OOC--moving on. I think I'm giving up on Maclaves, as I've given up on most of his class. Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?
IC--The fallen warrior toked up to annoy the Dragon who had decided he no longer cared about much of anything--disillusioned in the extreme. The too-pretty paladin was not so pretty as was thought: some people hold their ugliness on the inside, letting it consume them before they learn that they must deal with it like every other almost-human being in this world. Xandim scowled at this convention of do-gooders who liked the dragon whom he disliked too much for an undisclosed reason. Tam Lyn wasn't there. Neither was Sinister Eagle. vAldiCi was confuzzed. The fire, however, was out. Suddenly, the half-daemon spoke, gravel thundering across a landslide.
'there is another, but not quite alive. Not quite dead. Not quite sure. He seeks us, and we must be wary of all newcomers.'
Drask cringed as he saw the exchange between this new one, Chori, and the cynical warrior. His spirit, walking around, fell down a manhole at his erstwhile mentor's final comment. Things usually only go about as well as the weather, he thought to himself, looking up at the storm that had spiralled out of Naurelis' control, escalating into a cataclysmic deluge whose water droplets could carve divots out of the softened dirt beneath Drask's beastly feet.
Drask left them, to go seraching through the foul mood and foul weather for this one Xandim warned of--for if an enemy warns of it, it can be little other than good for all involved. Drask continued to be cynical. Eventually, he came upon a man in a black cloak, slaking his blood thirst upon a still warm corpse. When he was done, he staked the still-dead carcass.
'You needn't do that, friend. Whoever you are, you don't seem to wish to create more like you. The trick to that is not giving back your blood, the infected blood. You know what you are. Do not fear it--your life is not worth fear. Instead, I would ask that you join us--the group over that way--and help us scour the land of evil.'
Not waiting for a response, the Dragon wandered off to sulk in a different storm.
While misery may enjoy company, despair enjoys solitude in the rain.
*********
'It may sound absurb, but don't be naive
But even heroes have a right to bleed
I may be disturbed, from what you can see
But even heroes have the right to dream'
