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Post by Vanitypirate on Feb 25, 2019 2:29:46 GMT -8
Seeing the Knight, once a pillar of this corner of the Ruins, in such a way was akin to sacrilege. He was once a force that Tilly had feared and yet tentatively respected as one who would uphold what was right and good.
It pained her greatly to see him so injured and his moths in tatters.
"Good gods, Ser..." She whispered, drawing her fingers up to her face in horror. Her eyes watered.
"What in blazes happened here?"
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Post by black379 on Feb 25, 2019 18:38:26 GMT -8
"Hm." Courcy hummed an absent-minded response. She had no hobbies really, unless getting wasted and laid qualified. It was for the best to learn some new things, to occupy her time with more than carousing.
She wriggled her halberd free and leaned it against the column. Squatting down, Courcy grimaced at the blood soaked heap of rust. Grabbing some strips of cloth from a bandage roll in her satchel, she dressed her hands to minimize, however slightly, exposure to sharp scraps and gore. She removed the bits of cruddy weapons and armor piece by piece, tossing them aside until she could pull out the dagger.
"I found a... fancy knife?" It could have been useless as the other discarded weaponry, but at least it was shiny.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 25, 2019 18:58:08 GMT -8
/The Moth Hall /Tilly/ There was no proper reply that came from the Moth Knight's impaled corpse, though the blue glow flickered and grew some as it strained to whisper. Though Tilly, stood betwixt the third and fourth pair of pillars, could not hear what the Knight had to say. She would have to draw closer. \\ /Courcy/ Thanks to her strength, any weight or piling of weapons was rather easy to unpile; at least three solid iron breastplates clanged out through the hall as she set them aside, along with half a dozen swords and daggers each. Along with the odd brutal butchery tool or cudgel. But alas, the dagger presented itself, nesting in the pile of rusted steel markedly unblemished by aught but blood.
As she pulled the dagger free, its pristine elegance glimmered in the sunlight like the ocean on a clear day. The gold itself was finely set, and had a warbling texture across its surface. And more brilliant still, was a large opal set at the center of the crossguard of the weapon. The dagger looked rather large and ceremonial, but the grip was strong and there were grooves in the wood where bony fingers once clasped it tightly indeed. It was styled like a Roman poignard, or a very fancy baselard, dagger with a blade that began broad and tapered out. Of course, this blade was hidden inside a rather beautiful leather sheath which bore several more bands of gold, and a silver cap at the tip where a white-green tassle dangled fripperiously. \\
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Post by Vanitypirate on Feb 25, 2019 19:14:01 GMT -8
"Ah, don't touch the...-- the... eh..." Tilly stammered as she took more steps forward so that she might be at the Moth Knight's, giving a hasty glance around to ensure she wouldn't be caught unawares by whatever had been caught by those trap.
"--The hilt! Don't touch the hilt with your bare hands. You've got to watch for curses in here...." She held her hands to her face, either to block out some of the hall's stench or to wipe at the corners of the eyes.
The sight of this room was horrifying.
"...What happened to you?"
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Post by black379 on Feb 25, 2019 19:30:57 GMT -8
Though she wasn't one for small blades, Courcy admired the ornate weapon. After Tilly's warning, she fumbled with the dagger, holding it by the chain, and hoping that was safe enough. She wiped her other hand on her trousers.
"Curses like what?" There was worry in her voice as she stood, then tucked the dagger away in her pouch. She kicked at the pile with the toe of her boot, in case there were more treasures hidden beneath, but decided she ought to catch up to Tilly. Recollecting her halberd, Courcy weaved between the flesh-spattered pikes to cross the hallway.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 25, 2019 19:44:59 GMT -8
/The Moth Hall/
/Tilly/
As she drew closer, the flutter of moth wings grew to a feverish pitch; there were several dozen fluttering about the Moth Knight's glowing husk, and his haggard whispers finally reached Tilly's ears through the dusty odour of decay and death.
"... Ah, it's you..." He mused sweetly, a lazy and drunkish lilt to his reedy voice,
"... I think I was... stabbed." it managed, as more moths fluttered up from pillars and freed themselves from sticky matted blood, most looked battered with chipped wings or missing legs. Flying with more irregularity than their typical bumbling pattern.
The Knight's metal hand flared with life, and its fingers twitched as it shifted the rapier and the weight of the eye slightly; the sphere slipped free and hit the ground, bouncing once before resting wetly on the cobblestones.
"Did I get them?"
