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Anthousa Mona

He charged like a wild bull, this once-great priest and scholar, bony spikes sprouting between his knuckles. Anthousa raised two fingers in warding, and her spell deflected his jagged fist. Around them, Kelari clashed in the streets of Atia.

“Kelari blood runs in the gutters because you cling to old, stupid ways!” sneered Karris, a wave of heat from his open palm melting her ward away.

The High Priestess made no sign of discomfort even as the dregs of Karris’s spell singed her eyebrows away. He’d become obscenely powerful; Anthousa had to keep him talking. Anthousa found her most imperious tone, always close at hand. “Kelari blood need not concern you, Karris. All I see is another gibbering Wanton.”

Karris grabbed Anthousa’s throat as a ray of sunlight shot from the end of her staff and into his breast. Maelforge is not the only source of flame. Karris screamed, blood boiling in his veins, and in his agony, hurled her against a wall.

Anthousa slumped like a ragdoll, shards of shattered bone swimming inside her, struggling to whisper healing words as Karris stalked closer.

“Not Kelari, Eminence? Then we shall be Pyrkari, and sear away those who will not kneel to a greater power!”

At once, Anthousa rose into the air over him. Her skirts flickered like candle flame. “You shall be ash and memory. And then only ash.”

“Jace!” Anthousa sat against his chamber door, hands in her lap. “I’m sorry for saying that, but you know Karris can’t be trusted.”

“You’re just mad because you can’t prove him wrong!” cried Jace, loudly pacing within. “He says you want to hold us back!”

Akios fluttered by, the pale white wisp making his usual compassionate twinkling noises. She passed her fingers through his hazy light.

“If we march down Maelforge’s gullet, yes. I want to hold us back from that. If you would only study the spirit paths instead of seeking easy power, you—”

“I DON’T CARE!” Jace yelled, tossing his practice scroll against the door.

“About the spirits? About your people?” Anthousa said. “I know you better—“

She heard him mutter into his pillow: “About you.”

Anthousa hung her head a moment, perhaps for the first time in years, and then rose and smoothed her robes. “Yes, well. Your priorities are your own. Come and eat once you’ve calmed down.”

Anthousa Mona

Anthousa sank to one knee as the next crowd approached. Her fingers burned from the magic. Refugees swarmed toward the docks, weeping and stumbling as they fled the rampaging Pyrkari.

“High Priestess, save your strength. We have other Clerics healing the crowds,” said Thesios, wringing his hands over her.

Anthousa downed a mana potion in gasping gulps, wiping the bright blue trickle from her chin. “None like me.” She immediately began chanting over the next group of huddled Kelari, watching with satisfaction as their wounds closed and their pace quickened toward the boats.

“If the Pyrkari break through our rear guard and find you exhausted…” Thesios said, “Karris nearly killed you last time!”

“And I nearly killed him,” she said, beginning to chant again.

He stepped closer, flashing an ingratiating smile. “Perhaps if we were to reconsider this exodus and stayed to fight? Many Kelari resent you for making them flee.”

She stopped and stared at him, her dark eyes hard as teak. “Many Kelari, or just you? We will leave, Thesios. We will live. Question me again, and you may stay.”

She sat upon her father’s knee, reading from the scroll he held open in one hand. Akios fluttered impatiently about their heads, waiting for her to come play.

“‘…came upon this isle of ancient spirits, who remember the secrets of creation, who are the last embers of truth in the world. So we called our home Ember Isle. We treat with the spirits as friends and equals, and will never again bend the knee, as once we did to Tavril. It is not Kelari ever to kneel.’” The little girl yawned, tugging at her elaborate braid. “Poppa, I’m tiiiired.”

“Just a bit more, coconut,” her father said, the smile striking on his stern face. “You’re doing well.”

“Momma says I’m too little, that this is stuff for acolytes.”

“Your mother is kind,” he said. “But she fears your destiny. One day, you will be High Priestess. And our people’s hope will rest on your shoulders. And hope is very big and fragile.”

“Well, I’m small but I’m tough!” she declared, immediately throwing herself back into the text.

“And more besides, Anthousa,” her father said.

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Akylios

Akylios house

Knowledge of the Dragons

During the Age of Dragons, there lived a boy who sought knowledge of the Blood Storm. He was a wise boy and knew that if such evil could be stopped, it would be through good intelligence. So he sat in his town’s library, in a tower by the sea, and read every tome and scroll he could find about the dragons. He listened to every rumor, every soldier’s horror story, every old wives’ tale.

