Tuck.
The name was once a momentous one, one to be proclaimed, fawned upon, dropped in conversation, and above all else, a name to be feared. The mightiest of all the Hellish generals, his realm was so vast that even in the infinite reaches of the Netherworld his borders pressed hard upon his neighbours. Of Tuck himself, demons spoke but little. When they did, it was only to utter the pinnacle of praise: "he was the strongest."
And then came the War.
As did all the generals, Tuck went to war. As befits the strongest general alive -- indeed, possibly that ever had lived -- he as the only general who returned. He ensconed himself again in his fortress of Nnoht H'inkg. The whispers that slowly spread out, however, were different. Something had happened to Tuck in the War. Perhaps he had come back, but, somehow, not quite all of him.
Eventually, the inevitable happened, and an enterprising demon took control of a fief on the far outskirts of Tuck's domain. While the rest of the Netherworld watched, holding their breath, Tuck... did nothing. No war of reconquest, no assassins, not even a message. Thus ended the empire of Tuck, as bit by bit his territory and vassals were gobbled up by increasingly confident new upstarts.
Nnoht H'ingk still stands untouched, however, and Tuck is still known as a general, for the days of his power are not that far in the past. That lingering aura still draws ambitious demons, hoping to climb to glory.
Such as yourself.
You crossed the blasted, ashen fields which have always formed the heart of Tuck's domains (fields, it is whispered, that were fertile and lush before Tuck saw fit to punish an incompetent). For you, the tiny Servant's Gate in the moutain-cliff walls were opened, and Tuck's majordomo haughtily accepted you into service.
Since then, you've had little to do but wander about the labyrinthine halls, admiring smoke-stained, worn tapestries covering dusty stone and relaxing in the occasional weed-infested garden. You've never met Tuck. In fact, in your time here, you haven't seen anyone since you were greeted into service....
Feel free to make a few posts to establish yourself into the setting. The action will begin shortly.
Kory floated down one of the great fortress's many passageways, lazily covering a yawn with the back of her hand. It had seemed such a good idea at the time -- sneak away when no one was looking, and find a better place to live. Somewhere she wouldn't have to train in the use of all those boring weapons, or study fighting styles from stuffy, old scrolls. And that was without mentioning the armor her trainers insisted she use, which never failed to give her mental hives. It clashed too much with her sense of fashion, besides being clunky and annoying.
And yet, at least she had something to do, then! And she had others around. Arrogant know-it-alls who made her do boring stuff, granted, but still. Instead, she was all alone in this decaying fortress, and no closer to her goal of becoming an elite court jester than she was before she ran away decided to move on from her old prison home.
Come to think of it, where was the chief steward guy?
Resisting the urge to hit her head against the wall, Kory muttered, "I wish something would happen, even if it'll probably be nasty and hazardous."
Ihliel continues slowly scratching some of the stubborn weeds that infest all of Tuck's gardens. The majordomo hadn't assigned him a specific job, so he had taken that task upon himself. He had decided that the gardens could perhaps be restored to their former glory, but first they all needed a very good weeding. Sitting back on his hunches, Ihliel decides that a break is in order. Standing up, he begins shuffling lacklusterly down the many halls of the keep, a bunch of weeds in his broken-clawed thin hand. His eyes are dull and glazed over as he mostly stares at the ground.
He has an air of being down-trodden surrounding him, but perhaps that could change in the future? A dark glint shines in his eyes for a second, before disappearing completey once more.
Dramatic necessity suggests that two strangers, about to meet for the first time before becoming players in a vast, world-sweeping adventure, should meet, under these circumstances, by running into each other. Unfortunately, dramatic necessity only occasionally has to deal with Nnoht Hing'k, which features uncooperatively long corridors with only occasional intersections, and Ihliel and Koriand'r's first catch sight of each other at a good fifty feet of each other, walking towards each other.
Kory abruptly comes to a halt, and blinks twice, owlishly, at the demon ahead of her. When he doesn't disappear, a large smile appears on her face, and she waves at the demon cheerfully, floating in his direction once more.
Ihliel gives a start, jumping a good, oh, half foot in the air, and dropping his handful of weeds. He idmediately flushes, a sight that seems almost regular occurence on his face, before dropping to his knees and and begins scrabbling for the weeds on the floor.
