QUIET MOUNDS - STEF HEART

[abardacttofollow]

You find yourself in a stone room that looks like some sort of medieval dungeon. There are (thankfully), no torture instruments, but there is a man strung up here. One large manacle is around his neck, chaining him stiffly to the door. His hands are free, but each foot is manacled to the matching bottom corner of the doorframe. There is a visible lock on each of the three manacles.

It's Stefen, and there's a knife in his chest. Despite that, he's alive, apparently alert, and doesn't look to be in pain, perhaps due to the lulling, sense-dulling music that seems to be coming from nowhere at all—in fact, if you were in pain before you entered, it's gone here. His wound is bleeding, but only a little, and he smiles his usual bright smile at you.

Behind him, but in front of the closed door he's bound to, you can see three double sets of strings running vertically. Where they meet the floor, they are fastened, and then each runs across the floor to the three doors on the opposite wall, then under them.

There is nothing else in this room.

((OOC: Here's how this will work! Since we're doing individual runs, rather than me putting up individual top levels for areas, just jump the post itself, and I'll run everything for you within your one thread. If you're wanting to do a run with someone else, just stay in the same thread together.))

Comments

[abardacttofollow]

You pull the covers back to reveal a twisted and dangerous-looking knife stabbed into the mattress.

[splashofbourbon]

Well that ain't right.

[going to try to pull it out!]

[abardacttofollow]

As soon as your fingers touch it, you feel it starting to suck at your life force.

[splashofbourbon]

Whoa now—[lets go, shaking his hand out. tries with the metal hand??]

[abardacttofollow]

That works.

[splashofbourbon]

[good. he's pulling that out then. gonna try to put it on the scale]

[abardacttofollow]

Click!

[splashofbourbon]

Goddamn, Stef. That's messed up.

[going through the door though.]

The Gift 3

[abardacttofollow]

The last room you enter is… well, not a room, but you're also not going to be leaving it, not safely.

You are on a cracked icy ledge about ten feet wide that extends about twenty feet forward. To your right is a sheer cliff face leading up, coated with ice and snow. To the right is a blackened crater. It looks less like the natural continuation of a cliff and more like a crevasse caused by a horrific explosion of some kind. At your feet are bodies, some humans dressed like bandits, others twisted, unnatural creatures wearing armor. They are armed, and unpleasantly so, but quite dead. You see also abandoned riding tack, possibly blown off whatever poor creature might have been here. There is a lot of gear and there are a lot of bodies and if you wanted to look through everything it would take a while.

The cord winds forward, along the path, over a blackened patch that seems to have been the center of the explosion. Ash covers whatever might remain there, though you see a scrap of white cloth.

At the end, your way forward is blocked by a wall of fallen snow, like an avalanche. A man is standing there, quiet, holding the end of the cord in one hand and the key in the other. He looks like Vanyel, but not Vanyel as you know him in quiet mounds. He's in his mid to late thirties, his hair almost fully white and whipping around him in the cold wind. He is also quite visibly transparent, the scenery seen through him.

Vanyel says, softly, "I'm so sorry. Can you tell me the weight of duty now?"

[splashofbourbon]

[McCree is cagey by the time he gets to Vanyel, he recognizes this from the song, and it doesn't make him comfortable with being here. He scuffs at the ground a little, knocking the body of one of those creatures off the edge.]

How'd that go, magic's price, wasn't it?

[abardacttofollow]

It tumbles down into the crevasse, vanishing.

"That's... the one," Vanyel says. He doesn't look too happy about it either. "There's no point in my asking for more details. You clearly know."

He offers the key.

[splashofbourbon]

[McCree nods to him, taking the key]

Thanks.

[And getting out of here now, though he's going to grab that salve and pass it off to the Stef in the throne room on his way back]

Looks like you could use this.

[abardacttofollow]

"Oh! Thank you..."

[splashofbourbon]

Don't mention it.

[he heads back to the heart guard]

[abardacttofollow]

[smiles at him] Well. That's done, then.

[splashofbourbon]

That's done.

[going to unlock the manacle around his neck]

[abardacttofollow]

[Stefen drops to the floor. As he does, the three strings over the door behind him snap with a discordant jangle]

Thanks for getting me down. I don't know what's back there, honestly, but I know that when you reach the last area, you can get out. I can't give you the key to that area, because it belongs to someone else, but you shouldn't need it.

Oh, and there's a sudden drop, so you might want to close your eyes when you step through.

[splashofbourbon]

I'm familiar with drops.

You doing all right?

[abardacttofollow]

I'm all right. Are you?

[splashofbourbon]

[he shrugs a little]

Been better. You didn't exactly pick the pleasant things to put in here.

[abardacttofollow]

It could have been worse... though I'm just the Guard, you know. I didn't pick things at all.

[splashofbourbon]

Meant you as more of a [handwave] general "you" sorta thing. Couldn't hurt to hold onto some happy things, you know?

[abardacttofollow]

I did.

[splashofbourbon]

What happened to 'em?

[abardacttofollow]

You saw some of them?

Anyway, you already know that this heart doesn't show everything that's in Stefen. You asked me about it already.