The other children mocked the studious boy. They were all eager to win glory in war, to thrust sword and spear into the dragons’ scaly hides. The boy only shook his head sadly and said, “If you think the Blood Storm are just big lizards, I hope you never see what’s under their scales.”

The others fell into sullen silence when the leaders of dragon-hunting parties came to consult the boy about how best to assault the horrible gods. At a young age, he became the foremost authority on the dragons, learning of them one by one: Regulos, Crucia, Maelforge, Laethys, Greenscale…

And at last, Akylios.

There Are No Words

Confident in his wits and will, the boy recorded the ravings of madmen. He charted the patterns of the waves, and in his seaside library, he read of the Deep Lord. Of this most perplexing dragon, he learned many useful things:

Akylios covets knowledge, all knowledge. He learned every hideous secret he could and invented many of his own, refusing to forget anything he learned even when his vast mind became full to the outer limits of madness.

When Crucia hollowed out every mind on an invaded world to fill with her own iron will, Akylios gathered the cast-off insides and sucked them up like jellied fruit. Between these feasts, he floated in the cosmos, singing along to the dance of the stars. And the stars who heard him went cold and would sustain no life.

Like all the Blood Storm, Akylios’s true form is an expression of everything he represents, and can best be described as the best way to peel a man is in one long spiral strip, like an apple. So strange did Akylios become that even his cohorts found him unsettling, and his “dragon” form bears little resemblance to anything the sane would imagine.

A collegial visit

Like any true devotee of enlightenment, Akylios is sociable with fellow scholars, so by night he would slither up from the sea and coil around the library tower. He would lean in through the window, his chitinous head filling the library behind the boy, hiding his presence with the silence of the crushing deeps. Only when the student closed his book for the night did Akylios lose interest and retract himself from sight.

The boy soon felt the hideous presence behind him, but would not turn around. Though he sensed the dozen eyes reading over his shoulder, he did not turn. Though he heard the Profane murmuring at the very outside edges of his mind, his eyes stayed on the book, even when Akylios would let his awful tongue sway just outside the scholar’s peripheral vision.

And then one night, staying up late to study, the determined boy thought he heard his mother call him down for dinner. Moments later, the townsfolk heard something enormous splash into the water and swim away, and then a scream that would not cease.

All they found in the library was a flayed skeleton, mouth open till the jaw cracked, eyes still in their sockets. They buried it deep, under layers of stone, but people who walk those shores can still hear it scream. To this day, Akylios loves to visit those who study him. But that heavy presence behind them is likely only their imagination.

[Off Topic] Patch 3.1: Storm At Sea

Storm At Sea!

 

     While I haven't had much time to myself to play Rift or even WoW lately, I have been keeping up with all the updates and announcements going on in Rift and I gotta say, there's lots of cool things that have been happening in this expansion. Here's what's going down this patch!

 

     Apparently there's a lost island, shrouded in mist, out there in the Dreaming Sea, waiting for us to discover and conquer it. Also, it appears it's where Crucia has been hanging out lately. I knew we hadn't seen the last of her. She keeps popping up, like a cockroach. Which is ok with me cause I think she's one of the coolest villains in Rift. :)

     You have to fight against giant, evil Akvan, all kinds of demigods, spawn of the Plane of Water, and all manner of defenses when assaulting the island, before entering the Tyrant's Throne to battle against Crucia herself.

 

New Zone: Tyrant's Throne= An island in the Dreaming Sea where Crucia is biding her time to strike back. 5 new story quests and a whole bunch of rewards and achievements await.

 

Three New Zone Events= The Ravenous Devourer, Leviathan, Aphogglach.

 

New Nightmare Raid Rift= A new raid rift has been added, 'The Darkest Magic'. Nightmare beings both evil and strange are tearing their way into Draumheim and it's up to the Ascended to put a stop to them before madness takes over.

 

Tyrant's Forge: New 20 player Raid= In this raid, it looks like Crucia has created a mechanical, large dragon form for herself to use so she can reign over the Planes without anyone being able to stop her. To thwart her plans you have to enter the Tyrant's Forge and put a stop to the completion of her giant mecha. You must fight Johan (I confess I have no idea who this is), Pumpkin (Also no idea), and than Crucia herself in order to gain victory, if you can even make it in time. (Sounds ominous!)

 

Chronicle: The Rhen of Fate= The results of Finric's decisions if the Ascended hadn't gone to the Plane of Water. A 2 player chronicle mirroring the first sliver of Nightmare Tide.

 

Planar Attunement Expansion= 3 new additions to Planar Attunement, Dusk, Dust, and Steam (a rather odd choice) that unlock a whole ton of new rewards, including temporary enchants, Nightmare Tide buffs, and a whole bunch of other beneficial new abilities befitting the elements.

