[ We find Our Heros lying the hell down after a difficult fight with some fiends. They're on the Material Plane, watching over the portal to Carceri, which still makes them uneasy from time to time -- but it's not nearly as bad as being on the other side. ] [ At least in Rokugan, you can sleep without worrying about being eaten by the landscape. ] [ Session Start! ] * Kenji has taken the opportunity to do just that. Sleep, and deeply. * Tia is sitting and soaking in a mountain stream under a waterfall coursing over some nearby cliffs, splashing contentedly and looking decidedly less bloody. * Seylin did a quick scouting mission before settling down under a tree and taking a nap. * Patrick is currently on guard in the tree above Seylin, having taken a nap earlier. * WillS sits down underneath a tree and is reading through his notes on portals and the planes of hell. Every now and then he glances uncomfortably towards the portal, fearing something will suddenly jump out. * Kenji wakes up and is on his feet before his eyes are even open, screaming in Rokugani, * Tia jumps from the water with a loud splash and comes galloping. "What's wrong, Kenji?" * Kenji snaps his eyes open and looks around, in a cold sweat, until his eyes fix on Will. * Seylin blinks and jumps up, her hand halfway to her weapon. "Huh? What? Are we being attacked?" * Tia paws the ground anxiously. "Kenji?" * WillS jumps up, surprised by the suddon outburst. "What? Huh?" * Kenji narrows his eyes as he fixates on Will, and jumps forward, grabbing him by the collar. "YOU!" Kenji! W-what did Will do? * Kenji turns around and points in the general direction of Tia, Seylin, and Pat. "YOU. Stay here. I need to talk to Will. Alone." * Seylin puts her hands down. "What in the world are you talking... ah... okay..." She looks very confused. * WillS squirms uncomfortably in midair. "Me? Ugh. What?" * Kenji drags Will forcibly off behind a large rock outcropping. * Patrick mutters under his breath. * Tia chews on her lip, but she nods and parks herself on her haunches where she stands. Hey, um, guys? Anyone know what's going on? Why's Kenji suddenly mad at Will? Got me. I have no idea. I hope he doesn't hurt him. * Tia leans her chin onto her folded hands and watches the rock outcropping anxiously, her ears perked. * Seylin sighs. "I hope so too, Tia." I don't hear any screaming or gnashing of teeth. Will should be fine. Oh, Kenji could probably do something very quietly. Will, on the other hand... yeah. Not hearing screaming is a good thing. * Tia nods quietly. [ Patrick's stomach growls. ] * Patrick smiles sheepishly. "Guess I'm hungrier than I thought." He takes out one of his rations in preperation for consumption. [ Seylin's stomach growls. ] Eep. * Tia giggles. * Seylin grabs her pack and rummages around in it. * Kenji screams "NOTHING!" as he comes bounding over the rock outcropping, looking like an apocalypse-preaching madman. * Tia straightens up and stares. She looks confused. * Kenji hops upward, up the side of the hill, over and over again, all the way to the top, and screams incoherently at the sky. * Seylin looks up, a piece of jerky dangling from her mouth. "Mrf mf mf mmmff?" [ Seylin is cute talking with her mouth full. ] * Tia watches Kenji with her mouth hanging a bit open. "Is he okay?" * Seylin chews and swallows. "Uh, let me try that again. Has he gone mad?" * Patrick gobbles down some bread and hits his chest once to make sure it's all down before he speaks up. "I would say no." Should we, um, do anything...? I'm going to go check on Will. * Tia nods. "I'll go with you." * Seylin heads to the outcropping and peeks over it. * Tia stands up and follows Seylin. [ Will is there, looking confused. In front of him is the glowing representation of an antideluvian gold dragon's head. ] Hi, Will. Everything okay? What's the dragon image for? * Patrick shrugs and heads over to see what Kenji's so angry about. (That means I'm being psycho and talking to Kenji) * Kenji has stopped screaming and is on his knees at the top of the hill. * WillS points towards the direction where Kenji ran off. "Er. Is he going to be alright?" [ "Eventually." ] Kenji! 'sup? You don't know better than we do? * WillS breathes a sigh of relief. "That's good to know." * Kenji is crying softly, still looking up at the sky, and ignores Pat. * Tia turns and stares at the dragon head that just talked. "Hi, Mr. Dragon Head Thing!" What happened to Kenji that made him so upset? [ The dragon head says nothing, for Tia's remark was not in the form of a question. ] * Tia turns back to Will. "We were hoping you'd know..." [ To Will, the head says, "A seeing of things past." ] Who's your friend, Will? * Tia nods toward the dragon head. * Seylin stays silent, because she has a pretty good idea of what's going on. * WillS motions for Tia to stay quiet. "I'll explain to you later." * Tia nods and falls silent. Are the demons we fought in Carceri responsible for the portal we went