C.A.R.P.S.

[Daniel Lockheart]

It pains me to say it, because he's an agent of that dirty art of chaos, but my friend is correct, I'd far rather put my trust in the hands of someone we know and well trust. It seems to me this person is only here for the money. I'm not against someone making a coin, but mercenaries are always going to be mercenaries and it is is him or all those involved in the ritual mercenaries will most likely save themselves. I don't know this man, and I could be misjudging him, but why pay one to do what a hero of our town can do for us? It makes no sense. I don't have a horse in this race, but I'd put my trust in Ziggy before another.

[Wrexton]

Wrexton nods slowly, considering.

"Ziggy, I had no idea of a prearrangement with the Town Council and there is no lack of trust from me. In the short time I've been here, you've helped me establish myself and seen to my safety. I've witnessed you risk yourself time and again. My position on this matter should not be interpreted as not having faith in you and your abilities. To me, this is about having -every- advantage in our hands. Every resource. I would rather we complete the ritual with more than we need than have to scramble at a critical moment and risk not only ourselves, but those who might suffer from a backlash and have both no idea what's happening or any way to defend themselves.

"Can these questions be answered: Has this particular ritual ever been performed by anyone here? Do you know what it entails? What we may have to face? We've already reiterated enough that we face Death, not undead, so what can we use to our advantage? Is there reason to think that the High Ritualist of Windcrest, a kingdom known for heroes and honor, and Servant of the Phoenix, a traditionally benevolent being, would arrive with a mercenary's mentality? What can two Grand Master Ritualists accomplish if working in tandem? Does this High Ritualist have access to knowledge and abilities beyond what we know a Ritualist to possess? As Ziggy asked, what is the Blessing of the Phoenix? What can we learn from this High Ritualist?

"These are only a few off the top of my hat."

[Anya]

Anya rises to her feet and nods to Dietrich, "Ziggy has already admitted that having several expert or master Ritualists on hand to assist is a good idea. We contracted with the High Ritualist before Ziggy was able to cast this Ritual and arranged for it to be done when we thought Death might be weakest to counter us.... however, if the Town is now voting against having him come, we can go to him and let him know." She pauses, "That does not solve the problem of having extra hands to hold the Ritual though.... unless Ziggy's teacher can come and aid us. After all, I am well aware of the student-teacher bond and know that no teacher wants to see their student fail when utilizing hard taught skills. Then Ziggy will have someone he knows well as the other person to stabilize the Ritual and the town will have an even better chance of succeeding." She then steps up to the bar to speak quietly with Dietrich a moment before stepping outside for a few moments and then returns to her seat. "I have sent him a message to see if he can explain what the Blessing means.... to me it mattered not what the details were. It only mattered that he was willing to also bring extra tools that the town does not have to assist in success."

[Edrial]

*edrial speaks up again*
to address the circle of life vs creatures of death problems, I have no idea if the circles of life would be a benefit. but since we are fighting lifes opposite in death, I am guessing it would have an effect, and we can pass through a circle of life with no harm. so it is a defense we can set many of up without being hindered ourselves.

*Edrial looks to Ziggy* I am all for you doing the ritual, I also have no problem with the windcrestian doing the ritual. The way I see it we have an unique opportunity in that we can pay the windcrestian and he can aid Ziggy in the ritual. Ziggy, you said you hadn't done this specific ritual before, the windcrestian supposedly has so might be able to give pointers and tips. I fully believe you can do the ritual Ziggy, I was ready to have you do it last moon until the Augh warned us about the agents of death coming after us, and with a exhausted town I didn't think we would be able to defend you properly. The town has a bar of money to spend to get the help, and the influence has already been spent. This being the TOWNS first time doing the ritual, I say the extra help won't be amiss and it means we have more buffer if the TOWN messes up something or we have misunderstood something.

If you HAVE done this ritual before Ziggy, please fill us in on what we can expect and then we don't need the windcrestian at all and we can put the bar towards other uses, such as buying more defenses for the ritual.

[celegar]

ok. we are stopping this now!

*ziggy stands and stamps the cane against the ground, but it is only a little thing with a sound akin to a chopstick hitting the wooden floor*

We are the heroes of midway, the BOB DAMNIT HEROES OF THIS DAMN KINGDOM! We have all saved countless lives on more occasions than i can even remember! This passive aggressive shit causes nothing but turmoil between us all and i am absolutely sick of it! NOBODY IS INNOCENT IN THIS! We are acting like DAMN CHILDREN HERE! I will admit I was pretty pissed off when i found out through open discussion the intention of replacing me with a paid ritualist caster and I responded emotionally and for that i am responsible, but IN TURN WE HAVE BEGUN AN ARGUMENT THAT HAS NO DAMN BENEFIT! This whole town has some FECKING HORRIBLE communication skills, and thats what puts us in these scenarios all the damn time!

