The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

:::A dusty road winds it's way through a dark and dangerous stretch of woods. down this road staggers the figure of a fighter. as this figure draws closer, it can be seen that his condition is bad. his armor, leather with studs, bears rips and tears while his sheath is tattered and worn. the sword handle itself is in like condition, and the bow strung accross his back looks as if it would have trouble launching a single arrow. his boots show toes through an opening on the front, and their heels are long gone. the figure itself is hunched over and limping, with an equally ragged pack over his back. The features cannot be made out, as the setting sun is obscured by the surounding trees.
:::Ahead, the haggard individual makes out a clearing and his steps quicken, drawn by the promise of rest. Breaking off the branches that dangle by the road, he approaches and enters the clearing. habitualy finding a spot in the middle of the clearing, where he can watch for danger from all sides, he drops the wood on the ground and drops himself there, whatever energy had kept him upright seemingly spent.
:::Sparks flash of off flint and steel, and soon a glow is spreading over the fuel and the character can be seen to be putting a flask back into his pack. taking, out of the same pack, something that may be a skinned hare, he picks one of the longer and sharper stick out of the edges of the fire, and skewers the meat. taking, also, two forked sticks out of the fire and beating the flames out on the ground, he sets up his scant meal over the fire.

ooc:[woah, i didn't know i could write that good. it sure sounded good when i was writing it, anyway. maybe other people, pehaps lost in the woods, perhaps on the road, will be drawn by the glow of the fire? i saved that one on my computer. ok, i look through it on the forum and it needs paragraphs and everything seems to end to abrubtly. but i didn't know i could first-draft, flow of thought that good. ok, some paragraphs. lets see now...my space disapeared, so i used : doesn't look to bad. as this is the first DO roleplay, all characters should be low-level]

[ June 21, 2003, 01:13: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[David E. Gervais]

Sitting in my humble camp by the waters edge, I watch as the sun sets behind the trees on the far side of the river. As darkness begins to engulf the forest and the moon peeks over the horizon sending white sparkles dancing across the river, I notice a flock of birds spring into the sky startled by something. I scan the surroundings and see a gentle glow eminating from within the forest. I find it strange that someone would make a campfire in the middle of the woods when there is a river so close by. I decide to go take a look at who might be there, before I go I give my stew a stir and check my makeshift oven to see how the fresh bread is comming along. Satisfied that I have enough time to make the short trek I head off into the woods walking towards the soft glow.

As I approach the edge of the clearing I notice a hunched man sitting beside the fire and I must say he sure looks the worse for wear. In a gentle voice I hail the stranger and ask if he is in need of assistance. The man barely has the energy to acknowledge my presence, I tell him that my camp is just a short way from here and that I have a stew and fresh bread cooking and ask if he would like to join me. "It's not good to camp in such an open space, you leave yourself vunerable to attack, come, join me friend. My camp has much better shelter and I would welcome the company."

I wait for the weary adventurer to make his decision,..

[narf poit chez BOOM]

[ooc: reply to follow once narf's brain starts working. just woke up. in the meantime, i probably should have said these woods are very dangerous, why my post was all gloomy and this is close to my first roleplay. weeee!]

the mention of food energises narpichez (nar-pitch-ez) and he heaves himself to his feet. "well, i was hoping to see trouble before it saw me. don't know why i didn't hear that river, though" he says. (ooc: cause he was dead tired and it wasn't right in front of him) "i could use a bite. lets put this out and go. have enough room to cook a rabbit to?" "yes.", answers the stranger. after retrieving his rabbit, they put out the fire by simply scooping dirt over it. as they head through the woods to the riverside, narf says "name's narpitchez. to long. call me narp. what's yours? and what brings you to these woods? decide it couldn't be that dangerous, to?" he cracks a grin.

weeee! what do you think?

[ June 21, 2003, 01:14: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Akachaki]

This is a great idea , we should creat a real topic only for roleplay, with a name like The Tavern or something like that..

[narf poit chez BOOM]

this is a roleplay topic. please read it before posting.

