ic Codus Immortus: Old Gods Anew

[Exaccus]

"listen ladies I'm sure you both know but I'm kinda a brute not a sage...do some bar-room philosophy but aside from that I punch demons and nightmares and monsters and work hard to protect people I come across..." He explained as he turned the problem over in his head.

 

"I think If something is up then y'dd would be our best bet ..he's bound to this land deeply....if something is amiss he can point us in the right direction assuming it hasnt gotten to him too." He pondered now a little unsure of himself

 

"You remember Y'ddren don't you Morgan? He was with me when I came to check up on you after you started your sleep, good chap."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Y'Dderwen? Yes...I remember....he was...kind...."

 

She slumped to the ground, drooling slightly. Then, with a spasm of her entire body, she went completely rigid. It looked rather like the beginnings of a seizure. 

 

Except people who have seizures do not tend to levitate, to float five feet from the ground, slowly writhing. And that was what happened to Morgen. 

 

"But...he is not welcome...." she spluttered. "I hear the old Gods sing! They are coming! THEY ARE COMING!"

 

And both Voin and Dreadnought could infact hear distant rumblings, like the movement of mountains, or the grinding of rocks, or the shifting of rivers....

[Exaccus]

"well that's ominous...he mumbled as he slowly and carefully turned to look for the source of the rumbling, trusting that whatever happening to morgen was not something he could do anything about 

 

"Seems like we're working our way into my area of expertise eh voin?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Zhenschina-voin

Klara was concerned about what was happening, but she couldn’t help but correct her ally

 

 

“Please call me Klara, Tovarishch Drednout! Voin just means warrior, and I like to think we're more than just fighters.”

 

She wasn’t as attuned to the preternatural world as other of her people, but even she could tell something was about to happen.

 

“But yes I agree trouble is definitely on its way, you might be able to get through to her before things go to far.”

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Klara..Klara...you better look out Klara....the Old Gods are born Anew!"

 

Morgen fell to her knees and dug at the rotten floorboards and cobblestones under the Church. 

 

"I tore out my eye and filled it with fire. I can see beyond this mundane world, to where Gods and Spirits sing and dance and play games with infinity. Can you feel it, in this temple?" she asked, turning her eyes (both burned and unburned) to Voin and Dreadnought. 

 

"I took refuge here, but it started calling to me. It is a bridge. And now it has overcome me. Or made me. I no longer know. It is all madness! It is all madness!"

 

From outside, the rumbling drew closer and louder...

 

"I could not stop it now. I am not sure I would want to..."

[Exaccus]

"so really I should've knocked this thing down then huh.." he asked Klara with a nervous chuckle.

 

"So klara...Im not much of a thinker or a planner but maybe we aughta get Morgan outta here.... It's having quite an...effect on her...if you can see to that I can keep whatever is coming here busy for a while I'm pretty sure." He offered as he cracked his knuckles in preparation.

 

"I mean if you have a better idea I'm open to it"

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Zhenshchina-voin

There were times when Klara wished she payed more attention when the priests talked about the ancients pact with the spirits of the mountains, though she doubted the spirits here spoke the language of her people. But still, she guessed it was up to them to try and sort this out.

 

“Best not, if she’s there conduit then they’ll be drawn towards her, and we don’t want to put anyone else at risk of attack. I  suggest we get her back inside the church, it’s probably the best protection for her right now.”

 

It wasn’t much but it was all they had available, so that’s what they’d have to use.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"They are coming! King Cauldron, from whose pot the Giants are born!" muttered Morgen. "The Old Gods Anew! Before time itself, born from the idea of mountains, rather than the mountains themselves!"

 

She looked at Voin directly. "Have you been to the land of ideas?" she asked, face half grimace, half grin.

 

The rumbling grew louder. Deep voices, like rolling boulders, muttered through the crisp cold air. 

 

"We are called! We are called!" they rumbled. 

 

"At the centre of everything, where the Cosmic Coil twines, were the Mountains of Madness grind, there lies the unspeakable one! Ah! He whispered to us in our all life, giant!" she said to Dreadnought "but here, in this temple, the whispers are roars!"

 

"We are called! We serve the King!"

 

Outside, from every point of the compass, was an enormous giant.Voin and Dreadnought might have been big, but these ancient beings were over fifty feet tall. They were dressed, in a manner of speaking, in ancient hides, and had rocks encrusted all over their bodies. Their skulls were thick and primitive, and they did not look as if they were blessed with brains to match their size. 

Edited February 3, 2019 by Supercape

[Exaccus]

"uh huh...so I see." He mumbled slightly bemused by the maddend Morgan's ranting as he rubbed his hands together and began to limber up a little.

