faintly, because she's far away) Marish? Where are you?
Sa'vor: We're so doomed (falls to his knees and begins to sob) we can't stop it , it just keeps coming, calling, calling in the dark, calling my name ....
Kithle: Get up! Can't you just banish it?
Sa'vor: It keeps calling, just following, walking ... never stops.. the Calling Dark ....
Kithle: What are we going to do? WHY AM I TALKING TO MYSELF! Sa'vor! Let me in your mind ! Let me see how to stop it!
Sa'vor: (looks blankly at him, there's a sudden rush and Kithle's pulled into his mind)
Kithle: (watching the constant war between the mind factions) Wow Sa'vor: Yes, it's pretty amazing Kithle: So, how can you stop it? Sa'vor: There is a way... but I'm not doing it... its far too dangerous Kithle: What? What is it? (A voice of pure ice) ME Kithle: Who are you? Death! Kithle: You're the killing machine aren't you? Yes Kithle: So will you?
Fear... not something an assassin is supposed to know. He had turned the corner and saw it standing over Dooj, well, what was left of Dooj. It hadn't seen him... but he had seen it. It was something dark, something to which death was the nature of, as breathing was to those that lived. As an assassin, Norbaz knew death. This was something powerful and old. It was seeking out the other crew members, so he followed it, tried to get ahead of it and warn who he could... but it was obvious it knew he was there... but it wasn't calling out his name yet.
Honestly, it looked like a little girl. On this ship, if you hear a little girl calling your name, you don't ****ing answer the door. It's just common intelligence.
Whatever this thing was, strength of arms would not bring it down from what he had seen... he needed to rally the casters in silence. Uttering his own magics, he melted into an amorphous liquid caricature of himself and proceeded into the ship's talking tubes.
As an assassin, Norbaz had always looked into the shadows... now he had seen it look back and he knew... he knew that they were ****ing screwed.
Norbaz: Ketler, wake up damnit, wake up.
Ketler: Huh? What? ...Norbaz? Did I pass out in the mess again.
Norbaz: No, something bad is on the ship, lock your door and wait, I'm gonna bring the casters here.
Ketler: Huh? What the hell are you talking about?
Norbaz: Just trust me, okay?
Kanatash: That would be wise.
Ketler and Norbaz: Bah!
Kanatash: Sorry, but I was in haste and could not easily announce my presence. There is indeed something on the ship and it has killed many. Norbaz, make haste. I will try and seal this place from it through the will of the perfect madness of Xoriat.
As Norbaz leaves to gather the casters, more screams fill the night.
Norbaz: Scholar, thank the sovereigns it didn't get to you, teleport to Ketler's lab now.
Scholar: I am to assume this has to do with the screaming.
Norbaz: Yes.
Norbaz: Mickey, oh good, you're already awake.
Mickey: Yeah, and I've already seen Dooj. This is serious.
Norbaz: Okay... I can do this. She's a fellow crewman, I've talked to her before and... I'm just going into her room as a liquid and trying to wake her up to help save everyone from unspeakable horror... okay, deep breath.
Andrea opens the door
Andrea: What in Khyber is all the racket about? It's the middle of the night! Why are you supported by a liquid column from a puddle on the floor?
Norbaz: Oh... um, dark, killing thing is loose on the ship. Teleport to Ketler's room, explain there.
(Allen appears out of the shadows into Ketler's room)
Allen: Who brought the Calling Dark on board? It's disrupting my work. Now let's just throw it out, so I can get some peace around here.
The Side of Sa'vor known as the Killing machine smiled, so they call me do they? One who is death, one who finds no fear in the dark, Death walks amung the living.
Kithle: Will you help us then?
Yes, I wish to kill once more, but once I have killed it, you must force me back into Sa'vor's mind, for I will kill you all once free, be afraid, be far more afraid of me than the Calling Dark!
Kithle: Whats the point? Norbaz is gathering the casters, we don't need you.
You need me more than ever, this isn't something that can be stopped, it'll hunt us all down and Sa'vor knows it, I will destroy it, And then you'll have to stop me from killing you! DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!