 

New Minions and Capes= A host of new sneaky minions that will challenge players to collect them, as well as a whole bunch of new unique capes for everyone, as well as a bunch of other in game things to be added! As well as new minion updates and added features to make it easier to access and play with the minion screen.

 

Tons of other updates to both the game UI, character screen, Souls, professions, quest objectives, the looking for group feature, fishing, looting, auction house, and quests! Oh and also dimension UI. Which is always good since the dimensions UI is a bit annoying at times. All kinds of fun new stuff to check out so make sure ya do! And now I'm off to play some Rift myself! Ta!

[Karazhan's Story] 2.18:

     I sighed, glancing down. The ground seemed quite far away from my current position, high on a parapet. I'd crept up here to avoid detection while sneaking further into Jakub's fortress. The place was crawling with undead and cultists, making it difficult to avoid detection, but if I wanted a chance at slaying Jakub and this greater demon, I needed the element of surprise on my side. So I'd been honing my skills as an acrobat to inch my way along the outside battlements of the curtain wall and hoping no one looked up and noticed my rear hanging off the stone wall. The stone smelled cold and musty, testament to it's age and if the place wasn't crawling with the enemy, I would have been quite excited to have this opportunity to explore such an important landmark in Freemarch's history. As it was, I had to stop a few times and admire the fantastic view of the entire march I had from my position.
     I stumbled over some loose rubble and sent a few small rocks sliding down the side of the battlements. I froze, every muscle tense as I waited to see if anyone was alerted to my blunder, but after a few seconds I took a deep breath and continued until I reached a watch tower. I stuck my staff inside the open doorway first, waggling it around for effect and when nothing untoward happened, I cautiously stepped around the corner into the darkened interior. This one was almost identical to the other tower and I quickly descended the steps to the ground level. Here, I found another altar. Briefly glancing across at it, I noticed several old scrolls stacked carelessly in the corner and curiously unfurled one. They were ancient and to my dismay, one crumbled in my hands. Delicately, I tucked the others into my satchel. At least I could preserve these scrolls for the scholars to research at Meridian. I imagine they would love to read these. So much of the written history of the march was lost because of Jakub's tyranny. Then I took great pleasure in destroying the profane altar, scattering all the filthy spell components from it's top, stomping on and scuffing up the runes and magic circles so they were illegible, and using a small fire spell, had the wooden surface of the altar ablaze in seconds. Because the tower itself was stone, I wasn't worried about the small fire. Leaving it to burn out behind me, I crept toward the exit of the tower. Peering outside, I gasped. Directly to my left sat a giant mutated mastiff. The hound was huge. It easily came to chest height. Saliva dripped in large quantities from its jowls and it's eyes glowed an unearthly violet. The color of death magic. I spun back inside the tower, back to the stone wall and took in a deep breath. And nearly choked on it when I heard loud snuffling sounds right next to me. Slowly, I turned my head and saw the snout of the demonic mastiff poking inside the entrance.
     I quickly jerked away from the hound, wanting distance between me and it, although I'm sure with it's large paws it could bound the distance between us easily. It came fully into the tower room, nails tapping loudly against the stone floor.
 
     "Nice doggy." I glanced around the room a bit frantically as the dog turned and growled at me. The hound crouched and it's muscles tensed and in seconds I had a fire spell called to mind and cast. The second the fireball was flung at the hound, I turned and darted up several steps of the stairs of that led up to the battlements. From there, I focused back on the hound and smirked when I saw that my spell had blasted the creature in the face. It's snout was charred and one eye looked a ruined mess. Despite this, the hound did not seem bothered and its lips pulled back to bare a row of sharp teeth and grey gums. I glared at it. "Sit, stay!" My half-hearted commands did nothing, as I expected, but it made me feel slightly more in control to say them. The dog bounded up the stairs and I leaped off them, twisting midair to fling another spell at the dog, this one an ice spell to lock it in place. The spell caught the mastiff midair and its feet froze. It hung comically, half up the stairs, before it fell, smashing into the stone steps with a snarled whimper. If it wasn't a soulless demon dog out to kill me, I'd have felt horrible for causing it pain. As it was, I winced. I could feel the electricity gathering around me from my spells. For every spell I cast, I became more electrified, and I used that to give my next spell more strength, slamming a shock of thunder into the hound. The spell battered the hound, sending it flying backwards to slam into the wall with so much force that the a few rocks rained down. I could tell from the violent sound that the mastiff was dead, but I waited several long seconds before moving anyway. Always ensure your enemy is dead. Poking the grey-skinned body with my staff evoked no movement, so I finally relaxed my shoulders and forced my breathing back to normal.

