Call On Me Sister If You Need a Hand: Sorrel Kavel Hellbound
May 9, 2022 7:05:01 GMT
Lykksie, Celina Zabinski, and 4 more like this
Post by stephena on May 9, 2022 7:05:01 GMT
Co-written with the towering Andy Davy. Aftermath to Thunder Road
Kavel turned the corner into the familiar square outside his sister's temple and stopped in his tracks, stunned.
The steps leading up to the Temple of Selûne were packed with armed clerics, monks and paladins, jumpy with the earnest fear of soldiers that have trained for but never seen combat getting ready to fight on their first day's deployment. The square in front of the temple was quiet. Small groups - families, social clubs, surly gangs - leave flowers and messages here and there in piles, with hand painted images of citizens of every age.
Seraphina was moving through the crowd in the square blessing each gathering and saying soft prayers of comfort although it was clear her ministering wasn't always welcome.
Kavel approached Seraphina helping a family. “Excuse me, Seraphina. I can see you are busy. But do you know where Sorrel is?”
Seraphina glanced up at Kavel and raised a hand to ask him to wait. The goliath stopped to take in his surroundings better. It dawned on him that what he saw was similar to what he had seen after news was reported of the massacre at Green Field, and the recent attack on Kundar.
When Seraphina had finished, and turned back to face Kavel, he asked, “what has happened?”
"It was evil incarnate unleashed on the innocent," the gentle assimar was weeping. "Madness came over people and they tore each other apart with their bare hands. Rholor came out of the hallowed temple and tried to calm them but a fiend in the guise of Melissa assaulted him and spirited him away. We thought he may have been murdered but Sorrel has just arrived. She says they..." Seraphina's face darkened. "She says they have taken him to Phlegethos, to the fires of Hell. Perhaps murder would have been kinder."
Kavel put his hand on Seraphina’s shoulder. “This is terrible,” he then looked up at the temple entrance, removed his hand from the cleric’s arm, “I better go find Sorrel, my sister needs me.” As the Goliath walked up the steps, he tried not to anticipate what state of mind Sorrel must be in. He knows she considered it her sacred duty to protect the high diviner, but Rholor has been kidnapped and taken to Phlegethos from under her eyes.
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow
Sorrel was staring into the moon pool in the centre of the temple, under the wide-open roof where the light shone down as the night fell. She was trailing one finger in the water and her lips were moving soundlessly.
“Sorrel!” Kavel called out, as he walked down the aisle and took notice of the lone figure by the pool. “It looks bad outside. How are you?”
Sorrel looked up and Kavel could see the dry red eyes of someone who'd shed all the tears they had. She jumped to her feet and ran towards him, leaping up to throw her arms around his mighty neck and bury her face in his thick shoulder.
"Kavel my brother," Sorrel was half laughing, half crying. "How did you know I needed you?"
Kavel hugged his sister by the waist and tilted his upper body back a little, all the better to support her. “I was just coming to see you is all. But now I am here to help! What has happened. What can I do to help?”
Sorrel dropped to the ground but leaned into Kavel like a child to a kindly uncle after the first day of big school. “It’s all gone wrong… all of it. It couldn’t have gone worse. We were played. We ran around thinking we were so clever, and they were ahead of us the whole time. You know that thicc boi fiend Adyhel? You met him first I think. With the other four we talked about they’ve kidnapped the high priest of this temple and dragged him to Hell. They turned the citizens of Kantas against each other just for that.”
She pulled away and looked up at Kavel. “Just think what else they can do if that’s just a plot device for them. No-one and nothing is safe - they may strike, they may not, but we’ll always be waiting. Unless.”
Adyhel… Kavel thought to himself. Adyhel was the fiend whose head he smashed off with a mighty swing of his poleaxe. Kavel remembers that thought fondly. However, due to recent events, Kavel’s full memory of that moment is no longer in his possession, much like the poleaxe itself. So, Adyhel was alive and involved in more crimes - this was news to Kavel, and the advice he heard about fiends was proven to be true; you can’t kill fiends on this plane, only on their own plane. Kavel tilting his head slightly hung on Sorrel’s line of thought, “unless?”
