Gossiping (Afina)

[Ebiris]

Afina frowns a little bit at Morniel's words since the curse is entirely of her own doing and intent, but she'll let the experts try and calm the dragon down before she throws more fuel on the fire.

[Nephrite]

Morniel's taking a different road than he thought he would, but no matter, he's the expert in these sorts of thing.

"As you can see, we've come in the company of one of our own dragon types," Moore says with a gesture to Arrel. "It's my understanding that you came here to avoid some issues with chromatic dragons -- I understand how the situation looks, but we came here under entirely peaceful terms to discuss matters with you. I apologize if we've offended you."

Since it seems like Morniel is going on a different tangent, Moore's just going to do what he can to follow in his footsteps for now.

[Anastasia]

That wasn't the intent for him, but oh well. Go ahead and roll a Diplomacy check, Moore. -40 penalty since curse is highly relevant to this.

[Nephrite]

Maybe I misunderstood then?

[13:23] <Nephrite> roll 1d20+40 about the only thing to save us is a natural 20
[13:23] <Penuche> Nephrite invokes Penuche's magic: < 45 > [d20=5]

That didn't factor in the -40 so it's 5.

[Anastasia]

A little of that, a little of me not using the best word choice due to posting while eating lunch. My bad.

"Yes, please. As one of the Throne," Morniel comes forward, hands open and his defenses down. "This is an exceptional situation that requires an exceptional amount of consideration." His voice is smooth and calming, seeming to deflate the rising tension with each word. "Afina is my friend and I would not be friends with one that you accuse as such, would I? I only ask that you take the time to hear us and listen to our words. Great dragon," Morniel kneels before him, head down and neck exposed, "Please."

> roll 1d20+32 (-40 Afina) Morniel
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 52 > [d20=20]

The dragon starts to raises his claw up, right above Morniel's exposed neck. But ever so slowly he stops, eyes flashing gold as he tears his gaze away from all of you. "What is this? Every fiber of my being screams that she must be destroyed. But an archon speaks truly for her, as does a follower of the Watcher." Gold shakes his head, "What is this madness?"

[Ebiris]

"I will speak for myself," Afina declares, straightening up. "You have heard of our Crusade to free our world Lifasa from Baatezu occupation, yes? Early on in our Crusade we had precious few allies, and possessed a great bitterness towards the Outer Planes that allowed Hell to conquer our world unchecked. One potential ally was Baleruk, a green dragon with designs upon claiming for himself the same essence of power that Tiamat has, that of the prismatic. As Tiamat is a strong ally of Hell we aided him, and spurned Bahamut's attempts to make us cast Baleruk aside, seeing them as the weak-willed words of one who had thrown his lot in with his own sworn enemy.

"You call me Murderer, and I do not refuse it. I have killed dragons obedient to both Tiamat and Bahamut, though each was given a fair fight. But I reject the label of Betrayer. Everything I've done has been done for Lifasa. Time and exposure to the planes has mellowed me feelings somewhat, and if the same situation arose today I may not make the same choice, but I did what I thought best at the time and make no apology for it.

"You have heard my explanation, if you wish to entertain us further we will gladly tell you of our works. Otherwise we will leave in peace. The choice is yours, Goldenariux."

[Nephrite]

"Creation is mysterious." Moore quietly says to himself, mostly in awe of how Morniel was able to completely diffuse the tension in the situation.

"Sir Goldanariux, I would only add this to Miss Afina's story -- Aurora is not just a place, the former fortress of Medi, but it is a cause -- a name that strikes fear into the hearts of Hell and all of their allies. If you choose to not join our cause, we will wish you no ill and will not return to bother you hence, but I would say this: We would be stronger with your help, and the forces of evil would be weaker."

[Anastasia]

"That is why we fight," Morniel says, "To save a world and to weaken evil so others are not threatened."

The dragon is silent for a long while, the moments stretching together before he says, "You would do anything for your world?"

[Nephrite]

Moore's not from Lifasa, so he simply looks over to Afina with an encouraging smile.

[Ebiris]

"... No," Afina says, looking unhappy at the admission. "I wouldn't condemn another world to its fate in trade, for I'm not so cruel. And I wouldn't surrender myself to Hell, for I'm not so noble. There are limits, limits I learn more of the longer I spend out here on the planes."

She wouldn't condemn Creation to invasion from Far Realm creatures either, and that's a limit that's actually been tested!

[Anastasia]

"Honesty," The dragon replies, and finally after a pause, "Tell me more about this Aurora."

[Nephrite]

Moore continues to stay silent at this, since Aurora wasn't his cause. Afina can easily stand on her own feet, but he'll chime in if necessary with his own experiences.

[Ebiris]

"Aurora, which was once Medicant," Afina begins. "Medi is gone, but his works remain - works that eclipse by far anything I can create myself. It is our mobile fortress upon which we roam the planes, seeking those who love freedom and hate tyranny so they can join forces with us in our war against Hell. Even still our numbers are too few for a simple grand battle to retake Lifasa, instead we use Aurora's mobility to strike at places of our choosing, while the strongest of us range far and wide in small groups to attack locations important to Hell.

"Hell is our enemy, but there are those deserving special mention. Taelfagn, the Duke of Destiny, was the one who engineered Lifasa's fall. Taking nine traitors born of our soil and empowering them with Hellish might, they opened the way for the Lord of the First's armies to conquer our unsuspecting world in a single stroke. At the head of those armies was Abigor, who's very presence on our world immediately slayed every form of plant life - the damage to the fey was immeasurable before even a blade was raised."

She allows herself a satisfied smile here, "Perhaps you have heard of one of our greater victories, where we took Abigor's head before Auril's throne. No other world need ever fear being violated by his presence. We have had other victories, though Lifasan landmarks would mean little to you we successfully raided Lixer's stronghold at Castle Crumbling to secure our alliance with Princess Chan. More recently several of Lixer's strongholds were assaulted after he laid a trap to capture two of our number - a resource location on Earth, the Empty Crypt on Vacuum, and Finality on Gehenna. All were utterly destroyed, along with the entire Yugoloth city of Hopelorn... admittedly that last one got away from us and necessitated fervent cleanup efforts on the astral plane when the destruction formed a planar rift, but it was undoubtedly a great blow against Evil.

"I spoke of alliances, for we have many. Lifasa's survivors are few, most of us either dead or tightly grasped in Devil clutches. And so we have secured aid, from the elven Seldarine, the Court of Stars, the Seelie Courts on one side, and the Celestial Hebdomad on the other," she breaks it down on the law/chaos axis. "The deities Selune, Seira, and Alicia have also committed their forces to our Crusade. From the Elemental Planes only Princess Chan has given us solid support, though we retain friendly ties with Zaaman Rul, Entemoch, and Sunnis - as well as recently forged ties with Crystelle thanks to Moore's work," she nods towards her fellow pixie. "The Lillend if the Infinite Staircase have also pledged their aid after we helped broker peace with invaders from a Dragon-dominated prime. These are just the larger factions but we have many more groups of heroes, less notable but no less courageous who have come forward to aid us in our time of need.

"And we would be honoured if you would count yourself among them."

[Anastasia]

Goldanariux listens to it all, a long pause and then longer yet. "...a test," he finally says, "A test." A golden scale larger than Afina floats towards her, coming from the side of the room. "Place your hand on that. The wicked will be immolated."

[Ebiris]

Well this isn't quite so strict as the Sun in Elysium so Afina doesn't think it's too onerous. Although immolation isn't really something that can happen to her without specialising in fire magic to the same degree as she has. Stepping forward, she calmly places her palm atop the scale.