Runelords 43.0 - Rising Tensions

Virgil stepped out of the library and spent the day talking to the remaining people around Jorgenfist. Needlenest had moved to the middle of the central pit and thanked Virgil once again for the service he and his allies had done. Treants up above circled the edge of the pit and it seemed like they were using their roots to slowly break down the earth, eroding the edge of the pit away. Needlenest hoped that this place would be reclaimed by nature, slowly and peacefully.
Most of the Shivering Ones had left; their forges were cold, and the last few were packing up belongings to head back to their warrens. They greeted Virgil and lamented that their job was done; these had been good customers. Virgil made his way up the side of the valley and looked down, appreciating the silence and view for a while. Most of the trees that had filled the valley were gone, treants who had returned to their homes. As night began to fall and rains started to roll in, Virgil made his way back to the library, just in time for the arcanists' nightly meeting.
Meanwhile, the others spent their day in study, though Shadliss' and Eamon's 'research' had begun to move into less academic pursuits. Shadliss was making her interest in Eamon quite clear and seemed to only be galvanized by his clueless demeanour.
At the meeting, Luna brought up something to the group that she had noticed: the ritual required seven mages to perform seven different rituals; it would likely be prudent for the lot of them to split up the spells and each focus on a single part. Nisa dryly congratulated her for reaching that point, and agreed. Quint spoke up first, declaring himself the conjurer. Khyr jumped in and claimed the illusion component, which earned him a dirty look from Koume, who then sullenly called for enchantment. Virgil offered transmutation to Lucretia, which she gladly accepted. Before Luna could speak, he also claimed necromancy for himself. The audacity of this shocked Luna, and Zara silently urged her not to let this affront stand: she was obviously the greater necromancer, and this man had to be put in his place. With the grin of someone who knew he had the tiger by the tail, he explained that this shouldn't be a big deal: it wasn't even like they were making anything permanent, or that it required highly specialized knowledge. It shouldn't be important to Luna which of the seven pieces she got, because the outcome would be the same anyhow. Unless, of course, Zara was telling her that it was important, and that she had to be the necromancer in this team effort. Luna glared and hissed at him, but couldn't bring herself to stand up to him in such a public forum. She quietly accepted the evocation component when Virgil volunteered her for it, leaving the abjuration spell for Nisa. Lucretia and Koume grinned cruelly; their opponents were in-fighting which could only stand to benefit themselves. Nisa rolled her eyes and told everyone again to stay focused.
After the meeting, Luna yelled at Virgil in semi-privacy, extremely upset with his meddling. He tried to calm her down and explain his motives, but she was having none of that. While this went on, Khyrralien saw an opportunity to test the vigilance of Zara; he stole up to where Luna had been keeping her things, and deftly stole the cursed box. He hadn't quite expected it to go as well as it had, but had no complaints; he slunk off to a corner to prod at his box in peace.
Not too long after Luna returned to her station, she reached into her bag to get a new pen and found the box missing. She called out angrily and Khyr was not shy about admitting he took the object: she had had her turn and he wanted his, and the box was his by right of the fact that he had killed the mummy who last had it. She fumed and glared but knew she couldn't win the argument, so she angrily let it drop before returning to her work, obviously shunning everyone else. Virgil berated Khyr, angry that he had picked the worst time, when Luna was already feeling persecuted, which would make it even harder for them to convince her to get rid of Zara. Khyr was unrepentant, saying that he was not at fault for not knowing a plan. Already frustrated and self-blaming, Virgil had no retort, accepting the fault for the situation and retreating himself. Khyr sniffed and went about his own business while Eamon and Shadliss watched the train wreck from a distance. The two were at something of a loss for what to do; Eamon attempted to speak to Virgil, who just shook his head and directed him away. Unsettled by this much friction, the two kept to their own company.
Time passed mostly uneventfully for another week. Virgil attempted to apologize to Luna but was coldly rebuffed. From that point, there was little communication between the group: Eamon and Shadliss kept to themselves, becoming increasingly comfortable with each other; Luna's cold stand-offishness kept everyone away; Virgil moped in silence, a depression settling in; and Khyr kept himself aloof, not best pleased by this much drama. Nisa stepped out at one point to collect a large stone chair, one of the artifacts they needed to channel the ritual, while Virgil and Quint left to claim an artifact for abjuration: the pedestal which the tank of ithilium had been mounted on.
When the time came to conduct the ritual, the group said their farewells to Alicia: she opted to stay in the library, looking for further information about the bridge to heaven that her order sought. She thanked them all for their assistance, and wished them well on their journey. Shadliss decided to stay as well: this much danger had been more than she bargained for, so she would wait with Alicia for them to come back. Luna treated the goodbyes flippantly: they'd see each other again in a few days, tops. Shadliss gave Virgil a hug and kiss goodbye, telling him to not die; he agreed, and told her to take care of herself. She said goodbye to Eamon next; her hug was a little longer, her kiss a little more passionate, and she told him to make sure he came back. Eamon didn't know what to do with any of this, but agreed. Virgil sighed slightly; he knew full well he had been replaced.
With that, Nisa and Quint teleported them to the first location, where the spell would be cast, giving them the ability to open a portal at a secondary location.Category:Rise of the Runelords