[David E. Gervais]

"Just call me 'D', and I didn't come to these woods, they came to me." Narp glances at me and looks a bit puzzled by my words. "I guess you didn't notice that these woods are filled with a strange magic." they enter D's camp and Narp is quick to notice the wonderful smell of the stew and fresh bread "mmm, the stew and bread smells great, have a seat, I'll bring you some." Narp is too weary to argue and for some strange reason he feels he can trust this stranger. "A few days ago this was a quiet meadow, then the forest began to move in and late yesterday afternoon the river you see before you bubbled out of the ground." I hand Narp a full plate of stew and half of the loaf of fresh bread. "I believe that the 'Makers' are playing with the land and have some devious plan in the works. I don't know what our role will be, but I do not believe we are here by chance." Narp and 'D are startled to feel the earth shaking and are amazed to see a mountain begin rising out of the ground on the oposite side of the river. "It must be the 'Makers' who else can shape the land at will and cause this kind of chaos? What do you think Narp?"...

[ June 03, 2003, 23:46: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[the reason? to tired to care. if your a bandit, at least i get a meal out of it.]
"i think we better hope no mountain rises out of the ground here. thanks for the food." narp sets up his rabbit over the fire. "i guess i came in with the woods, because i've been walking in them for 5 days it seems. or maybe time was distorted and it was only 30 minutes."

ooc:[
map as off now:

ttttttttttttt=tttt\tttttttttttMMMMM
ttttttttttttt=tttt/tttttttttttMMMMM
ttttttttttttt=tttt\tttttttttttMMMMM
ttttttttttttt=tttt/ttttttttttMMMMMM
ttttttttttttt=tttt|ttttttttttMMMMMM
tttttttttttttOtttN|ttttttttttMMMMMM
ttttttttttttt=tttt\tttttttttttMMMMM
tttttttttttt=tttttt\ttttttttttMMMMM
tttttttttttt=tttttt/ttttttttttMMMMM
ttttttttttt=tttttt/ttttttttttttMMMM
ttttttttttt=tttttt|ttttttttttttMMMM
tttttttttt=ttttttt|tttttttttttttMMM

O - old camp
N - new camp
/|\ river
= road
how's that look?]

[ June 04, 2003, 09:17: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[David E. Gervais]

..after having a good meal and some idle chit chat the two adventurers welcome a good nights sleep. 'D is the first to wake and when he opens his eyes all he sees is a very thick fog. In fact he has trouble seeing his hands at the end of his outstretched arms. The forest (if it is still there) is deathly silent. He has never seen a fog this thick, it is very disorienting. He tries to stand and looses his balance and topples over. 'D gets on his knees and slowly stands up,.. As he rises the fog seems to get thinner, and once he is standing fully upright he is greeted by a very eerie sight. the thick fog stops at about 4 feet off the ground and everything above it is clear. Havig something to focus his eyes on helps to clear the feeling of disorientation. It is very strange to look down and see the bottom half of your body disapear into the dense fog. 'D calls to Narp,.. "Narp, wake up, the land has been engulfed in 'DwarvenFog',..

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp wakes up, much restored after a night's sleep. {dwarvenfog?} he thinks. then he opens his eyes. "looks more like soupfog". narp stands up, takes a look around and says "well, at least we're not short on problems. this forest looks pretty stable, but it's dangerous to. i lost my shield to some wolves a few days or maybe, well, i lost it sometime. that was about the third wolf pack. i think i got attacked by eight or nine wolf packs. however, we've been here all night and nothings happened. if we leave this forest, i think we could end up anywhere. what do you think?"
some rumbling sounds are heard from the north. a plain extends itself from pehaps a days walk away, then grows a few hills. none of that is visible, though. and rumbling sounds from far of are kind of common.

