The Twelve Aspects. (for Aphroditus Dionysus)

[Ecnalab]

Long ago, in an age before ages, steel and magic ruled a land now long since vanished. It was a time of city-states, and petty fiefdoms. A time of kings and conquers. A time of fell magic, dark monsters, and inhuman desires. It was a time... of Legends!

The city-state of Thuluna, known for its many temples to a plethora of gods, sits in a veritable land of plenty. The fertile fields that surround the great settlement are bountiful indeed, as are the rivers and lakes that dot them. But, where there is bounty, there will always be those seeking to take it. Be they silver-tongued ambassadors from the few neighboring nations to the east, savage raiders from the western wastes, or even yet unseen enemies from beyond the northern mountains and southern ocean, the land of Queen Titanya has no shortage of enemies.

Yet, all is not lost for Thuluna. For, while their army is not large, the royal family is wise in both politics, and the ways of war. Particularly, in keeping their true strength hidden. That was what the Queen told her many children, at least; some of whom took it as a cue. So it was that Nuru, youngest of the Queen's many children, and just recently proclaimed a woman, found herself being lead through the lower tunnels of the royal palace by her eldest sister, Kaylora.

The only light that illuminated the stone passageways was given off by the torch Her sister held, and Nuru had to trot to keep up with her sibling's longer stride. Kaylora took after their mother far more than Nuru did; being tall and possessed of long, shapely legs, and flowing black tresses that made her almost disappear in the shadows, if not for the torch she held. "Come on, Nuru, keep up. We're almost there," Kaylora commanded.

[Alright, first post is up. Go ahead and give a brief description of Nuru for anyone else who might want to read this story.]

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

Nuru's Appearance:

Spoiler

Typically garbed in a long diaphanous white silken blouse, every inch of her dark olive skin is dotted with a light smattering of freckles. Her platinum blond hair is cropped in a fashionably high & short cut. Her striking green eyes regard the world around her as further down everything between her septum and the nape of her slender neck is festooned with decadent gold jewelry. Young and nubile, her lithe girlish figure stretches on down a full 4 feet, 9 inches before terminating in two delicate feet. Her modest b-cup bust juts proudly in a cone shape from her heaving bosom and is adorned each with a perky dark crown, a soft platinum colored tuft of drape matching carpet sits just above her supple womanhood. Just beyond this spectacle her freckled fanny manages to be noteworthy without being impressive.

Nuru picked up her pace to walk side by side with her taller sibling. The torch cast her shapely silhouette across the tunnel over her causing Nuru to literally walk in her sister's shadow. Nuru repressed the sting of jealously as she saw the soft torchlight play across her sister's quite generously endowed bosom, just one more birth-right she was deprived of. She cast her gaze away to examine the nature of the passage they were walking through,

[ Spout Lore; 2d6+2 = 8! solid intelligence check right out the gate! , are there any carvings or hieroglyphics on the walls and if so what do I know about them? if not what do I know about these tunnels?]

Before asking her sibling in a flat tone;
"So when are you gong to tell me where we're going?"

 

[Ecnalab]

"Come now, sister, think of what you've seen so far, And I'm sure it will come to you," replied Kaylora. Nuru looked around her. The only real clue she had was how far down they had traveled. Past the servant's courters, the store rooms, even the dungeons, deep into the mesa that the palace was built atop. The passage walls were no help either, being completely bare of carvings or tapestries. Wherever they were, it was not meant to receive many visitors. That was when it hit her. The most secure place in the palace, more so than even the royal quarters, Kaylora was taking her to the royal vault.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"Wait, we're going to the vault aren't we?"
Nuru said with a hint of suprise and excitement in her voice.

[Spout Lore, 10! nice. What do I know about the vault/family treasure & how is that info useful to me?]

