Mir Fnar

[*AniKai]

Summons... Visions..., part #1

For the first time since arriving at Sigil someone attempted to summon me. I had thought Sigil's wards were good enough to prevent such... And in any normal summoner's case they would've been - but this magic was no magic of dabbling amateurs which mere mortals are...

...the Attempt

I was boggling over some unfortunate fella that had became victing of Conrad's Implosion right outside Khaz's bar when I begun to feel dizzy and lightheaded. A moment it felt like I'd be losing my footing and slumped against the bar's wall, steadying myself with it.

The dizziness faded a little a bit later. Some genasi looked at me and asked,

• - "Do your eyes normally glow red?", being the question.
• - "Erh, not that I know of", I said, perplexed.

Camthalion came to me, asking the same question, along such things as "are you pregnant" and so on. Finally he pulled me a bit away from the crowd and attempted Banishment, although I've no clue for why - until Maelfina happened to give me a hint that blanched my face right away. But eventually her guess turned out to be equally wrong as everyone else's.

I took a seat at the bar, and the world went spinning in my eyes at the exact same moment and I almost fell off the chair. I clutched the chair groggily, the sounds of the bazaar fading in my ears.

Soon enough I felt like floating and a moment later as if I was being pulled through the fabrics of reality - the bazaar and the people rapidly gaining distance. A moment later I saw just spinning circles and chaotic scripture flying past my eyes. Then the script and the symbols became clearer, resolving themselves, forming a series of interlocking circles with the script twined with them, cabalistic symbols at the periphery - all glowing bright in shades of red and yellow.

The next thing what I saw was a floor of dressed stone as my view rose and pivoted. The shapes and symbols were painted on it. Then I saw a glimpse of someone standing behind iron bars, a beshadowed and cowled figure.

And then reality bent itself again and I found myself laying on my back on the floor of Khaz's bar - head clearing, sounds returning.

[*AniKai]

Summons... Visions..., part #2

Who?

After I sat back onto my chair, Maelfina asked if I could draw the symbols and such which I had seen. Yes, I indeed could - the image of them burned into memory for the most part, and thus I proceeded to draw the structure and a portion of the symbols onto a parchment she provided.

No one at the bar recognized them, not until a rather eccentric mage came around later, Khasef, who told me what I had drawn. With his words in mind I ventured to the Hall of Records to seek out more details.

After consulting the record keepers, I finally came upon a tome called "Treasures of the Unapproachable East". The magic that had affected me was that of Nar Demonbinders... A major shock to me indeed. The spellflingers in Sigil - all mere toddlers and dabblers in comparison to the Nar.

[*AniKai]

Summons... Visions..., part #3

A vision...

While walking on the streets a head splitting headache struck and I saw a vivid mental image of an object of the same shape as the circle of the other night, but this time seeming a large amulet of solid silver, the lines of the shape carved with flowing runes, and the entire object studded with an array of red gemstones.

...another vision...

As earlier, but then the perspective pulls back, revealing some details. It sits upon a pedestal of stone, the sides carved with leering faces with distinctly demonic figures. A red light shines to the side, and somehow my viewpoint seems to swivel towards it, revealing another pedestal, another silver amulet, and before it a glowing column of vermillion light. Something seems to move within it.

It seems difficult to see what lies within the column, but even in the brevity of the vision, certain elements seem to hold a certain familiarity. The curve of a female hip, the tip of a batlike wing, a lock of raven hair. And with this realization, the vision fades again, and the pain relents.

...yet another vision...

Perhaps it is a mercy that the next vision comes during sleep, the head-splitting pain and dizziness not a factor, only a sudden awareness of being which is in no way similar to a dream. Again the silver symbol atop the carved pedastal, although things seem different. The lighting in whatever this chamber may be is brighter, allowing sight of the details that escaped her last time. Fine script upon the symbol, a floor and walls of cut stones, many of which are cracked as if with age. The symbol seems to glow faintly, faint motes of blue appearing and vanishing in the air about it and seeming to prove a magical investiture.

The red light still shines to the side, and again the viewpoint turns; again, there is more detail to be seen. Indeed the being in the shimmering column is a succubus, clad almost indecently, although there is little attractive about her now... a glazed expression upon her face shows a spirit broken, while her posture, rather than evincing the usual challenging sensuality of her race, is the slumped slouch of the hopeless. Were it not for the distinct and almost seemingly familiar features and the telltale wings and tail, it would nearly seem difficult to believe that this is a fiend from the abyss rather than simply an utterly forlorn mortal. Slowly, her head turns towards me, and her eyes widen slightly in a mixture of shock and recognition. But even then it is too late to see more as the point of view, no more in my control than ever, continues to turn.