“Unless we go to rescue Rholor and kill the fiends on their home ground,” Sorrel stared past Kavel into a dark future of infinitely grim possibilities. “To Phlegethos, the realm of fire and pain.”
She shook her head suddenly. “I don’t mean we as in you my brother. I have asked you for so many things and you have given me all and more. I have no doubt that if I asked you, you would agree without a thought, but the danger is so great it would be… it would be unlikely that we would return. I have failed Rholor. I must go. If I fail then the fiends are trapped in Hell with me. When I said I needed you, it was for the strength and comfort you give me. I do not want to risk your life - and soul.”
Please, swallow your pride, if I have things you need to borrow
“I will come,” Kavel said as a matter of fact. “Not only to help you, sister. Rholor removed Kruger’s curse and helped Tim and Sampon too. For my bros, I owe Rholor, and it is the right thing to do otherwise the fiends will keep coming back to take whoever they like.” Kavel gently pulled away from the hug, to hold Sorrel with outstretched hands, so as to look her in the face, “come on! Let’s go to Hell; rescue Rholor and kill some fiends, and if we get stuck in Hell; we’ll just have to make the most of it. Now, when do we leave?”
Sorrel stared at Kavel and, just when she thought no more tears were possible, one trickled down her cheek.
"Oh Kavel, I will never be able to repay you all your kindness in this life or the next," she sighed. "But I admit I will feel so much better with you beside me. I should try to dissuade you, but I know that Iron Strong isn't just muscle, it's stubbornness."
And for the first time in three days her eyes sparkled again. "We have two days to prepare. I will meet you here in two days’ time," she placed her hand on his arm. "I will never forget this."
Then she laughed out loud for sheer joy and hugged him again.
“Now brother,” she smiled up at him. “What have you been doing and whatever happened to your polearm?”
“Ah, yes the chakan poleaxe,” which Kavel would normally carry in one hand, “it was ruined in a fight with a huge, powerful slime, and I had to trade my memories of polearm mastery to retrieve a friend’s memories. So, that was rough, but” Kavel took his hands off Sorrel's shoulders and turned the back of his palms to face Sorrel, so she could see the dwarven runes “look at my new tattoos. You remember the suits of armour that gave me the poleaxe? Well, the Metal Bros taught me Stonehand Fighting Techniques, it’s Dwarven MMA. My punches are now as strong as war hammer strikes!”
Sorrel looked a Kavel's arms, watching the muscles grind against each other like millstones wrapped in deerskin. She thought back to the poleaxe and it seemed so flimsy in comparison. She knew which she would prefer to be hit by. "I almost have pity for Hell. It has no idea what's about to hit it."
“I haven’t actually had the occasion to test out my new moves. Hell seems as good a place as any.” Kavel folded his arms and looked up and to the side as he remembered why it is he hadn’t grappled anyone recently, “oh yeah, I guess one reason I haven’t tested my Dwarven MMA in the field is that I was messing around with comrade Ivan at a place called Castle Victory, and then I went to do some masonry work in Kundar, and I brought Tim, Sampson and Kruger with me. It was good for them, especially Kruger. They are going to go back and do more work…” and then Kavel remembered a problem with that plan. Kavel unfolded his arms and put his hands on his hips, “but, as we left Kundar through a portal, we saw Githyanki attacking the city riding adult red dragons. And that’s not all. A couple weeks ago, we learnt the village of Greenleaf had been destroyed and the villagers massacred. Sister, there is a lot going on excluding the business with the fiends.”
Sorrel placed her hand to her brow. "Brother I know. Gerhard is caught up in something called the Infinite Stair, I hadn't heard about the dragons... but you know, Kavel, what surprises me is... have you met Zola and Marto? You will. Then Oziah, you, Gerhard, Ivan - I mean Ivan takes on demigods alone. There are so many others. Glint. Varga. Tayz. Iorveth. Delilah. Toothy. Kelne. The list is long. I fought across half of Faerun before coming to Kantas and I seriously think this collection of mavericks, poets, insane dreamers, mountain warriors and Goliaths with Attitude... I think we can handle anything."
She paused. "Or at least die trying and leave a good-looking corpse..."