 

[Ecnalab]

Unlike the royal treasury, which was placed at the center of the palace and kept under heavy guard at all times, the vault was a much more inconspicuous place that the queen used to store her personal treasures. What those included was up to the imagination. "Yes we are. I'm tired of mother ignoring the raids on our eastern villages, because of her little dalliance with king Corvo. Perhaps if she thinks that he made off with something besides her good wishes the last time he was hear, she'll be a little less inclined to turn a blind eye to the antics of his people." It was true that the kingdoms of Thuluna, and Cirona were technically at peace. A peace that was regularly reinforced by visits from the king. That did not mean that criminals did not exist though; and King Corvo seemed less than inclined to increase his own patrols on his side of the border. Still, for Thulunian troops to pursue raiders back into their own country, might be called an act of aggression by some, and then the judges and law-keepers would descend, and the next thing you knew there might be a war. But, if the queen simply took a firmer stand with her 'ally' all that might be avoided; she just needed motivation. At east, that was what Kaylora seemed to think.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"We're going to raid the vault and tell mom Corvo did it? What if we're found out? How do you even know we can get in there?"
Nuru said quietly in the nervous unsure tone suited to a younger sibling.
Despite her vocal apprihension her pace was no less slackened, almost now walking ahead of her sister.
It seems her excitement to at least see the vault out weighed her fear of reprisal, at least for now.

[Spout Lore, 10 (shit I'm on a roll, just watch, when I get into combat I'm going to wiff it) what do I know about this King Corvo and his peoples that is usefull to me?]

 

[Ecnalab]

King Corvo, the ruler of Cirona was a fair enough ruler, though not above letting his people do a little raiding on the neighbors, clearly. He was also possessed of a libido just as strong as Nuru's mother's; most likely the reason they were so close, weather or not his wife knew about it.

Eventually, the two came to the end of the passage. Standing before them was thick stone slab of a door. Unlike the walls around it, the portal was covered top to bottom with symbols and glyphs from the holy language. [give me a spout lore check] As Nuru watched, Kaylora reached out and began running her hands over the stone as if looking for something. "Come on, it's supposed to be right-" her finger slipped into on of the runes and a loud thud could be heard behind the door; before it slowly began sliding open.

The small room was not at all what most people would imagine when they thought of the word vault. The roughly fifteen foot square room completely bare of adornment with a sand covered floor was completely empty save for one big thing. A large raised dais in the center of the floor that held the most ornate chest Nuru had ever seen. The body of the box was clearly made form obsidian and had a single large rune carved into the front face, but the metalwork, the lock, the hinges, the reenforcements, even the four legs, were all made of solid gold and carved in the likenesses of animals both exotic and mundane. The chest was big enough for a man to fit inside, and must have been worth a fortune all on its own, to say nothing of what it contained.

"Not as much as I had expected," said Kaylora, as she approached the treasure chest.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

[Spout Lore! , 10! Nice! I promise I'm not making these up, GMs honor. What's up with those Glyphs and how is it useful to me? ]

"Be careful!"
Nuru called out moving to interpose herself inbetween her sister and the chest.
"You should let me look at it first, you don't want to run afoul of any abjurations that might be on it"
She said in a convincingly cautionary tone, herself all to eager to see what was inside the chest first.

 

[Ecnalab]

As she examined the chest, Nuru's mind wandered back to the glyphs that she had seen on the stone door before it had opened. She knew they meant something but the familiarity was hard to place. As her hand passed over the singular rune on the face of the chest, a sudden burning sensation shot up her arm and she pulled back in shock as the lock on the box opened, and the lid lifted open revealing a smoldering red glow emanating from inside.

Nuru, and her sister were blasted from their feet as the room was filled with bright red light, and shadows leaped from within the box to dance across the walls, and through the air, before converging into a mass of darkness and slamming into the wall of the room. A deafening boom ripped through Nuru's ears as she was blinded by the light of the sun streaming in through the new exit of the room, that overlooked the city below it from its opening in the side of the mesa.

Just as the concussion from the blast began to set in, and consciousness faded from her, Nuru remembered the meaning of the glyphs on the door. They were meant to keep something in, rather than keep intruders out. Then everything went dark.