(Kithle was forced from Sa'vor's mind by a mentle blow that sent him soaring across the room, pulling himself to his feet Kithle gazed in horror, The very shadows pulled away from this creature, He stood encased in a living breast-plate, the runes all over it glowed with black fire, Sa'vor's eyes were now pools of violet flames; within them Kithle saw the battles of thosands of years, He saw the rotting corpes of foes, he saw this figure standing over them bloody scythe raised high!)
Sa'vor: You called?
(The air around the figure flickered with sparks of Arcane and Psionic might)
Kithle: So... you'll kill the Calling Dark?
Sa'vor: You don't kill the Calling Dark, you just stop it for a while, get your casters ready to banish it, otherwise I'm going to get torn apart when it comes back
Kithle: (Vanishes in a puff of black smoke)
Sa'vor: (Raises a black carapace-clad hand, a scythe wreathed in black fire appears in it) I walk again! The reaper is reborn!
(In Ketler's lab)
Mickey: YOU LET THE VERY REAPER WITHIN HIM OUT!!!
Kithle: Sa'vor was cowering on the floor, and anyway, he needs us to banish it soon, that way it can't reform, oh and we have to disable him once he's killed it
Scolar: Affirmative!
Calling Dark: Sa'vor? Where are you?
Sa'vor: (a swarm of undead bats flow from the vents and reform into Sa'vor)
Calling Dark: Found you! (raises a hand and blasts with a burst of shadow)
(Sa'vor turns to a cloud of sand, the blast goes strait through, Sa'vor re-forms and strikes and the girl with his scythe, she de-materializes as a shadow)
Calling Dark: You no play nice!
Sa'vor: (Slashes with the scythe catching the girl with the end of the blade, she blasts him into the wall with another shadowy blast) I feel no Pain! I hath No Fear!
Calling Dark: You no fear? (moves her head to one side, then de-materialises and reappears behind him, blasting him again and striking with her clawed hand)
(Sa'vor spins and blasts her with a barrage of Psionic energy, she shields with a wall of shadowy energy, a ring of white light starts to form around her)
Sa'vor: (strikes her with a fireball composed of violet flame, pins her to the wall and locks his fangs into her neck, she writhes and screams, the Girl Dematerializes, appears floating in the air as a bloody symbol wreathed in shadows, the circle of banishment flashes and the symbol is gone)
Sa'vor: (throws his head back and roars a battle cry) DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING!
Jarlot: NOW! (the casters appear from the shadows and hit Sa'vor with wave after wave of spells, The dust clears. Sa'vor stands in a ring of damage, completely unscratched, Jarlot takes aim and hits him with a tranq bolt)
Sa'vor: (rocks and falls to his knees, begins to rise, A second bolt hits him, Rises to his feet, another wave of spells hit this time causing some damage, third bolt hits him in the neck and he falls unconscious)
(In Sa'vor's cell, he awakes, the symbol of the Calling Dark has been burnt away)
Sa'vor: (groans and sits up)
Jarlot: (from outside) You've caused us a lot of trouble, though you have saved our lives, I'm wondering, how does one so powerful fear the dark?
Sa'vor: I spent a lot of time in Mabar and The Plane of Shadows, it's not something one removes from his psyche, I apolosgize for the Calling Dark, I thought it would be a few weeks untill we encountered it.
Jarlot: Indeed, so, how did you become a vampire?
Sa'vor: I WAS a vampire, Naz'roth's Power over the undead still resides within me, he had vampiric powers, while on Mabar, I awakened them and they evolved to beyond that of a normal vampire, I'm alive and living, but I'm also dead, my two hearts beat but I create no heat.
Jarlot: Are you going to cause this ship anymore trouble?
Sa'vor: Do you mean will I personally cause trouble? no I won't, But the Dark will, they'll hunt me down and tear out the knowledge I hold, and I can't stop them. I'd also prefer you keep me in this cell, it's cosier than the room I had at first, though it won't be able to stop the Killing Machine or the lesser mind set known as the reaper, who stems from the killing machine.
Jarlot: Well, I leave you here.
Sa'vor: Of course, well, I better get some sleep.
Last Plot -- Plot Line Home -- Next Plot
