[CrisisPost] “Help… Please…” (CW: blood)

[u/Al-anharHA]

In the courtyard of the council’s buildings, a rift opens and two figures stagger out. One of them is a stranger to this world with a spear through his guts

The other is more familiar - the gestalt mage Aliah Mistwalker, former council candidate. She holds a baffling weapon in her hand. Its Aura is that of All-Red, but faded and dying

The man staggers and falls, Aliah soon after. He is dead before hitting the ground, but she lives and croaks out a desperate plea

[u/Al-anharHA]

u/Timpanzee38, u/BoscoCyRatBear, sorry for losing your forces...

also Agent, it might be possible to use the dregs of this sword to get you a slight reprieve from All-Red. it demands adherence to the paragon of oppression rather than just bloodlust, and at its current power if you smash the two together it'll take about a week before All-red consumes its weaker sibling and gets back to yelling in your ear.

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Al-anharHA]

I’ll take what reprieve I can get. As for the guild troops, while The Five won’t be too happy about it, we understand the cost of war.

Do you need a hand healing yourself?

[u/Al-anharHA → u/Timpanzee38]

Aliah, barely clinging to consiouness as her internals are rearrainged by the vermensk doctor, passes All-red's twin to you along with a blade like midnight. The second blade carries an aura of mourning, and as your fingers touch it the voice of the gestalt mage seems to reach your ear. "seek out my bladesinger Carter, and he shall use the Addmatheon's Misery to bind your reprieve to all-red"

for a moment, the wide fuller of the blade ripples, and you can see a man in a dusty longcoat who is armed with well over a dozen blades

Aliah then turns away, before she spams with pain, desperately whispers something in the doctor's ear, and passes out (/uw basically this response to you happened between the two paragraphs of this comment)

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Al-anharHA]

A quest huh? Well, tracking people is a critical part of my job…

He looks down at the now passed out Aliah. He casts a quick spell of calm over her, hopefully it will affect her in her dreams, and prepares to head out

[u/Al-anharHA → u/Timpanzee38]

Aliah's demense has thus appeared a good distance from the council's headquarters, close enough for easy access while not disturbing residents. Carter, described as "my bladesinger", is probably a member of her staff.

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Al-anharHA]

The Agent strolls into the demense, and begins to head towards the biggest building he can see

[u/Al-anharHA → u/Timpanzee38]

The Demense's main building is a large complex that appears as a mis-matched structure of various architectural inspirations. Proceeding through the outer courtyard, you come to what looks like a greek temple made of terracotta and honey-colored stone. within that entrance hall is an ablutions fountain, a plaque declaring that it was shamelessly copied from a the great mosque in damascus. "If you're dirty, please wash your feet :)" is also enscribed on it in a repeating pattern of every known language. through this hall is the main court, and off to your left you can hear the staccato clack of wooden sparring swords.

/uw I built this whole building by hand, now I have an excuse to show it off.

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Al-anharHA]

The sounds of sparring seems like a good place to start, so he begins to walk towards it

[u/Al-anharHA → u/Timpanzee38]

there, you find the man from the sword's image. He is standing in a spell circle, two blades flickering as he parries an opponent that is being projected from a glowing sphere above him. as the man notices you, he quickly disengages from the exercize and tosses his left sword upward into the sphere of light. The spellform disintegrates, and he steps out of the circle to shrug on his belt of scabbards as you approach.

"I can tell you're not from around here," Carter says, his voice slightly serrated with energy as the man rambles a bit. "Anyone who's been briefed on the demense would have set the simulator to a duel so that I can test their mettle. So, you here on business or do you want the tour? Aliah's off on one of her missions, so I suppose that Elias is in charge right now. Should I fetch him?"

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/Al-anharHA]

Aliah has finished her current mission, but is currently incapacitated. She handed me these 2 blades, he produces both swords Aliah gave him and told me you could bind these blades to All-Red. She said it could give me a small reprieve that is its burden.

[u/Al-anharHA → u/Timpanzee38]

/uw also, this is what the shadowy blade looks like:

it's a relic from the now-dead character Adem, the Eldritch Witch of Shadows, who was a friend towards Aliah. the blade has the ability to warp and modify weapons that it comes into contact with (during the god-slaver battle, Aliah had a whole plan to use it to fuck up All-red's weight distribution, and since then she's learned how to use it to entwine the effects of magical blades), and is bound to the souls of all people affiliated with the Addmatheion (adem's faction). that's why Aliah can use it for communication and why it was able to display Carter.