Great Intentions - Glint - 07/06/2022
Jun 11, 2022 20:47:00 GMT
Velania Kalugina, Andy D, and 2 more like this
Post by Glint on Jun 11, 2022 20:47:00 GMT
Working for the Dawnlands intelligence right after a mission for the Harnashian one? Of course! Piece of cake. Especially if Celina was asking.
Trying to get a family of mass murderers on parole so that they could fight the githyanki? Well, if he didn't have to be the one mentoring them, Glint would abstain from voting. He wasn't against it, needs must and so on, but he felt he didn't have the moral right to vote in favour of any criminals leaving prison outside of a court decision.
The City of Equinox was surrounded by perpetual sunset. A thought occurred to Glint that Root would love the colours. He missed the botanist already, so he hurried to switch his attention to something else. He focused on looking at the floating houses, tied together like a giant flotilla, on mountains rising from below surface, and on the mesmerising lights of underwater streets for the water-breathing folk.
The journey into the Twilight court's prison didn't start all that well – with him forgetting to prepare the Sending spell. Luckily, their contact had a spare scroll. Thus, he followed his comrades and stepped through the stained glass and into the Horizon.
The place looked like a resort rather than a prison. But the people there seemed to be rather glum. As he found out later, most of them were dead due to tragic love, and thus couldn't do anything other than spend the remains of their undead days in melancholy until enough of them melted away to end their existence.
All except the Burdock family. No, they were as alive as anyone undead can be. The vampires even seemed cheerful. Celina and Sparks seemed to be very friendly with Verity and her brother Archie. The rest, of course, had their reservations. It took the party a full round of finger-pointing to just explaining the parole conditions, on which, admittedly, they were not very clear themselves. Glint, when Beets threw him under the proverbial cart of explaining what's so interesting about this opportunity, was at least in his element. But then, he felt a bit strange hyping up an invasion. 'A battle that would be a shame to miss' sounded to him like an oxymoron, but the younger vampires were sufficiently impressed to agree.
Verity allowed them to consult with each other before making the final offer. Glint, following his paranoia without a question, cast telepathic bond on the party. That helped, to an extent. Somehow, from the terms of parole and what sort of leverage is required to control the Burdocks, they shifted to discussing if vampires sparkled in the daylight, and Nessa was insisting each of them had to have a long-lost love and a disdain for garlic as she read in some fiction books. In the end, they were probably saved from degrading into complete by Verity, who got tired of waiting without the opportunity to eavesdrop. She demanded their final decision, and Sparks didn't waste a single moment before throwing Glint under the cart by claiming the wizard was the only person to be against offering the vampires their freedom back.
Before Glint could clarify that 'abstain' is not the same as 'oppose', Verity fixed him with a predatory smile that Glint would considered alluring back in the day.
"What do you need to believe me?" She grinned, showing off the pointy front teeth.
Glint mimicked her smile out of instinct.
"Let me read your thoughts," he replied.
The vampire was at a loss for words for a moment, but quickly collected herself. She agreed, and although her subconscious did imply that her brother and parents might try something after the battle, this was what Glint considered a tomorrow problem.
As he ran out of convincing arguments against the whole idea, the party confirmed their intentions to bust the Burdocks out, and the vampires took them to their family home to talk to their parents.
On the way there, Archie attempted to read poetry, but Verity stopped him immediately, a mix of terror and disdain evident on her pretty face. After that, Nessa kept pestering the brother if he had a long-lost love. The 'no' Archie gave sounded suspicious even to Glint. So, he cast the spell to read his thoughts, too. An array of images ran across his mind. He'd feel dizzy, but after learning the entire flight manual for Gadenthor in under twenty seconds, Glint was fine.
The images he saw were of the Court of Clay. Of the Burdock's initial visit there.
A beautiful elven man stood in front of him. In front of Archie, that is.
It was a beautiful romance.
Until Archie's parents found themselves in a disagreement with the Court.
