Re: [Chapter 1.06] The Heroes Return
"I'll get it," Angel volunteered, pushing her body away from the doorframe and sauntering back toward the inner keep where she could find the stairway leading back down to the lower level. "Be back in a bit," she added over her shoulder...
OOC: The following happens outside character knowledge but is included for player enjoyment.
Finding the formerly-secret room again with little trouble, Angel ducked through the partially-open broken door and stepped fully into the treasure chamber. Her eyes went to the open treasure chests first and she wandered over to the first one. She knelt down and ran her hand through the pile of coins, lifting a handful and letting the coins rain back down into the chest again. Smiling wistfully, she thought back to when she'd last seen such wealth. It was a recently returned memory -- one she'd only recalled after seeing their torchlight glinting off all the coins they'd found -- and it was a bittersweet one.
She clearly remembered the gleeful gloating on the faces of her kin when they'd finally managed to break into that last hidden cache from ancient Aryvandaar. "Nar Kerymhoarth. We thought the war was won," she said softly to herself. "And who knew it was the also the moment of our doom." She looked at the crumbling keep around her and briefly wondered if this ancient stronghold would also turn out to be a trap too. History did have a weird way of repeating itself. She let the last coin fall back into the chest -- resisting for the moment the temptation to sneak several into her pockets -- and rose, turning to the shrine.
She approached slowly and when she was standing in front of the altar, she glanced down to the chalice of holy water and then back up to the customary icon on the wall above the altar... Helm's all-seeing eye. She looked back to the doorway for a moment, holding her breath to listen, making sure she was truly alone, and then turning back to the shrine, she focused her intent and assumed her true form.
A large pair of black, leathery wings unfurled from her back. She stretched them out briefly with a soft contented sigh and then folded them again along her back, the dew-clawed joints hanging over her head. Twin black horns sprung from her forehead right at the hairline to arc gracefully over her crown, ending in slightly upturned points, while a spaded tail uncurled from her backside to hang down and swish lazily behind her. Her skin took on a reddish tint, like an angry sunburn, and her once golden eyes with the normal humanoid white sclera become solid red. Her features were still obviously recognizable as the "Angel" her companions knew, but now with a darkly erotic blending of elf and demon.
"No use hiding since I'm guessing you can see it all anyways," Angel said, speaking softly to the icon of Helm's eye as if she were addressing the god himself. She curtsied then to the icon, spreading her wings slightly for effect, and on rising continued to address the Eye. "So this is, umm, me trying to be honest and upfront." She took a breath and swallowed before continuing. "I know you, umm, probably don't think very highly of my kind and all that... and I get it. I wasn't very happy with most of them last time I saw them either." She scrubbed a hand through her hair and her tail's lashing became a bit more sharp and quick, mirroring the uneasiness of her mood. "So I'm guessing this chalice and water is probably, umm, pretty important to you, ya know, 'cause it probably wouldn't look and smell like that after so long if it wasn't. So anyways, we're thinking that this water might help with the chapel upstairs -- the orcs kinda made a mess of it -- and I didn't want you to be upset and think I was being disrespectful or something when I took it. So, umm, please don't smite me or nothing, I'm, umm, I'm trying to do the right thing here." She took another breath and then reached out tentatively to pick up the chalice, squinting and wincing as she did so, preparing herself in advance for the smiting she half expected to come anyway.
When no lightning bolt struck down from the heavens, Angel grinned at the icon. "Thanks. I'll bring it right back. Promise," she said, gesturing slightly with the chalice, careful not to slosh out any of the sacred water. She started to turn away and then paused, turning back. She reached into an inner pocket and withdrew a strange, double-headed silver coin. She looked at the coin, the heads of which on close inspection were Angel herself, one with elven features and the other with demonic ones. "Here," she said, placing the coin on the altar. "You can hold onto my coin until I bring back your cup. Collateral." Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she shifted back to her sun-elf form and left to bring the holy water to her companions.
Awhile later, Angel returned to the chapel, carefully holding with both hands the silver chalice that had sat in the forgotten shrine, inside of which was the nice-smelling blessed water than at been hidden away for decades. She stopped at the doorway, again choosing not to enter the chapel itself. "Here ya go," she said to her companions, holding out the chalice for one of the others to take.