“It is thanks to comrade Gerhard’s Infinite Staircase that I have already experienced Hell," Kavel nodded. "Oziah? I have not met, I have, however, met who I believe is her partner Delilah. And my thicc-bro Ivan - he did not do so well against a demi-god in Greenleaf, about as well as several of us did against the huge slime I mentioned. But Zola and Marto. Yes I know those two comrades, for sure! Are they coming with us?”
“Zola and Marto and a cleric of Selune called Velania - she has angelic powers,” Sorrel nodded. “And a warrior called Jackal and a weird changeling called Khaos.”
Sorrel scratched her chin thoughtfully. “And I will stay at Silvia’s tonight and there is a risk she may try to come. My brother this is a world turned upside down. Infinite Stairs, Githyanki on dragons, fiends in Daring Heights and goliaths with MMA skills. But the strangest of all these things is Sorrel Darkfire having a girlfriend. With a house. This is truly the end of days.”
She looked up at him. “So how are we to find our path through these wonders, brother?”
Kavel looked at his sister in the eyes, to him the answer was simple, “by being our best selves. You are going to be the best you, and I am going to be the best me; that is how.”
“You see? I needed you and here you are saying all the right things. Nobody has a better brother than me,” Sorrel trailed off. “Although it could get crazy. We’re going to Hell, my brother, in two days’ time. I need to rest, and we need to get ready. Your fists - they hurt fiends?”
“Don’t worry sister,” Kavel made fists and started shadow boxing in front of Sorrel, “I got so much stronger with unarmed strikes that not only are my punches like war hammers, they are magical now. I have reached a new height of strength; I’m so strong I’m magical.”
Sorrel steps back in awe and takes Kavel in again, as if for the first time. "My brother, you are firmly on track to becoming a true legend. Your story will be written and told centuries from now." She beams with pride. "And I know a little trip to Hell isn't going to end the legend just as its getting started. Now, I'm going to Silvia's to pass out and I'll see you here in two days’ time and damn Kavel I can see about five female cleric gazing at you like you're their dream come true. So, feel free to hang out. You're family, after all."
“Okay. I’ll see you - and Silvia in two days' time. Ha, ha! Now, I’m going to talk to those clerics and tell them how I’m going to Hell in a couple of days.” Kavel gave Sorrel one last hug and began walking towards the female clerics. “See you soon, sister!”
Lean on me
When you're not strong
I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on.
Lean on Me, Bill Withers
Kavel turned the corner into the familiar square outside his sister's temple and stopped in his tracks, stunned.
The steps leading up to the Temple of Selûne were packed with armed clerics, monks and paladins, jumpy with the earnest fear of soldiers that have trained for but never seen combat getting ready to fight on their first day's deployment. The square in front of the temple was quiet. Small groups - families, social clubs, surly gangs - leave flowers and messages here and there in piles, with hand painted images of citizens of every age.
Seraphina was moving through the crowd in the square blessing each gathering and saying soft prayers of comfort although it was clear her ministering wasn't always welcome.
Kavel approached Seraphina helping a family. “Excuse me, Seraphina. I can see you are busy. But do you know where Sorrel is?”
Seraphina glanced up at Kavel and raised a hand to ask him to wait. The goliath stopped to take in his surroundings better. It dawned on him that what he saw was similar to what he had seen after news was reported of the massacre at Green Field, and the recent attack on Kundar.
When Seraphina had finished, and turned back to face Kavel, he asked, “what has happened?”
"It was evil incarnate unleashed on the innocent," the gentle assimar was weeping. "Madness came over people and they tore each other apart with their bare hands. Rholor came out of the hallowed temple and tried to calm them but a fiend in the guise of Melissa assaulted him and spirited him away. We thought he may have been murdered but Sorrel has just arrived. She says they..." Seraphina's face darkened. "She says they have taken him to Phlegethos, to the fires of Hell. Perhaps murder would have been kinder."
Kavel put his hand on Seraphina’s shoulder. “This is terrible,” he then looked up at the temple entrance, removed his hand from the cleric’s arm, “I better go find Sorrel, my sister needs me.” As the Goliath walked up the steps, he tried not to anticipate what state of mind Sorrel must be in. He knows she considered it her sacred duty to protect the high diviner, but Rholor has been kidnapped and taken to Phlegethos from under her eyes.
