Oyun Topic /9 ⍟
NPCName
Lady DiallaThe time has come, Not-a-Cockroach, to crawl up into the bowels of this Nightmare, traverse its innards, and rip out its corrupted heart!

Oyun will help us. Go on now. Hob nob with the Maraketh matriarch. Learn what needs to be learned, and quickly.

There's a filthy darkness down in that mountain and it's reeking with impatience to meet you.
KiraOyun is my {sekhema}, my commander. I am her {dekhara}, her warrior. I defend this {akhara} as Oyun sees fit.

Whether Oyun {is} fit to see what is best for this tribe... it is not for me to say.
Petarus and VanjaVanja: Oyun gave us a home...

Petarus: ...our lives back.

Vanja: Appreciate the good ones when you find them in Wraeclast.

Petarus: It's not like there are many.
TasuniThe Maraketh are stranded in the sandstorm of reflection and regret. We look to our Sekhema to lead us out, yet the sandstorm is all she knows.

She needs me, her eyes and ears in the darkness, but she will never comprehend my gifts.
Petarus and VanjaPetarus: Oh, they don't know! I can see on your face, you haven't heard...

Vanja: It's Kira, she's gone mad!

Petarus: Absolutely bonkers.

Vanja: She's abducted Oyun...

Petarus: Stolen off with her into the desert. And, to make matters worse...

Vanja: ...The whole of Highgate is in a state of disarray. There's Beast blood in the water!

Petarus: ...Usurpers are eyeing up the throne...

Vanja: And the old gods have risen! If you want my advice, get out of Highgate...

Petarus: ...Or save us...

Vanja: ...While you still can.
Petarus and VanjaVanja: Oyun was my friend. To depart this world in the manner she did is...

Petarus: ...Barbaric. And without a protector for the tribe, we're sitting ducks here. Tasuni thinks he can rule, but he is seduced by all manner of dark things.

Vanja: There is no easy fix here. I'll be awake for many nights to come.

Petarus: I'll be right beside you, my love.

Vanja: Let's not fool ourselves love. You'll be sleeping.

Petarus: In any case, it'll be time to crown a new chieftainess soon.

Vanja: Or chieftain. Tasuni is next in the bloodline. Sure, he doesn't mind breaking a few rules, but at least he's no Dominus.

Petarus: I do hope you're joking, sweets! The Maraketh are a matriarchy! The men here aren't used to being in charge. Tasuni would ruin everything the Mother stands for.

Vanja: You would have them crown Irasha?

Petarus: She's strong, stable and traditional. I don't see why she shouldn't rule.

Vanja: Because, ironically, Tasuni has the one thing that Irasha lacks.

Petarus: What's that?

Vanja: Vision.
TasuniMy sister, Kira has grown obsessed with the Vulture of the Wastes, our goddess Garukhan. Kira has taken Oyun and plans to sacrifice her, imagining she can re-forge herself as a Red Sekhema, a warlord destined to unite the Maraketh under her bloody banner.

My sister's betrayal is too great for forgiveness. Like a rabid dog wandering the mountain pass, she must be put down. I ask this of you, for you are familiar with such barbarism and will not feel the pangs of mercy that I would.

On her person, I suspect you will find Oyun's royal mandate. The Sekhema Feather. If Kira truly wishes to take the throne, she would need such an item to be considered more than a simple usurper. Bring it to me for safekeeping.

And please, return our Sekhema Oyun to us, if you can... if she still lives, that is. But don't risk your life for hers. I know her mind. She would not want that.
IrashaOyun is gone for but a few days and already Tasuni sniffs at the throne like it's a bitch in heat. Ruled by a man... You need only walk amongst the ruins of Sarn to understand that folly. Well, his desires are but wanton lusts while Oyun still lives.

One of my scouts saw Kira and her {dekhara} near the foothills. They had Oyun bound to the back of a rhoa like a hunter's prize, and the Sekhema Feather, our symbol of leadership, worn by her captor. Whether Kira works alone or in pact with her brother Tasuni, I know not. Yet I fear she means to sacrifice our Sekhema to the Vulture of the Wastes. Garukhan.

