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 Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:10 pm
 The drowess crouched, her fingertips sweeping the dusty ground. They settled on a small pattern of runes and a slow grin spread across her face. This was it! Nedxena anxiously placed an interlocking stone into position and then began reciting the incantation to open the chamber. It creaked and groaned beneath her. Her pulse was racing and she lept back just in time as the opening extended across other stone tiles much further than she had anticipated.
The dust settled and the mage waited several moments before entering the long undisturbed chamber. Off and on for almost a year Nedxena had been working towards this moment, following lead after lead. And now her efforts would soon come to nothing. What she sought would not be there afterall, but other objects and yet another clue would be.
In Menzoberranzan, Nedxena was continuing her hunt for the so-called Palx'aunnar Direcese. The Direcese is a device known to several races of the Underdark. The powers it channels are ancient and supposedly outside of time. Some tell the tale of the Direcese with its power like an infection that corrupts the wielder and fuses to them. Others like to think the possessor will nearly become a god. Either way, Nedxena saw it as another goal and she was even more determined after all of her frustration. Her contact in Erndlyn had pointed her to a drow by the name of Ynbahyl in Menzoberranzan. Supposedly this Ynbahyl could help her interpret her newly acquired map. But she had to find him first! The closest she had gotten to finding him yet was the location of a shaman. Either he might know Ynbahyl or perhaps he could help with the map.
Relonrak. She didn't have a good description of him, but Nedxena imagined she would know the shaman when she saw him. What with her tattoos and carved bone accessories she mused that she might look a bit like a shaman herself. She scoffed at the thought, hoping quite seriously that this shaman at least had the sense to recognize Lolth.
The gray-eyed drow slipped down a dark alley, her golden markings faintly reflecting and nearly seeming to glow in the gloom. Her precious map was strapped to her back in a slim case, hidden under a thin black silken cloak. Nedxena stopped and checked the runes beside a low doorway and hesitated for just a heartbeat. Something felt strange about this, but she rapped her knuckles against the doorway anyways.
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:43 pm
 Relonrak sighed and pushed his hood off his head, the horns from it hitting the rest of the cloak lightly. Sometimes his line of work was boring. Sure he could do a lot of interesting things and had spells that others could only dream of. But there were so few shamans that he never had meet many others.
Nor did the name shaman or druid hang well with many, even if he did worship Lloth. Most thought it was a cover and that he worshiped another. Which was why he was currently living in this hole in the wall in, Menzoberranzan was it.
Though recently he had taken up some more studying, which was a hard thing being a shaman to find information. Luckily his goddess provided well for him. No one knew but he was well connected to Lloth, maybe more so than some priestesses. She favored him sometimes (it had to help he was quite handsome, he knew that much).
His ears pricked when he heard someone approach his doorway. Green eyes glanced around his room quickly and settled on his staff to his side. He rarely had visitors, many knew to leave him alone. Picking up his staff, he made his way to the door. Relonrak opened it enough for his face to be seen. "Yes?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:21 am
Well, he certainly looked like a shaman. Nedxena was pleased to see the stranger was young, perhaps around her own age. She had always grown up as a child hearing all the whispered tales of horrible old shaman and druid out there doing despicable blasphemous things. But the drow before her did not fit that tale at all. This didn't need to be difficult. She had made up her mind to only assume he worshiped Lolth. As long as he did what she asked and knew his place, Nedxena had no plans to ask about anything else other than the map. 'Unlike Akorbaste,' Nedxena could only imagine the hard time
Nedxena stepped up close enough to get a foot in the door way and to not have to raise her voice. Being discreet might be appreciated. She softly spoke the name she was given, "Relonrak perhaps? I have an object I was told someone here might be able to decipher. I can pay for your time."
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:31 pm
Relonrak rose a brow as he looked upon his ... visitor. Lloth must have been smiling upon him this day, it was rare that such a lovely female could call upon him for his practice. Though he probably surprised her just as much (old shamans had to have been young at some point). He leaned forward very slightly to listen to her.
"I am he." The shaman took a step back and opened the door, the female could now see him fully and part of the room behind him. He grinned slightly, payment was always good. "Why don't you come in mistress and I'll take a look at this object you speak of." At this he turned gestured for her to come in. The room was filled with such an assortment of random things. Just as Relonrak had an oddness to his clothing (or partial lack of) the room matched him in those same tastes.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:40 pm
Nedxena accepted the invitation in, restraining herself from casting an appreciative smile at the handsome male. Now was not the time to let desire rule just because the shaman's appearance was unexpected! She followed Relonrak inside and took a look around.
