muldran

Muldran raised his hands in the air, and the six elemental stones danced around the ritual circle. He concentrated on expanding the field of power to seal the Reliquary once more - after enduring the harsh words from Gorthyn and the inevitable letter of disquiet from Cherry. Flinging his left hand towards the North, Muldran sent the stones flying through the wall to describe a path around the building.

The meeting in Trinsic had not gone as well as planned. Muldran had hoped to quickly let those who held the boxes know that his ritual had failed, and the boxes were not active, and could not protect against Blackrock.

Taggart had not turned up - there was no sign of him.
Lann'al said that she had let someone else examine her box, and didn't have it with her.
Lady Flame had the box under guard in her home.
The Dark Lord obviously wasn't a fan of Lola's issue of the Poste and had not seen the meeting notice - fortunately.
Kaelyn had disturbing news; she had let John examine the box, and believed he was going to carry out some experiments on it - and then vanished.

Irvyn immediately suggested that the two events were linked, which Muldran disagreed with. If something had happened to one, it would happen to all - and no one had noticed anything odd, or strange happenings since Muldran had activated the boxes. Lann'al did state that the person who was looking after her box (and she'd not reveal the name) was seeming a bit more clumsy...

Muldran frowned, and cast his arm to the right, moving the elemental stones around the outside of the building, carefully casting for any imperfections in the stones that signalled any damage to the building.

Of course, accusations about Muldran's magic and 'yet another failure' persisted. Garrison Darker and a strange man in black also arrived. Cherry and Taliesin alternatively stuck up for and berated Muldran as he either gave 'too much away' or too little.

Flame persisted in questioning Muldran about his failure to activate the boxes, drawing another truth out of him - he had a sixth box; a control box that he had created some time before, from which he divided the essence to create the five other boxes that he had hoped to link together to totally protect the entire land from Blackrock infection. Flame wondered if Muldran had accidentally activated that box.

From Mul's initial denials, the group decided it would be best to travel to Rhovanion so Muldran could enact a ritual to 'deactivate' the boxes. Muldran assured them it was not necessary, but they insisted.

The stones moved round the building another circuit. Muldran's nose itched, but he refused to scratch it. One doesn't get to become a powerful mage by being distracted by such transitory effects. Gesturing with his left hand again, the stones continued weaving the wards around the Reliquary.

Rhovanion was more snow-swept than usual. Muldran ushered the visitors into the Reliquary, through to the ritual room, where the crystal box lay. Several of the visitors expressed their worry at the crystal-encrusted walls. Muldran revealed that the reason why everyone could enter at the moment was that the wards had fallen when the ritual to activate the boxes was cast.

Once more a bit of unease flickered through those present, although Muldran still went ahead with the deactivation ritual. A simple gesture, using two of the elemental stones and...

...the control box seemed to writhe and a wave of energy swept forward, through everyone in the room, searching further and further away to see if it could find the... ah... got them...

...Flame staggered, a chilly feeling rushing through her. Irvyn asked if she was all right; but none of the others had seen or felt anything odd. Deciding that it must be lack of food, over excitement, or the fact that the black-clad-mage next to her might have had a few too many chunks of blackrock on him, the group slowly peeled away, their job done.

Gorthyn and Salazar from the Court were waiting downstairs, Gorthyn surprised to see 'outsiders' in the secure Reliquary. When Muldran mentioned that the wards were not intact, Gorthyn icily asked him to put that right. It was then that Garrison and Irvyn informed Muldran of an odd finding; a chunk of Blackrock sitting outside the Reliquary that had not been there before... A mild panic ensued as Muldran asked Gorthyn (as perhaps the least magically active) to lift it to the steps.

The group then went their separate ways, and everything was done. Boxes deactivated. Threat over. Not that there was a threat at all.

Muldran's nose was itching mightily by the time the stones conducted their third circuit of the Reliquary. He wiggled his nose trying hard to ignore the itching. Moving his head to one side, he tried to scratch his nose with the lapel of his shirt. With a sigh, he gestured with his right hand, suspending one of the stones, and scratched his nose.

He sighed in pleasure and... in the corner of his eye he saw it. A small, shining gap in the Reliquary wall. Right where Flame had been standing. All the time.

The elemental stones dropped to the floor, two sonorous 'gongs' sounding as they struck the stone floor. A gap. In the walls. And in the wards.

Something had got out when Muldran activated the boxes. And now he'd deactivated the boxes, he had no way to see what had moved from the control box to the others. Muldran swallowed guiltily. Well, how bad could it be?

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