Loreveil Akdavnel will try and see if she can't figure out /what/ just disrupted her magic.
((OOC: Spellcraft which should be at least DC 30 to understand a unique magical effect 
))
Ian gets up, dusts himself off, and closes the front door to Sheeram's mansion as quietly as he can manage.
No sense letting the entire ward in on her personal problems.
After that, he will find a suitable place to sit down. Hopefully not on any of Lady Sheeram's plants.
[OOC: Busy today, going to reply either tonight or tomorrow!]
*Ophelia chuckles a little at the four of them all hugging. It is such a pleasant surprise.*
-Ophelia
Sheeram stares at Ohalian with a disgusted look. "Whatever you are trying to say there, but I'm not going to have my brain removed."
OOC: He's scanning her to try to figure out exactly what's wrong with her. What tissue's dead, what's still alive, etc.
"Eh. You'd have some local anaesthetic on your head, so you wouldn't feel any pain or anything, and the installation in your new body wouldn't take very long. You'll have reduced tactile sensation, though, because the tactile sensors aren't as good as the ones nature made. I know that from experience."
[OOC: Sorry for the delay - now we're rolling on 
]
Sheeram frowns at Ohalian's description. "You sound like a Baator public relations official, or at best a Mechanus agent. No, thank you - I prefer destroying the root of the evil in me, rather than causing even more pain to my soul by just dealing with the symptoms."
She finally lets go of Ophelia and the others, wiping away her tears. "Thank you," she whispers, "thank you all."
Turning to the Masked Gnoll, she says with a sad voice, "Both, actually."
She takes a deep breath, as if only speaking those words made her suffocate.
She then turns to Blackthornes, giving him a warm smile. "You are one of the sweetest men I know. Thank you."
[OOC: More in the next post Just a little more time... ]
"Oh." The Massked Gnoll says. "Well then, my idea probably isn't much good then. It might still work, but... I wouldn't want you to do it unless you don't have any other options." The masked Gnoll says, shyly. You can tell that he's not exactly comfortable with the idea himself.
While Lorevail observes her symbols, she notices they calm down as Sheeram calms down. There seems to be a connection between her emotions and Lorevail's symbols.
Ohalian scans Sheeram with his sensors, getting confusing results. She appears to be dead - no body warmth, neither her skin nor anything else shows signs of life. Yet, her heart is beating, she breathes and moves.
Ian hears voices and footsteps coming from the street somewhere behind the mansion just as he sits down. Only seconds later, a large group of Harmonium officers, fully dressed in their armours, comes along. Obvious to him, this is not just a patrol, but a group on a mission. They seem to be very determined.
One of the officers at the back of the group, a young humanoid with ears over a foot long and curly golden hair, looks at him for a moment, then abruptly stands still, staring at Ian.
Ian suddenly remembers his face: He met this man on one of his former assassination jobs. The officer almost caught another member of the guild, and Ian is quite sure the man has seen his face. It happened no more than a year ago, but the Hardhead doesn't seem to be sure if Ian is really the man he remembers.
While he stands there, watching Ian, the rest of his group stops as well, looking at him, then at Ian, and back at the officer again.
"Any idea is a good idea," Sheeram says, "only realizing it isn't always good. Please, tell me what you're thinking of."
Ian looks at the officer and smiles. "Afternoon, Officer. Anything I can help you with?" Ian asks, casually.
"Yes," the Hardhead replies with a serious face, "would you please come over here? Just a regular check to ensure security in our beloved Lady's Ward."
A purple-skinned humanoid creature at his side, slightly reminding of an earth elemental, turns towards one of the men at the top of the group. "Arush," he says with a dark, rolling voice, "bring here the gemstone of faces."
From somewhere deep within her, Ophelia hears a voice. At first, it is more of a feeling - the same kind of feeling that told her not to fear and to follow her heart. Then, she hears a voice, dark, yet soft and friendly, almost like a cat's purr.
Wasn't that almost like being home?
Ian looks at the man, looking slightly confused. 'Uh... sure."
This could be bad.
The man signals Ian to stand at his side, while the man from the top of the group - Arush - walks over with a large, half-transparent golden gemstone. When Ian comes over to the Harmonium Officers, Arush touches the gem, whispering some incomprehendable words, and a transparent, moving illusion of the head of some dark-haired, blue-eyed tiefling with an evil smile and horns surrounding his face appears in mid-air above the gem.
Ian looks at the image, then at the officer. "Can't say I've seen him, sorry."