The room was full of objects and curiosities. Surely he had some practice with strange objects, but did he have the knowledge she needed? Nedxena hoped so and was quite anxious to find out.
Nedxena drew the map carefully from its case. "I wouldn't want to waste your time, so I will let you look at the markings right now. Is there any chance you could decipher this?" The mage was fond of jumping straight to the point. Only if he could be of any use to her would she be staying long enough to bother with small talk.
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Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:12 pm
Relonrak smiled back, just slightly, at the female and closed the door after she walked in. Seeing that she waited for him to lead he walked over to a small desk on the other side of the room and nodded his head at a chair. "You may sit if you like, mistress." He thought for a moment. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage, you know my name and I do not know yours."
He could tell that the looks of his room interested her, not many drow came into here that weren't. Green eyes watched the female, she had some sort of paper with her. "One moment." Before looking at the map, he moved a few things from his desk. After it was cleared, he took the map and unrolled it on the table. Quickly his eyes looked upon the map, it was ... interesting. "I know some of these, yes. I may know where to figure out more too."
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:15 pm
Nedxena was too curious about the many objects her eyes were studying to bother about a chair. The mage waved aside the offer. She kept aware of her surroundings and of Relonrak, but nonetheless could not keep herself from wandering a little away from the shaman just briefly. Nedxena did not touch anything of course, she had learned more self-control than that! Her hands she could control from wandering, but not her imagination.
Satisfied with a survey of the strange room, she turned back to him to answer, "Nedxena. That is enough of a name for now." Of course she belonged to a House but her full identity was not really his business yet.
Nedxena chuckled with excitement, "Alright, this map is very important to me. It is supposed to be tied to the Palx'aunnar Direcese. As long as it takes you, I need to know anything you can give me." It was finally going to happen! A break in this tortuous hunt at last! The shaman sounded positive he could give her a clue one way or another.
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:29 pm
Relonrak kept an eye on her as he studied the map. To say, there were some dangerous things in the room, and didn't want anything ... unfortunate to happen. Especially to a new client, and a young attractive one at that. Besides the danger, most things were harmless baubles.
"Of course Nedxena, I wouldn't ask anymore." He didn't care of formalities and such anyway. It got bothersome when houses came demanding of him like a servant. He liked the secrecy that some had, which never led to him if something were to happen. Relonrak also discovered that those of any importance never gave a house name.
He grinned, slightly. Though he knew some, he perhaps knew more than he would let on. Not that the more helped any at this point. His head nodded as she spoke. He had heard some of the Palx'aunnar Direcese but not much. "Knowing that will help greatly in what you ask me to do. It is difficult when one is looking for something they do not know."
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:37 pm
Nedxena stopped her wandering and managed to get her curiosity under control. She joined Relonrak over beside the map. This was going well so far. The male certainly gave her, nor her eyes, any cause to be upset. He hadn't told her anything just yet about the map, but she could be patient enough!
Nedxena gazed longingly over the map, as if perhaps she could just will it to give up its secrets. "I think it seems that this area," Nedxena waved a finger over a portion of the map, "is the most detailed and important part. But.." the mage shrugged her tattooed shoulders, "I have just never seen this kind of script and notation on a map before."
"Huh!" An idea hit the mage like the shaman might as well have just reached out and punched her in the gut. She had never seen that kind of map-making before! That was it! The maps Nedxena had seen, and being a bit of a treasure hunter she had read quite a few, had all been from underdark races."Could it be from a surface tribe?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:14 pm
Relonrak studied the map more. It seemed to have more than one language on it, maybe. It was hard because he hadn't seen this writing before. He glanced up at Nedxena for a moment, seeing she had joined him by the map. He was glad she didn't wander to far around the room.
"I was just studying the area. Some words I can make out but it's an odd script." His eyes glanced to the map again. "Surface tribe? That could be quite possible. I know some surface languages, that might be were some of this is familiar."
Relonrak studied the map again and pointed to a spot in the area she had motioned to earlier. "I think it's talking about mountains here. It may be some sort of map of the surface as well."
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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 11:49 am
Nedxena was torn. Part of her was glad that she had not been going crazy thinking that this map was particularly difficult. If it was from the surface, that would be a good reason why drow would have trouble with it. But part of her was far from excited about having to continue her hunt on the surface. It better be worth it if she had to prepare for an extended journey on the surface. Her House was strong enough in the slave trade to keep numerous surface raids going above with regularity. It would not be impossible to diverge a few raiders to accompany her. She wondered if this strange shaman had been to the surface, maybe he would know enough to give her more insights about what to actually do with the map's directions. It was all foreign to her eyes. Nedxena had gone above before, and returned with the heart of an elf, a pleasant end to one of Lolth's many tests for her faithful.
