|
 Who
needs a chip on their shoulder when they can have a Mantle?
Lurker
Wyrm - 01 Oct 2006
Having ensured the safety of Ascalonians in the lands
of their ancient enemies, the gang decides it's time to pay them a visit. And
see what that whole White Mantle thing is all about.
"Heh,
heh, you got no clothes on." They
knew it was inevitable, but were hoping to avoid it as long as possible. That
random townie who would notice their lack of clothing and... well... let's not
dwell on what the noob did. Rather
than hang around and find out, the stalwart companions decided to go pay their
fellow Ascalonians a visit. Leaving the gates of Lion's Arch, they were treated
to a familiar sight: Cynn extending foreign courtesies. The poor Krytan who was
trying to give them directions was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she
spotted the group coming out. "You
people are dressed rather oddly, you must be Ascalonians. How about showing your
friends here the way to the Settlement?" she said. Buffy
was about to reply with "We were wondering about those directions ourselves."
But the poor Krytan girl had already vanished. So instead she turned to Devona
and said, "Right, yeah, follow us... we'll show you the way..." After
picking a random direction and following it for a few minutes, they came upon
a swamp. Not just any swamp, a poisonous swamp. Oh right, they're all poisonous. "Not
to intrude, but are you sure we're going the right way?" said Mhenlo. "Sure
we are, we're just taking the scenic route. We thought you might like to see some
of what Kryta had to offer along the way." said Sanskirt. "Oh,
all right then, continue leading." "You
bought that?" is what Buffy wanted to say. But she figured it probably wasn't
such a good idea to let on how clueless they were so she didn't say anything. As
luck would have it they found some old guy in the middle of the swamp who agreed
to teach them a few things in exchange for protection against swamp creatures.
The team agreed and formed a group huddle to figure out what they were going to
do next while letting Devona, Mhenlo, Aidan and Cynn deal with the pests. Old
guy safe, Sanskirt hurried along, leading in yet another randomly picked direction
while Angela hung back and asked the old guy for directions. The team wanted to
make Arty do it, but there was something preventing him from being capable of
asking anyone for directions. Once she caught up and had the correct path figured
out, they gradually wound their way around so as not to seem like they were winging
the whole thing. Finding
the remnants of an old outskirts village, the team soon realized that they were
just about there. Passing one of Farmer Dirk's pigs was another clue. "Isn't
that one of?" said Arty "Yup,"
said Sanskirt. "Shouldn't
we?" "Nah,
it's probably out here for a reason." Leaving
well enough alone, they kept on the path only to be stopped by Dirk a minute later.
"Please! You gotta help me! My last hog's gone missing!" Unable
to resist the rantings of old people today, they went back for the little guy. "Sure
glad we left well enough alone," said Arty. "Bah,"
said Sanskirt. As
soon as they reached the hog and started coaxing him back, they noticed they had
company in the form of a bunch of Ettins. Once again sitting back and letting
the four they were guiding do all the work, the team led the hog back to Dirk,
who somehow showed them a few tricks for all the trouble they had gone through.
Best not to dwell on that one. Well
anyways, they made it to the Settlement and dumped Cynn &co. off with Greywind.
Greywind had recently decided to start teaching, so the team left with a few more
tricks up their sleeves. Arty had a really wide grin on his face. All in all it
had been a pretty good day for them: they learned some new tricks and got to sit
back and watch someone else do all the fighting for a change. Unfortunately,
all good things must come to an end and they decided they needed to do some more
research on this whole White Mantle thing, so they went to look up Justicar Bablion...
Hablion. Once they were back in Lion's Arch it turned out he had already left,
but made sure one of his cronies could give directions to... someplace that was
about 10 feet away. Being reassured that this place would help them understand
the White Mantle better, they went to it. What
they found was some snooty old hag (ok, she wasn't really old) spouting off about...
something. Undead eating a village or something. Apparently it was up to them
to save it because the White Mantle were too busy ironing their capes. "Undead,
shmundead. Let's go kick the tar out of them," said Sanskirt. "Right,"
said Buffy. And
that's just what they did. For
5 seconds. Then
they were running back to the outpost. "They're
icky," said Angela. "And
they're already undead, so I can't undeadify them," said Vex. "Plan
B?" said Buffy. Arty
had a really big grin on his face. Deciding
to take another shot at the whole save the village thing, they headed back in. And
ran right back out. "What
was it this time?" said Sanskirt. "We
went the wrong way," said Vex. "What
difference does it make? We see dead stuff, we squash it." "But
if we can sneak up on them..." "Bah!" And
so they headed in a third time. Once
they reached the village, finally, they found a really big bad undead and his
cronies picking on the poor little townsfolk. "This
is wrong! You all shall face the Divine Punishment that awaits you in the Underworld!"
said Arty. "Huh?"
said everyone else, including the undead. A
couple seconds later, there were huge chunks of molten rock falling from the sky
and putting all sorts of hurt on the undead. It was a beautiful sight. Arty was
at peace in that display of ravaging power and prevailing discourse. "Oh,"
said everyone but the undead. They were saying stuff like "Oweee!" instead. Moving
further into the town, they noticed a rejuvination fountain. Standing in it made
them feel better and meanwhile the undead who came near it were looking a little
woozy. "Don't
stand in the shrine..." said Sanskirt, as though they had committed a grave
error in doing so. "Huh?"
said everyone else. There was a lot of that going on today. Well,
to make a long story short, after they wiped out all the undead and stuff they
wound up in a White Mantle settlement. Some frail old guy was standing there waiting
for them, hoping they could help out and keep him safe from a hoard of advancing
undead. Right.
Well, letting the Mantle do as much of the work as possible, the undead eventually
all died... however it is that undead are even capable of dying. Getting ready
for some much needed R&R at the Hot Springs nearby, they're interrupted by
Dorian and asked to go play fetch. As it was getting late, they were too tired
to argue and just went and got that Scepter of Orr thing. They
were again on their way to the Hot Springs when they were again interrupted by
Dorian. This time he was a lot more friendly and said they had earned the right
to join the Mantle. So now they had inadvertantly become members of the White
Mantle. They still hadn't made it to the Hot Springs though. | 