"Hi!" Kory enthusiastically greets the flushed demon. "Are you new here?"
"You are both new here," says a cultured, urbane voice behind Koriand'r.
A cultured, urbane voice that apparentl issues from something that would presumably be an intimidating muscled humanoid figure if wasn't covered in so many spikes and horns that it looks instead like a gothic crossbreed of a knight in armour and a particularly jumpy blowfish. Despite its size, it had somehow come up, apparently, both quickly and quietly down that long hallways.
Kory turns around, hands clasped in front of her, and she beams at the muscled porcupine. "Hi!" she greets again. "So we are! And I don't know about your gardener over there, but I'm ready and eager to serve!"
"Are you?" The spiked thing sounds surprised at that. "How very odd."
"What's more odd," says the same voice, this time coming from behind Ihliel, "is that I was was supposed to find the orange one, and I was supposed to find the weedy one."
"I prefer Kory," she says, not losing her smile. "Or Koriand'r, for more formal occasions. But I am orange, so I guess you found me!"
"I found you," says the spikey demon, somewhat sharply. "And I found the other one, too, and I don't see what my problem is."
Kory looks around, puzzled, trying to figure out exactly how many others there are in the corridor with her.
Behind Ihliel is... the gothic crossbreed of a knight in armour and a particularly jumpy blowfish. Or, rather, a crossbreed of etc etc, given that there's another one standing right behind Koriand'r.
Ignoring the two demons standing between them, the latest arrival sniffs. "The problem is that I'm wasting my time," he sneers.
The first of the spikey demons shakes his head sadly. "And now I'm wasting my time, too. Why don't I just take them to the throne room, and then I can stop complaining?"
"I asked, and I received," Kory mutters to herself. "This is wicked cool!" Keeping her hands clasped, she leans against a wall so that she could keep all three demons and any new arrivals in sight, and waits for the spikey ones to start leading to the throne room.
Ihliel has a slack jaw during the entire exchange, before bursting into a blushing frenzy and finishing picking up the rest of the weeds. He scrabbles in getting up, before seeming to want to shrink back into himself.
"Uh, lead, and I'll follow?" He squeaks out.
"Yes, show us the way. I for one want to meet our new Lord soon." As soon as the voice stopped, the source of it, Aella came around the corner and into view.
Aella's arrival is met with some confusion by both of the spiky demons. "Wasn't I supposed to find her?" the first asks.
"I was indeed," the second replies.
"Well, then, what in the name of botehration am I up to?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but I rather imagine the important thing is for me to get on with what I'm doing, and deal with me later."
That, apparently, settles that, and the demon behind Koriand'r heads off, while the other waves the three new arrivals ahead of him.
Kory follows the other demon's directions, with a smile and a wave at the newest arrival.
Ihleil skuttles along as well, keeping a distance from everyone.
Shruggin, Aella followed the other new people, though a small glance was thrown back towards the somewhat strange demon.
The walk is long and confusing, with the spiky demons taking seemingly random turns. You're fairly confident that you've doubled back at least twice, and gone up and down what you think are equal numbers of stair cases.
Slowly, the hallways become both even more elaborately and luxuriantly furnished, and better maintained. You're confident that you've never been here before -- and without help, you'd probably never be able to get back again.
Finally, in the distance ahead, a massive, seemingly solid gold door comes into view. As you get closer, you can see yet another of the spiky demons standing by the door, at attention.
Kory looks between the spikey demon that lead them to the gold door and its double guarding it, and then chances a smile at the latter.
Ihliel shuffles along looking down at the ground, so he doesn't notice that they had stopped. He continues forward, bumps into Aella, then with a squeak shuffles rapidly backwards.
The door-guard might have smiled back at Koriand'r. Or he might have snarled, or whistled a short tune. It's still hard to say with all those rather painful-looking facial barbs.
The demon who has led you this far asks, in a rather officious tone, "Where am I?"
"You are here." If she had a map, any map, Aella would have pulled it out and pointed to a random spot. Unfortunately she lacked the prop.