 

"So, gods huh....wonder what they were doing whilst stuff was going down with the ice demons...slacking off I guess..no wonder they got abandoned the lazy sots."

 

A mighty hand reached out for morgen's shoulder and he began to as gently as possible attempt to guide her back into the church, perhaps a touch more forceful that. He would be with a bystander..Morgan was after all an ancient, immortal oracle...surely she could take a little more?

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Zhenshchina-voin

“They are probably spirits strong enough that the term is academic at best. If they are gods then we’re lucky as there are rules that they have to follow. But let’s not take any chance, hurry up and make her safe I’ll probably need your help.”

 

She took a step forward straightening up and taken on as noble a bearing as she could, hopefully, the spirits would want to talk before trouble started. Though she was just as ready for a scuffle as she was for diplomacy.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The four giants lumbered up to the decrepit church. It seemed that if one coughed too loudly the church might collapse. The giants could knock it down in an instant. 

 

Was the Church safe?

 

Morgen did not resist going back inside, but continued almost indecipeherable muttering with dark overtones. 

 

Outside, one giant addressed Voin. 

 

"Mortal!" came the deep and powerful voice. "We are called! We are the servants of King Cauldon, firelord of this land! We come for the Seer!"

[Exaccus]

Honestly it worried him but dreadnought did his best in this situation as his friend babbled like a televangelist overdosed on caffeine, the whole church jittered around him with every step as he searched frantically for something more solid to stow the rambling morgen within.

 

Settling on a cellar and placing the heaviest thing available to him over its enterance he made his way back out to catch the exchange between Klara and the giant.

 

"Yeah? Well now you're being told to feck off." He boomed back, with an equally colossal voice unable to resist interjecting himself.

 

He didn't like the idea of gods or those who claimed to be them or work for them.

 

They tended to be bullies and he hated bullies.

[Tiffany Korta]

Zhenshchina-voin

Klara wasn’t intimidated by the four giants standing firmly between them and the little church. She knew they could easily destroy the old building, so it important to keep their attention on her and her only.

 

“I am no mortal for I am Klara, born of Shamany Vstrecha who are friends to the ancient spirits, I have been tasked to be a Guardian and to protect the Seers from any harm. Do you approach as a Friend or Foe?”

 

She spoke with the utmost confidence, for her clan were born warriors and this had always been there assigned tasks. Just the location had changed.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"No mortal?" grumbled the Giant, swinging his club. Which looked like a giant oak. 

 

"We approach as servants of the King. If you are freind to the King, we are friend. If you are a foe, then we will stomp you" he answered. He was not precisly stupid, but he certainly did not impress with his intelligence. 

 

"The Cauldron King returns to cleanse the land with his fire. Some call him brutal, but he is needed. The Seer is bringing a terror beyond your imagination. The Unspeakable One rises, and the Cauldron King is ever vigilant. You, an immortal warrior, are worthy of respect, but the King's mission is absolute..."

 

He stomped his foot. 

 

"Now! Give us the Seer! We must know what she has seen!"

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Zhenschina-voin

These ritual responses were almost ingrained in her by the training Klara had received growing up, the warriors were always to service to the other groups. It was rituals instead of action that had caused her to flee after all, but now it suited her well.

 

“We are guardians of both the Seer and this land, she has entrusted us to ensure everything is done by the ancient rules of this land.”

 

There was a risk in all this, she didn’t understand the whole situation, but hopefully, they’d be able to discover more about just how deep in trouble they were.

 

“We humbly ask to speak on to the King on behalf of the Seer, so we might serve them both in this endeavour.”

[Supercape]

GM

 

This caused the giants pause for thoughts. Fortunately (or unfortunately) they had not much thought, and therefore they had not much pause either. 

 

"Very well, noble warrior! We are but servants of King Cauldron, and we do his bidding. You, however, have earned that right" said the leader of the Giants. 

 

He bent over and offered his hand for Voin to step on. 

 

"I shall take you to King Cauldron. However, my brothers are bound to destroy the church and bring the Seer, bound, to the mighty King Cauldon. They must remain to finish what he have been bound to do!"

[Exaccus]

"no need, I'll go grab her." Dreadnought spoke up, he didn't like this situation at all but he trusted klara's judgement and her experience in such matters was vaster than his own.

 

He just trundled back into the church and shoved the heavy object from its place atop the hatch he'd placed morgen down, extending his arm down to her.

 

"Come on morgen, we got a royal visit to get too..." 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Morgen was a brave and bold soul. But her head was as frazzled as her brain. She hissed at Dreadnought. 

