OOC: they're in the forest below the city, calm down...

IC: Jaral stopped as he approached the door to the room, sensing the presence of another living being...probably a human...

OOC2: SAAM, it is time!

OOC:...Dark Laine? Like...Dark Jak? Oy...and it's time means that its coming to the end of the amazingly long subplots that have no real effect on our party right?

Sarin then walked up to Gwaethir, and said quietly, "Windlord. A moment of your time, whenever you are ready."

OOC: the subplots lead into the main plot, little details will be important later on. Besides, they are important!

IC: Gwaethir nodded, wondering if each Elementalist intended to speak to him separately.

Metrius, still covered in orc blood, tentatively reached out to Laine. What's going on here?, he wondered. And the look in Laine's eyes; there was so much emotion. The ground shook as the treant started to advance. Metrius extended his hand fully to Laine.

(OOC: I guess I measure importance in direct proportion to Gug's involvment and how many sentences I can read before I enter a comatose state.)

Gug started awake, looking around at his unfamiliar surroundings. If he remembered right, he had gone to sleep on a pile of his collected trash in a charred out orc camp. The only thing familiar about this place was the snoring being emitted by Alec.

Naturally he took this place as a dream state and put his head down. If he had known he was in the floating city of the Avariel, he would have probably just upset somebody anyway.

Ooc: would've started earlier DB, but I had to work until 2:00 in the morning yesterday, and I left 5 minutes after sending you the PM.

Lazy: you'll find Gabriel down in a tavern within the Avariel City... Doing something very unGabriel-like.

MLA: Your signature is awesome.

Ic: Ashtar stood in the shadows watching Jaral. As the drow turned, he applauded lightly, slowly, and steadily.

"An excellent show, Jaral. I don't think I've seen a group of mindless orcs get slaughtered that badly since my days as a ranger."

Jaral snorted. "I would have thought that your 'best Orcs' would put up more of a fight."

"Indeed." He nodded. "While they aren't all that efficent, they do have their uses."

Ashtar stepped forward, drawing Melifus. "If this exercise was not to your liking, then perhaps a duel with a Southern General would provide a bit more entertainment."

He slowly lifted his rapier in to a fighting stance. "Engarde."

********************************************
Gabriel found himself in a small dank tavern in the lowest levels of the city. The same bar, in fact that his Father and his companions had visited at the start of their liberation of the City.

Though Gabriel was on a different mission: to make the pain go away.

The half-elf was already on his sixth tankard of ale. Chugging it down sloppily, he signaled to the Bartender.

"Gimme another!" He called out angrily. "Something strong'r this time!"

The Avariel bartender took back the stein and filled it with a strong Barbarian whiskey.
Gabriel was normally wary of his consumption, but he threw caution into the wind for now. He just didn't care anymore. He gulped the new drink and snarled as he looked into it's brown contents.

A new wave of alcohol induced haze washed across him. In one day the entire world went straight to hell. His entire world was turned upside down. He had lost the one who had trained him, who gave him his sense of duty. of purpose. He had nothing left.

He looked across the fuzzy room. I need another drink...

OOC: That's fine, Dragonsbane. That's all I intended in the first place. And what did you mean when you said Laine not being able to detect Jaral's Shadow magic when he fight's him? Does Laine have to do some huge awesome Shadow vs. Light duel with Jaral or something? Enlighten me.

Laine felt the flow of power between him a Metrius reach full force. The ground beneath them began to rumble, but not because of the treant. Metrius had also started to glow.
"Metrius, on three, extend your hand toward the treant and blast it with every scrap of magic you have!"

OOC: CS, please post a "meanwhile" as to what Metrius did during the time that Laine was saying this, then post his reaction, though Laine still has to reveal Dark Laine. Oh, and forgive me if I got Metrius' element wrong. Just say what Metrius' half of the blast really was.

"1...2...3!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"
Laine flung his hand out in front of him. In an instant, a line of crackling, sparking, hissing explosions leaped from his hand and shot toward the treant. Laine heard Metrius also cry out, more from exhilaration than from power. The ground rumbled fiercly as the earth itself heaved up and threw itself, thundering, at the treant. The two spells hit at the exact same time. Within moments, the treant was gone. Laine let his hand fall limply to his side, breathing hard. He staggered over to a tree and slumped down to sit on the ground, exhausted from the exertion it had taken to cast a spell of that magnitude. Without Metrius' help, he wouldn't have been able to cast it at all.
"Metrius..." Laine gestured for Metrius to sit down across from him. "I need to tell you something that I have never told anyone before. It will explain why you saw what you saw in my eyes after you killed that orc."

OOC: Warmage, if you haven't noticed, Jaral is kinda a bad guy, we're all gunna have to fight him. I'm guessing one of his abilities will be something like teleportation or maybe shapeshifting, or maybe cloaking. If Laine can just go "Jaral is right there", it will kinda take the oomph outta the battle I suspect.

Also, Laine is kinda mature and knowledgable for someone with the (supposed) mentality of a 13 year old.

And am I the only one whos worried that (a) Dark Laine will be somewhat godmoddy or (b) is gunna go evil on us, forcing Gug to use his anti-Laine device on the thing at the critical moment?

"M'lord Gwaethir," Sarin said, feeling internally like he was speaking through a mouth full of hamburger. Grugach and wild elves didn't have 'lords' as the case went of most of their villages when Sarin grew up. "I understand the need to eliminate the orcs as fast as possible, but I also was understanding there was a reward involved. My reward was going to be in information. I would like it, if it would be possible, for you to be able to tell me who the slayers of my folk were."