through earlier? [ "No." ] * WillS nods. "And how can we seal it?" [ "A powerful ritual." ] What is the name of the ritual? [ "Lum's Denial of Doors." ] * Tia tilts her head questioningly at Will. [ The head fizzles and fades. ] * WillS bows towards the fizzling dragon figure, "Thank you father, for the answers." * WillS turns around to face the rest of the group. "And thanks for waiting quietly guys. That was a proxy of Bahamut I was just talking to." Oh. I guess I shouldn't have called him Mr. Dragon Head Thing. Ahh. I really had no idea at first, but after you started asking him questions, I thought that had to be something pretty important. * WillS grins. "I'm sure he understands, Tia. I wouldn't worry too much about it." * Kenji takes a deep breath. * Patrick sighs. "So, what agonizing truth was revealed to you?" ( Gee, not too smug, eh? ) * Kenji reaches into his sleeve and pulls out a small, glowing knife. (Not smug enough!) * Tia nods. "What'd he say to Kenji that made him all crazy?" She glances up the mountain toward where Kenji had gone. * WillS nods towards Seylin. "Yes. Kenji had a question he really wanted the answer of. Directly from Bahamut if possible too." I took the oppertunity to ask a couple other questions on my mind also. * Kenji reaches up and calmly begins shaving his head with long, casual strokes of the magical knife, taking off huge strips of hair at a time and dropping them on the ground beside him. * Tia nods. "So, what's Lum's Denial of Doors? Do you know how to do it?" * WillS shakes his head. "No. I've never heard of the spell before." * Kenji finishes shaving his head, and asks softly, "Did I miss anything, Pat?" Although Lil' Loremissy did mention an ancient sorceror known as Lum the Mad before. * Tia nods. "What'd she say about him?" Seems like he worked fantastic wonders with songs and spells. Very ancient. Prehistoric even you might say. Sounds interesting. Hmm. And he made a spell or something that could close that portal? * Patrick shrugs. "Just you running off and jumping on the mountain and yelling and crying. Still don't know what you found out, but you do a lot of things I don't understand. You done?" Was afraid you'd try and hurt yourself with that dagger. * Tia glances back toward the portal with a bit of apprehension. I mean, we -should- close it up, right? * Kenji looks at Patrick like he just said the dumbest thing he could ever possibly have said. * WillS shudders as more random Lum trivia pops into his head. "His stuff seems to explode often... and never works the way you expected it to. Lum the Mad indeed." If I need, for some reason, to kill myself, I have a specific blade with which to do so. I do not need a basic dagger. So, like...it might close the portal and turn us into marshmallows? * Kenji stands and stores the dagger back up his sleeve. * Kenji walks calmly down the side of the hill, not minding the slope. * WillS puts his hand over Tia's mouth. "Don't say that!" * Patrick grins and walks down alongside Kenji. "Learn something every day. So does the hair shaving mean anything?" * Tia flinches in alarm. "Huh? Why? What's the matter?" Many things. * WillS whispers to Tia. "Well yeah, anything is possible. It just might happen." So no tempting fate. * WillS gets goosebumps just thinking about it. * Tia nods. "Okay, I see. Sorry 'bout that." She smiles sheepishly. It's okay. Just be careful. * Kenji pulls off his left glove as he steps onto level ground and slowly slides a ring seemingly composed of skulls onto his finger. He shudders for a moment, eyes closed, and carefully pulls the glove back on. * Tia nods again. Things like... * WillS smiles and pets pets Tia. He doesn't look too happy about the prospect of looking for Lum's Denial of Door ritual. Things that I do not care to talk about. Will. * Tia grins and wags her tail. * WillS looks over towards Kenji. "Anything else I can help you with, Kenji?" * Tia looks up. "...Kenji?" She looks at him for a long time. "You're...bald?" * Patrick shrugs. "Okay." I am rescinding my order against resurrection. * Seylin blinks at Kenji a few times, but says nothing. * Tia continues to look at Kenji uncomprehendingly. "What happened?" [ The sunlight reflects off of Kenji's bald, shiny head with an almost audible *sh-ping!*. ] * WillS blinks at Kenji's abrupt change in opinion, and simply nods in response. * Kenji looks very much like a man whose entire world, more or less, has been yanked out from under him. ...You okay, Kenji? You look like something really bad happened to you. I'll be fine, Tia. I just need time. Yeah, you know Kenji, he'll be back to his normal... well, Kenji self. * Tia nods and looks slightly less fretful. "Okay." She gives Kenji a brief hug, less bonecrushingly than usual. * Patrick would like to note Tia's hugs are still likely very bonecrushing * Kenji sucks it up and lets the poor girl have her hug. [ And so they continued to recover from wounds both seen and not. Session End! ]