\\
/Courcy/
The uniquely patterned gold glimmered in the sunlight, with dark lines like wood giving a wavy shape to its reflection. The shine was so prominent that it caught on Courcy's freckled cheeks. The opal at the center of the guard was roughly the size of one's big toe, and looked markedly pricey.
Thankfully, the dagger seemed to be rather mundane as no arcane shift in her aura could be rightly percieved, though the pile of weapons and rust did clatter with some noise and resisted more than she may have anticipated, sending a sharp pain up from her toe. Though it was nothing permanent.
There still were about 6 swords, four of which were broken and all were rusted with blood. And 5 daggers, most were more uniform and unimpressive; all the swords looked to have been made in the same design. As were the breastplates, to that matter. Aside from those was a gross assortment of chopping knives, ranging from a Butcher's cleaver to a simple steak knife; it too looked to be part of a set of some sort, though most of the more intricate knives were lost. Along with that was a mallet with heavy iron spikes bolted to one end, a tool meant for tenderizing meat, now made malicious.
There was also a gauntlet that was freed with the kick, a simple affair of plate and chain, though the plate which might cover the forearm was broken in twain. No doubt by the same mallet that was discovered in the pile.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Feb 25, 2019 19:56:14 GMT -8
"I knew a fellow who grabbed a cursed dagger, and it stuck to his hand-- So just use a cloth or somesuch to hold it. He had to get a doctor to lop the blasted thing... off." Tilly called, stopped short as she barely withheld from gagging as the disembodied eye slapped against the stone, not much helping the sight and sound of the rest of the room.
"It... seems so. I didn't see anything else in here." She breathed slow, as though to limit the amount of air she breathed from around her.
"Will you be alright? I... suppose you weren't all that alive to begin with, but..." She motioned, somewhat flustered, to the lance that propped the Knight up. "...Can I get that for you?"
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Post by black379 on Feb 25, 2019 20:06:36 GMT -8
She was able to stow the dagger away, so at least it wasn't as bad as removing her hand. The rest of the pile just seemed like salvage, and the smarting pain from her kick was reason enough to ignore the other scraps on the ground and meet up with her friend. Courcy came up behind Tilly, eyeing the dismembered body cast in blue glow.
"You talking to me?" She gulped as she realized they were tramping on hundreds of dead moths, though she did spot a few fluttering about the impaled figure.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 25, 2019 20:16:26 GMT -8
/The Moth Hall/
"Oh, no..." It chuckled,
"I'll be fine." The ephemeral spirit sighed contentedly, though his whispers and carefree nature betrayed any hope of discerning whether or not he was being sarcastic.
Though now a tension brewed in his tone as its arm moved and pointed vaguely in Courcy's direction, its movements looked more rigid than before.
"You're not alone..?" It asked cautiously as moths fluttered about his fingers and wrists, holding on desperately, before fluttering off to pester Courcy's face and bare shoulders. Landing and fluttering their wings as they roamed.
Closer still it was clear that the armor and padding that had made and protected the Moth Knight was battered with ruinous and battleborn cruelty; his bones still lingered about: a few of his ribs lay on the ground, and fragments of bone from his femur were scattered about where it must have been stricken with a great cleaver of some sort. Still, his left arm remained absent even amongst his remains.
There were other bones, however; crushed skulls and skeletons wearing varying states of arms and armor were strewn about on the right side of the Hall closest to him. Notably, these skeletons seemed to have pecularily large greatshields of a kind. Pavises, if one were so versed.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Feb 25, 2019 20:26:44 GMT -8
"Oh, no, no-- it'd be suicide to go alone. This is a friend of mine." Tilly patted Courcy's shoulder as the woman made to join them, doubly answering Courcy's question as she addressed the knight.
"...Amgis sent me. She said she knew you? She'd run out of silk-moths and I went to collect more from here."
She glanced to the moths that fluttered about Courcy and, despite their surroundings, the sight still wrought a tiny smile.
"...She misses you terribly. I thought it might be sweet if I could bring a message from you to her."
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Post by black379 on Feb 25, 2019 20:38:12 GMT -8
"Tilly wha-?" Courcy panicked as the corpse stirred, though she was startled even more by the bugs flying around her face. It was the smallest harassment, especially considering the state of the rest of the hallway. Still it made her jump and she had to remind herself not to swat the moths they had come to collect.
