All dogs go to heaven (09/09/20)
Sept 10, 2020 10:38:01 GMT
andycd, Varis/G'Lorth/Sundilar, and 7 more like this
Post by Ghesh on Sept 10, 2020 10:38:01 GMT
Anyone sitting around in the Ettin might overhear Ghesh chatting to anyone who is interested. After a few drinks he starts on a new story of adventure.
“You’ve met lots of adventurers around here right? I bet you’ve come across Baine and his dog Frankie, they are mostly over at the OCF compound. Well, he realised that with his new magic, he could summon a mount from the heavens, but he wanted it to be Frankie…”
He goes on to tell the tale.
After getting nowhere with meditating on how to go about this, Baine eventually gets in contact with BB, Sheryl, Varis, Pieni and Ghesh to ask if they would accompany him in an adventure to try and make Frankie into a celestial good boi. After getting Pi to explain it to Frankie and check he is alright with this, they all head to portal plaza to see about getting to Elysium to find an answer there. With a brief bit of refresher studying from Aurelia, the portal opened and they stepped through into...well, heaven.
Landing there, they find themselves in a vast field of roses. Naturally, this catches BB’s attention but after a quick discussion she reluctantly agrees to ask before taking any. They take a look around and spot two pegasi flying away from them, and Pi immediately takes off to follow. Everyone starts to make their way through the roses and slowly a valley comes into view. A valley full of animals, mostly dogs and horses. As a huge group of dogs bounds past, chasing a boulder, a winged figure with one arm seemingly made of light flies across to greet them.
“HI! It’s so great to see people here! I’m Evelyn,” she says, “who are all of you?”
Pieni speaks up first “We’re here to make this dog into a big boi.” He points towards Frankie. After some introductions, Evelyn explains that she can absolutely help Frankie to become celestial, but she has been having a problem with some sphinxes in a nearby valley that are stopping her from getting a flower she needs and keep coming to tease her for failing their riddles. The party agree to see what they can do to help and set off in the direction she points to.
After an hour or so, they see two sphinxes fighting each other and hesitantly decide to approach. Seeing that they have company, the sphinxes stop fighting and come over to talk.
“Evelyn sent you, eh? Well, good luck, you aren’t just talking to androsphinxes, we are anBROsphinxes!”
“You know how this works, we give you 3 riddles to solve”.
At this, Baine steps forward “Hey, can I wrestle one of you? It can count instead of one of the riddles.”
They agree, and one moves back to give some space. After an intense bout with Sheryl inspiring Baine from the sidelines, the sphinx finally wins the close-fought match.
“That’s one win for us. Now it’s time for us to give you the riddles. First one: If Lathander could make something that even they could not lift, does Lathander even lift?”
After a bit of discussion about whether ‘lifting’ the sun each day counts, Sheryl and Baine answer yes.
"'Course the big man lifts! That’s one-all. Time for the next riddle."
"Which of us is the most handsome?"
BB thinks aloud “That’s highly subjective…” before Ghesh says “Can we answer to each of you separately?”
"Sure, its highly irregular but I guess it's allowed."
Ghesh explains to Sheryl that he reckons they both want to hear that they are the best, and she goes over to whisper to each of them in turn.
She starts with the one who wrestled with Baine and says, "You are clearly the most handsome, because you bested the best paladin Lathander had to offer."
Turning to the other, she tells him, "You have intelligence and wit, that must have seen you through many scrapes. That is handsome, and some would say, the MOST handsome."
"Did they get it correct for you?"
"Yeah, what about for you?"
"Yeah, you got it right, that's incredible. You have won, so we must leave. But we wanna go to this other place in Elysium, but there is another sphinx. She won't let us go there because we couldn't get her riddle right. You seem clever, maybe you can help us solve this one?"
The group offer to give it a go, so they tell them the riddle they are stuck on.
“My thunder comes before the lightning. My lightning comes before the clouds. My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?”
After a lot of thought, Ghesh and Pi both suggest a volcano at the same time.
The sphinxes bro-five. "Y'know, that sounds right. We are going to a MUCH nicer valley now. Thanks, you guys are alright."
As they are setting off, Pieni shouts after them “ANSWER MY RIDDLE!” They look at each other and land in front of him.
"What happens if you stop breathing?"
They look confused and a bit worried, "...you die?". After a full 10 minutes of pacing around and clawing at a tree in frustration, Pi offers to give them the answer.
