Centros: The Metal Army [IC]

[Ezekiel Thomas]

"Jeff..." Chase intervened "My creator's heart was in the right place, once. If we don't stop Chaos...then doesn't that make us one of the bad guys too?"

Chase felt a small warm feeling in his chest, something he had never experienced before. He knew what he was speaking was true, that it was right.

"Whatever you choose to do Jeff" he held up his arm cannon, almost flexing it "I'll be right there with you."

[Myrdraxxis]

Magnus ran a hand through his hair, sighing loudly. He'd been alive for a very long time. Most Magisters tended to be long-lived, but Magnus was old even by those standards. He'd seen a lot and had his share of epic quests in his time; this was shaping up to be another one of those times.

"I guess I'll have to stick around. You need someone to keep you out of too much trouble." he said with a smirk. Mentally he was reviewing what the old man -the OTHER old man- had said. Magnus was no stranger to chaos, but the way the man spoke of it was...different. As an entity, Chaos was a subject that Magnus had limited contact with. He was no stranger to the theories of dimensional traveling. He'd dabbled, briefly. He knew there were....things out there just beyond sight. Magnus didn't relish the thought of going up against such a being.

And there some things that this Keeper of Keys had said that nagged at Magnus.

"I have some questions of my own, however." he followed up on his previous statement, locking his gaze on the Keeper. "two things. You used a name, earlier; Immortals. Just what does that mean?" he questioned. "And second, you said there was a second darkness, behind this Chaos. Explain."

[Mizagium]

The Keeper of the Keys smiled knowingly. "I believe the term speaks for itself, Mister...I don't believe I know you. Immortals is fairly self-explanatory: beings who do not age or die of mortality. Now this...second shadow...I know very little about...it. But it seems to be the force behind the magisters. Of course, this could just be a vague premonition - the magisters being a shadow, and all that dramatic nonsense." HE waved his hand dismissively and looked to Jeff.

Jeff inhaled and exhaled slowly. "I don't like any of this. I know there's a lot you aren't telling us. There has to be. However. I'm going to chose to believe you. You talk of Chaos as though it was sentient - like it was a person. Is it a person, or simply a force?"

The Keeper rocked his head back and forth. "Both."

"Awesome. Then...yeah..." He rubbed his temples. "I find it difficult to believe that we" he gestured to those gathered "are going to be able to stop Salma and Evennia...when Heroes' Refuge fell...and there was more of us."

The Keeper of the Keys nodded to Varesh who stepped forward. "If all goes as planned, you won't have to." She produced a glowing, yellow stone about the size of her fist. "There are five of these, one for each of the lands of Cardinalos. This is the stone of Centros."

"And...what do they do?"

"With all five, we can keep Chaos out of this land."

Vague, as always. "So, we're going to Wessos, first, right?"

She shook her head. "Southros. Salma is smart. She'll catch on to our schemes quickly, so we're going to snatch the green stone right out from under her."

"Right into the lion's den."

"That's right. I must remain here, or suspicions will rise."

Jeff sighed and flopped back on the couch. "I'm going. Any objections?"

[blazinvire]

Perish sighed as more questions and answers rolled out like a random spontaneous fog, and Jeff was treating this quasi-realistically and Magnus looked to be off on another tangent altogether. She was already sold on the idea, she just wouldn't have minded some extra juice since she was doing someone else's job at the same time.

"I have an objection. Blood. Give. Now," Perish said more empathically this time to the Keeper, "I only need a drop and it'll substantially increase our chances here, unless you think our Hero here can do it on his own, in which case I'll happily follow. Far behind."

Really, anything this group happened to kill along the way was just going to make Perish stronger so she had no qualms with following, she just had issues with 'dying'. Personally she felt snowballing power via blood and death was a far more solid plan than hunting around for magic rocks, after all, the Mechanist King seemed to have gotten far simple by snowballing pawns over time.
Then again, part of this whole tactic was curiosity, as the blood of an Immortal had to have some intriguing properties to those who could access them.

[Myrdraxxis]

"We're going on a quest to find mysterious stones behind enemy lines with little idea of where to start?" Magnus asked, quirking an eyebrow in disbelief. Then shrugged. "Sounds like my kind of party. I'll go with you Jeff." he said.

Mentally his thoughts were racing. The answers that this Keeper had given him were vague at best, but they had confirmed Magnus' suspicions. Things had begun to change around the time Magnus had left Northyros -and were partly the reasont hat he did- and the magister had decided to get out of the line of fire.

Then the Archmage rose to power and Magnus found himself in Hero's Refuge, taking part in the openings of a war. Now this Keeper was telling him that the 'force behind the magisters' was some great darkness. Well great. 'Thoughts for later, Magnus. Right now you need to focus on the mission at hand.

[Sariel of Tevet]

A wild Dayman appears and his shining cod piece blinds everyone in his glorious, royal presence.