Although he didn't know him, it pained Glint to see the same elven man who was smiling and cradling Archie's face in his hands a moment ago lie dead on the ground in the pool of his own blood, an expression of terror forever plastered across his handsome features. As he saw more images of the bloodbath that was the Court of Clay, it reminded him too acutely of another scene, that he saw in his own life.
A marketplace under the desert sky.
Upturned stalls.
Splashes of red…
His mental connection dropped as he lost his concentration. The genasi shook his head, making the fire on his hair flicker, and as his vision focused, he caught Archie's annoyed gaze on himself. All Glint could offer was a guilty shrug. He was on a mission - he didn't have much of a choice but to pry. After all, it wasn't like he was manipulating the Burdocks, he was just making sure they weren't manipulating him. That was barely enough to calm his consciousness, but it was enough.
He took a deep sigh and sent a message over the telepathic bond: "We've got a leverage on the brother. Let's see the parents."
Verity wasn't joking when she said her mother was into experimental sculpture. Few people would live in a house that looked like a giant beholder. Experiment it most certainly was. Successful? Depended on a point of view.
As soon as they were introduced, Nessa wasted no time at all throwing Glint under the cart. Even he was beginning to see the pattern. The cleric winked and told him telepathically to watch the mother. She asked to speak with her privately and led the vampire woman to the side. As they sat around a small table, Nessa asked her if she had a long-lost love. The woman's eyebrow rose in a condescending grimace.
"Long-lost? My husband is over there," she gestured.
"Yes, but how would you say your relationship with him go? A bit stale after so many years?" Nessa asked hopefully.
The vampire grinned, and leaned in closer to her.
"Does the word 'animalistic' tell you anything?"
Glint took it as his cue. He hid behind Celina, and cast another Detect Thoughts.
The vampire turned to him in a split-second. She gave him an icy-cold stare, but then grinned again, and let the wizard into her thoughts.
They were… graphic. Very. Glint had questions. Mostly anatomical in nature. He took out his notebook and made several quick sketches. Missis Burdock did not appear to be remotely interested in stopping the flow of pleasant memories. But if she was expecting the wizard to withdraw from her thoughts out of embarrassment, she was bound to be disappointed. In fact, the obscene imagery made a welcome change from the blood and gore of the previous memory dive. Eventually, the spell ran its course, and the two women rejoined the group.
"I think she's telling the truth," Glint told Nessa, showing her his sketches with an almost scholarly enthusiasm. "You see, I don't think you can do this one and this one if you don't... well, like each other very much. I don't know if it can be considered a leverage against her, but I'm pretty sure this one requires a leverage to be physically possible. Nessa, you alright?"
He frowned and shook the young cleric's shoulder. She was non-responsive, expression of shock frozen on her face.
Meanwhile, Beets challenged the father of the family to a fistfight to 'test him out'. It ended up being anything but fistfight. More like axe-beetle jaws-vampire bite-fight. Drinking Beets' blood seemed to be the last straw for Gerhard as he aimed his bow at the older Burdock. Glint still retained the sense of purpose, and immediately put up a wall of force among all the combatants.
That cooled some heads, and the Burdocks agreed to collaborate under quite decent conditions. Nessa decided to hammer the point home and turned into an angel glowing with celestial energy. Her booming voice thundered across the lawn:
"You shall not break these conditions!"
After returning to her human form, she still had the last word with the father of the family. Even from thirty feet away, Glint could see her asking if he had a long-lost love. With a tired sigh, the wizard cast Detect Thoughts one last time. With some surprise, he saw an orc proprietor of Serendipity café across the street. Apparently, some people could find the love of their life after their death… They left soon after, mostly because Archie tried to read some of his poetry again, and Verity was having none of that thank you very much.
At the debriefing with the Duchess, Glint finally shared all he saw in the Burdocks' heads, although he was cut short on the part pertaining to Missis Burdock. In the end, he suggested that the dead lover could be a decent leverage for the brother, father – for the mother, the orc lady – for the father, and for Verity the best leverage would be the threat to be locked up with her brother and his poetry.
In a couple of days, Glint was organising his research notes and spells, and came across the Burdock sketches. He grinned and cast Sending to Root.