A narrow window, barely more than an arrow-slit, breaks the line of the wall, and dim daylight shines through. But as vision accustoms itself to the greater brightness, something that brings a sense of dread with it can be seen without. But it isn't some barren waste or blighted ruin that greets the eye... rather a street several stories below, ramshackle buildings clustered about... and above it all, into a soot-striated sky, rises something horrid in its familiarity.

The arch of the city of Sigil...

[*AniKai]

Silent Rage Rising...

Adam Winters, a friend if I dare say, dead - so said SIGIS. And dead how? In a manner that got me blanching while setting my blood aflame in my veins at the same time. In a manner that required blood for blood, a deed for a deed - and a final death.

...and a word in the darkness

• - "And I'll deal with the body finally - disintegrate", said the bones chilling hoarse voice of Hjyng'kari.

And thus the dogs of war were on the loose...

[*AniKai]

The Watcher

I was sitting at Khaz's with Mashanie and Linda, a few items changing owners and chatting about current events, mainly the carnival. Mashanie then tugged my leg with his tail and whispered to us that we were being watched. I didn't notice anything, but the others said that there was some figure clad in black, watching us from the roof of the inn.

The moment we decided to change place and stood up, the figure vanished in a flash of light and sparkles. Soon enough Mashanie was climbing up to the roof, me following him shortly after.

The only trace there was left was magical in nature, a still lingering trace left by a dimension door, a short range transport spell.

A moment later we noticed the figure on another roof and I scrambled back down onto the street while Mashanie transformed into a winged form and glided across the space between the inn and the other building.

Just as we came to the building, Nick strolled around and joined quite readily our chase. Mashanie leaped soon into air again, landing somewhere out of our sight. We of course dashed after him across the street and then some stone stairs up.

I skid into a stop at the top upon seeing Mashanie surrounded by blue light and warning to not come closer - and the next very instant Nick was standing between me and the light.

Mashanie was bound, by the same magic I had seen in my visions. There was two of the silver amulets on the roof - one holding Mashanie in binding zone, the other still dormant.

Linda unleashed a disjunction at the disc which emitted the binding zone, promptly destroying both the field and the disc and thus freeing Mashanie.

Nick grabbed the other disc for safekeeping after Linda tried divination and scrying on it. The scrying attempt backlashed due very powerful wards... While they were at it, I checked the place for some traces, but didn't find out much anything else than that whoever spied on us and trapped Mashanie, was either an average woman or a very slender male.

[*AniKai]

A Familiar Face

A hooden woman approached me at Khaz's, wanting to have a word with me. There was something familiar in her voice... and then she pulled her hood down and I recognized her for who she was - one of the Counting House's succubi, and in particular the one with whom I had spent my time while at the said place.

She pleaded and goaded me to stop resisting her masters and thus my new masters to be. I refused, naturally, which made her eyes tear for a moment. "I'm sorry...", she said and got that unnatural mirthless smile on her face again. She then dropped her robe to expose the wings and tried to grab me - I got out of her way just in nick of time, whereupon she teleported away.

A Crafty Trap

Couple days passed in a rather usual manner and pretty peacefully in general, and then I overheard couple "treasure hunters" at Khaz who were looking for a tracker to guide them to some certain place at Abyss, which sounded like a place I had been oh so very often already. Simple enough task, with that in mind, I thought and approached the two - a man and a woman - and got the "job" after a few moments of chat with them.

A bit vary due the past events, I asked Nick along, who was hanging around with a rather bored expression on his face - typical after an uneventful bazaar guard shift. Zachan happened to overheard us four, and decided to tag along also. "The more, the merrier", I thought, "and quicker done."

The trip through Abyss was as eventful as it usually is, but we got to our destination, a small cave, without any real problems.

In the cave the woman (forgot her name...) teleported her brother to us and we begun to search for the rumored cache of a now long-dead wizard who's belongings they were after. And after a while of searching, Zachan happened to find the spot where something was buried.

What was buried there was somehow magically warded, but the opening "mechanism" was rather simple - three knocks and a keyword "open" in Abyssal language. But what was revealed was another problem then, and more strongly warded, a jet black portable hole of some sort. The others couldn't get their hands in it - reaching into it required one with fiend blood as it turned out.

Right after I had put my hand in the "container" I found something metallic and pulled it carefully out. A mistake, major one - as it turned out to be one of the Nars' binding discs! Sure enough, the moment the disc was out on open, a blue column of light surrounded me, imprisoning me in a binding field. On top of that, a Balor appeared at the small cave's entrance.

What happened next though, I don't know - the other of the two Nars (as that was who they were) managed to encase me in stone and thus blocking all my senses and making me immobile.

