{"id":1685,"date":"2016-05-09T09:41:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T13:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2016-03-09T09:44:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T13:44:04","slug":"rhiallis-rutzerai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/rhiallis-rutzerai\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhiallis: Rutzerai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Today\u2019s snippet, titled \u201cRutzerai\u201d, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark&#8217;s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Be forewarned, there may be mature themes and naughty language below.<br \/>\n&#8211; \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 &#8211;<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t<em>Rutzerai.<\/em><br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tRhiallis recognized the witchfire they had killed mere hours before amongst the twenty-four in the painting. She was fairly certain she could pick out two others as familiar faces: the other witchfires the Valorous Order had encountered in the Worldwound thus far.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cAre there really twenty-one more of these horrible things out here?\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tGlancing down at her friend, Mira, Rhiallis gave a small nod. \u201cSeems likely that some have been vanquished since this painting was produced. But\u2026\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cTwenty-two.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tBoth she and Mira glanced over their shoulders. Celeste had appeared at the bottom of the stairs, lugging yet another mutilated corpse from the front yard.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cWhat?\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tShe tossed the hag\u2019s broken body onto the pile in the corner and wiped her hands on an old cloak. \u201cTwenty-two. The twenty-one remaining of that lot, plus the one in the center.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cOh.\u201d Mira frowned, turning back to the portrait.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tRhiallis followed suit. The painting was exquisitely well done &#8211; eeriely life-like &#8211; and depicted twenty-four beautiful young women, wreathed in sickly green flames posed on plush chairs. They were arrayed twelve to the right, twelve to the left, and sat with perfect posture &#8211; feet and knees together, hands clasped lightly atop them, chins lifted ever-so-slightly.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tThe focus of the painting, however, was the regal woman in the center. She too, a witchfire, but she was somehow more than the others. Her flames glittered a thousand shades of verdant green only seen in jungles; pale as jade close to her body deepening to a rich emerald at the dancing tips. They were so wonderfully rendered they seemed to be twisting and writhing on the canvas. She wore a crown, unlike the others, and seemed like a queen amongst her ladies-in-waiting. It fairly dripped with gems, diamonds and emeralds, and Rhiallis had to admit, grudgingly, that she coveted it for she loved emeralds.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tShe tilted her head, her frown growing. Slowly, she leaned as far as she could to the right. After a moment, she leaned the other way, crowding Mira who gave her a dirty look as she ducked out of the way.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cWhat are you doing, Rhi?\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cThe eyes.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tMira looked up again. For a moment, she did not seem to see it. Then she took a step to the right, followed by several to the left.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201c&#8230;that\u2019s crazy.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tRhiallis just nodded.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cC\u2019mon you two,\u201d Celeste said with a grunt. \u201cThere\u2019s more work to do before Aimsley gets back. She\u2019ll probably be awhile though. Damn\u2026 those poor kids.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t\u201cRight,\u201d Mira hopped to, loping after Celeste as she headed up the steps. \u201cThey\u2019ll get their toes back, probably. Right? Right?\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tRhiallis lingered, unable to tear her eyes from the painting. There was something about her &#8211; the Queen &#8211; that left her feeling utterly unsettled. There was such intangible malevolence in that incredibly beautiful face. But that was not the most disturbing thing.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tIt was those impossibly blue, glowing eyes.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t&#8230;and the way they followed her wherever she moved.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \tShuddering, she rubbed her biceps as if struck by a sudden chill, and retreated from the basement. They would remove the canvas from its frame, roll it up, and take it with them &#8211; it might be worth something to someone &#8211; but Rhiallis could not shake the ominous feeling she got whenever she looked at it.<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \t<em>I hope to all the Gods, good and evil, that we are never so unfortunate as to meet her<\/em>, she thought, then paused. <em>But I don\u2019t suppose our luck is that good, after all, and it seems like all the worst things that can happen here in the \u2018Wound, will happen.<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n&#8211; \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 &#8211;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/signature.jpg\" alt=\"Signed, Josie\" width=\"92\" height=\"139\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13\" \/><br \/>\n<i>Note: Image is &#8220;King Jagiello Statue Central&#8221; by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Today\u2019s snippet, titled \u201cRutzerai\u201d, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark&#8217;s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Be forewarned, there may be mature themes and naughty language below. &#8211; \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 &#8211; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rutzerai. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rhiallis recognized&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/rhiallis-rutzerai\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,1],"tags":[4,121,147],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming-2","category-snippet","category-uncategorized","tag-gaming","tag-pathfinder","tag-rhiallis","xfolkentry","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}