[ June 04, 2003, 21:08: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[David E. Gervais]

"Dwarvenfog is a nasty side effect that only happens when there are massive changes occuring within the ground. It's very dangerous. You don't seem to be bothered by it, it must be your first experience with Dwarvenfog. Well let me tell you friend, when the very land beneath your feet can change at any second and you can't see what you're walking on, it can be deadly. For instance, do you hear the water splashing up against the shoreline? Neither do I, but it was when we went to bed. So I ask you, is the river still there? Has it been replaced? Is it safe to cross? Is it perhaps now a lava river? Maybe it's been replaced with a chasm, and if we try to walk in that direction we will fall to our deaths. Ever hear of Quicksand?, and that's not all the danger, you mentionned wolves, well they are not tall enough to see over the fog so they will most certainly be fearfull if not pannicked and will surely attack any sound they hear. They are not the only dangerous creatures that cannot see due to the fog. No my friend, Dwarvenfog is nothing to take lightly, but you do not seem worried, so I'll let you take the lead..."

'D' kneels down in the fog and feels around to find his gear. Narp was looking the other way and when he turned to look at 'D' found himself all alone. Then he heard noises down and to the left of him, before he could react 'D' stood up with his gear in hand. Narp almost jumped out of his skin. "Here Narp, you'll need this." 'D' hands Narp a decent pair of leather boots that he pulled out of his backpack. "I noticed Last night that your boots were too worn to be of much use."

Narp notices that 'D is wearing a dark blue robe and now has a staff in his right hand, hmmm I guess 'D is a wizard, I must have been too tired to notice Last night.

ooc: I wonder if anyone will join in this little adventure?

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Jack Simth]

A yawn is heard in the fog, and then the voice of a young man can be heard
"Good morning Master Yargoth."
"Master Yargoth?
"Is this fog your doing, Master Yargoth?"
"Ah well, I need to practice my spells anyway - now's as good a time as any."
"Brouillard Aller"
The fog recedes away from the source of the voice, stopping about a dozen paces away, revealing a young man in Apprentice's robes sitting up on a cot.
"This doesn't seem to be my master's tower. Where am I?"
"Où suis-je?"
The young man listens briefly to apparently nothing, then says
"Another plane? That's not good. I haven't gotten to my Master's books on planar travel yet."
Apparently noticing D and Narp for the first time, they young man says
"I don't suppose either of you know where I can find a good book on planar travel, do you?"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

"no. this region is still forming and truthfully, we don't know where anything is except the forest and a mountain that i'm pretty sure is moving, although fortunatly, not towards us. do either of you know any levitation and or detection spells? because, whoever you are (pointing at the newcomer with his thumb, magic-Users can get nervious if you point at them with a finger, despite the fact that you could probably cast with a thumb to.) we've got a choice of sitting here, in danger of wolves or worse or getting killed by an emerging terrain feature, or moving and be in the same danger. personally, i think movings worse, but with a detection spell, it might be better." he adds "i was pretty sure this dwarvenfog was bad, but i didn't know it was that bad."

[ June 05, 2003, 21:35: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"Levitation is simple enough, although we don't need to worry about the land beneath our feet changing. Life energy, especially the dense variety found in sentient beings, has a stabalizing effect on an area; while the ground three or four feet in front of you can change (but at that range it won't change much, distance is a significant factor), the ground under our feet will remain as solid as it is now until you leave; you could get by without magic by the simple expediant of tapping a branch on the ground in front of you as you walk. However, normal physics still apply; if the land a mile away shifts in such a way that a river is blocked, the water will continue to flow and may flood the area. I would suggest moving to higher ground."

"The fog clearing spell I cast will follow me and persist until it is dispelled or the fog clears. However, if it is dwarvenfog, it is just a symptom, not the cause. Dwarvenfog is perfectly normal fog; it is just attracted to the changes, and so it is a useful indicator of a changing area. While I haven't been aroud very long to observe, the normal pattern is for the fog to form about a day after a region first forms and fade a day or two after the area stabalizes due to a sufficient quantity of imported life energy by way of plants and animals."

"Of further note is that the wolves, trees, and any grass also has life-energy, although not as dense, and so a wooded area inhabited by wolves will be more stable than an empty forest, while an empty forest will be more stable than a grassy area, and a grassy area will be more stable than bare rock. I'll leave it up to you two to decide which situation is preferable; I can deal with any of them."

"Unfortunately, these changes are random, and don't give off much of anything in the way of warning signs, other than a bit of a rumble for large changes. However, the stabalizing effect of life-energy is cumulative, although not persistent, so with the three of us traveling together the entire area cleared of the fog by my spell will remain stable, giving us ample warning of any changes we need to deal with."

