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Where: The Old Capital
When: GHB 16 & 17
What: As foretold when the Kingdom was in deepest peril, the mythic sword of Rubilacxe has once again appeared in the Old Capital! Embedded deeply in a large stone set in the middle of the fountain in the town square, the mythical sword waits for the bravest of heroes to pull it free!

... well. Not just heroes. Looks like everyone's having a go trying to pull that thing out! It seems the locals of the Old Capital are making a tourist's spectacle of the whole deal. While there was a debate if they should charge people to try, it seems instead they've raised the prices on meals and rooms, and children (and some adults) can be found all over selling small cheep wooden carvings that may or may not look like the sword in the stone and other cheep souvenirs.

Well. That's the old capital for you! Lucky that you've gotten to use the king's fastest horses to get there unnaturally swiftly so you won't have to stay the night.

So, what'll it be, hero?

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Liara arrived in the city in something of a poor mood. For one thing, travel by horse wasn't her first choice, but the best one available. For another, her omni-tool wasn't working anymore. And add all of that to the fact that she still didn't want to be here, but was following the mysterious advice of an anonymous message from a network that didn't exist. The charge for stabling her horse was generously waived by the innkeeper, after she took out a room for the night and assured him she'd be back in time for dinner, but she was took upset to care about the expense.

She took to the street, wearing her armor. She was unarmed, but she had been since she first arrived, and didn't pay it any mind, now. After a moment to get her bearings, she considered which way to go. Though tempted to look around for a little bit, Liara turned and made her way towards the fountain. It wasn't hard to figure out where it was, with everyone either pointing her towards it or hurrying that way themselves.

It was a proper tourist mob around the square and Liara would be pestered a few times by urchins selling souvenirs, guides to the sword and good luck tokens to enhance her chances as being 'The One' to pull the mythic sword of Rubilacxe from the stone.

Take a number, stand in line. The natives ahead inline will take their sweet time hauling and grunting before giving over dramatic sighs and slinking dejectedly away.

Liara was patient. It was an Asari trait, something that had served them well for thousands of years. For someone a hundred years old who would probably live to see at least nine more centuries, a few minutes in a line wasn't something to get upset over. It was not the wait that began to drag on Liara, though, as she watched the people push and shove and try to get a few steps closer to the sword.

It was that she realized that every single one of these people were treating this like a fair, wondering who'd be the lucky one to pull out the sword, because that was all anyone cared about. No one seemed to have given even a moment's thought to what they might have to do once they pulled the sword out...just so long as they got to be the ones to do it.

When it came to her than not a single person in the line ahead of her had done anything before their King kidnapped a couple dozen people to do it all for them, she lost her temper. A little bit. Blue light flared around her, and with a practiced throw, she sent a ball of what looked like blue fire arcing into the air, over the heads of the crowd. Some fifteen feet or so above the fountain, it stopped, hanging in mid-air. However impressive that was, Liara was even more fortunate. A flock of songbirds, which had been sitting on a roof overlooking the square, took wing at the sight. And the singularity caught ten or so, pull them in around it, floating helplessly in the air as they struggled against a force no one could see.

Ignoring the line, Liara started towards the fountain, still wreathed in the blue light.

The crowds pulled back, hushed whispers echoing around as she approached.

The sword itself almost seemed to hum in a way that was undetectable as she drew near. There was something odd about it, about the whole set up. Something was watching. Waiting. Judging. The sword itself seemed out of place. A trap, perhaps? Or a challenge...?

She didn't immediately grab the sword, though she paused and looked at it for a moment before turning back to the crowd. She met the eyes of anyone she could, especially people close to the front. But until she heard the singularity above her fail with a little whumph she didn't speak.

"This is all some kind of game to you, isn't it?" She didn't speak loudly, and chances were that people in the back couldn't hear a word she said. It didn't matter. "Your entire kingdom stands on the brink of disaster. Not one of you have stepped forward to do a thing about it, either. Can anyone tell me the name of even one village the thorns have swallowed? No? The name of one family who has lost their home?" She shook her head in disgust. "What would you even do with the sword if you pulled it free?"

She turned to the sword, and looked it over again, ignoring any responses. For a moment, she considered walking away; she had good reasons to walk away. But Liara wasn't very good at turning away from problems, not really.

So she wrapped her hand around the sword, and took a breath. Then she pulled.

There was a shift around her, the town fading to grey mist around her, leaving only the sword and the stone it was so deeply embedded into.

Though that wasn't entirely true. Within the fog was a presence, similar to the one in the sword that seemed to be holding tight to her hand, gripping her in return.

'What do you with with this sword....?'