"You would aSPHINXiate"
As they fly off, Pieni suggests, "Ask it to the other sphinx, you could one-up them"
They collect the flower, and one extra for BB, and head back to find Evelyn playing fetch using a ball of radiant light.
"OH HI!! you're back then? Did it go alright?"
BB fishes out the flowers, and asks if she can keep one now that the sphinxes have left the valley.
"Of course you can. Now follow me, we're gonna use this to make Frankie a holy boi."
They reach a small stone cabin, and Evelyn explains that she can do it quickly but it tends to be traumatic, so she instead offers to make something to transform him gently.
Before she goes into to cabin, she turns to Baine. “You know what this will do? Frankie will no longer actually be a dog but a celestial hound. Still the same Frankie you love and who loves you. While you can summon him down, you will be taking him into danger now rather than protecting him. In some ways it is the best gift to give a dog, in some ways he will have to endure more than he ever has done before."
Baine walks to the side and sits and stares up at the dawn filling the sky, deep in thought, before asking Varis about Tuevel and how he finds it.
"It is a sacrifice Tuevel is willing to make. However, he has always been a celestial spirit rather than awakened so he chose to join me in battle"
Thinking aloud, Baine mutters, "Frankie doesn't understand why I don't take him with me everywhere I go. If I make him smarter, he can then choose whether he wants to join me."
Evelyn returns with a ball of light in her hand, and after Baine confirms that he still wants to go through with it, she feeds it to Frankie. As he eats it, she bends down and takes his head in her hands before running a finger down to his nose, and as she does the white stripe that was on his face turns gold as he grows in size a little.
Sheryl is first to talk, "Speak to him Baine!"
Baine sits down to cast Find Steed for the first time, trying to copy what he has seen Varis do in the past. As he does, Frankie starts to enlarge until he is the size of a bear, and he looks round to Baine.
Not used to telepathic speech, Baine talks to Frankie to ask how he feels, and what he wants to do.
"You can choose whether you want to come into battle with me."
Speaking what Frankie is telling him, we hear the answer, "If you are in battle, that's where I'll be."
Moments later, Evelyn approaches with a box. "You all helped me a lot today, I have some of my old stuff that might help you in your adventuring."
As Baine gets used to talking to Frankie, everyone else spend some time playing with the animals and making the most of their brief visit to Elysium, before they drag Pieni away from the valley and he finally Plane Shifts them back to Daring Heights, now with an extra celestial good boi in tow.
“You’ve met lots of adventurers around here right? I bet you’ve come across Baine and his dog Frankie, they are mostly over at the OCF compound. Well, he realised that with his new magic, he could summon a mount from the heavens, but he wanted it to be Frankie…”
He goes on to tell the tale.
After getting nowhere with meditating on how to go about this, Baine eventually gets in contact with BB, Sheryl, Varis, Pieni and Ghesh to ask if they would accompany him in an adventure to try and make Frankie into a celestial good boi. After getting Pi to explain it to Frankie and check he is alright with this, they all head to portal plaza to see about getting to Elysium to find an answer there. With a brief bit of refresher studying from Aurelia, the portal opened and they stepped through into...well, heaven.
Landing there, they find themselves in a vast field of roses. Naturally, this catches BB’s attention but after a quick discussion she reluctantly agrees to ask before taking any. They take a look around and spot two pegasi flying away from them, and Pi immediately takes off to follow. Everyone starts to make their way through the roses and slowly a valley comes into view. A valley full of animals, mostly dogs and horses. As a huge group of dogs bounds past, chasing a boulder, a winged figure with one arm seemingly made of light flies across to greet them.
“HI! It’s so great to see people here! I’m Evelyn,” she says, “who are all of you?”
Pieni speaks up first “We’re here to make this dog into a big boi.” He points towards Frankie. After some introductions, Evelyn explains that she can absolutely help Frankie to become celestial, but she has been having a problem with some sphinxes in a nearby valley that are stopping her from getting a flower she needs and keep coming to tease her for failing their riddles. The party agree to see what they can do to help and set off in the direction she points to.
After an hour or so, they see two sphinxes fighting each other and hesitantly decide to approach. Seeing that they have company, the sphinxes stop fighting and come over to talk.
“Evelyn sent you, eh? Well, good luck, you aren’t just talking to androsphinxes, we are anBROsphinxes!”
“You know how this works, we give you 3 riddles to solve”.
At this, Baine steps forward “Hey, can I wrestle one of you? It can count instead of one of the riddles.”