"So you say," the demon replies warily. "So you say." Turning, around, he looks at the door, and speculates, "This seems reasonably throne-roomey." He nods to himself. "It is time. Enter."
The door swings open majestically, revealing only darkness, shadows, and a narrow illuminated path forward across a black and gold carpet.
Kory steps through the doorway cautiously, and heads down the illuminated path, her eyes darting to the sides nervously.
A low, deep, throaty chuckle resonates through the darkness.
A voice, harsh and ragged as though from shouting, or perhaps just demonic form, calls out in a sibilant hiss, "Come forward ... all of you...."
Aella complies with the command.
Ihliel gives a small squeak and scurries in, huddling close to Kory.
There's a muted 'fwush' as large torches in the dim reaches of the chamber flare to light, spreading to other nearby torches and illuminating the periphery. "Welcome," the deep voice says, "into service. There is a task that awaits you, but before you are to be sent on this task, you are to hear the tale of Tuck, and learn of his power."
In rapid succession, torches and hanging lanterns iluminate, revealing the center of the shrouded room to be a massive, raised dias. In the center of the dias is the equally massive Tuck himself.
The demon lord is probably about seven feet tall, and makes for an imposing figure ... even with the girth he's aquired, which has to be easily double his height.
His face is grim, stolid, ever the expression of the hardened warrior. An arm waves dismissively, and Tuck intones, "In times past, I opened myself to a weakness I only now know how to defeat. I am vulnerable only in my lack of experience. I require one thing from you ... and when I consume that, I shall aquire strength once again."
Tuck staggers a bit, suddenly rising a few feet, and revealing that hidden beneath his bulk was a large wooden stool. While hefty, he now looks like the kind of demon to avoid in an open battle. Even wearing the heavy folds and extra weight that a demon in general does not have, Tuck emanates some amount of strength.
"There lies, in lands south of here, an artifact you will reclaim for me," Tuck explains. "This artifact is the key ... the first step we shall take on the road of conquest." Grinning, Tuck nods, and three identical spiky-faced guards walk around from the left side of the pedestal. "My assistant shall answer any questions you have now."
With that, Tuck suddenly collapses into his seat, the light around him fading and leaving him to vanish into shadow again.
The foremost of the spiky-faced demons says, "That sounds like me," after shooting sharp glances at his twins. "What information do you need?"
"How far to the south? What's the artifact called? What does it look like? Who has it now?" Kory asks with her ever-present smile, addressing that foremost spiky-faced demon.
"It's about seven hundred miles or so," the foremost demon says. "But only half of it is through dangerous territories. We don't know, but we have a device that will identify it when we get close enough. General Gerrim."
"Actually," the demon to the left says, "I think I said that, when I was supposed to say that."
The demon to the right growls, "I will deal with me later, but now I'd better shut up."
The foremost demon glances back, and frowns, but then turns back to address the new recruits.
"Before we send you on this mission, we want to familiarize you with your equipment, and have you run through a training scenario. If you follow me, I'll take you to the training room. I can answer your questions on the way, because I am remembering to keep my mouth shut." The demons on the left and right nod in unison, then follow the lead demon towards a door in the side of the room.
"We will return, Lord Tuck," the lead demon calls back. "Now, further questions on the mission?"
Kory glances at her companions, ready to go and do the familiarizing thing as far as she's concerned.
Ihliel shakes his head vehemently, before continuing to huddle hehind the cheerful demon.
The spikey-faced trio walks on into the keep some distance, leading everyone down a hall, down a spiral staircase, across another hall, and finally, down a wide ramp into some sub-basement.
"This is the Fallen Pantry," the spikey demon explains, halting. Beyond him is a great door, probably about twenty feet high, and fifteen feet wide. It's currently closed, with a collection of discarded pieces of armor, weaponry, and bones lying on the ground before it.
"Through the Fallen Pantry, down the Stairwell of Despair, and into the Wine Cellar of the Forlorn Spirits you shall go. Within a cage of iron lies the Bottle of the High Spirits. Bring this to me, and your mission will be complete." Each of the spikey-faced demons pulls out a small glass globe. "I and I and I shall monitor your progress from here. Do you need anything before you enter?"
"Nope," Kory says, as she thinks gleefully, Something fun to do at last! Then, she pats the easily frightened demon on his back. "After you!"