The masked Gnoll shuffles a little bit. "Well, I hread that the undead cant be, you know, resurrected. I was thinking if we... um... found a priest you really trust, and uh... 'kill' you ... we could bring you back to life. I don't think the vampire part, being undead and all, would come back too. But it was a better plan when I was thinking he had only infected your body. I don't like it myself right now." You can see the Masked Gnoll wince, as if he expects to be yelled at.
Wasn't that almost like being home?
Yes........ yes it .....was. She mentally answers the voice as she steps back from Lady Sheeram and sits down on her seat, smiling to herself. I so do truly want to be home, to have a home no matter where it is. I want to be home NOW, she thinks and winces as the sting of lonliness returns.
"Lady Sheeram, Blackthornes and Masked Gnoll, I know this might be a strange thing to say, but hugging like that almost made me feel like I was home again. Thank you, all three of you." She says and tries to smile again through the loneliness, but fails miserably.
-Ophelia
The officer smiles and nods, "Thank you for your cooperation. There are more faces in the gem - maybe one of the following is known to you." Turning to the gem, he says, "Adapt! Next!"
An illusion of a male half-elf appears above the gem, a young man with an open scar all over his left cheek and chilling, green eyes.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Officer Heruak. May I inquire your name?"
Sheeram thinks about the Masked Gnoll's idea for a moment, then replies. "I do not believe this would work. The vampire lord's essence has merged with my soul. If I died, my soul would probably consumed by him, becoming a part of his. If I was resurrected, he might send something back into my body which was... not the least bit myself anymore."
As Ophelia speaks, Sheeram smiles warmly. "Yes, I know what you mean. Home... I learned that is nothing about places, not even about people. It is all about opening your heart. Noone is ever lonely because he is alone - only because he, or she, closes his heart to he beauty and love around."
Ohalian laughs.
"No, I'm no agent of Baator or Mechanus. My girlfreind's a Guvner, though. I guess I'm just used to dealing with things whose causes are physical, so the cures would be physical as well. That said, why not just kill the vampire lord? Heck, I would be more than willing to take on that mission once I have completed my current work."
"Don't remember his face either." Ian says, looking at the image. "Hmm? Oh. John Murdoch, pleased to meet you."
Ophelia stands up as the loneliness begins to engulf her, says a quick "Excuse me ma'am", and heads out of the room to the next room over, away from the door. When she gets there the lonliness totally engulfs her, and she leans against the wall, where no one from the other room can see her, slides down the wall, and begins to quietly sob to herself.
-Ophelia
The masked Gnoll, curious, watches Ophelia leave the room, apperantly in distress. He peeks his head around the corner. "Ophelia?"
As he sees her there crying, he rushes over.
What do I do? Shes a nice lady, and shes sad, but I dont think I can hit anything to make it better!
He sits down next to her as long as she doesn't protest. "Want to talk about it?" He asks. "Most people don't think i understand much, but I do. Really. And if you dont want me to talk about it after, I promise I would never mention it again. Never never. Never."
Sheeram stands still for a few seconds as Ophelia leaves the room, obviously confused by the sudden outburst. As the Masked Gnoll follows her, the girl sighs, saying to herself, "Better leave the two alone for now..."
Addressing Ohalian, she nods. "That's what I am preparing for since three years. Unfortunately, that vampire lord is powerful - I wouldn't be surprised if he'd kill your entire group in a few minutes, maybe less. And so far, I don't know his location - only that he has conquered one of Gond's Parallel Palaces, this one existing both in the Negative Plane and in the Abyss, in a layer called Thum'Alath."
Now watch, Blackthornes, watch the powers at work.
The voice in Blackthornes' mind comes out of nowhere. It is dark and intruiging, yet friendly; somehow, it reminds him of a cat's purr...
The purple-skinned "elemental" Hardhead stares at Ian for a second, then simply states: "Lie."
The officer interviewing Ian looks even more serious now (one wouldn't have thought this was possible), speaking to the gem, "Adapt. Next", and turns to Ian again. "So... what was your name, for real? And I believe a really good explanation would fit in well now."
A new face appears above the gem, another half-elf - looking astonishingly similar to Ian. While the face does look different, the man could very well be Ian's brother.
While she sits on her chair, the symbols floating around Lorevail's head start twitching again with Ophelia's outburst. At the same time, Lorevail feels something strange within her, like a distant knock within her mind, far away yet trying to get her attention...
Loreveil isn't accustomed to mind knocks but now that the conversation has turned less philisophical, she is becoming a bit bored.