The next time she opened her eyes, Nuru was laying in her bed, with a thick bandage wrapped around her right hand.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"Uggh what happened?"
Nuru said still groggy from the shock
[Is there anyone else in the room with me?]
[Also do I get any XP from learing new stuff]

 

[Ecnalab]

"Good, you're alive. I was worried you might pass away before I got the chance to kill you," came a familiar voice. Clearing her eyes, Nuru saw her mother sitting at the foot of the bed, her usually warm eyes staring daggers at her daughter.

[Yes you gain a point of XP for getting the plot started.]

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

Nuru paniced an immediately went into younger sibling damage controll mode

"But, it was all Kayloras idea! She made me come along! Honest mom, she was the one that opened the vault! I'm innocent!"

She said, big green eyes in full on puppy dog mode.

[It's a well documented fact that the youngest child can get away with murder, while the older ones are held to a much higher standard]

[Does this count towards using my alignment? Use bribery or your social standing to enforce a whim or demand satisfaction.]

 

[Ecnalab]

[Yes it does.]

"Kaylora is being punished as we speak, and you would be joining her, if not for the fact that you are going to need your strength for what's to come," Titania said slowly. "You see, my dear daughter, you may have just doomed our kingdom by opening that chest. You released the twelve aspects."

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

[Nice, I finally have 2 juicy XP to rub together, mmm progress. Nice job pulling a pandora on me btw, not sure how I fell so hook line and sinker for that one]

"Ummmm wha, .. what do you mean?"
Nuru said very nervously as she swallowed the lump in her throat.

 

[Ecnalab]

"That box that you opened was a treasure chest, it was a prison. Built to contain the essence of twelve evil spirits that I worked very hard to put in there during my youth." Titania stood and walked to stand beside her daughter. "And in one fell swoop, all that work has been undone, and the only one who can fix it is you."

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"Wait what? How? I'm not ready for that! Is it a curse? Is this another one of those 'with great power bla bla responsibility' things? Can't you give me help?"
Nuru blurted out in rapid fire succesion, becoming more and more flustered by the moment.

 

[Ecnalab]

"No, this is more of a 'reaping what you've sown' sort of thing," replied Titania, as she reached down and took Nuru's bandaged hand in her own. Gently she unwrapped the bandages, and to Nuru's surprise, the same rune that had adorned the front of the treasure chest now stood in stark relief in the palm of her hand; cast in fresh scar tissue, though the palace healers had clearly done much to tend to the pain. "You now bear the mark of binding that has long since faded from my body. It is only by your hand that those spirits can be brought to heel, and put back in their prison."

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"Wait really? How? Is it a special kind of magic? How will I know where to look for them? Why haven't you ever told me about this before?"
Nuru said with a much more calm, balanced, and inquisitive tone.

 

[Ecnalab]

"I did not tell you about any of this because I knew it would stoke your curiosity. Those spirits are a part of my life that I had hoped to leave buried under this palace forever. Now they must be hunted down again, and you posses the only way to reliably track them. Hold your hand up, and you will feel it being pulled ever so slightly towards the dark spirits." Sure enough, Nuru could feel something in her hand; a gentle coaxing, that seemed to be trying to go in all directions at once.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

She marvels momentarily over the sensation of this new found abilit, the rune is her palm shimering ever so slightly as she does,

"And I can seal them with this?"
Nuru asked still staring at her hand

"What are they, these aspects?"

 

[Ecnalab]

"Yes you can," said Titania. "The Twelve Aspects are a group of powerful dark spirits, demons some call them, that came to this land from a exotic kingdom far to the south, across the ocean. I was no more than a dock worker's daughter at the time, but that soon changed after I tried to take a peek inside the pretty chest that been unloaded from one of the strange ships in the harbor. I unleashed monsters inside, and was tasked with tracking them down and putting them back. The Twelve are spirits that mock the holy creatures of their homeland. They are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and boar. Each of the spirits represents the worse qualities of these animals, and seeks to bring all people around it down to its level of perversion, and debasement. To that end, they posses physical hosts, men and women mostly, to work their wickedness. But, with that rune, you will be able to see them for what they really are."