Ihliel gives Kory a look as to indicate, 'Are you crazy?!' He manages to squeak out, "Um, something sharp to hit things with, and make them bleed?"
From a pocket, the spiky-faced demon produces an array of swords, knives, and frying-pans. "Take what you need," he says with a shrug.
Ihliel carefully selects a heavy frying-pan, then selects a sharp and pointy knife as an afterthought.
Spiky-face nods. "The rest of you?" he asks.
Kory grabs a frying pen as well, following Ihliel's lead.
Now that everyone is armed, the spiky-faced one shrugs, and hauls open the door to the Fallen Pantry. "Good luck," he says ominously.
Inside, the demons can see what looks like a very large pantry, which has been kept reasonably clean. There's no signs of dust or mud anywhere, and no cob-webs in sight.
The pantry is shaped like a low room, filled with shelves and hanging baskets of dried herbs, seasonings, and what looks like dried fruits and vegetables in some places. A few sacks of wheat line the nearest shelf.
At the far end of the room, probably about sixty yards away, a door can be seen that leads into some sort of hall, or possibly the stairwell that had been mentioned earlier.
Whistling to herself, Kory enters the pantry, her frying pan slung over her shoulder. She approaches the door at the end of the room, poking at it with a toe.
Ihliel shuffles into the room reluntantly, frying pan gripped with white knuckled fingers. He looks ready to jump at any little sound.
Pulling out her own sword, Aella watches the groups back, just in case.
The door creaks ponderously behind the demons, but the spiky-faced one catches it, and kicks a wedge beneath it to hold it in place.
There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with this room. It seems devoid of life, save the three demons, though.
Kory shrugs, and opens the door she was poking a moment earlier, deciding to take a glance at what's behind it.
The door creaks ominously open, revealing a clean stairwell leading down into darkness.
This room is lit from candles and torches about the periphery. It may be a good idea to take a candle or torch (or two) into the darkness.
Ihliel looks like he is considering bolting. He gives a small squeak of uncertaintanty, then takes a few shuffling steps towards the door, huddling behind Kory.
A lightbulb lighting over her head, Kory shoves past the whimpering demon and quickly makes her way towards one of the many torches. "Can I borrow a couple? Thanks," she speaks out loud, smiling, and grabs a lit torch. She passes it on to Ihliel, and then grabs another, before heading down the stairwell.
"Hey!" a tiny voice squeaks indignantly, once Kory has removed the first torch. "What do you think you're doing!"
No speaker is immediately visible.
Kory blinks, and takes a look around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Borowing a torch. To see better. In the darkness." She shrugs. "I did ask before taking it."
There's some indistinct muffled grumbling before the voice is loud enough to be audible again. "Fine! Fine. You asked, but I never got to say it was okay. Just don't bring it back in worse condition."
There's still no visible speaker....
Ihliel, who had been staring at the object shoved in his hands in confusion, drops it in surprise and fear as the voice rings out. He doesn't shuffle towards Kory though, she had proven to be mean and rude and scary, he shuffles rapidly backwards instead.
"Pick that up!" a squeakily indignant voice demands. "Don't drop our things so carelessly!"
"You know, for a big, ugly demon, you sure are easily scared." Aella said to Ihliel as she picked up the torch herself. "Are you sure you should be sent with us?"
"She's right, she's right! Maybe I should go back to the gardens?" Ihliel looks at the spiky one with hope.
"You're, like, way lame," Kory says, giving Ihliel a frown. Glancing at Aella, she asks, "So, wanna see what's down there?"
"Hmm... Not particularly, but we have a job to do, so we have to." She motioned for the other to go first. "After you?"
"Sure, no problem!" Kory responds, smiling once again. Using her torch to illuminate the way, she descends the Stairwell of Darkness.
Ihliel didn't particulary care how lame she thought he was, as long she went down the stairs first. He takes a few shuffles towards the door, waiting for the other rude demoness to go inside.
The staircase is deep. It's also stone, small, and (just a bit!) slimy. Noises from the top echo down to the bottom, and then back up, eerily distorted. There's only enough room on the stairwell to advance single-file, as well.