"Sh-shoo!" She gently brushed off and covered her shoulders, and blew at the moths as they flitted around her face.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 25, 2019 20:50:48 GMT -8
/The Moth Hall/
"Amgis..?" His words sounded lost in his own voice, as the rapier wilted and fell to his side; whether due to Tilly's intonation of Courcy's allegiances, or the news of Amgis, it wasn't clear as the moths fell away from Courcy and crawled on the ground before pushing themselves up into the air to rest about the Moth Knight.
"... I don't-- O-oh... Her?", there was a small and sad laugh that echoed out from the metal cage of his armor.
"Y-yes, please! Take the moths I..." Desperation fell away to forlorn whispers again,
"... I'm forgetting... things. Every moth I've lost has taken a memory with it. Such is the magic that holds me here." There was a thoughtful pause, before he went on,
"Ah, and here--" With a choppy attempt at dexterity, he tossed up his rapier and made to catch it, but it fell from his finger tips and struck the stone harmlessly.
"--Oh... My folly; would you take it..? My rapier. I was meant to protect these moths as they feast upon magicks wrought within these ruins... but I believe they would like to go home now."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Feb 25, 2019 21:03:14 GMT -8
Tilly squeezed Courcy's shoulder in some silent means of reassurance, quietly regretting not having at least briefed Courcy on what they were to encounter before they arrived. In her shoes, she certainly would have been as startled, too.
"Oh-- right, then." Tilly awkwardly half-bent, half-crouched to pick the sword up off the ground. She remembered, an age ago, a time when she once tried to steal this very sword. And now it was freely given to her.
Rising, she stuck the rapier alongside the longsword in her bag, which was now resembling something of a pincushion with the two swords' hilts sticking out from it.
"What will you do, then? Without your moths and your sword?" She frowned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Will you still remember... things?"
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Post by black379 on Feb 25, 2019 21:20:18 GMT -8
The hellion recollected herself, though she was still awestruck and offput by the ghostly voice echoing from the mangled knight. Courcy was unsure how to respond to Tilly striking up casual conversation with it. She knew she had been here before, and it was clear that the veritable battle in the hall had occurred more recently than that.
"What the hell... happened here? What did this?" Courcy added her concerns, shifting a look between Tilly and the moth covered knight.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Feb 25, 2019 21:48:21 GMT -8
/The Moth Hall/
The rapier was cold to the touch, more so than what could be naturally attainable even in the chill of the Estate. And it felt light as a feather, but solid as crystal with a pale blue silk wrapping about its hilt which was protected by a basket of shimmering silver; it rather looked closer to a mercurial substance than any steel, but it held its shape as good as any steel, it seemed. Even with its fall, there wasn't a bend in the blade. There were tiny silver moths pocking the basket and crossguard of the rapier, and the designs continued onto the blade itself, where they floated on merrily across the surface of the blade.
The Moth Knight hummed,
"If you have met Amgis, and she wishes her moths back... then this body has no use. It was my sole wish and mercy granted to me by the Necromancer of the Violet Lune; to protect this Hall, and these moths, from any who might encroach upon them with violent intent.
Sans the Necromancers own puppeted bones." It took a small, no doubt habitual, breath as his arm slumped to his side.
"But I cannot protect this Hall any longer... I can barely stand without this spike in me. This body will perish, no doubt." he chuckled with grim humor as his hand rose and idly drummed on the steel of his breastplate.
"Those moths ate my cloth, and nibbled away at my flesh t'ill there was nothing left; they are my memories now. Least, without a head. The Necromancer has that...
...As for what happened; there was a great battle. Something from the Warrens has risen with a vengeful ardor... I believe the Necromancer has bitten off more than he can chew." The spirit chuckled at his own jape,
"A beast of great size crawled into this hall, and I fought... valiantly, I hope. It was hard to see it size in the Dark, but it was a lumbering mass of limbs and gore. I... will spare you the details, but it was as large as the Tavern-- O-or about... twice the size of a man. I imagine the tavern has either grown or been flattened by now. I apologize." There was another small laugh as he sighed,
"The door on the east facing of this Hall leads to the Warrens... a tunnel was carved out by the Necromancer and his legions. Much as I was sent to slay the Necromancer, a brother of mine was sent to slay a great beast in the Warrens... By the Light..." His ramblings drew to a sad conclusion,
"... He must have been slain too." There was a mournful sigh as he seemed like to sink closer to the ground in his sorrows.
"A-ah, before I... wallow; that sword should attract the moths. Enough to capture, at least; they still flutter aimlessly in the Light. Simply rattle the hilt and it should catch any light and draw them to it.."
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