The voice seemed to echo in the nothingness, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Liara looked around, betraying little shock at the change. She took a slow breath, and then offered the mist a somewhat wry smile. "To be perfectly honest, I don't know the first thing about using a sword." She didn't let go, however, and settled for rubbing her neck.

"But I know I can't let any of those people have it. At best, they'd get themselves killed." She looked at the sword and frowned. "Besides, if I can't get my hands on a pistol, this is the next best thing. I'm sure I can pick up the basics."

There was a feeling of amusement that seemed to ripple through the fog. 'You believe that those around you are without worth.'

Liara stops herself from giving an automatic denial and considers the question. After a moment, she shook her head. "No, that is not true. But they aren't fighters. Sometimes, they're barely people. Something is wrong with this whole kingdom." She tightened her grip on the sword. "If any one of them had pulled this sword free, nothing would have changed, not really. I have no doubt of that. All that would have happened would have been making whoever took the sword a target."

Her free hand closed into a fist. "Yesterday, I would have said I would leave all of this behind just to get back home, but now...I'm not it would be wise to leave this unfinished." Because the more she learns about the whole situation, the more it sounds like the Reapers, or Leviathan, or something similar is involved, and that is not a good thing. "So I intend to stop the thorns. And whatever power it is controlling them. And if it comes down to it, the power affecting all of these people, as well."

'You believe this sword has worth enough that others would seek to harm those who hold it.'

Sh considered the object in question, and then closed her eyes. "These people are ineffective, but not wholly incompetent. I....believe that it is important. I do not know why, but yes, I believe that holding the sword is likely to put whoever has it into greater danger. This is a war, and this sword is a symbol to one side. Even if it was only a normal sword, that fact alone makes it a target."

She opened her eyes. "And I already intend to make myself a target, with or without this sword."

There was a long quiet as the smoke shifted around her before the voice finally spoke.

'If a sword is what you wish, know that change comes from within and accept it.'

Liara set her shoulders. "If you think making it my responsibility is going to scare me off, you have no idea who, or what, I am." And then she pulled upon the sword again.

There was a well of light that began to well up out of the stone as the sword moved, one that grew stronger until it obscured everything.

When it faded, she was back in the town square, sword firmly in hand and a strange feeling within her.

She took a slow breath as the city appeared around her, and she took a moment to study the sword. It seemed well made, at least, even if she still wasn't sure what to do with it. Still, she was no stranger to big changes, so as she turned towards the square and everyone in it, she lifted the sword high, so that everyone would be able to see it.

She let it be for just a moment, taking a breath, watching reactions. After a few moments, she lowered it a bit, and then placed it before her like a cane, not leaning on it but holding it in front of her, tip to the ground, between her and the crowd. She met eyes, looking from person to person.

"I chose to fight," she said. "This is a war, and war is what I shall bring to the thorns, and to anyone and anything that aid them. Today, you can pretend there is no war here, it belongs to other people, other places. But I am the Blue Sage of Thessia, brought here for my wisdom as well as my ability to fight, and I will tell you this one time: The War i going to find you, and I give you one chance, today, to be ready for its coming."

A moment more, and then she stared through the crowd, heading for the inn and her room.

Ryo was starting to get used to traveling by horseback...although he remained ever-irritated when the townspeople thronged around him and his oddly-armored horse. Things were the same as always no matter where he went, it seemed. He wasn't stupid, he could hear the townspeople talking about him. The hero was so impressive! And so strong! And there were whispers of just what he'd do when he lost his mind and went berserk in heroic battle. Some hushed even mentioned how they'd heard the hero wasn't even a man, but a terrible bug-monster taking the form of one so he could travel around undetected. It was so nice how rumors spread, wasn't it? You transform in one back alley in front of one chatty drunk...

Ryo grit his teeth and tried to tune them out, or else he really would show them just what Gills was. He just needed to get over there, take a look at the sword, and get out with the horse in one piece. That was all. As he gruffly waved away the umpteenth enthusiastic souvenir salesman, he thought sleeping out in the forest would have to be better than staying in this town any longer than he had to.

It was a strange thing. Despite there being whispers of a successful hero who had come and retrieved the mythic sword from the stone, it didn't seem to have changed the situation. The sword still stood, buried deep, with a line of three burly looking men waiting to take their turns having a go.

Eh. Rumors.

Well, if Ryo decides to wait on line, he'll have to weather a few more sales men, trying to sell him a charm that will make it so he'll be sure to be the one who frees the sword! Just don't ask why that same charm is in the hands of the dejected looking guy who's slinking away after failing to pull the sword free...

There didn't seem to be anything better to do here than to wait in that line, give the sword a try, and then leave.

At this point, Ryo was about to do something crazy, though perfectly harmless, if only to give them something completely different to talk about. The only things that stopped him were his dignity, the chance that it would get blown way out of proportion, and that salesman selling the good luck charm.