"As to the wolves, my Master hasn't let me into the books with the offensive spells yet, something about me needing to invest in a good gag first. I think he means the spells are more complicated, and I would be asking too many questions at this point, but I can't be entierly certain of that, as I didn't inquire. Anyway, guild rules (of Master Yargoth's school, at any rate) prohibit offensive spells until one reaches journyman status. I'm only three centuries into my apprenticeship; I have at least another four until I'm eligable to take the journyman tests, and most apprentices don't succeed at them until after nearly seven millenia of training. However, Master Yargoth assures me that I am more advanced already than many journymen he has set travelling, and wouldn't have any difficulty with the tests even now. I plan to take them as soon as possible, as then I will be permitted to read the books on shaping terrain, time bending, orgainic conjourations, destructive spells, and several others."

"However, I do have a few spells that might help. I have a few healing spells, some curative spells, conjourings of simple objects (knives, swords, shields and the like, although they only Last an hour or so, and I can't conjour anything that would normally have once been alive - you will have to either deal with a steel grip or make your own if you want me to give you a sword), I can increase a person's strength and speed (but it only Lasts as long as an adreniline rush does; after combat, you will have one doozy of a hangover). I also have a barrier spell that will stop just about anything, but it isn't selective. We can hide behind it to outwait a threat, but we can't attack the threat from within."

"Likewise, I have several spells that are often handy when roaming about, but aren't necessarily useful in a fight; levitation, wheather control (but only for about a dozen pace radius - that's how I got rid of the fog), some illusion, a little teleporting, and food creation (it is nutritious and won't cause any nasty side effects down the road, although it is utterly bland; after several meals, you would kill from some fresh vegtebles or a rabbit), some information spells, a few others."

"I am also good at untangling enchantments. My Master routinely tests me by throwing up barriers to motion and then throwing nasty spells at me. I can teleport out through a teleport scramble in a no-magic zone while bleeding and unconcious now. For that matter, I've done it a time or two. The best anyone can tell, I naturally enhance the mana around me, so that I always have a supply handy. While many people believe my Master is out to kill me, I know better. He just wants to be certain I have all my spells down pat, despite his claims to the contrary."

"I also have several spells that are useful for long-term residence of an area, but we shouldn't be needing those."

"Master Yargoth emphasises knowing a spell completely before moving onto the next, so I can cast any of these instantly in a pinch, even more than one at a time. The words are only mnemonic devices, and can be done without very easily for castings."

"Given a bit of time, I can also enchant any spell I know into inanimate objects, or make a permanent item, but that takes a short while."

"Energy use isn't a problem; I still have an active connection to one of my Master's Harnessed Uncertainty Jewels, and I have a few small ones on me if that fails." Briefly points out a few rings with clear mounted gems on his right hand. "These ones are tagged for teleport, so even if I lose them, I can have them back in an instant, despite teleport blocks or planal barriers. Unfortunately, I can't use tags to go back home, as they only work for bringing something to me, not sending things away. If my smaller Harnessed Uncertainty Jewels are destroyed, I can make more, given time."

"Also, my magic will be free from side effects, as most side effects are the result of energy rushing in to fill the void left by what was expended in making the spell. Harnesed Uncertainty Jewels produce their own in virtually limitless supply (although the rate is limited based on the quality and size of the gem)."

"The name I go by (not my true name, of course) is Jack. What should I call you two?"

[ June 05, 2003, 22:48: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

"call me narp. he's G. and based on what you told me, we should be looking for a big tree. it'll be stable and we can climb it in case of floods or to many wolves."
"and before i forget, thanks for the boots, G." wiggle his toes in them.
narf picks up his pack, stomps out the fire and says "i'm packed, lets go." grins.

[of course, i will help pack:)]

[Jack Simth]

"Nice to meet you both, but are you sure he is called 'G'? He looks much more like a 'D'. Ah well, no matter. Nice to meet you, Narp and G. As for packing, I don't seem to have brought anything I wasn't wearing, except for my cot. Although, thinking about it, I will need my boots. Fortunately, I got a lot of practice in with that tag spell..."
"bottes viennent ici"
A pair of boots appear in Jack's hands, and he quickly puts them on, then rolls up his cot (funny - it doesn't seem to have been tied to anything)
"Well, I'm ready to go. G - do you need a hand packing up?"

