Dawn of a New Day: Eve of Peace

The Primarch's browplates rose. "Greetings, Miss Helspeth. It is an extremely pleasant, if rather unexpected, event to see you here today. I, the Primarch, had not previously been informed that you would be attending our attempted diplomatic negotiations with the Celestial entity; although, in retrospect, such an event is unsurprising given your occupation and skill, and as such, I should have predicted its occurrence."

"Warmest greetings, Primarch, sir. With the current requirements of the colony I did not expect to be here myself. It was a compromise decision between the governor and the rest of Two Rivers council. I am glad to be here though, and will happily represent the interests of my people." Helspeth smiles when speaking to the Primarch, as if to an old friend. One of her guards smiles knowingly at the mention of her people.

[OOC: Whoops. Matt left his account signed in.]

"Excellent," the Primarch said. "Your diplomatic skill shall doubtlessly prove itself invaluable."

"I, the Primarch, apologize for my previous unusual hastiness, ladies and gentlemen, but the matter we are attempting to attend to may prove to be somewhat time sensitive, as you doubtlessly all recall. So, now, unless there are to be further additions into our expeditionary team..." The Primarch paused, his eyefires slowly pulsating. "Which I, the Primarch, do not believe there will be... We should proceed."

Yla has been watching the other members of the group quietly with her intensely green eyes, as if summing them up. She looks to the Primarch.


"Well, Alright then. I knew there was a reason I got up this morning."

Yla stands near Helspeth and the Primarch, and glances at Helspeth momentarily before returning to looking forward.

In general agreement, you proceed down the bank. You are careful to not hug the bank, however; the recent flood has made the whole thing soggy and unstable. The Primarch himself makes a good argument for avoiding it, as accidentally sinking a head of state could likely cause an international incident.

As you hit the swamp proper, you begin to hack through the thick, wet foliage. Although an annoyance, and a hindrance, this time it serves you particularly well, as it forces you to stop just short of a clearing with a Solar.

Standing in the river, far closer to the camp than any of you predicted, is the Solar. She is standing knee-deep in the river(and it is quite a deep river), as a wave of unbound undead swarm towards it. Her presence in the water seems to be having some effect on it... a lambent blue glow emanates from where she is standing. Using bow and sword, She endeavors to keep the undead back from the edge, hacking and letting fly. As a corpse, fallen in the river, floats near, she grabs it and hurls it toward the edge. Given a gap in the wave, she lets fly with powerful magics, incinerating the dead along the bank... although incinerating is the wrong word. They more just cease existing.


"No! Stay Away! Stay away, you pestilence!" She cries, as a new wave begins lurching forward.

"Hold," Aowyn says as soon as she notices the Solar's presence. "We don't want to get caught by any of the crossfire before we've made ourselves known to the Solar. Primarch, is there any way you could send a message to the Solar of our good intentions?"

"Easily. I, the Primarch, have in fact prepared a message for just such an occasion. "Solar: Diplomats approx. 100 feet behind you. Wish: communication, negotiation. Approach permission granted? Shout answer." Would that suffice?

If there are no objections: the Primarch pulled a short, stubby wand of black metal from the top of his backpack, and tapped it against his skullplate fifteen times, each tap sending forth a few tiny metal sparks.

Yla steps back from the Primarch and looks confused.

"Uhm... What the hells? Does he normally do this?"

She takes her holy symbol out, eying both the zombies and the Primarch.

The solar turns her head around, focusing on the pile of vegetation that the delegates are in. She holds up a hand. "Hold! Please, stay there! There are too many of them now! Don't get close!"
She swings her sword back around, decapitating a zombie that was about to enter the river. A gout of energy emanates from her core, spiraling outwards from her. As it intersects all undead in about a 60 ft radius, they disintegrate into a bright light.
Any negative undead in the party get a slight chill, while positive undead are deeply impressed.

It looks like just a matter of cleanup, after that. If left to her own devices, the Solar exterminates the remaining unbound undead, before removing them from existence. She then resumes her vigil in the river, but with an eye fixed on the spot the delegates are in.

Were it possible, the Primarch would look confused. "...I, the Primarch, do indeed use basic Sending spells with a great deal of frequency. I was informing the Solar of our intent via basic telepathic communication. You have my apologies if the intent was unclear, Miss Yla."

"Your majesty," he said, gesturing to Aowyn. "If you would be so kind as to proceed first? After all, it is your relationship with the entity that we are relying on in order to complete this negotiation."