While the demons are working their way down, an ominous echoing moan rises from below, just barely audible ... and then stops.
Kory continues her trek down with a shrug, doing her best to avoid the slime.
After a time, Kory is dizzy, but the stairwell has ended. It's difficult to tell how far down the stairwell everyone's gone (21 fill circuits, by Ihliel's count). As Kory's head clears, she sees that the bottom of the stairwell is a cramped room with a moldy wooden door. Whisps of thin fog appear to seep through cracks in it, evaporating within a few inches of their source.
Kory steps into the room and to the side, allowing the other two demons to pass her. She gives them a curious glance, and then asks, "Think we should knock?"
Ihliel doesn't take the oppurtunity to pass her. "Uh, maybe it will be the polite thing to do?"
Hopefully whatever was behind the door wouldn't take it upon eatself to eat them.
Kory nods to herself, and knocks on the door.
When Kory knocks on the door, it slowly begins to creak inward, revealing a much darker room. The torchlight seeps into what must be the wine cellar, but only enough to illuminate a small area of the floor past the entrance. Ancient cobwebs stick to the side of the doorway, and wave in an unfelt breeze.
"Excellent!"
Kory steps into the cellar, the torch raised just shy of the cobwebs.
Once inside, Kory is standing in a circle of light, the edges of which touch on empty wine-racks.
Kory explores cautiously, as she calls back to her fellow demons, "Feel free to jump in any time now...."
Ihliel cautiously pokes his head into the door, the rest of his body to follow when Rude One 2 enters the room.
The room is poorly lit, but appears to just be full of empty wine-racks. Another door in the back of the room awaits, unopened.
Curiously, it's a familiar looking wooden door, with familiar looking wisps of fog seeping through the cracks.
Holding the torch up higher to get a better view, Aella checked the door.
Ihliel keeps only his head in the room for now.
The far door is currently closed, but seems unimpressive. The wine-racks probably only continue another room or so.
Probably.
When thinking about it, an unseen force bumps Ihliel into the room, as the door to the stairwell slams shut with an alarmingly loud "BANG!", and malicious laughter echoes at the edges of hearing for a heartbeat.
Ihliel would have let out the mother of all squeaks, but said squeak had taken a death grip on Ihliel's uvula and refused to go out in the open where the presense laid. Ihliel himself is best described as one big shuder with little shudder babies.
A breeze no one can feel causes the torch in Kory's hand to flicker, but it regains its strength shortly, revealing a somewhat grimy room with cobwebs, and empty wine-racks.
Not expecting it to work, but deciding to give it a try anyways, Aella tries the door the group entered through.
As expected, the door is stuck fast in place.
"Don't just stand there. Let's look for a way out."
Aella wanders around the outside of the room looking for another door, but also idly scans the wine racks too.
Ihliel manages to shudder his way in small circles along the room.
The room is dark, and a bit creepy, but the wine-racks are empty. Except for a single bottle, which has long-ago cracked and leaked out, at any rate. There's two doors. The solid looking door that the demons came in from, and the flimsy looking door ahead of them.
Though, come to think of it, the solid-looking door looked pretty flimsy from the other side.
Aella motioned Ihliel towards the second door. "Hey, big boy. Think you can get this open?"
Ihliel looks confused at the 'big' comment, but he shudders his way to the door and gives it a catious poke.
It creaks open slowly, revealing a very familiar looking room. Three demons can be seen inside, one of them peeking through the far door curiously, though Ihliel can only see his back....
If Aella looks back towards the door everyone came in through (which is now ... curiously ... open), it only reveals the staircase again.
Ihliel looks even more confused. At least his shudders have stopped, for now.
"What the Heaven?" curses the demoness as she goes back to the first door again and checks through it.
The first door is now open and reveals only a deserted stairwell.
With a short 'Wait where you are.', Aella quickly walks up the stairs.
Aella finds only the way the demons came at the top of the staircase (though, it is kind of high -- takes the breath right out of a demon).
Once again, forgetting her manners, Aella lets out another curse then wanders back down to the others.
Aella returns to the room where the other demons have waited. There's now a door with what looks like identical copies of the current room (stretching on to infinity) inside it, and a door leading to an empty stairwell.