"Hey, darling. Just had an insightful conversation with a vampire. Got ideas how to show you my love when I'm back. Hope you're into acrobatics."
A very flustered and annoyed silence was all the reply he needed to grin in satisfaction.
Trying to get a family of mass murderers on parole so that they could fight the githyanki? Well, if he didn't have to be the one mentoring them, Glint would abstain from voting. He wasn't against it, needs must and so on, but he felt he didn't have the moral right to vote in favour of any criminals leaving prison outside of a court decision.
The City of Equinox was surrounded by perpetual sunset. A thought occurred to Glint that Root would love the colours. He missed the botanist already, so he hurried to switch his attention to something else. He focused on looking at the floating houses, tied together like a giant flotilla, on mountains rising from below surface, and on the mesmerising lights of underwater streets for the water-breathing folk.
The journey into the Twilight court's prison didn't start all that well – with him forgetting to prepare the Sending spell. Luckily, their contact had a spare scroll. Thus, he followed his comrades and stepped through the stained glass and into the Horizon.
The place looked like a resort rather than a prison. But the people there seemed to be rather glum. As he found out later, most of them were dead due to tragic love, and thus couldn't do anything other than spend the remains of their undead days in melancholy until enough of them melted away to end their existence.
All except the Burdock family. No, they were as alive as anyone undead can be. The vampires even seemed cheerful. Celina and Sparks seemed to be very friendly with Verity and her brother Archie. The rest, of course, had their reservations. It took the party a full round of finger-pointing to just explaining the parole conditions, on which, admittedly, they were not very clear themselves. Glint, when Beets threw him under the proverbial cart of explaining what's so interesting about this opportunity, was at least in his element. But then, he felt a bit strange hyping up an invasion. 'A battle that would be a shame to miss' sounded to him like an oxymoron, but the younger vampires were sufficiently impressed to agree.
Verity allowed them to consult with each other before making the final offer. Glint, following his paranoia without a question, cast telepathic bond on the party. That helped, to an extent. Somehow, from the terms of parole and what sort of leverage is required to control the Burdocks, they shifted to discussing if vampires sparkled in the daylight, and Nessa was insisting each of them had to have a long-lost love and a disdain for garlic as she read in some fiction books. In the end, they were probably saved from degrading into complete by Verity, who got tired of waiting without the opportunity to eavesdrop. She demanded their final decision, and Sparks didn't waste a single moment before throwing Glint under the cart by claiming the wizard was the only person to be against offering the vampires their freedom back.
Before Glint could clarify that 'abstain' is not the same as 'oppose', Verity fixed him with a predatory smile that Glint would considered alluring back in the day.
"What do you need to believe me?" She grinned, showing off the pointy front teeth.
Glint mimicked her smile out of instinct.
"Let me read your thoughts," he replied.
The vampire was at a loss for words for a moment, but quickly collected herself. She agreed, and although her subconscious did imply that her brother and parents might try something after the battle, this was what Glint considered a tomorrow problem.
As he ran out of convincing arguments against the whole idea, the party confirmed their intentions to bust the Burdocks out, and the vampires took them to their family home to talk to their parents.
On the way there, Archie attempted to read poetry, but Verity stopped him immediately, a mix of terror and disdain evident on her pretty face. After that, Nessa kept pestering the brother if he had a long-lost love. The 'no' Archie gave sounded suspicious even to Glint. So, he cast the spell to read his thoughts, too. An array of images ran across his mind. He'd feel dizzy, but after learning the entire flight manual for Gadenthor in under twenty seconds, Glint was fine.
The images he saw were of the Court of Clay. Of the Burdock's initial visit there.
A beautiful elven man stood in front of him. In front of Archie, that is.
It was a beautiful romance.
Until Archie's parents found themselves in a disagreement with the Court.
Although he didn't know him, it pained Glint to see the same elven man who was smiling and cradling Archie's face in his hands a moment ago lie dead on the ground in the pool of his own blood, an expression of terror forever plastered across his handsome features. As he saw more images of the bloodbath that was the Court of Clay, it reminded him too acutely of another scene, that he saw in his own life.