     Peering outside again, I noticed that the cultists all seemed to be focused in one corner of the courtyard. I considered the situation a moment, and then spotted an old cart nearby that was piled high with filthy rags and other debris. I quickly darted over and crept behind the cart, waiting several seconds to see if I'd been noticed. When a herd of cultists did not coming running toward me demanding my head on a pike, I reached out and snagged a pile of filthy clothing off the cart. It was the same sort of material that the cultists had, so I tugged the ragged robes over my own, feeling disgusting. "Definitely having a long bath after this." I muttered in disgust as I shook the grimy robe out around my ankles. It was a little tight around the shoulders on my large frame but it wasn't like there were Bahmi sized clothing just lying around in a human keep. Still, would it kill them to do the washing once in a while? With my disguise firmly in place and my wand carefully strapped to my back, I popped up from behind the wagon and casually started walking toward the main keep, trying to look like I fit in. I knew the disguise wouldn't last under close scrutiny and only hoped that everyone was too busy with their own thing to notice one more cultist about. Nothing to see here, move along. I passed another demonic hound and it swiveled its head to follow my movement across the yard. I held my breath, but the creature just watched with unholy eldritch eyes. I made it to the stone steps that led to the keep and stopped, turning to survey the courtyard. A few cultists glanced my way curiously but I gave them what I hoped was a 'mind your own business' glare. There were more hounds sitting at the top of the steps and if I wanted into the keep I'd need to pass them. Great. I just knew that I'd find Jakub and his pet demon inside. Obviously if your an evil megalomaniac you'd want the best seat in the house.
     Well here goes nothing. I walked up the stone steps and the hounds at the top perked up, eyes following my every movement. When I reached the top, both hounds were on their feet, staring. I waved my hands in a shooing motion. "Go away!" I whispered forcibly. If they attacked me, up here at the top of the steps, it'd be a very painful last few minutes of my life when everyone in the courtyard came rushing over. "Bad dogs!" I wagged my finger at the hounds and their ears swiveled forward then back. Maybe they still had dog mannerisms. Without taking my eyes off the eldritch hounds, I reached into my second pack and blindly rummaged around until my fingers closed over the remains of my fish meal. I pulled it out slowly and the hounds immediately stood up straighter, ears on high alert.
     "Easy, there ya go, good puppies." I crooned. I felt silly talking to these demon mastiffs as if they were fluffy little puppies, but it settled my nerves some. Slowly, I reached down and set the cooked fish on the stone steps. Thankfully, the hounds didn't try to tear my face off. Instead, they cocked their heads in tandem and stared at the food. I shuffled to the side, but refused to back down the steps. I knew enough not to show weakness in front of predators. The hounds came forward and I squeezed around them, breathing out a huge sigh of relief when they sniffed the food and began fighting over who got to eat it. With one last glance around to make sure no one noticed my feeding the guard dogs, I slipped inside the keep.

     Inside, it was almost pitch black and I felt the click inside when my Ascended gifts kicked in, allowing me perfect night vision. Another altar took up most of the first floor. This one was far more elaborate and sinister looking. It also had a protection spell cast one it. Feeling along the edges of the spell, I recognized it as one that would flay the skin off anyone who tried to meddle in the ritual. A beautiful full length sword lay along the altar lengthwise, wrapped in red and gold material which I'd guess would be royal silk. The sword gleamed with an inner light, almost like it was lit from within. Definitely not Jakub's sword. Without touching anything, I leaned over and read the glyphs inscribed into the tang of the blade. "March Edge" was written in an old script. I gasped. The sword of the kings of Freemarch! How in the realms did that tyrant get ahold of this artifact? How dare he defile something so sacred. March Edge was a powerful talisman and an important part of Freemarch's heritage. The protection spell around the altar was strong, but not strong enough to keep out an Ascended. Using all of my new magical strength, I was able to twist the spell until it unraveled. I saw the rings of the spell as they fell away and smirked. It was quite satisfying, finally having the ability to actually make a difference. My magical senses detected other, malignant magic hovering around the altar now that the protection barrier was down, but this magic wasn't inherently harmful, despite its evil. And sadly, its purpose had already been fulfilled. Some kind of massive summoning. The strong and sudden smell of brimstone confirmed that Jakub had indeed already summoned up Legul. And a whole host of demons as well. I had no idea he had that kind of power. Unless he used the lives of his followers as fuel for the ritual.