[ June 06, 2003, 01:10: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

ooc: I'm all ready and have a good post to make tomorrow morning, but I just wanted to clear up my character's name it's 'D as in (Dee) not G

no reply needed to this one, jus setting things straight.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Jack Simth]

ooc: Yes, I know; that's why I mentioned it - but your character was introduced to mine as 'G' so my character can't call yours 'D' and still be in character until he is corrected by someone. Do you understand the dilemma?

[ June 06, 2003, 02:57: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[for some reason i keep thinking your middle initial's g. for some reason, i also thought you where going by your middle initial. for some reason, i posted half-asleep.]
"woops, my memory's not so good in the morning. he's a D."

[Jack Simth]

"Sorry about the name confusion, D. Well, at least the cave is uphill from here. The riverbed dried up; it didn't dissapear, which means there is a good chance it was blocked upstream."
Taking the point, Jack heads towards the cave. True to his word, the clearing in the fog stays centered on Jack.
As the group approaches the cave enterance, a heavy wooden door covering can be seen, with a large silver knocker in the shape of a lion's head in the center.
"That's odd. Normally forming regions only produce natural formations. This door was fashioned."
"Détectez la magie"
As Jack's spell takes effect, very fine glowing red tendrils can be seen covering the door and especially the knocker, as well as blue tendrils on D's staff (and any other magic items D has exposed (other colors if D didn't make them, none if they have enchantment-hiding enchantments)), and green tendrils on Jack's rings and Jack's cot. After a brief moment, the glowing tendrils fade.
"Well, someone has definitely been by this area. Should we knock, or figure out what that enchantment does first?"

[Katchoo]

As the trio of humans approach the cave entrance, a lone wolf watches on from behind some tall grass.

Despite the changing of the world around, the scent of man remains. The wolf, with it's soft grey coat and odd ocean blue eyes, had watched the group come together at the patch of land near the water.

At first the wolf was going to sneak in and snatch a piece of meat from Narp's pack, but the arrival of the other 2 humans had forced a change of thought. The wolf was fully aware of the opinon of man towards animals and did not want to provoke a confrontation. Stealth was an animals greatest ally and key to endurance out among the trees.

So now the wolf lay still, watching these 3 and listening to their words. Quite often the wolf would wonder how the human world would react if they realized many of the animals out among the trees could comprehend their language. Fear would be the likely response, and the reason almost all of the animals capable of comprehending the complex human language kept this ability to themselves.

Silent. The wolf would remain silent. And watch. And understand.

[David E. Gervais]

"Jack, narp got it wrong, my name is simply 'D (pronounced like the letter [Dee]). I'm not much for..."

As the three were exchanging introductions, the forest began to move. The pathway behind them slowly closed and the trees began herding them towards the river bank (if the river is still there that is)

"Heads up boys, it looks like someone wants us to move. Jack take the point, that way we will at least know if we have something to walk on."

As they approached the river bank, they notice that sure enough, there was no longer any water to splash up against the shore. All that was left was a rocky riverbed. With little choice the trio make their way accross the dry river.

"Look, a pathway is opening up leading to the mountain, and if I'm not mistaken 'that', (I point to the base of the mountain) is a cave entrance."

The small globe at the end of my staff begins to glow softly.

...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

"personally, i don't like blundering into things, espiacally ones i don't understand. and unless we get some reason to hurry, i would perfer to understand at least wether or not we're facing a trap."
narp subconsiously scans the clearing in a motion even he doesn't really notice.

ooc:[after all the nasty wolf packs he's run into, even a curious wolf raises a few hairs on the back of his neck. but unless mr. k'wolf does something unstealthy, he's not going to get noticed. it's only hungry or angry wolves he's very good at noticing. anyone got any ideas for a name for this roleplay? no hurry.]