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow
Sorrel was staring into the moon pool in the centre of the temple, under the wide-open roof where the light shone down as the night fell. She was trailing one finger in the water and her lips were moving soundlessly.
“Sorrel!” Kavel called out, as he walked down the aisle and took notice of the lone figure by the pool. “It looks bad outside. How are you?”
Sorrel looked up and Kavel could see the dry red eyes of someone who'd shed all the tears they had. She jumped to her feet and ran towards him, leaping up to throw her arms around his mighty neck and bury her face in his thick shoulder.
"Kavel my brother," Sorrel was half laughing, half crying. "How did you know I needed you?"
Kavel hugged his sister by the waist and tilted his upper body back a little, all the better to support her. “I was just coming to see you is all. But now I am here to help! What has happened. What can I do to help?”
Sorrel dropped to the ground but leaned into Kavel like a child to a kindly uncle after the first day of big school. “It’s all gone wrong… all of it. It couldn’t have gone worse. We were played. We ran around thinking we were so clever, and they were ahead of us the whole time. You know that thicc boi fiend Adyhel? You met him first I think. With the other four we talked about they’ve kidnapped the high priest of this temple and dragged him to Hell. They turned the citizens of Kantas against each other just for that.”
She pulled away and looked up at Kavel. “Just think what else they can do if that’s just a plot device for them. No-one and nothing is safe - they may strike, they may not, but we’ll always be waiting. Unless.”
Adyhel… Kavel thought to himself. Adyhel was the fiend whose head he smashed off with a mighty swing of his poleaxe. Kavel remembers that thought fondly. However, due to recent events, Kavel’s full memory of that moment is no longer in his possession, much like the poleaxe itself. So, Adyhel was alive and involved in more crimes - this was news to Kavel, and the advice he heard about fiends was proven to be true; you can’t kill fiends on this plane, only on their own plane. Kavel tilting his head slightly hung on Sorrel’s line of thought, “unless?”
“Unless we go to rescue Rholor and kill the fiends on their home ground,” Sorrel stared past Kavel into a dark future of infinitely grim possibilities. “To Phlegethos, the realm of fire and pain.”
She shook her head suddenly. “I don’t mean we as in you my brother. I have asked you for so many things and you have given me all and more. I have no doubt that if I asked you, you would agree without a thought, but the danger is so great it would be… it would be unlikely that we would return. I have failed Rholor. I must go. If I fail then the fiends are trapped in Hell with me. When I said I needed you, it was for the strength and comfort you give me. I do not want to risk your life - and soul.”
Please, swallow your pride, if I have things you need to borrow
“I will come,” Kavel said as a matter of fact. “Not only to help you, sister. Rholor removed Kruger’s curse and helped Tim and Sampon too. For my bros, I owe Rholor, and it is the right thing to do otherwise the fiends will keep coming back to take whoever they like.” Kavel gently pulled away from the hug, to hold Sorrel with outstretched hands, so as to look her in the face, “come on! Let’s go to Hell; rescue Rholor and kill some fiends, and if we get stuck in Hell; we’ll just have to make the most of it. Now, when do we leave?”
Sorrel stared at Kavel and, just when she thought no more tears were possible, one trickled down her cheek.
"Oh Kavel, I will never be able to repay you all your kindness in this life or the next," she sighed. "But I admit I will feel so much better with you beside me. I should try to dissuade you, but I know that Iron Strong isn't just muscle, it's stubbornness."
And for the first time in three days her eyes sparkled again. "We have two days to prepare. I will meet you here in two days’ time," she placed her hand on his arm. "I will never forget this."
Then she laughed out loud for sheer joy and hugged him again.
“Now brother,” she smiled up at him. “What have you been doing and whatever happened to your polearm?”
“Ah, yes the chakan poleaxe,” which Kavel would normally carry in one hand, “it was ruined in a fight with a huge, powerful slime, and I had to trade my memories of polearm mastery to retrieve a friend’s memories. So, that was rough, but” Kavel took his hands off Sorrel's shoulders and turned the back of his palms to face Sorrel, so she could see the dwarven runes “look at my new tattoos. You remember the suits of armour that gave me the poleaxe? Well, the Metal Bros taught me Stonehand Fighting Techniques, it’s Dwarven MMA. My punches are now as strong as war hammer strikes!”