Her symbols are acting strangely...and emotional responses seem to cause that. Maybe the 'knock' knows? She'll do her best to open her brains 'door'
Ian looks at the image and then at the officer.
"I'm sorry, I usually don't like to give my real name. It makes my line of work easier. My name is Tobias Trent. You can call be Toby."
OOC: This is NOT A LIE. I was going to have this come out in character sooner or later, but Ian changed his name after entering the Assassin's guild. I mean, who names their kid Ian Shadowknife? He did it for situations similar to this, and so that tracking him down through magic that relies on names would be a bit tougher.
Theres a chance the Harmonium might still know the name, but the name 'Toby Trent' hasn't been heard in Sigil for at least five years.
*blackthornes thinks to himself*
Powers? who in the hells are you? Intruding into peoples thoughts isn't so nice you know
*He turns to Lady Sheeram*
"Vampire lord eh? I heard that there was a strong vampire guild on Toril once, they are a group of mostly vampires and assassins working out of the large city of Westgate. They're called the Night masks......maybe he is part of their guild?"
Ohalian nods after Sheeram mentions that their group would be cut to ribbons.
"Yeah, probably. That's why we wouldn't confront him directly. My home world has produced a few weapons that should prove capable of killing him remotely, though, and I remember hearing that there was a layer of... Archeron that contains every weapon ever built. Vampires are weak against sunlight, right? So if we use a weapon that effectively creates a second sun for a few minutes and use it on his mansion, he should be killed, right?"
In particular, he's thinking of truck-launched ballistic missles, loaded with nuclear fusion warheads.
Intruding into her own mind, Lorevail attempts to find out where the mental knock comes from. After a while, she realizes she gets close, but never close enough - it is as if a piece of the puzzle is still missing to her. Somehow, though, as she returns her focus on the normal world, she feels an urge to speak to Blackthornes.
I am not intruding, the voice in Blackthornes' mind says. I am within you, part of you, hidden deep inside your self. Fear me not. I want you to live, and to be free.
Sheeram answers Blackthornes first. "No, I do not believe he comes from the Prime Material Plane. I... I think it is possible he started such a group, but there are infinite worlds in the Prime - it would be against the odds that this vampire lord, who has no connection to you, has plans on your particular world. Unless, of course, it is not a matter of chance we met - but so far, I have no clue for that."
To Ohalian, she says, after a bit of thinking, "A second sun? This is impressive, I have to admit. It might work... but I am not sure about the protections of a Parallel Palace. They are usually only given as gifts to demigods and similar beings, and I do know the protections are adequate. Do you have access to such a weapon, just in case?"
The purple Hardhead stares at Ian again, then says: "Truth."
The golden-curled man interviewing Ian seems disappointed, but obviously has not yet given up. He turns to the gem once more, repeating "Adapt. Next."
For a second, the image above the gem flickers - then disappears.
"Hmph. Very well, Lord Trent, I apologize for disturbing you and thank you for your cooperation. The Harmonium is always busy fighting criminals in our beloved city, and good citizen like you support us in our work. You just helped us protecting the city of Sigil against robbery, murder and assassination. Thank you, once more."
[OOC: Neat escape, Fidrikon I'm still here for a bit, but I'll be gone over the weekend. I'll be back on monday, though.]
Ophelia allows the Masked Gnoll to come over to her and comfort her for a quick second, then she gathers up her things and stands up, a bit abruptly. She forces herself to stop crying and says simply to him, "I... just.... miss.....HOME." Then she gives him a shrug, wipes the rest of the tears from her face and asks him, "Do I look presentable now?"
-Ophelia
The Illumian takes note of this urge to speak with Blackthornes, and files it away for a more appropriate time. She returns her focus to listening to this strange girl.
"Thank you sir. Good day." With that, Ian will walk back over to where he was sitting and resume his wait.
The Masked Gnoll looks at her for a moment. "You look really pretty, but we might want to hang out here for a little bit longer, or they might be able to tell that you've been crying."
"So, what are you thinking of doing after this Baator thing?"
"Thanks for the honesty, and for the compliment," she whispers blushing slightly. "After this I will hopefully be able to find a way home, to Toril, or maybe to that place that the cube showed me. Either way I am sick of this nomadic exhistance, and I want to settle down. I want to be somewhere that Hoot can find a mate, or maybe even...." her voice trails off VERY quietly with this last bit, "...find a mate for....myself."