A marketplace under the desert sky.
Upturned stalls.
Splashes of red…
His mental connection dropped as he lost his concentration. The genasi shook his head, making the fire on his hair flicker, and as his vision focused, he caught Archie's annoyed gaze on himself. All Glint could offer was a guilty shrug. He was on a mission - he didn't have much of a choice but to pry. After all, it wasn't like he was manipulating the Burdocks, he was just making sure they weren't manipulating him. That was barely enough to calm his consciousness, but it was enough.
He took a deep sigh and sent a message over the telepathic bond: "We've got a leverage on the brother. Let's see the parents."
Verity wasn't joking when she said her mother was into experimental sculpture. Few people would live in a house that looked like a giant beholder. Experiment it most certainly was. Successful? Depended on a point of view.
As soon as they were introduced, Nessa wasted no time at all throwing Glint under the cart. Even he was beginning to see the pattern. The cleric winked and told him telepathically to watch the mother. She asked to speak with her privately and led the vampire woman to the side. As they sat around a small table, Nessa asked her if she had a long-lost love. The woman's eyebrow rose in a condescending grimace.
"Long-lost? My husband is over there," she gestured.
"Yes, but how would you say your relationship with him go? A bit stale after so many years?" Nessa asked hopefully.
The vampire grinned, and leaned in closer to her.
"Does the word 'animalistic' tell you anything?"
Glint took it as his cue. He hid behind Celina, and cast another Detect Thoughts.
The vampire turned to him in a split-second. She gave him an icy-cold stare, but then grinned again, and let the wizard into her thoughts.
They were… graphic. Very. Glint had questions. Mostly anatomical in nature. He took out his notebook and made several quick sketches. Missis Burdock did not appear to be remotely interested in stopping the flow of pleasant memories. But if she was expecting the wizard to withdraw from her thoughts out of embarrassment, she was bound to be disappointed. In fact, the obscene imagery made a welcome change from the blood and gore of the previous memory dive. Eventually, the spell ran its course, and the two women rejoined the group.
"I think she's telling the truth," Glint told Nessa, showing her his sketches with an almost scholarly enthusiasm. "You see, I don't think you can do this one and this one if you don't... well, like each other very much. I don't know if it can be considered a leverage against her, but I'm pretty sure this one requires a leverage to be physically possible. Nessa, you alright?"
He frowned and shook the young cleric's shoulder. She was non-responsive, expression of shock frozen on her face.
Meanwhile, Beets challenged the father of the family to a fistfight to 'test him out'. It ended up being anything but fistfight. More like axe-beetle jaws-vampire bite-fight. Drinking Beets' blood seemed to be the last straw for Gerhard as he aimed his bow at the older Burdock. Glint still retained the sense of purpose, and immediately put up a wall of force among all the combatants.
That cooled some heads, and the Burdocks agreed to collaborate under quite decent conditions. Nessa decided to hammer the point home and turned into an angel glowing with celestial energy. Her booming voice thundered across the lawn:
"You shall not break these conditions!"
After returning to her human form, she still had the last word with the father of the family. Even from thirty feet away, Glint could see her asking if he had a long-lost love. With a tired sigh, the wizard cast Detect Thoughts one last time. With some surprise, he saw an orc proprietor of Serendipity café across the street. Apparently, some people could find the love of their life after their death… They left soon after, mostly because Archie tried to read some of his poetry again, and Verity was having none of that thank you very much.
At the debriefing with the Duchess, Glint finally shared all he saw in the Burdocks' heads, although he was cut short on the part pertaining to Missis Burdock. In the end, he suggested that the dead lover could be a decent leverage for the brother, father – for the mother, the orc lady – for the father, and for Verity the best leverage would be the threat to be locked up with her brother and his poetry.
In a couple of days, Glint was organising his research notes and spells, and came across the Burdock sketches. He grinned and cast Sending to Root.
"Hey, darling. Just had an insightful conversation with a vampire. Got ideas how to show you my love when I'm back. Hope you're into acrobatics."
A very flustered and annoyed silence was all the reply he needed to grin in satisfaction.
