The Rediscovery - Part I [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

Agaxal

02-15-2008, 06:44 PM

I haven't done any creative writing in years, so please go easy on me :) If enough people seem interested I will finish writing the rest of the story. For now, its all in my noggin. :)---------------The Rediscovery The Skyfire Mountains were relentless today, the heat so unbearable it made the endless conflicts there very draining. All focus was at the task at hand, and the recovery of the artifact at the Temple of the Red Lord was successful. Lucan himself relayed a message through Tullia Sulla at the news of it; it was rare to see him praise anyone. As our tired and exhausted adventurer Agaxal approaches his home in North Freeport, he can’t but help look across the sea – the waves were unusually quiet; and the tranquil serenity in the air was helped him in these last steps before a long rest period which had been long overdue. He is asleep before he knows it; even his twin feline friends eagerly hopping on the bed hoping for feeding time were not enough to make him budge. Eventually they settled in on the bed with him, content enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to avoid them in the morning. In the middle of the night, Agaxal’s dream is interrupted to see several unidentifiable mages gathered around a small obelisk about two meters high. Energy is surrounding it in the shape of a cube, and as it transforms into various shades of blue, various electrical sparks seem to discharge off in a random fashion. As they work more frantically, the color changes even more, this time, to a bright shade of red. One of them runs off to adjust something on a panel; and the other two are now in a state of panic trying to contain the cube which is now projecting itself even more randomly throughout the this dark cellar. Suddenly in a bright flash, all three mages are thrown back against the sides of the wall. The cube had expanded to fill the room, and the obelisk begins to crack. Their bodies sit there lifeless in the room while the energy begins to slowly dissipate as the obelisk begins to crumble. Soon, all is dark and completely silent. Agaxal leaps up in his bed, sending one of his two cats flying off as it lets out a loud cry. It is still the middle of the night, and this event seemed way too real to be a dream. It is as if he could feel the pain - and the emotion of those three unknown mages. As he slowly lies back down in his bed, he begins to contemplate what had just happened. Who were these three unidentified mages? What were they doing? And more importantly, what went wrong? Only due to sheer exhaustion was he able to fall back asleep so fast. No answers were to be found, not even speculation. As his mind begins to wander off in unconsciousness again, his dream is interrupted once more – again, with a surreal image. This time, it was a bustling market. Life was full here, with several hundred people engaged in their daily lives. And while our seasoned adventurer had been all over Norrath, this place was completely foreign to him. However, it had an eerie quality to the image, and his dreams shifting back and forth to this market square again in quick succession caused him to wake up again. This time, he got up out of bed to get a glass of water. As he slowly headed over to the pantry to feed his two cats which by now were purring loudly, he stopped to wonder. What is this city? Why do I not recognize it? Agaxal sat in his chair and began to meditate. His mind was a wreck, and he was feeling even more drained than earlier in the day in the Skyfire Mountains. Before he knew it, morning had arrived, and it only seemed like a moment had passed since he was feeding is two felines to the point where the morning rain could be heard outside. He finally felt rested, his mind at full strength, even if his body was a bit sore from being in a chair for so long. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A Freeport militia solider was there with a sealed scroll. “Good morning soldier. Who is this letter from?” asked Agaxal. “Your master, Overlord Lucan D’Lere, demands that you contact the Lucanic Knights to aide Freeport immediately.” ..replies the impatient soldier. “What is it this time?” Agaxal was annoyed. He may be rested but certainly not up to another long expedition. “What?! Are you questioning the orders…” Agaxal interrupts him, realizing it wasn’t worth the potential drama. “..No, I apologize. I shall do whatever Sir Lucan D’Lere wishes of me.” “Good! Don’t forget your place in Freeport. Please read this immediately and contact the Lucanic Knights for further instruction!” As he closes his door, he unravels both ends of this scroll and begins reading. It is written in Lucanic rather than the common tongue, for some strange reason. Still, this was no problem, just a large curiosity. “The Overlord Lucan D’Lere has personally chosen Agaxal to investigate the recent occurrences in the Academy of Arcane Science. The Lucanic Knights have sealed off the building and are awaiting your arrival.” Agaxal had just spoken to Tullia there yesterday, and he sensed nothing wrong. Was there another betrayal? Have the Freeport Militia seized control again? He makes his way to the Academy, he notices the sea was crashing over the wall to the east, and the morning rain had developed into a larger storm. As he approached the Knights, which seemed unaffected by the storm, he presented the scroll he received. “Finally! - you have arrived. When I started my duties this morning several militia approached me informing me that all of our mages have gone … mad, in some way. They appeared to be walking as undead yet they were still living. Everyone was affected, it seemed. They were not aware of anything around them, and simply ignored everything around them. They could not be contacted, they could not be communicated with in any way.” “What caused this?” Agaxal said. He begin to contemplate his dreams last night. “We don’t know. We approached Matthias Siegemaker in the Temple of War to see if he had any ideas. He began to try various experiments to try and communicate with one of them, but he had no success.” “Has anyone been inside to investigate?” “Yes, the first few militia we sent in never came back. We assumed whatever affected the rest of the Academy affected them as well. We then had Matthias put a magical barrier around the temple entrances. This is why you are here. We need someone with a strong enough mind to be able to resist whatever affected everyone inside. The Overlord personally