Aella checks the new stairway, getting a bit annoyed.
Ihliel looks even more confused, he scratches his head absentmindly.
There is no new stairwell, only the old stairwell, which is still visible from the main room. It's empty because Aella just stepped out of it.
Yawning, Kory goes to check out the broken wine bottle, which hopefully still has something in it despite appearances.
The bottom half of the broken wine-bottle does have something in it. It's vaguely glowy, and looks almost liquid ... and almost like ... slime? Ichor? Ectoplasm?
It looks like kind of scary stuff, either way, and not wine.
Properly awed by the glowy, ichory ectoplasm, Kory steers clear of it. She makes her way to the second door, the one showing the lots and lots of copies of the cellar, and closes it.
The room's exits both abruptly shut at the same time. From behind the just-closed door, the sound of breaking glass is heard briefly.
Ihliel gives a shuddering confused jump and squeaks, then sits down abrutely as doing so many things at once hurts his poor brain.
Kory tries to reopen the door and look into the doorway.
Through the door there appears to be a small alcove, and the shattered remains of an old mirror. Above, a wire can be seen, running above the cieling to the other door. Behind the remains of the mirror is a mostly full (if somewhat dusty) winerack.
With a wave at the other two demons, Kory floats into the alcove, intently examining said winerack.
It's a wine rack, consisting of iron frames in an interlocking diamond pattern. It might fold up when all the wine bottles are taken out of it (in fact, one is larger, and looks like it might be holding the framework in place). There are no visible wires on the wine rack.
The bottles are all identical, except for the one larger bottle (which has no visible label). The bottles' labels all indicate that they come from good years ... excellent vintages, too.
Kory singles out the large bottle with her eyes, and checks whether it's the aforementioned Bottle of the High Spirits.
Most likely it is. The glass is too dark to see through, but the other wine bottles are all clearly labeled as something else.
Kory creates a small ball of green fire, holding it above her left palm, and examines the rack for wires, just to be on the safe side. Then, letting the plasma dissipate harmlessly, she calls out, "You, the blue guy! Gimme a hand here," and waits for him to approach.
Closer inspection reveals: No wires. Good to be thorough, though.
"The blue dude" shuffles through the door, and pauses to look at all the wine bottles. Perhaps a little sip to calm his nerves? Ignoring the cheerful but mean demon, he shuffles to read the labels more closely.
Not really caring that he isn't paying her much attention, Kory nods to herself. "Good, you're here. This rack," she says, pointing at it, "will probably do something nasty when I take the bottle we came for. So...." She smiles. "You'll hold it to keep it from folding onto itself and pelt you with glass shards or worse while I pick the bottle up, right? Cool."
Aella waited by the door to see what happened.
Sparing Aella a glance, Kory added, "Maybe you should keep that door open, just in case?"
"Sure."
Aella leaned against the door, applying most of her weight to it.
Wondering wether she was crazy or not, Ihliel none the less holds the rack, positioning himself in such a way that if indeed shards fell, they would fall on her instead. He was far too delicate for nicks and scracthes.
Without further ado, Kory takes the large bottle from the rack, and heads for the door, using the weird blue demon for cover.
With the largest bottle removed, the wine-rack starts to collapse ... and then it stops, stuck on the other bottles.
They hold for a moment, and then the bottles slowly crack and shatter, spilling wine across the floor. Spirits rise from the spilled wine, and whimper, "That was an awesome year!" "Not the chablis!" and more ... but the wailing spirits all immediately get sucked into the bottle in Kory's hands.
The demons now have one (whimpering) bottle of high spirits.
Kory shrugs. "Cool," she says, making her way towards Aella. "Can we go now?"
"Looks like it." Aella stepped through the door and headed back.
It doesn't take long to reach the pantry overhead, though the climb leaves everyone a bit winded when they enter the (scrupulously clean) empty room. Torches gutter from their sconces along the wall in most places.
Kory puts her torch back where she took it, thanking it.
Ther small voices from the corners of the room say, "Thanks for bringing it back!" and then nothing else.
The spiky guy is presumably standing in the doorway and watching you with his crystal ball thingies.
Kory heads for the probable location of the spiky guy, waving the others to follow.