Please, this {akhara} has helped you in the past. Return our kindness. Free Oyun and return her safely to us. And if this quest is lost... remove the traitorous bitch, Kira, from this world and retrieve our Feather. As long as we have that, the throne of Maraketh will remain safe.
Oyun's Throne
Oyun Text Audio /46 ⍟
Name
It is the path of blood and glory that leads you to our gate. We Maraketh understand this path, yet we fight for our tribe, our {akhara}.

You fight only for yourself, care only for yourself. That is your strength. Love breeds fear. You have no such weakness, and that is why you will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Duelist. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
You walk to us upon the backs of the murdered. Though we are both forged upon the battlefield, we Maraketh are not like you.

We fight for survival. You fight for ambition, and that is why you will understand the Beast within the mountain better than we do. That is why you will kill it. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Shadow. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
Whether it is our gods or your god who have brought you to Highgate, the consequence is the same.

You believe blindly in the divine, and a blind man is never lost in the darkness. You will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Templar. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
You come to us, a woman like us, and yet nothing like us.

While we cloak ourselves in tradition and war, you cloak yourself in thaumaturgy and fear, and that is why you will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Witch. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
There was a time when Maraketh and Karui fought side by side against the forces of corruption.

It would appear that the time has come to finish what we started together. With our help, you will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Marauder. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
Although we two were born lands and cultures apart, I recognise a woman in kind. A woman who fights not only for her own survival, but for the survival of the wilderness she calls home.

Yet, you are not bound like us, to the thoughts and habits of tradition. That is why you will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Ranger. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
I see a woman before me, a woman strong of body and mind. You have the bearing of a {sekhema}, the poise of a warrior, yet... when I look into your eyes, I see nothing that I know.

That is good. It takes the unknown to destroy the unknowable. That is why you will kill the Beast within the mountain. Lady Dialla has told me this.

She has much faith in you, Scion. The question is... can we Maraketh share in her faith?
Introduction
Sekhema Deshret sealed the Mines, trapped the Nightmare within its black den.

The Beast should never have been imprisoned. The Beast should have been destroyed, yet, for all her ferocity, it seemed that Deshret lacked the courage to do so.

And now, after two centuries guarding this hole in the ground, this {akhara} lacks the strength. But you are not Deshret, and you are not one of us. You will succeed where we have failed.

Deshret's Banner will break the Seal and open the Mines. It was taken from her when she fell to Voll, the Brittle Emperor.

Take the stairs to the south-west, descend to the Dried Lake. You shall have no trouble finding the Brittle Emperor. You'll smell him before you see him.

Bring Deshret's Banner home, and you will be free to pass into the darkness as you wish.
The Red Banner
The wind carries the welcome aroma of shattered bones. It is good to see that you know how to fell even the monarchs of Nightmare.

Once you mount Deshret's Banner upon the Mines' entrance, Deshret's seal will be broken, and the darkness will become your hunting ground.
The Red Banner
The gate is open, and the darkness calls. Good hunting, Curse-breaker.
The Red Banner
I will make allies of whomever I deem useful. We have observed the actions of both blackguard and exile, and it is Petarus and Vanja who give meaning to those actions.

This {akhara} has not mixed with other than its own for over two hundred years. The outside world has now discovered us, so it is time that we discovered it.
Petarus and Vanja
Kira has the blood of Deshret in her veins and the bonds of Deshret in her mind.

Her loyalty to her {akhara} is admirable. Her loyalty to the past is not.
Kira
Tasuni has been corrupted since the day he was born.

Maraketh tradition would have it that such a warped child be left upon the moonlit plain for the gods to adopt. Tasuni was not taken by the gods that night.

Such a thing has never happened before in our {akhara}. Now we know why.

Tasuni is a man caught between two worlds. Our world of light, and the Beast's world of darkness. He is our scout in the black, and without him, Nightmare would remain beyond our understanding.

And an enemy you cannot know is an enemy you cannot fight.
Tasuni
Dialla wishes the Beast dead. But why? Why would a nightmare wish to kill a nightmare?