asked for you.” “I serve the Overlord.” As his heart began to pound, Agaxal started to contemplate. As Matthias approached him, Agaxal entered himself into a state of trance and began to build up power. Matthias patiently waited for this exercise to complete. “Agaxal, I can lower the barrier if you are ready to investigate the Academy. However, I will raise it up right after you enter.” “I am …. ready.” Agaxal’s mind was at its largest peak it has ever been, and this would probably be a larger mental challenge than anything he has been to recently. He approached the left entrance of the Academy as the barrier fell. He continued to walk in as he heard the barrier re-envelop itself shortly afterward. Zombies he thought – what else could it be? Some were lying down on the floor, twitching, but many were aimlessly wandering around. Suddenly he started feeling mental agony trying to overtake him. He had to stop in his tracks, and bolster himself to block out this attack. He could not tell where it was coming from exactly, other than he felt it rise up through his body. The only mage he noticed was Tullia, who had curled into a ball on the floor in the corner. Pressing on, he took the platform downstairs to the basement of the Academy. Down below were at least five mages on the floor, lifeless, and one of the doors to the lower chambers had been breached. As he slowly approached this room, he saw … the obelisk from his dream. The three lifeless bodies were there, and energy was still illuminating randomly from the obelisk. The control panel that he saw one of the mages approach was destroyed completely, its pieces scattered around the floor. At this point, the mental anguish was almost unbearable. He had to get out. He was being attacked from within, and was slowly losing control. After a brief look of the damaged obelisk he headed back up the platform and to the barrier where Matthias was right on the other side. Matthias had to study him to make sure he wasn’t affected, and other than notice him being drained, he concluded that Agaxal had probably survived whatever had affected everyone else. He lowered the barrier, and Agaxal slowly moved past it. After the barrier was raised again, both the Lucanic Knight and turned to Agaxal in great anticipation. “Did you find out anything?” asked the Lucanic Knight. “The crippling energy originated from a small obelisk in one of the lower chambers in the Academy. It had been damaged, somehow, and many of the mages were either in a state of mindlessness or dead outright. “Were you able to do anything about it?” said Matthias. “No, other than investigate it. The will of this mental attack is too strong for anyone to stay down there for too long.” Suddenly, someone appeared next to Agaxal in a flash of light. He recognized him, it was the ghost of Tomekeeper Sunto from the Solusek Ro Temple. As the Lucanic Knight instinctively drew his sword in anticipation, the Tomekeeper began to speak: “The Avatar of Solusek Ro has informed me of a planar disturbance in the Academy and wanted me to investigate. I am here to do his bidding.” “Planar Disturbance?” Said Matthias. “Yes, at least that is what he told me. I will admit, he did not show his usual confidence of an Erudite and was very short with me. He seemed very disturbed.” “The Overlord does not wish to upset Solusek Ro, but does not want investigation to be done without involving the people of Freeport. Agaxal here has been put in charge of this investigation. You will work with him.” The Lucanic Knight then charged off in the rain back to the entrance of the elevated palace of the Overlord in a fast haste as if his life depended on it. “May I have an audience with your Avatar?” Asked Agaxal. “You may try. I cannot however guarantee success!” In a flash of bright light in the heavy rain, both Agaxal and the Tomekeeper vanish. Matthias is left in a daze, looking around, and slowly peers over through the barrier. Nothing has changed – he can see faint images of zombie-like movement through the glare of the magical barrier. As he gazes up into the rain, he wonders what could possibly be going on – and frustrated that nothing is even slightly revealing to him. Meanwhile, Agaxal and the Tomekeeper suddenly appear in the Lavastorm mountains, just outside the Dragon Breath Tunnel. Had he not seen the four meter Avatar of Flame standing twenty meters away, his first thought of being back in the Skyfire Mountains was soon dismissed. “Why have you returned with this Ayr’Dal?” commanded the Avatar. “The Overlord has put this half-elf in charge of the investigation and wanted us to work togeth..” “…No! We shall handle this without his help!” The Avatar drew back into a dramatic stance and unleashed a bolt of energy to Agaxal. Being already completely drained, there wasn’t much he could do. This bolt impaled him with a large force and threw him back to the tunnel wall. Agaxal, staggering to his feet, managed to say a few words: “I …. saw the obelisk, ….. and I …. saw the events that took place to cause this disturbance in a dream.” Unabashed, the Avatar suddently appeared calm. With a quick flick of the wrist, Agaxal was back on his feet and was instantly transported in front of the Avatar. “What did you see, half breed?!” Agaxal explained the dream sequence with the three mages. He then began to explain the market square, hoping that the Avatar might be able to clue him in on any relation… “That is of no consequence! The obelisk is all that matters.” The Avatar paused for a moment. He seemed disappointed somehow, and started to think about what could be done. “Agaxal, I want you to travel to the Overrealm and seek an audience with Lord Vyemm. Go alone, as he will be very defensive if you bring anyone else with you.” Taken back, Agaxal replies: “I’m not so sure his minions will allow me an audience…” “Yes, I know, they can be an apprehensive bunch. However, Vyemm’s Laboratory might hold the answer or at least a clue to this obelisk.” The Avatar then rises up and enlarges his manifestation to be that of the size of a Faydark tree. He starts channeling power as the winds begin to grow, sending spurts of lava and flame all around the area. He then channels that energy into Agaxal, who is knocked to the ground from the initial effect. He soon rises to his feet though, with a strength and will he has never felt before. “There! Use the power of Solusek Ro to help you achieve your goal of an audience with Lord Vyemm. Ask him to help with the obelisk and do not return until you have some answers.”---------------To be continued.....