You take off your greaves, then the rest of your armor-- throw the metal to the ground, feel it shake and rattle. Instinct, burned in you since squirehood-- meekness, gentility, "practicality"-- they all slip away.
Good.
Water begins to flow from the ceiling, softly streaming from holes you cannot see. Despite their gentility, within moments you are ankle deep. The water is cool, chilled enough to sooth the aches of a long walk yet not so cold as to leave you shivering. As the water falls, mist begin to crawl in, slowly choking the air. The scent of lillies becomes even thicker, still sweet. The mist blinds you, even more than the dark-- all is white and black.
Despite all the water, your clothes are still dry-- even your hair, worked into its long blond braid, hangs dry. Foot-falls send water splashing about, but gently. Your instincts are still guiding you forward and so you onward go--
Until with a noise somewhere between a "glorp" and "plop" you fall forward. Tripping and falling you land hard on both arms, on hard stone.
You are not alone. A soft light fills the air, and when you look up you see a woman.
You fall to your knees in supplication, nose touching the ground. Despite being solid rock it is hot-- and there is a deep thrumming, the pounding of hooves on stone and field and the crash of blade upon shield and sword.
Seated to her right there is a figure clad in red cape and golden tabbard, who glows with a fearsome power. There is an energy to him, a fierceness-- wearing a crown, yet subservient to the woman at his left. Blond and bearded as the souls of Bastonne, he wields his blade-- and it is terrible, and of a great force.
To her left, there is again a woman. A lady of Lyonesse, with her hair cut brutal short and a set of maille born on her. Clasped in her hand is a fiery red sword-- mighty Durendal, though it be now in the hands of the Marechal of Couronne in the material.
At the center there is the Lady herself. Clad in a simple golden and white dress, she has...a bar of raw metal.
"You have waited, and we have waited, too long. We alike have sat stone still and watched the world tumble and fall like a stone. We have watched, you and I, Bohort. And you and I alike owe the world an apology. I have watched, with all divine powers, and waited, and plotted-- and in truth done nothing as my people, who I swore to protect, were slaughtered. I watched the orcs grow day by day, and did not bring down my vengeance.
You, who knows war and faith, did not live to yourself. You, who had such potential, did nothing, but hide. In melancholy and in ennui, you stagnated. You served---but you did not excel-- and in the growing darkness, all are called to excellence. A lion should not hide from the wolves. We together owe the world an apology. Shall you help me make it?"
"I swear it."
"Good." A moment later, blinding light begins to flow from her seat, and in her hands now there is a bar of white metal, doppled through with wavey patterns, the sign of silverine-- but alloyed with something strange.
"What is that?"
The Lady smiles fondly, as though remembering better days. "At the beginning of time, when even the gods were all young and things were not so miserable yet, an evil came- a harbinger of Chaos to come. A godling, a fledgling power-- little compared to the barbarians that were to come.
He was malevolent, this thing-- a being of ennui, anarchy, and malice. I met him in my home, and we battled-- dark and light, goodness and evil, righteous and unwell. And in the end, I killed that nameless god-- cast him down, broke his neck, and I rested in my weariness, and I slept the deep sleep. Eons unfathomable came and went, and I slept and I slept-- and in the end, I woke to a cry for aid. I awoke to Gilles, and to his knights, and to his quest. I saw the people I protected assailed, and I grew wrathful, and came to him, and I granted him my greatest of aid. I healed him, blessed him, and it was not enough.
So I went to the body of a dead god, and pulled out his bones, and with the aid of my spirits, I crafted for my King a blade. The Dolores blade. It was mighty and terrible. But the body of a dead god exacts a heavy toll-- and he was struck by it, will return with it.
I was sad, but the kingdom was thriving. And the blade was inherited, and the people were safe, and the king was good. A thousand years passed, and all was well-- but then came the norsemen. They burned, and destroyed. So I readied again the blade, and the bladewielder. But I learned. Failure was a teacher-- this time, in the blade I did alloy it with Silverine, that greatest and purest of all metals-- and it was mighty, too, but less terrible.
In the end, the blade passes to an unworthy wielder. And at the end of days, I and Roland shall have words.
And now...Now we face no less a task. The very champion of Gork and Mork comes. If he is not stopped, decisively, now, he will burn the world to cinders, and ash, and even the darkness of Chaos will be repulsed by the nothing. A blade must be forged-- but so too a wielder.
There is a furnace, in the north, where it is aready for this metal-- for I cannot work it, in home.
But before that, before anything, the metal must be purged in our failures, and ever made. It must be made pure, for to face the mindlessness of the Orcish foe.
I know mine, Bohort. What of you?"
[] "I shall shed the blood here that I have not shed elsewhere."
[] "The hair, symbol of vanity."
[] "The broken sword, symbol of youth."
[] Something else (Write-In)
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Just to be clear and up-front about it, what you sacrifice will change the nature of the sword to come.