I dont know about everyone else but i am absolutely TOM DAMN SICK of the passive half insults we are always giving each other! The people who need this ritual the most are young adventurers, AND WHAT EXAMPLE ARE WE SETTING FOR THEM! That being half face ask holes to each other gets things done!? NO! We are the legendary heroes, many of us have been here for damn centuries! WE NEED TO ACT LIKE IT!

anya, i dont know what i did before this moon to upset you or make you think i would be perfectly fine to not be included in finding a ritualist for this whole ordeal, and i have put up with a lot of getting talked down to and shit on for a very long time. i didnt care because i KNEW at the end of the day i would do everything i had to get done what needed done and didnt give a damn what certain people who were realistically much younger adventurers and much less powerful than i was. i reacted emotionally and if that upset you or started this vendetta, then i am ending it. if you wish to recall your contact then so be it, i wont stop you, if you wish that to be your contribution to this endevour, as my risking of my own spirit and mind is my contribution then i will wholly support you and dietrich and thank you for it. but as movers and shakers in this town we stand as example to others to do the same, lets not make this a feud, feuds are boring and FECKING POINTLESS!

edrial, you asked a lot of questions, wrexton, you did also, im going to do my best to answer them all as best i can with the practical knowledge of the subject that i have. I do believe having an extra ritualist assist would be a benefit as it will provide more room for the ritual to be held out of dark territory. allow me to clarify, going into dark territory does not mean an automatic failure or backlash of the ritual, it could, but nothing about this magic is absolute. it is not like casting a spell where you say these words and this thing happens. rituals are much more subtle.

what can we expect? well most likely minions, this is almost a certainty, their power will not be known until we start the ritual, no ritualist will EVER be able to know this. a seer might be able to get hints though, for that i would point you to anya and the other folks that do this stuff, they is pretty darn good at finding out hints that move to a better solution, though it does take quite a while for information to get distributed.

The other things we need to be mindful of is destruction and wide spread effects. we will more than likely see some of them coming around throughout the ritual and if i can counter or suppress them i will, this is where a second ritualist comes into play, it adds to the pool of power we can use to do this, but again, it is NEVER truely known what will come. I have not done this specific ritual before but i am not inexperienced in the casting of them, i have never faltered in my concentration when performing action and i see this as no exception.

i will also say i am CERTAIN this ritualist has also never cast it himself, otherwise why would he request to copy the scroll if he already has one.

Wrexton, you asked what we can leverage against death. there is not really a whole lot i can give you on this one big guy. Deaths physical manifestation or even metaphorical manifestation has not been seen on phantera to my knowledge for my entire adventuring career, it has only ever been theory, clearly the breaking changed something so he is a bit of a wild card, but one we might be able to work with. if you truly want to know more about death itself i would look to answers with creatures with short lives that breed quickly. kunapan, kobolds, smaller creatures that dont live long but breed like crazy. a possible venue might be our bards, songs of life, candle of life, hell, if we have any of those candle walk things left over they might at least empower the barrier between life on this plane and deaths connection to it.

Before we do ANYTHING though, we need to have a conversation with the WHOLE town about this, not just the wee small gathering of people we have here. there are many young adventurers who will be getting the biggest benefit out of it, lets be the heroes i know we are and GET THIS THING DONE! WHOS WITH ME ON IT!

[Anya]

Anya jumps on her seat and looks to Dietrich. "One moment, the Ritualist just initiated a mind link to Dietrich and I in response to my Whispering Wind." She will fall silent while listening before speaking slowly, "The Blessing of the Phoenix has been explained to us. The Phoenix is a creature of life and is the most skilled creature on Phantara when it comes to eluding death, her blessing will provide us with a few benefits. Enacted on the area it will prevent the minions of death from appearing within our ranks, much like a dimensional ward would...but only affecting creatures attuned to death and without the side effect of hampering our own dimensional movement. This should allow time for our guardians to react to them appearing before they are upon us. Placed upon an individual it will protect their life force should they fall during the ritual, or amplify the first restoration ritual should the blessing not have been used to hide the essence from death when someone is returned." She walks over to Dietrich and winces at something only she hears.

[celegar]

*ziggy nods and points to anya* THAT IS USEFUL AND WILL BE VITAL TO KEEPING THE HEALERS SAFE! YES THAT!.

[Edrial]

I agree with ziggy. the blessing of the phoenix seems well worth the bar any which way. and we can figure out if ziggy and he can work together once he gets here or not at that time. People have already spoken up to having the bar in gems and the town can reimburst them the value anyway.

[Anya]

Anya speaks up again, "According to him," she taps her head at the mental link she has with him, "his presence is what will put the life ward into effect and keep death from appearing amidst us. He might be able to grant it to individuals, if Phoenix deems them worthy, but it will not be amplified to preserve their life energy of those that die in the ritual until he is involved in performing the Ritual itself."

She nods to Edrial and his opinion, "I agree. Someone asked what he could provide to the Ritual that no one in town can, and I believe this answers that question."

[Dietrich]

Dietrich seems to come back to the conversation after staring mostly off into space.

"Archibold Von'Studkoff will be here in the morning 8 days from now, if you have any questions about the ritual he will answer as best he knows. He will be available until approximately an hour before sundown. We do NOT want to do this ritual at night regardless. If you don't think you can make it to breakfast to ask any questions, leave them with me and I will ask."