They agree, and one moves back to give some space. After an intense bout with Sheryl inspiring Baine from the sidelines, the sphinx finally wins the close-fought match.
“That’s one win for us. Now it’s time for us to give you the riddles. First one: If Lathander could make something that even they could not lift, does Lathander even lift?”
After a bit of discussion about whether ‘lifting’ the sun each day counts, Sheryl and Baine answer yes.
"'Course the big man lifts! That’s one-all. Time for the next riddle."
"Which of us is the most handsome?"
BB thinks aloud “That’s highly subjective…” before Ghesh says “Can we answer to each of you separately?”
"Sure, its highly irregular but I guess it's allowed."
Ghesh explains to Sheryl that he reckons they both want to hear that they are the best, and she goes over to whisper to each of them in turn.
She starts with the one who wrestled with Baine and says, "You are clearly the most handsome, because you bested the best paladin Lathander had to offer."
Turning to the other, she tells him, "You have intelligence and wit, that must have seen you through many scrapes. That is handsome, and some would say, the MOST handsome."
"Did they get it correct for you?"
"Yeah, what about for you?"
"Yeah, you got it right, that's incredible. You have won, so we must leave. But we wanna go to this other place in Elysium, but there is another sphinx. She won't let us go there because we couldn't get her riddle right. You seem clever, maybe you can help us solve this one?"
The group offer to give it a go, so they tell them the riddle they are stuck on.
“My thunder comes before the lightning. My lightning comes before the clouds. My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?”
After a lot of thought, Ghesh and Pi both suggest a volcano at the same time.
The sphinxes bro-five. "Y'know, that sounds right. We are going to a MUCH nicer valley now. Thanks, you guys are alright."
As they are setting off, Pieni shouts after them “ANSWER MY RIDDLE!” They look at each other and land in front of him.
"What happens if you stop breathing?"
They look confused and a bit worried, "...you die?". After a full 10 minutes of pacing around and clawing at a tree in frustration, Pi offers to give them the answer.
"You would aSPHINXiate"
As they fly off, Pieni suggests, "Ask it to the other sphinx, you could one-up them"
They collect the flower, and one extra for BB, and head back to find Evelyn playing fetch using a ball of radiant light.
"OH HI!! you're back then? Did it go alright?"
BB fishes out the flowers, and asks if she can keep one now that the sphinxes have left the valley.
"Of course you can. Now follow me, we're gonna use this to make Frankie a holy boi."
They reach a small stone cabin, and Evelyn explains that she can do it quickly but it tends to be traumatic, so she instead offers to make something to transform him gently.
Before she goes into to cabin, she turns to Baine. “You know what this will do? Frankie will no longer actually be a dog but a celestial hound. Still the same Frankie you love and who loves you. While you can summon him down, you will be taking him into danger now rather than protecting him. In some ways it is the best gift to give a dog, in some ways he will have to endure more than he ever has done before."
Baine walks to the side and sits and stares up at the dawn filling the sky, deep in thought, before asking Varis about Tuevel and how he finds it.
"It is a sacrifice Tuevel is willing to make. However, he has always been a celestial spirit rather than awakened so he chose to join me in battle"
Thinking aloud, Baine mutters, "Frankie doesn't understand why I don't take him with me everywhere I go. If I make him smarter, he can then choose whether he wants to join me."
Evelyn returns with a ball of light in her hand, and after Baine confirms that he still wants to go through with it, she feeds it to Frankie. As he eats it, she bends down and takes his head in her hands before running a finger down to his nose, and as she does the white stripe that was on his face turns gold as he grows in size a little.
Sheryl is first to talk, "Speak to him Baine!"
Baine sits down to cast Find Steed for the first time, trying to copy what he has seen Varis do in the past. As he does, Frankie starts to enlarge until he is the size of a bear, and he looks round to Baine.
Not used to telepathic speech, Baine talks to Frankie to ask how he feels, and what he wants to do.
"You can choose whether you want to come into battle with me."
Speaking what Frankie is telling him, we hear the answer, "If you are in battle, that's where I'll be."
Moments later, Evelyn approaches with a box. "You all helped me a lot today, I have some of my old stuff that might help you in your adventuring."
As Baine gets used to talking to Frankie, everyone else spend some time playing with the animals and making the most of their brief visit to Elysium, before they drag Pieni away from the valley and he finally Plane Shifts them back to Daring Heights, now with an extra celestial good boi in tow.