Aowyn steps forward ahead of the group in to speaking range of the Solar. "I am awed by your prowess in slaying the undead," she says with a short bow of deference. "We had come to this swamp to rid it of another evil, and sought your aid in that, but it would seem that we were able to vanquish the evil without your intervention. It is also our wish to remove the undead taint from this swamp. We are capable of taking care of rooting the evil from this area, as it is also our duty as the leaders and delegates of this land, and would like to take up your cause, so that you may return to any more pressing duties you may have."

Silently Arlensul fingers her own holy symbol. Her total coverings barely contain her outrage at the scene before her.

"So much waste." the cleric mutters, upset by what she's seen.

Helspeth, on the other hand, simply watches.

The two deathless archers move forward, placing themselves between the diplomat and the angel.

"Aowyn...", she says, clearly surprised. "Aowyn, I'm sorry... but... but I had to! They were loose... they were all over the place... if I had not, hundreds, thousands of long suffering souls would have paid the ultimate price for this victory... I... I could not. And I cannot still."

She waves her hand.

"This water is poisoned still... I do what I can..."

Although you're not sure if Solars are supposed to sleep, it looks like this one hasn't for several weeks.

"But Aowyn... The water... I must... It is the life of thousands of souls, Long, long suffering souls..."

She seems confused. Disturbed.

"Why... How... could you ask me to leave them like this? To abandon them? Men of honor need not fear me... I am no rabid dog, merely because I abandon one post... break orders once to save thousands of lives..."

She seems perplexed. Hurt. Upset. Not angry. Not violent. Just... unsure.

Yla looks lost for a moment, but as the Solar speaks, she gains a bit of determination.

"Listen, our way of seeing things and your way of seeing things don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. We've seen a lot of bad things happen for a lot of reasons, and we don't want to repeat bad history. You can trust this, though: Whatever differences we all got, none of us want things like this. I don't want this natural place spoiled by the ..."

She gives Arlensul a brief sympathetic glance.

"... taint of Undeath. And we certainly don't want the people living downriver to suffer for it too. We know how to keep nature strong, it's a big deal for followers of Luna. There are others here who know how to um... stop the undead. We can handle this, and we can stop the suffering. We know what we're doing."

"Beings who treasure honor would not fear you merely for a single example of dereliction of duty, Solar Entity," the Primarch said, taking a step forward. "They would instead fear you out of the massive extraplanar power that you represent--power that is currently wasted on a task our combined nations would be able to complete more efficiently.

"We do not ask you to abandon this task, Miss... Ma'am... your... your ladyship... your ladyship, miss Solar Entity ma'am. We ask you to leave this task to its rightful caretakers--the people of our nations--and return to your respective plane, so as to complete a task more in tune with your original purpose, while our nations work to complete the removal of the scars of war from this swamp. You would not deny us our duty and purpose, would you, your extraplanar-ladyship, ma'am?"

"Miss Blackboots?" Arlensul quietly gets Helspeth's attention.

"Yes, Sister?"

"I believe it is possible that by standing in the river the angel is attracting the swarm to herself. They are attracted by sound and motion. She is quite loud."

"Do you want to tell her that?" Helspeth looks mildly mischievous, but is rather clearly joking.

"No, I do not expect my presence to be tolerated."

"No! No, no, I would not! This place, it must be cleansed... the Death, the rot must be removed, before thousands of souls suffer the price of the unknown martyr... Please, help me! I do not bar your way! I am no impediment... I am no wild blade... I am but one being, standing against thousands, for thousands, for children, against monsters.... Please! I Implore you! This place must be cleansed, but I cannot move, for the dereliction of this duty, the denial of this post would mean the untimely, unfortunate, unwanted death of so many young, old, sick...."

She is pleading. Desperate.

Meanwhile, the professor, somewhat unnerved by all this, double-checks his spell book. He knows better than to try now, but let's say he's prepared.

"I told you... I told you. The river... It feeds these people, the long suffering souls... it is their lifeblood... it is sick... I am the cure...I will stop this illness... before it harms any other... I must. I Must."

She is staring down at the river.

"Why? WHY? Why do I stop you? Why do you stand there? Why? Please! Primarch, I implore you! PLEASE! They come once more, in greater numbers!"

Aowyn has detected nothing.

However, the professor gives himself an "I'm an idiot" slap to the forehead, and quickly slaps out a cantrip. He says nothing... just twitches his hands.

A moment later, his eyes go wide.

"No kidding... The river! It's not diseased! It's poisoned! I mean, it's probably diseased too, with that many dead people how could it not be, yuk yuk, but it's poisoned too! And... And I don't even Know what with... But whatever it's doing, it's purifying the water..." he says, pointing to the glow around the Solar's legs, truly shocked.

Although he failed his Craft: Alchemy check, though, he passes his Knowledge: The Planes.

"Poison... Diseases are 'like, whatever' to Angels, but poison... no wonder..."