Some time later I became back to my senses - Nick had reversed the petrifying magic from my being. The two Nars were nowhere to seen, and Nick explained that he had beat them to death or unconscious, but they had vanished the moment they fell on ground. Zachan was laying at edge of the platform, apparently either dead or unconscious - not for long though, for Nick managed to revive him back onto his feet.

After getting patched up, Zachan released me from the trap with disjunction.

The only thing left behind by the Nars was a staff which literally reeked of powerful magics stored within it.

[*AniKai]

Language Studies

Been learning Draconic from Animus now for quite some time, and at the same time, teaching him Abyssal. He's apparently as fast learner as I am - not much more to go and he'll be fluent enough in it.

A couple days back Mashanie agreed to teach Vish'Narish "Common", and in turn - after she grasps the basics, her to teach me Elven.

[*AniKai]

Barmaid

A charming man he was, handsome, winged... kissed my hand after a moment's chat - just to let me find a golden ring on the finger he kissed. But he was a Taker, a tax collector - sleek, sweet talking, and left my heart a flutter tho it belongs to my love.

He collected the taxes from Khazeet, told then aloud the rest of the nite was on his tab.

Maybe it was stress or something, but Khazeet asked me to take his shift, to watch the bar and serve the drinks.

It was a fun nite, until my love ordered something I wouldn't have served if he hadn't been so persistent. He was carried to inn by Kelth, with me and Naya'il in tow. I shouldn't have given him the drink, but he seemed so astute and firm that I yielded.

He got treated from the worst of it all and the rest of the nite I spent at his side, spreading my warmth, keeping him calm and all at ease.

[*AniKai]

A Home, at Karasuthra

Day #1

Wasn't one or two times me and Mashanie had discussed and kinds of planned to build a home to Karasuthra. Then one day he led me there, smiling somewhat funnily, and asked for a suitable spot, which I then showed him after a while of trekking through the landscape.

We laid out the outline for the house with sticks and rope and a little fire elemental as fire place marker. After that though I was in for bit of a surprise as Mashanie emptied a vast load of planks and logs onto ground from a holding bag. And soon he was in diligent work, making the house's outlines more tanglible.

Day #2

Walls for the house. And not just any walls at that, but made of Mercurian granite and marble! The stone blocks thick and heavy, worthy in size for a fortress, were not incredibly hard to set in place - thanks to a tireless construct, an iron golem. As final touch, with the golem as my lift, standing on its hand, I welded the blocks together with magics, forming a single seamless wall.

Day #3

Roof for the house, supported by wooden beams "imported" from Brux, atop which a layer of stone slabs which shimmer in the perpetual moonlight as if grained with silver.

The inner walls - covered in wolf pelts from floor to ceiling.

And then windows... I didn't want glass, but something more personal and soulful, and thus emptied my pockets from gems, hundreds of them literally. A bit craftiness and the gems ended up as thin slices of gemstone after a while and two.

After getting the gems sliced, I sat happily humming on the main floor and begun arranging the slices into mosaics while Mashanie tinkered with something else in another room of the four.

First window, a gem mosaic landscape with trees, a lake, couple rolling hills, blue sky with some clouds. At front, a deer-like creature. Second window, two mountains with snowy tops and some pines and at front a wolf which is gazing the observer. Third window, an Amethyst sea, night sky, an island with trees, moon high in the sky, two dolphins swimming. Fourth window, a desert oasis, part deep blue sky, part a "sandstorm". In the waters of oasis, a trio of ruby red flamingos standing, one of them likely fishing. And the final one, an infinity.

[*AniKai]

A Construct ...

"A guardian for the shop...", I thought, a litany of properties dropping like rain from the muttering lips, "...strong, nimble, fearsome, fearless, merciless, deadly, all-seeing, all-hearing, silent, loyal without questions... untouchable with magic, impervious to blades... Ah yes, my little pet, I know what you will be! Know exactly! And who knows, maybe one day even more than now designed for..."

Chuckling contently and adjusting my hat to sit better I begun collecting the materials around the planes; bones of giants, claws of tanar'ri and baatezu, carapaces of umber hulks, a few blades from blade golems, and so forth until I was content with what I got.

Building the framework wasn't much of an effort in itself and much less time taking and hazardous than collecting the materials required.

And so, in just about couple days of piecing the puzzle, it was finally ready to be activated - a golem much more a weapon than a servant - for now standing at ready in our home at Karasuthra, ready to be shipped into duty. I was more than content with the results - the construct followed a mere thought of mine and as expected, immune to magic and to all the weapons I could wield. "Too bad I can't use you in Sigil... The Lady'd destroy you at sight...", I sighed, leaving it to guard my and my love's home.