Sorrel looked a Kavel's arms, watching the muscles grind against each other like millstones wrapped in deerskin. She thought back to the poleaxe and it seemed so flimsy in comparison. She knew which she would prefer to be hit by. "I almost have pity for Hell. It has no idea what's about to hit it."
“I haven’t actually had the occasion to test out my new moves. Hell seems as good a place as any.” Kavel folded his arms and looked up and to the side as he remembered why it is he hadn’t grappled anyone recently, “oh yeah, I guess one reason I haven’t tested my Dwarven MMA in the field is that I was messing around with comrade Ivan at a place called Castle Victory, and then I went to do some masonry work in Kundar, and I brought Tim, Sampson and Kruger with me. It was good for them, especially Kruger. They are going to go back and do more work…” and then Kavel remembered a problem with that plan. Kavel unfolded his arms and put his hands on his hips, “but, as we left Kundar through a portal, we saw Githyanki attacking the city riding adult red dragons. And that’s not all. A couple weeks ago, we learnt the village of Greenleaf had been destroyed and the villagers massacred. Sister, there is a lot going on excluding the business with the fiends.”
Sorrel placed her hand to her brow. "Brother I know. Gerhard is caught up in something called the Infinite Stair, I hadn't heard about the dragons... but you know, Kavel, what surprises me is... have you met Zola and Marto? You will. Then Oziah, you, Gerhard, Ivan - I mean Ivan takes on demigods alone. There are so many others. Glint. Varga. Tayz. Iorveth. Delilah. Toothy. Kelne. The list is long. I fought across half of Faerun before coming to Kantas and I seriously think this collection of mavericks, poets, insane dreamers, mountain warriors and Goliaths with Attitude... I think we can handle anything."
She paused. "Or at least die trying and leave a good-looking corpse..."
“It is thanks to comrade Gerhard’s Infinite Staircase that I have already experienced Hell," Kavel nodded. "Oziah? I have not met, I have, however, met who I believe is her partner Delilah. And my thicc-bro Ivan - he did not do so well against a demi-god in Greenleaf, about as well as several of us did against the huge slime I mentioned. But Zola and Marto. Yes I know those two comrades, for sure! Are they coming with us?”
“Zola and Marto and a cleric of Selune called Velania - she has angelic powers,” Sorrel nodded. “And a warrior called Jackal and a weird changeling called Khaos.”
Sorrel scratched her chin thoughtfully. “And I will stay at Silvia’s tonight and there is a risk she may try to come. My brother this is a world turned upside down. Infinite Stairs, Githyanki on dragons, fiends in Daring Heights and goliaths with MMA skills. But the strangest of all these things is Sorrel Darkfire having a girlfriend. With a house. This is truly the end of days.”
She looked up at him. “So how are we to find our path through these wonders, brother?”
Kavel looked at his sister in the eyes, to him the answer was simple, “by being our best selves. You are going to be the best you, and I am going to be the best me; that is how.”
“You see? I needed you and here you are saying all the right things. Nobody has a better brother than me,” Sorrel trailed off. “Although it could get crazy. We’re going to Hell, my brother, in two days’ time. I need to rest, and we need to get ready. Your fists - they hurt fiends?”
“Don’t worry sister,” Kavel made fists and started shadow boxing in front of Sorrel, “I got so much stronger with unarmed strikes that not only are my punches like war hammers, they are magical now. I have reached a new height of strength; I’m so strong I’m magical.”
Sorrel steps back in awe and takes Kavel in again, as if for the first time. "My brother, you are firmly on track to becoming a true legend. Your story will be written and told centuries from now." She beams with pride. "And I know a little trip to Hell isn't going to end the legend just as its getting started. Now, I'm going to Silvia's to pass out and I'll see you here in two days’ time and damn Kavel I can see about five female cleric gazing at you like you're their dream come true. So, feel free to hang out. You're family, after all."
“Okay. I’ll see you - and Silvia in two days' time. Ha, ha! Now, I’m going to talk to those clerics and tell them how I’m going to Hell in a couple of days.” Kavel gave Sorrel one last hug and began walking towards the female clerics. “See you soon, sister!”
Lean on me
When you're not strong
I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on.
Lean on Me, Bill Withers