 

"And I thought you where a giant!" she laughed, but it was a mirthless laugh. 

 

She tore at he head. 

 

"I need to be in the temple...its calling me...." she said, stroking its rock and earth. "I can hear it! And see it, at the centre of the stars! Can you see the music? Can you hear the dancers?" she asked Dreadnought as she succumbed to profound synastheasia. 

 

Still, old bonds were strong, and strong enough to cut through madness at times. Morgen had seen Dreadnought save her tribe aeons ago, and he had - in his own way - protected her in Hong Kong. 

 

She reached out to him, and pulled herself up. 

 

"Where to?"

[Exaccus]

"some king cauldron guy sent these big bully boys around to come getcha." He explained to her as he rested a large and hopefully reassuring hand on her shoulder.

 

She had clearly been through a lot lately "not that I couldn't take em" he added in a whisper with a wink and a flex of his massive bicep, all in good humor.

 

"Klara thinks we should talk it out with him, since you and her know more of this stuff than me I'll leave that to you and and just be ready to throw down incase things go south fer winter." He explained as he guided her out of the church.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Morgen continued muttering, looking straight at Dreadnought with her eyes. Or, more precisely, one eye. The other mass of scar tissue seemed to look right at him and see lots of things that were not condusive to ones sanity. And, unlike her material eye, it could not blink or close. 

 

"I don't trust your friend. Only you!" she said. And even that trust was a fragile one, it seemed. 

 

She paused as they reached the entrance to the church, grasping hold of me. A breif moment of lucidity seemed to hit her. 

 

"My friend, the giant, I...am not myself! Protect me! I do not wish to be taken!"

[Exaccus]

Dreadnought was a man of very simple thought and deed, he believed in personal freedom, the uplifting of the downtrodden and honestly was almost entirely against the idea at the outset.

 

The lucid morgen's refusal to go with the giants removed the last bit of uncertainty in his mind about these gods and kings and spirits and brought his burly heart forth in objection to these concepts that made cattle of humanity.

 

"You heard her, she doesn't want to go." He said as much to Klara as the giants "so deal with it." He boomed in defiance as he took off running at top speed with morgen tucked under his arm, he really didn't know where he was going but he knew he'd need to get morgen away from these things before they could grab her.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Giants were clearly strong and massive, and possessed of an iron devotion to King Cauldron (whoever that mysterious monarch was). But they were slow to react. 

 

"....The Seer!" said one, lifting his arm to point at the charging Dreadnought. 

 

There was another sluggish pause. 

 

"....stop!"

 

And another. 

 

And then the giants decided that they must act. This was slow enough to give dreadnought, but even so, the hills and rocks of Wales would soon thunder to the sound of giants pounding through those green and gray valleys!

 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Zhenshchina-voin

It was working, they could possibly deal with this without any fighting, all they need to do now...

 

She swore loudly and fervently in a very unladylike manner, many years with Squaddies meant she was very good at such things. Still now was not the time to worry about what could have been.

 

“Go that way, away from the village!” she shouted at Dreadnaught, waving in the appropriate direction, she then looked up at the giant and gave her sweetest smile

 

“I don’t suppose we can get a do over? No I guess not!”

 

Whilst she still had the element of surprise she shocked one of the giants as power as she could.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Despite the Giant's great height, it was stopped forward, getting ready to destroy the church, grab Voin, or possibly tie its bootlaces (quite what its boot laces were made of, one shudders to think. It looked like cured sheep intestines - and quite probably was). 

 

With a little leap (and thanks to her own height) Voin had the opportunity for a massive uppercut, and the skill to execute it!

 

BAM!

 

The Giant went sailing into the air, and, after a moment, reached the peak of his arc, then came down. 

 

SMASH!

 

The now unconscious giant splintered trees, crushed rocks, and ground a massive groove in the hill where he lay. The sound could be heard for miles around!

[Exaccus]

Dreadnought making the most of his lead on the slow but colossal pursuers deposited morgen behind something heavy.

 

"Stay here till this is done with." He boomed aggitated and agrivated before again rocketing off, this time towards the giants, bellowing in gutteral fury as his massive momentum carried him over and even through the landscape before him.

 

Passing between the feet of another of the thick skilled giants he swung out with his arm with every ounce of power his body could muster, twisting his legs, hips and shoulders, the same blow that had halted the city block sized terminus dragon tank's otherwise unstoppable advance focused into the edge of his arms and delivered into the leg of a giant.

 

So lost in his anger he hadnt considered the landscape around him.