"Mountains? Too bad the surface world is covered in those." Waiting was exciting, but Nedxena did not want to be a distraction, "Should I leave you alone to work at it?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:36 pm
Relonrak studied the map again. He had ideas of what some of this could mean but again, it would take time. Though he wasn't sure if this female would want to part with the map at all, depending on what she thought it was actually too. Oh this was exciting, he didn't get to figure out things that this alot. Many are afraid to come to a shaman, even one of her lady Lloth. Though from what he could tell, there was perhaps more than one surface language on it, and this trip would lead far above ground into unknown territory.
Few times he had been to the surface, how interesting it had been. How he wished he could perhaps follow this map to see where it would go. "Hmm?" Relonrak had barely heard her speak. "Oh yes, the world seems to be dotted with them. It will take a little to figure out what this all does mean. There isn't any more you can tell me about this, is there?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:10 am
Every question and every time he told her it would take a while, Nedxena grew a little more frustrated. She couldn't help it. This map was important to her and she was itching to be able to follow it. It could be more efficient to force her map-reader along to the surface with her. This was the product of years of adventure, searching and risking her life- not something to take chances with.
"Okay." Nedxena took a deep breath and got ready to spill all of her knowledge, hoping at least something could aid the shaman. "I'll just tell you everything, even if it bores you."
"The Palx'aunnar Direcese is a very ancient device and many many before me have tried to track it down. It is particularly tough to find because it dates from before our kind even descended to the Underdark. Other races even speak of it, they speak of it as if no one could have created something so foul."
Nedxena laughed. As if something being foul and dangerous would ever deter a drow from hunting it down.
"But someone had to create it and use it, there is definitely a physical record of it. I have traced that it has been in several places in the Underdark but I can't trace it further. This map is the last trace I have and I assume it shows where the last owner found the Direcese. That person I believe to be a drow of the name Laeluque, of the House Hunrahel. She was a surface raider and certainly would have been able to find this thing. I don't think she ever had a chance to retrieve it. If she had, I doubt there would have been need to protect this map like she did."
Nedxena caught her breath. Talking about the hunt made the mage excited and she spoke too fast. "I could have lost my life trying to get through the protections the Hunrahels had around their vault. Even though their house is long gone, their underground structures were strong enough to last- mostly because of the magic invested to protect this map."
"I have to find out if Lael ever had a chance to get there." Nedxena traced a fingertip very gently over the spot on the map that had been marked by the symbol of the Direcese. "If you are knowledgeable, shaman, you are welcome to join my party when we go to the surface."
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:45 pm
Relonrak rose a brow as he watched her before she spoke, only guessing she was deciding on divulging more or not. He smirked slightly when she finally spoke. Ah, that is what he'd been waiting for. The shaman could sense that there'd been more then just what she was saying.
"It takes a lot to bore me." He chuckled slightly. As she spoke he took in all what she said and locked it away to remember, so very interesting. A grin spread across his face at the mention of something being foul. Nothing was worse then a drow.
Rel noted her excitement, she must really be into this sort of ... quest. "Now that, was what I needed to know." He pondered for a moment. "I'd have to look, but I may have a text that could mention such a device. And from what you said, I doubt it had been found with such protection of this map." His eyes scanned over all his books, wondering which to go for.
The shaman's ears pricked. "Knowledgeable? My dear I know quite a lot, what do you think the books are for. Though, for something such as this, I would need to study some certain languages before going." He had nothing to lose, nor anything keeping him here. His charms would keep his place safe enough. Rel's eyes glanced to the female, she wouldn't be bad to travel with either. "This is quite the search you will have. You have other's that would come?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:10 pm
Nedxena watched, eyes interested as Relonrak mentioned having a text which mentioned her device. She couldn't wait to see that if it existed. Any clue they could get would help. And it would certainly help having a shaman like Relonrak along.
He soured her mood by calling her 'dear.'
She chuckled, "Don't call me a dear and you might make it back down to the underdark when we are through." Nedxena gave the shaman a dangerous smile. "I think we will have a productive journey together- you might be just what I need to finally find this thing. I'd love to see that text if you can find it." Her eyes followed his to look over the books. "I bet I could spend forever going over all these books. You really collect a lot. I guess we have that in common."
"I have a few drow from my House who will shadow us. You'll barely know they are along."
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