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"And you need me to hunt these foul demons? I'm no warrior! Even if I could, what happens if I do manange to trap one? Where does it go? Do I need to carry this box everywhere?"
Nuru saud staring to become alarmed again,

 

[Ecnalab]

"Calm yourself, Nuru, it is not all doom and despair," said Titania. "Why do you thing I had the captain of the guards teach you how to use a sword? It was not just to give you a hobby. Furthermore, you need not carry that chest with you. Simply touch the rune in your hand to one of the twelve and they will be bound inside it. And once they are, their power will be yours to command; though first you must drive them out of their physical bodies."

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

"Drive them out, like slay them?"
Nuru inqured her head starting to swim with all this new information.
The power to seal spirits and command demons, the power that turned a simple dock workers daughter into one of the most wealthy and powerfull queens in all the land.
The very idea of it was exciting, intoxicating even.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

No longer would she be simply the youngest child of the throne heir to nothing save for the wholly dull and celibate life if a priestess

Her peircing green eyes began to dialate with deep thought

 

[Ecnalab]

"That is, generally, the most expedient way," Titania agreed. "But, that does not mean that it will be easy. Nor will they be all that you must face in your travels, for these spirits have had much practice at manipulating those around them, and are more than capable of defending themselves. You must keep your wits about you on this journey," she warned.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

The actual beauty of this opportunity was now truly dawning on her, no longer would she need to sneak off the palace grounds, she could walk her own path and write her own story! No longer was she just 4th in line for the throne, she was free to seek adventure and power, to make her own name in this world and live in the shadow of no-one! Would only that this day had come sooner she would have taken any risk!
With this new found courage and excitement slaying 12 deamons seemed not so bad, a fair trade for her new lease on life.

"Well if it's as urgent as you say there is no time to lose! Their out their gaining power and influence as we speak, I have to save our people! I'll need my sandals, and books, and a new sword, &"
She said almost convincingly as her excitable nature got the better of her and she fell out of bed in an exagerated effort to stand,

 

[Ecnalab]

What followed was a blur of preparation, and goodbyes as Nuru was readied for her journey. Things did not end up quite as she had expected. Rather than a gleaming suit of armor, she was presented with a plain yet functional set of leather armor consisting of a shaped chest piece, thick leather skirt, and matching greaves and gauntlets; as well as a thick traveling cloak. She was also not permitted to take much with her, aside from some essential camping gear and general equipment. When she made to protest to the minimalistic accoutrements her mother informed her that time was of the essence, and she could not afford to have anything slowing her down, or making her stand out as a tempting target.

There was some good news, though. She would not have to undergo her travels alone. Three of the palace soldiers were selected to accompany her, each in the prime of his life, with no small amount of military, not to mention wilderness, experience. So, with only a few small personal items to remind her of home, Nuru set out on her 'adventure' the next day. With the open land before her she was indeed able to pick her own path.

 

[Aphroditus Dionysus]

[Sick, I should also mention my weapon probably needs the precise tag if Im going to accomplish anything since my Dex is decent but my strength is garbage. And I assume I also just got +1 armor and some adventuring gear? maybe some XP for setting exposition? Also what are the soldier's names?]

Nuru overlooked the valley below and refrenced her map, then she looked out back at the valley again and reached out with her hand, feeling the strands of tethered darkness tugging at her fingertips.

[Where are the closest aspects reletive to the land I see before me?]

 

[Ecnalab]

Sadly, though she could make out which way the rune was pulling her, it offered little in the way of details. She could feel its pull growing stronger in some directions; she assumed that meant the Aspects in those directions were closer, but she had no way of knowing just how far away they were, not to mention just which Aspect they were.

"Lady Nuru, have you found something," asked a deep voice from behind her. It belonged to Boren, the leader of the guards following her. He was a large man, with strong arms and a barrel chest. His most notable feature, however, was his thick black beard adorned with colored cords, and small trinkets, it practically jingled as he moved.

Riding beside him were Ibrahim, a tall thin man, who's archery was as sharp as the mustache and beard that he kept waxed to points, and Kabil, the youngest of the three; not much older than Nuru, but the clean shaven man was one of the finest swordsmen in the royal household.