Shizuko and the Queen of Bones - RPLOG
Participants
Date
3/11/477
Log
The gates of Descrato manor are dark and foreboding and a chill autumn wind blows down from the nearby Northwarden pass. This is where Shizuko's sources had pointed her, beyond the darkened streets of Mossy Stone to this forsaken place.
Shizuko quietly approaches the Manor, moving swiftly under the cover of darkness. The leopardess, wary of the danger inherant to this area, is armed with all of her tools of death - including her sheathed miao dao, held ready in her hand as she approaches the gates. She sweeps the area again, looking for anyone that might be on watch, and then tries the gate.
All is quiet around the gate, though there is a forboding sensation of being watched. Shizuko finds the gate to be unlocked, and it swings open easily at her touch. With the gates, the manor grounds have grown shaggy and wild. The path to the main house seems clear enough, but it seems that there has been more traffic to and from the old family sepulcher off to one side of the expansive grounds.
A sepulcher. Of course, how... fitting. After taking a moment to steel her nerves, Shizuko steals across the manor grounds towards the outbuilding and crypts. As she moves she notices her hand shaking, and then she resolutely places it on the hilt of her sword; the simple action fires her spirit, and her motions become smooth and sure.
The old Descrato Sepulcher lies open, its dark portal an open invitation to enter the family burial site. For a moment, it seems almost as though there is a flicker of some kind of anti-light, sight where there ought to be only blackness, but then it is gone. That sense of being watched grows more oppressive at the black entrance into the underground crypt.
Shizuko pauses at the doorway, her ears perked as she listens, tail slowly swaying back and forth behind her. She straightens her shoulders, lifts her chin slightly, and drops the furtive pretense at stealth; when she begins making her way down the stairs into the crypt, it is with a posture fitting of an announced guest.
Nothing impedes the snow leopard's progress down into the dark. As she slips further down the stairs the air becomes colder and harder to breathe, as if the air were somehow thinner down here. At the bottom of the stone steps, there is a choice to be made, several tunnels branch off in different directions. From directly ahead comes another pulse of that Not-Light, though it seems that eyes watch from the darkened corridors to the right and the left as well.
Shizuko draws her small torch from her bag and carefully lights it, holding it in one hand as she looks about. She spends a moment contemplating her options, and then strides forward towards the Not Light, feeling as though she had her best chances there.
After only a few steps, the cut stone of the crypt gives way to rougher, newer excavation. The air is cold and bitter down here and from up ahead it seems that muffled chanting can be heard. She must be close to her goal!
Shizuko takes a slow breath, blinking as she watches her breath steam. She bows her head for a moment, then looks back up and continues on, certain of her course.
A few more steps is all it takes for Shizuko to find herself standing in a large, circular chamber. But where there was the hint of chanting, there is nothing now but the echo of her own breathing. For a moment, the chamber seems empty, but suddenly, there is a blast of cold wind and the snow leopard's torch flickers out, leaving her in utter darkness.
"Who comes?" a flat, male voice rumbles from the void.
Shizuko looks aorund the room, surprised to find it empty; the voice takes her by surprise, but without the light of her torch to giver her away she does not feel -too- abashed at the little jump. She takes a slow, calming breath, then speaks. "Shizuko Toshiko."
A wan, sickly light begins to rise from the far side of the room and an imposing, dark figure paces across the floor toward Shizuko. "I am Lord Taltos, Shizuko Toshiko," the big, black bear rumbles, "What do you seek here in my Mistress's stronghold?"
Shizuko slowly bows her head towards the bear, although not far enough for her gaze to be interrupted. "Lord Taltos. I have come seeking the boon of the White Lady. I would court her favor."
The black bear's muzzle splits in a dazzling white grin, though there is nothing especially friendly there. "It is not the appointed time," he says in flat tones, "But perhaps the Queen of Bones may be entreated." The imposing Taltos draws close to Shizuko. "Have you brought a gift for the Lady?" he asks.
"I heard that She values purity," Shizuko replies, quietly; she slips her fingers into her belt pouch and withdraws a small bundle wrapped in a silk cloth; she makes another slight bow of her head, and then hands the trio of pearls over to Lord Taltos. Although none of them are notably large, the leopardess had taken care to pick polished stones without visible marks on them, and wrapped them carefully.
Taltos takes the little bundle and looks over the offering. "Yes," he grunts, "These are a fine gift!" The bear then turns his back on Shizuko and raises the pearls in his hands over his head. Now that she is no longer under his scrutiny, Shizuko can see that the bear wears a tattered white robe like a burial shroud. It is obvious that it is only meant to appear ragged and is not actually decayed. "Dark Mistress!" the bear calls out, "Lady of Night and Queen of Bones! Great Pyrrha hear thy lowly servant and and answer my call!"
A harsh, cold wind blows through the room and the sickly glow increases to almost blinding intensity. "I am thine!" Taltos roars, apparently in some kind of rapturous exctasy, "And as it pleases you, you come when thy servants call!" The pearls in Taltos's hands suddenly yellow and crack, dissolving into dust and blowing away in the furious wind and there is a wet ripping sound as the air before Taltos is torn assunder and an almost mirror image of Shizuko steps from the portal. Almost mirror image, because Shizuko yet bears flesh and blood, while this apparition is only a luminous skeleton!
Shizuko gasps, her eyes widening as Pyrrha appears in the room - and especially when she realizes who's form the Mistress of Bones is wearing. She stares, for just a moment, and then sinks down onto one knee with her gaze lowered, waiting to be adressed before she speaks.
"Welcome Child," the Spirit's voice is soft and chilly, though it rings through Shizuko's skull like thunder, "I am pleased that you have come to me." The skeletal feline caressess Taltos's arm as she passes him and the bear shudders, though it seems to be in excitement rather than fear. The bone cat sways toward Shizuko and reaches out a skeletal hand to rest upon the snow leopard's head. "What would you have of me?" she purrs.
Shizuko holds very, very still as the Mistress of Bones approaches, keeping her gaze lowered to the floor. She sees the skeletal feet in front of her, and feels the touch on her head, and her ears flick. She wills herself to remain otherwise still, and after a moment she answers. "I seek your favor, Queen Pyrrha," she replies quietly. "Your blessing, and your strength."