A question of great interest, yet little importance. It does not matter why the sun rises and sets, as long as it continues to do so.
Dialla
The Maraketh once stood united under Deshret's Banner. That was before the plagues, the tempests... the corruption.

Deshret rode here with this {akhara}, the Kiyato, to put an end to the Beast's curse. And upon the very threshold of the darkness she faltered.

Perhaps she saw that King Kaom had gone there before her and not returned. Or perhaps the nightmare simply overcame Deshret's seemingly indomitable courage.

Either way, she chose not to ride into the mountain, to slay the Beast. She closed and sealed the Mines and committed this {akhara} to Highgate's guardianship.

The tempests, the plagues... they passed. Of their own accord, or because of Deshret's seal, we do not know.

But what I do know is this. When Deshret vowed to watch over these Mines, she simply traded one curse for another.
Deshret
Voll and his 'unmen' have dipped their fleshless claws into the lifeblood of the Maraketh since the day this {akhara} tethered its rhoa here.

Such is the way with men of war. Remove their tongues, yet still they thirst for blood. Remove their bellies, yet still they hunger for battle. Remove their manhood, yet still they lust for conquest.
Voll
Yes, Tasuni has informed me of Deshret's existence within the Mines, but has been unable to tell me how she comes to be there. Another troubling hole in our knowledge of Nightmare.

Regardless of her origins, I will not risk my {dekhara} in an attempt to free her. Even were she still flesh and blood, I would decide the same.

She is our Sekhema no longer, and we have fulfilled our duty to her memory many times over. Kira will not agree, yet her revolt will rise only as words. I am her Sekhema and she will not cross me.

So, free Deshret if the opportunity arises. It is only right that she be allowed to return to the dust of the Vastiri, but it would be wrong if any should follow her there.
Deshret
Thank you for doing Deshret so great an honour. Your generosity shall be remembered.
Deshret
We read the land, learn its stories. Kaom and his warriors entered those Mines some twenty years before Deshret sealed the Mines and bound our {akhara} to this mountain.

Neither soil nor stone speak of Kaom's return. Perhaps he is dead, or perhaps he merely wishes he was. After Voll, anything seems possible.
Kaom
We read the land, learn its stories. Kaom and his warriors entered those Mines some twenty years before Deshret sealed them and bound our {akhara} to this mountain.

Neither soil nor stone speak of Kaom's return. Now we know why. He became a monarch of Nightmare, like Voll before him. It seems the Beast has uses for those with a talent for conquest.
Kaom
I am told that you have put King Kaom down to his final rest.

Curse-breaker, and now the Murderer of Legends. Great names hatch upon you like ticks on a rhoa.
Kaom
Daresso? Yes, Petarus has spoken of him. The disturbing question is this:

How does a man who, by all accounts, has been dead for over a hundred years end up as a Nightmare monarch in the bowels of Highgate?

Unlike Kaom, there is utterly no trace of his passing, and we have scouted every footstep of this mountain and its surrounds. There is no other entrance. No physical entrance.

Deshret, and now this... Daresso. Yes, most disturbing.
Daresso
Dialla said but one thing to me before descending into the Mines: "My love awaits."

I know not why, but those three words frightened me more than any I have heard in my lifetime.
Dialla
Dialla's hopes may be crushed, but ours still thrive... in you, Curse-breaker.

From what Tasuni tells me, the Beast's innards are now yours to penetrate. Dialla has served her purpose. Now comes the time for you to serve yours.

Find this Malachai that Dialla mutters about so incessantly. If my understanding is true, then he is the mind of the Beast. Kill him, and the body of Nightmare will die with him.
Dialla
I was right to have faith in you, Curse-breaker.

You have succeeded where we have failed. You have slain a creature that was thought to live forever in the minds of those who came before you.

Voll, Daresso, Kaom, Deshret... the greatest champions Wraeclast has seen in the last three hundred years. You stood where they fell. Now you are the champion of champions, and Wraeclast should bow at your feet in gratitude.

You certainly have my gratitude, and that of my {akhara}. We have been exiled from our land by fear and misguided duty. Now we may return, to ride where we will, live how we wish.

Curse-breaker, Giver of Freedom... we thank you.
Malachai

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