Vampire: Dark Ages - Scene 2: Harrowing: Taduz

[Goatkiller666]

The fireplace is directly in front of Taduz, with a warm fire burning in it. The front of the fireplace has decorative stonework and a mantle. From the mantle, Taduz feels he could probably reach one of the windows to either side. Directly above the mantle is a tapestry filling the space between the windows. The image is somewhat faded, but it seems to include forests, knights, and perhaps mythical beasts.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Why didn't I pay more attention when Petru tired to teach me...

Taduz climbs the mantle, and, with a silent word beseeching the spirits to protect him from this madness, begins to ascend the tapestry heading up towards the windows.

Mother, I know you spoke true. I know that Gabran has those poor ones trapped, please give me a sign, so that I do not end up like that.

[Goatkiller666]

Casmir follows Alina out of the room, and Gabrin graciously holds the door for him as they pass. The two smile to each other as they continue about their games.

The swarm of sprites bound and hop across the room, shying away from the fire, but climbing the carvings in the face of the fireplace. Taduz climbs the tapestry, so far successfully. It holds his weight, though in places the cloth seems old and in danger of ripping where he grips it.

As he nears the height of the window, (let's say he's on the right-hand side of the tapestry) he can her the chittering laughter of the sprites as they reach the top of the mantle, and start hopping up for the edges of the tapestry as well.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Seeing the spirits hounding him are following up the tapestry, Taduz smirks as a last ditch idea jumps in his head. Petru, brother, let's see if this works...

Taduz waits for the creeping horde to get partway up the tapestry, but not close enough to him.

Bracing his feet against the wall, working his dagger into a hand, and as he pushes back, slashes the tapestry above his grip.

Aiming to land on his feet, on the floor, with a handful of tapestry, trapping the spirits in it, having caught them by suprise.

[Spend willpower]

[Goatkiller666]

Taduz succeeds in cutting the tapestry. In fact, once the cut was started, his weight and the cloth's were enough to continue the cut across the middle. He fell away from the fireplace, pulling the tapestry with him and using it to keep the manifested spirits away from him.

As he fell about 15', he tried to remember some of the tumbling training his brothers had shown him years ago. It came to him, but his years of scholarly living had robbed him of some of the strength he remembered needing. When he landed, he felt a twinge in one ankle (2 damage) but managed to maintain his grip on the cloth. He can see the squriming of the spirits under the heavy cloth, and knows he has only moments before they manage to escape.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Glad it has worked thus far, Taduz pitches the Spirits clad in tapestry into the fire.

In Rom: "Spirits of the blaze, take this misled, ill children, cleanse them, make them pure again"

[Goatkiller666]

Taduz throws the cloth wrapped spirits into the fire. A few of them manage to escape their confinement before the cloth is fully consumed, but most of them are burned.

Behind him and out of Taduz' sight, Gabrin chuckles to himself and says to Al-Nasir and Gedemines "Oh, he played that one well, indeed." Then he focuses again on the fire.

Taduz notices the fingers of flame that lick up from the cloth begin to change as well. Spirits similar to those he had juts burned, only this time made of living flame itself, begin to manifest on top of the burning tapestry. These attack and quickly kill the solid spirits who had escaped the blaze, but then turn and point at Taduz. Their chittering sounds more like small hisses, but their menacing intent is still clear as they start to move towards him.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Realizing he's only bought time, Taduz backs away from the flame spirits, using the old words his Mother taught him in Rom "Spirits, be at peace, you have purified your ill bretheren, is it not for the betterment of all to have cleansed them, than to allow them to be enslaved to that thing? Rest, be at peace."

Taduz follows this making the proper gestures of peace, appeasement, and hopefully calming.

[Goatkiller666]

Gabrin laughs behind Taduz, as the fire sprites move closer to their target. "They too have caught the hunger, now. I would run, were I you."

The fire sprites gain speed as they get closer to Taduz.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Taduz turns and heads away, keeping ahead of them, working his way towards the blind nun's seat.

[Goatkiller666]

As he approaches the far corner, Taduz sees Lord Valdemar sitting in a conversation area with Mother Constanza. The nun is enveloped in her normal jet black habit, though it seems to be moving in a strange way around her. Her eyes are wide open, and purest white with cataracts. She is praying quietly to herself, with a very afraid but determined expression on her face.

The sprites fall a bit behind Taduz. They move a bit slower than the previous spirits, without all the hopping and jumping.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

As the spirits get closer, Taduz grabs the blind nun, and heaves her into the spirits path saying in Rom "Be fed, hungry ones, take this instead of one who has done you no harm"

[Goatkiller666]

Taduz grips the nun's shoulders and heaves, but she doesn't leave the chair. The entire chair itself shifts somewhat, but he wasn't expecting to be moving the whole thing. She cries out in surprise, and then resumes chanting her prayers.

As he griped the nun's shoulders, the fire spirits simply vanished.

The moving surface of her habit shifts more, and tendrils of... something lift up from her body to reach for the teacher. The tendrils are pitch black, and seeming to be something more like thick smoke than a solid surface. They do not glisten or even have clear edges, but Taduz can generally see where the are.

As Taduz releases her, the fire spirits appear again where they had been.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Why me..

Tries to keep some touch on the blind nun, to her clothing, without being touched by the blackness. Watching it Very Closely should it come towards him he'll resume his flight.

[Goatkiller666]

As the sprites continue to approach, they seem to take a wide berth around Lord Valdemar. Still, they're only five feet away from Taduz now. With a hand on the Mother Superior's shoulder, while avoiding the touch of the inky blackness, the spirits are still fully visible.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Khul

Taduz breaks from the behind the blind nuns seat, along the wall away from the fire spirits, towards the servants at the end of the room.

Taduz, you surely are lucky to be alive still, or damned to be in this situation.

[Goatkiller666]

The spirits are circling to the north and east around Valdemar, leaving a westerly path open for Taduz. He heads that way, seeing a man and a woman in servant's attire standing by the wall. The man has a large wine jug in his hands. Behind them is the door to the hallway, leading back to the courtyard and other locations.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Taduz takes the jug of wine from the man, and sloshes it on the floor towards the fire spirits who have been crawling along it seeking to extinguish them.

in Rom "You seek to take that which is not given, I hope when you next awaken you will be more at peace, out from under his powers"

[Goatkiller666]

The servant relinquishes the jug, and steps away from Taduz as the latter splashes the jug's contents towards the moving group of spirits. The liquid flies through the air and lands on the foremost several fire beings. It passes through them, though it also steams and those spirits dim somewhat. The spirits behind them jump back to avoid the liquid in the air, but then march over the soaked flagstones. Little puffs of steam rise up from their footsteps.

Two of the injured sprites turn on a third and grip it's arms. The prisoner sprite seems to split into two pieces, which are then consumed into its attackers. A few other of the injured sprites are destroyed this way, leaving the remaining ones back at full power. This cannibalism slows those sprites down, and the uninjured sprites end up having to move around those.

[Taduz Illyannovich]

Taduz has an idea same joke, new twist..

Taduz backs away from the fire sprites, towards the naughty girl and her 2 disciplinarians, noting to see if there are fewer now than there were before their drenching.