"No. I don't want one. Go away." He added a pretty harsh glare for emphasis. Even without the "scary berserker hero" thing he had going for him, that glare would have been rather unnerving. He just watched the other men trying to pull that sword free. It seemed brute human strength wasn't enough...but maybe if he tried approaching it as something other than human?

That would give the rumormongers something to talk about...not that he wanted to encourage them in that direction.

Well, whatever way you want to try it, it's your go now, hero. Step up to the little platform reaching out to the floating stone, mind the rope barriers around the side to keep people from cutting in line and take your try!

Though you may noticed something... odd about this sword. You know, besides it being stuck deep in a rock that's somehow floating on water. There's something like a presence to it. Something waiting for you to grab hold of it so it can test you...

The sense that the sword was waiting to test him was somewhat unnerving. It reminded Ryo a little bit of the tower in the White Forest, of how it had judged him the entire time he was there. Only at least now he didn't feel as though he were being outright driven away.

He studied it for a moment. Gills would give him outright physical strength...but perhaps bringing out the big guns right away wasn't what the sword was looking for. He reached out and tried to pull it free.

The moment his hands touched it, the tourist trap around him seemed to fade to grey smoke, leaving only himself, the sword in the store and the water around it.

Well. Not entirely. There was a lurking presence in the fog as well.

'Why do you wish this sword?' The voice echoed around him, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Well, up until this point in time, Ryo thought he would have done anything to get out of tourist trap land. Perhaps he was wrong. He was very tense now, and he was debating as to whether or not he wanted to become Gills.

As Gills, he wasn't so good at talking. And for the moment, talking seemed like the thing to do here. "Good question." He shrugged and tried to look unconcerned with the whole thing. "Magic sword, stuck in a stone...I figure maybe it's got some sort of power that could help against the thorns. It's not like I need it to fight with."

There was a long moment's silence, the smoke shifting around aimlessly around him before the voice spoke again.

'You seek without yourself for what you cannot find.'

Ryo remained tense and ready for a fight. He wasn't in control in this situation, and he knew it. He also knew that magic was likely involved here, and he didn't put much stock in that, either.

"So whatever's so special about this sword isn't going to help with the thorns?" Ryo went silent for a moment. When he next spoke, the words came out a bit more quietly, almost as though he were embarrassed to ask. "So could this sword at least be used to protect people somehow?"

'A sword it but a tool. It is the will of the one who wields it that determines how it may be used.'

"So if I took it, I'd be trying to help people with it." He shrugged, his voice still a little quiet. "Simple enough."

'Do you truly think it that simple?'

There was a long pause as he shook his head. "Is anything ever?"

'Then why speak as if things are?

A sword is a sword. It will not bring you glory any more than a stick. Do you still wish it?'

"Because sometimes, I wish they were."

Ryo shook his head. "I never said I was in it for the glory. I've never been in it for that. If there's nothing about this stupid sword that lets me help people, then no, I'm not interested."

'Then seek your worth elsewhere. True swords of worth do not call attention to themselves so boldly.'

"Hey, it was worth a shot." Ryo shrugged. Actually, he didn't really think it had been worth a shot, given that he'd had to deal with another annoying set of townspeople for what boiled down to nothing, but he wasn't about to let the weird disembodied voice know that.

'Towards the mountains shall you find what you seek.'

There was a shimmer in the air as a large gold coin materialized, twirling in mid air, the strange runes and carvings seeming to catch non existent light and glow.

'For one who wishes not to waste time, let this be thy aid.'

That was a surprise. An actual answer of sorts. Even a clue as to where to look was better than dealing with a tourist trap. Perhaps this hadn't been such a waste of time after all...

Ryo stared at the coin for a moment, as though he were trying to identify exactly what it was. Not that he had any hope of reading those runes or anything. It was glowing, and it was probably magical, which made it potentially dangerous.

Not that he cared as he reached out to take it.

The moment his fingers wrapped around it, the smoke faded, leaving him standing back in the town square in front of the sword in the stone, coin in hand.

Ryo seemed a bit surprised to find himself standing right back there in front of the sword. He was quite careful not to examine that coin he was holding in front of the crowd--he could feel it in his hand, and that was enough until he could get himself a bit more privacy. Privacy wasn't a thing when you were standing in front of a bunch of adoring idiot townspeople who seemed disappointed you hadn't pulled the worthless sword from the stone, after all.

Only one thing left to do now--get out of there. He started walking away from the sword, hoping the townspeople would just accept his "failure" and let him go with minimal punching of annoying people in the face.

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Oh, say the 17th.

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And I'm picturing her doing a "Bitch please," walk as well... :D

It's what Asari do~

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You have acquired: 1 sword of Rubilacxe. Class change complete!

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