-Ophelia
"Well, until that last part happens, you'll have me to keep you company. Now before you say no, remember, I am a master entertainer. " With that, the Masked Gnoll attempts to stand on his head, and allmost makes it before collasping into a pile of gnoll...
"Owie."
Sheeram turns to Lorevail. "You appear bored... or maybe I just misinterpret your silence?"
Addressing Blackthornes, she continues, "I feel that your friend is still outside the door. Maybe one of your group should go to him, so he's not that lonely out there?"
The Harmonium officer gives Ian a nod, then the group continues on its way. As Ian sits down, a large flowery bush not too far from him gives out a sound like a reliefed sigh. All the bush's blossoms turn downwards just as he does.
Ophelia bursts out laughing like she hasn't done in a long time when the Masked Gnoll tries to stand on his head and then falls into a pile of gnoll. She whispers to him, "Well, if we are to be travelling buddies then I must know a name in which to call you that is easier on the tongue then "The Masked Gnoll", if only in our most private of talks. What would it be?"
-Ophelia
The Illumian nods. "You have misinterpreted. I am fairly new to this group of....people. I simply observe for the time being. There isn't really much else for me to do yet."
Darn it, I'm going to get this head stand, or else!
The masked Gnoll attempts to head stand again, as he thinks that hes failing at entertaining Ophelia.
"Well... my real name is kinda hard to pronounce without a big, beefy gnoll mouth. So... I guess you can just call me MG." *Crash * The Masked Gnoll topples over.
Curse you, physics. You win this time...
"Sure M'Lady, I will bring Ian back in, if that is what you want."
*Blackthornes Jumps at the crashing in the toher room*
"What in the hells are those two doing in there?"
"OK MG you have entertained me well, and brought my spirits back up. For that I thank you." she whispers, still smiling. "I think we should go and join the rest of the group now." She takes the big gnolls arm and walks with him into the room with Lady Sheeram again (as long as MG doesn't protest too much 
).
-Ophelia
The Masked Gnoll walks with Ophelia beck into the room with the others.
I think I just saved the day... YES!
Ohalian laughs.
"Umm... no. The government tends to try to avoid people getting their hands on weapons that can destroy cities and kill millions of people in a matter of minutes. If that layer on Archeron really does have every weapon ever made, though, it should be possible to obtain one."
OOC: Hey guys, just thought I would give you a heads up that after seeing my doctor today I might be sent to the hospital for a few days. So if I don't post for a while then that is where I am. Just have Ophelia Whispers go with you wherever you go. Thanks!-Ophelia
[OOC: Still out of time today, but I'm going to post again tomorrow!
@Ophelia: Get back healthy again soon ]
[OOC: Sorry for another delay. Too many projects currently... ]
Sheeram gives Lorevail a curious gaze. "That's sad. Really."
As Blackthornes jumps up, Sheeram chuckles lightly. "I assume your gnoll friend managed to lighten up Miss Whispers. As for Ian... I don't want to tell you what the right thing to do is. But I feel that just letting him wait outside is not right."
At that moment, Ophelia and MG come back into the room, obviously in a better mood than before. Sheeram seeks the Masked Gnoll's eyes, and gives him a friendly - very friendly - look.
Turning to Ohalian, she replies, "I think finding that weapon in Acheron could be a greater task than destroying that vampire lord. Even if it is not guarded... Acheron has traps of its own."
The Illumian purses her lips slightly. She speaks quietly, as if she doesn't care if she's being heard. "There's nothing negative about watching."
OOC: Hey guys and gal! I am back! Yay! Lets get this party started!
-Ophelia
"Not about watching," Sheeram replies to Lorevail, "but about having nothing else to do. I mean... take a look at your gnoll friend. Do you really think there's a time when he's got nothing else to do but watch?"
Meanwhile, deep within the Masked Gnoll's brain:
You know, what has my left arm done for me lately? All it seems to do is take up space and rob me of my delicious nutrients. Nutrients that I go out of my way to get. I mean, as if my day isnt busy enough, now I have to EAT?
Wait... I think someone is talking about me.
"Hm?"
OOC: howd the doctor thing go, Ophelia?
"Of course he has more to do than sit and watch. He's probably plotting some barmy scheme as we speak."
*blackthornes is not sure what to think*
"Hug? Oh well, I guess it's not that bad...."
*Blackthornes squeezes in under one of the gnoll's huge arms and gets his arms around the girls......that is, as much as he can.*
"Don't worry M'Lady, im sure if you have survived this long by holding on to what you still ahve, you can live longer. If I find out anything about this Vampire Lord you speak of, I will make sure to tell you."