The spiky guys is standing around, shaking their crystal balls and peering into it expectantly. He looks up, slightly disgruntled, and says, "That was faster than I expected. May I see the bottle?"
"But are you... you?" Kory asks him, holding onto the bottle. "I mean, how can you be sure?"
"A good question. After I deal with you, I will have to question myself to make sure I haven't overstepped my authority. This way, then." Without waiting to see that anyone follows him, he turns around, and begins walking back the way that he originally led the demons.
Kory shrugs, and follows.
Ihliel shuffles along, shuddering occasionly thinking of the consequences if he HAD drank a bottle and had 'spirits' inside him.
Aella followed the others. Her expertise wasn't much in need it seemed.
After a while, the demons are all led to the chamber of Tuck. Though, currently, Tuck is absent, and another copy of that spiky guy is standing in front of the dias.
"Good," he says, eyeing the spiky one leading the party, and nodding. "My monitoring attempts were successful?"
"Unfortunately, I was not able to record as planned. However, they retrieved the bottle, so there's no need to notify their next of kin with a recording of their deaths."
"Good, I have done acceptably well, and will not be punished. Now, you," the spiky-guy at the dias says, "have succeeded where others have failed. How did you manage to pass the room of invisible guardians?"
"Invisible guardians? Do you mean the room with the mirrors?" Aella queried.
"No, they were in the first room," replies spiky-guy-at-the-dias.
"We were polite?" Kory offers uncertainly.
Ihliel gives a shuddering nod nod.
The spiky guy seems baffled at this approach. "You may indeed be insideous enough to handle what is to come," he says quietly. "Very well. You are all released to your quarters to rest for the day. Tomorrow, you shall all be given the specifics of your assignment."
"Great!" Kory exclaims, before turning towards the cowardly-seeming demon. "So, where did you say you were staying?"
"In, in the gardens?" Ihliel squeaks out.
"And I DIDN'T say," he continues with a squeaky indignant huff. "I don't actually think I have quarters yet..."
"Well, I'm pretty sure there's an empty room next to mine." Kory frowns slightly. "Lots and lots of empty rooms, actually. You could always get one of those." Glancing at Aella thoughtfully, she asks, "How about you?"
Aella grinned. "I just want something with a bath and a big bed."
"The bath part could probably be arranged," Kory muses, looking sideways at the spiky demon. "Baths need fire, and there's plenty of fire here. Ergo, enormous bathing potential."
"Not sure about the beds, though," she adds a moment later, chewing on her lower lip. "I don't really use them myself, so I never bothered with one."
"The bathing here is not potential, it has progressed into reality. The public baths below the castle are open to all," the spiky one says abruptly. "And a bed can be provided. Which type will you require, seducing, sleeping, or combat?"
"Do you have any multipurpose ones?" Aella gave the demon a small grin. "I like at least two of those things."
The spiky-one nods. "Easily arranged," he replies, not asking which two of the three Aella intends. "In fact, beds for all. I'll send myself to fetch them." Then the spiky-one wavers a bit, and steps in four directions, and he's become the spiky four.
"I'll stay here," one of them says. "I should help the rest of myself carry things." Then three of them march off, talking about how well they're handling the situation.
The remaining spiky-one nods in approval at his departing selves.
"What's a combat bed?" Ihliel shuddering wants to know.
The spiky one raises an eyebrow. "Let's just say there's worlds of durability beyond seduction and sleep," he answers. "Your quarters," he concludes, stopping at the door of the room next door to Kory's.
"I guess I'll see you all tomorrow," Kory says, smiling at her companions. "Have fun with your beds of seduction and combat!"
Still smiling, she slips into her room.
Kory slips into her room, and the spiky-three return, a sturdy bed carried between the two of them. In a few minutes, the new room has a bed installed, and maps to the public baths are given to all (except Kory; hers is left attached to her door for when she wakes up).
"Anything else?" he asks.
Ihlies shuffles his way to one of the remaining rooms, still slightly confused on how a bed was supposed to be for seduction or combat.
After the demons all find their way to their rooms, the rest of the evening is uneventful.
Koriand'r, Ihliel, and Aella now go to: Tuck's Missive (http://www.pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=53332#53332).