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A henchman party went out on patrol near the guild hall. In their last battle one of the henchmen had died. Content that the area was secured, the party map-travelled back to the guild hall, leaving the 8th dead out in the explorable area. Henchman #8 had actually died, with no rez shrine and abandoned by his peers. Henchman #8 had found himself in Heaven, and standing in the presence of a very puzzled Saint Tryal. Henchman #8 had looked to his left…looked to his right…and looked past St. Tryal: Nothing. St. Tryal shrugged, for Henchman #8 was the only one in heaven, the first to actually die. Quietly, St. Tryal opened the pamphlet of life and recited the prayer of the Quin: May you be as versatile as Lalandra, as dedicated as Nyx, as talented as Crysania, and as Lucky as Balreth.
Back at the Guild Hall, 7 terrified henchmen were heard reciting their own prayer: I tread lightly in the valley of the shadow of death. Yes, Nyx, Lalandra, and Anita live up there but we all have rebirth. The 7 Henchmen decided to share the news that death –could be – permanent. They had journeyed to the center of the compound, Crysania’s Tall Tower of High Sorcery, and couldn’t retain their seriousness for long for they had stumbled upon a henchman-mind@#$%-session. It was easy to tell who were the junior henchmen and who were the senior henchmen. A lonely, but loyal, henchman had somehow climbed onto the roof of Crysania’s Tower, and leapt off in the direction of the henchmen below. A Mesmer henchman was waiting with Flesh of My flesh. The diver kept a fantastic swan-dive form all way into impact. A mere heartbeat or two later and the henchman got up and walked away. The junior henchman had @#$% themselves and the senior henchmen were holding up scorecards. Certainly not a group that would want to hear about the permanence of death the first 7 agreed.
They had then gone to the archery range, where Balreth was giving Sniper Instructions. The rangers present were dismissed, end of the lesson, and were in an awful hurry. The 7 had caught up to them and asked what was the rush? They replied that Balreth was sour about “Kindle” so they were going to leave him a huge pile of twigs in hopes it would help. The 7 decided it wasn’t the right time to tell the rangers and moved on.
They went to the PLDC [Paragon Leadership Development Course] Hall, in hopes to motivate them to help spread the word. When they arrived they saw a couple paragons so wasted they only sprouted little cherub wings when they shouted. Chuck, the spear master, would throw them out if he saw such so the 7 moved on quickly.
The seven then moved to the Henchmen Quarters and stepped over a rookie assassin, passed out in the hall. They heard HWA practicing their song “CanTha Police.” Afterwards, they had informed the 7 that he fell for the old “Hundred Blades with Each Hand” prank and died from exhaustion and they were waiting for anyone with a signet or spell or something…
The 7 sighed and moved on again.
Further down the hall, Axe Masters had just come back from Cleaveland and were making plans to bumrush Nyx with lollipops [rock candy] in an effort to give her a sugar rush, unless she was wearing the wrong suit of armor. The 7 looked at each other, and understood that the Cleaveland gang were future resurrection candidates so raining on their parade wasn’t a good idea either.
The only thing left to do was join a GvG battle and see if it would happen again. The Battle occurred at the front gates of the Guild Hall, and Quin was victorious! The Quin Officer in Charge confronted the defeated rival henchman Officer and threw a dagger at his feet and said “you know what to do.” The rival was defiant, believing he would just be resurrected anyway. The Quin In Charge retorted “It’s either the dagger, or the force choke.” The Rival laughed, “Your beloved Leader isn’t here!” – It was at this point the 7 wanted to mention the permanent death observation when the horns sounded and the drums thundered. Everyone looked at the rival, dead with a dagger in his chest.
“Oh well, no force choke today” said the Quin In Charge, who was promptly lifted off of the ground.
“That’s what you think” piped in a peaceful Crysania, as she walked by.
The choked officer saluted painfully as The Guild Leader passed.
The original 7 suddenly had a change of viewpoint. As if in unison, they all yelled “Death is Permanent!” and high-fived each other gleefully.
Henchman #3 decided to accelerate the progress. “Mighty spirited today, Guild Leader!”
Henchman #2 jumped in “Your return is quite ceremonious, Guild Leader.”
Henchman #5 concluded “No hands, didn’t even break your stride. You truly are the Master, Guild Leader.”
Crysania stopped, turned, and chuckled. “Master? Spirited? Ceremonious? You all are trying too hard.”
Crysania put her backpack down, and began hovering off the ground just enough to terrify all in attendance. The clouds spiraled, then parted. A ray of light of uncommon size and power descended from Dwayna and all the henchman woke up in the outpost, the last thing they heard was “It’s good to be home.”
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[one_fifth_last]
Episode #11
26 May 2010
Notes: First appearance of the Featherfall Festival, not yet named. The Quin haven’t actually done a GvG battle. Crysania had not yet truly mastered the Ray of Judgment or the Forcechoke techniques yet. She’s getting there. For modern times, add “as rich as Grace” to the prayer.
References: NWA: @#$% Tha Police, Nyx’s Tongue Armor, Tryal [Clan Silverlock]
[/one_fifth_last]