[ June 07, 2003, 03:17: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"Analysez le charme sur la porte"
Red glowing tendrils show up on the door, but these are exceptionally fine, and appear to be in a very small cursive script. Jack looks at the tendrils closely.
"I recognize most of these runes. It appears there are actually several distinct enchanments here. This one"
Jack indicates a particular loop of light red, almost pink, runes that encompass the door
"seems designed to prevent rot; I can't find any connections to the other enchantments. This one,"
Jack points out a small cluster of dark red runes
"Releases a lot of energy in a short time; I'm not familiar with its exact form. It may be a weapon of some kind. It seems to be triggered by"
Jack traces a finger along a glowing strand of runes, and continues when he reaches what looks like a spiderweb covering the door in a slightly lighter shade of red than most
"A break in this web of runes. Best not to try knocking the door down. This one"
Jack points at a cluster of runes surronding the knocker
"makes a noise when the knocker is knocked. I can't be sure exactly what noise, however. It could be an alarm, it could be a doorbell. It could even be a noise designed to trigger sound-sensitive runes deeper in the cave. My Master often does things like that. It was fun getting into his tower to get his apprenticeship sigil."

"D, do you have any thoughts on these?"
Note: The runes are still glowing in various shades of red.

[ June 07, 2003, 04:57: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[jack seems to be a very niave 400 year old]

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[jack seems to be a very niave 400 year old]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ooc:[Part of the character concept - he's a savant with magic, and savants tend to come with odd quirks; he can turn a blind eye to his master wanting to kill him, as his master hasn't figured out how to make it happen yet - I already have many things worked out, including the results of the next time something tries to kill him, how apprenticeships work where he comes from, the style of the Journyman entry exam, and what happens when he sleeps (although I have had him hint at some of it). Also, I don't think I mentioned his age - just that he has been apprenticed for three hundred years so far, and doesn't even blink at another 400 to 6700 years on his apprenticeship. I'm curious where you picked 400 up from.]

[ June 07, 2003, 09:39: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

"Jack, take a closer look at the spiderweb rune, that's not a break, it's a dead end. The web is designed like a maze, I have heard of wizardlocks like that before. I believe all that is required is for one of us to trace the proper route through the maze."

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1054981253.gif

Give it a try,..

[Jack Simth]

"I see..."
"Labyrinthe Illusoire"
An illusionary duplicate quickly forms, and Jack traces a line on it
"...perhaps this?"
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1054983171.gif

ooc:[I don't have the utils to make the colors come out quite right]

[ June 07, 2003, 12:01: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc[:you stated that he's only 300 years into his apprenticeship, which would probably make him no more than 400 years old.]
the door, without any fanfar or prelude, disapears. jack and D. don't notice any transportation or transmutation spell. beyond, are a set of clean, well-lighted stairs. they even have some simple handrails fashoned out of the walls. because the stairs appear to double back, their end can't be seen. narp looks down the stairs and says "anything down there we should know about?"

ooc:[if not, just head down. with this being my first serious rp, i think i'll hang back for now.]

[ June 21, 2003, 01:51: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Ahh, but remember, his master is unwilling - which means that at the start of his apprenticeship, Jack already had enough knoweledge of magic to: Get into his master's tower, steal something from him, and survive the repercussions of that, as well as survive training that includes attempts on his life. Besides, in most cultures where apprenticeships were the norm (historically, anyway) apprenticeships often started in the 7-12 range and Lasted seven years; multiplying that out so that an apprenticeship normally Lasts 7,000 years, that would put him starting his apprenticeship in the 7,000 - 12,000 range; using the minimum requirement for journyman eligability (700 year aprenticiship) as the standard, that would put him at 700 - 1200 + his 300 years in training = 1000 to 1500 years old. Mind you, I haven't actually properly settled on an age for him quite yet; 400 makes sense, I guess.]

"Let's find out."
Jack picks a rock up off the ground, and waves a hand over it - green tendrils wrap themselves around the rock, and then fade out.
"I just put a simple life simulation spell on this stone. It is normally used for testing enchantments that detect life, but it should also trigger any magical traps on its way down."
That said, Jack tosses the stone down the stairway.
Klink,
SNAP!
Klink,
CRACKLE!
Klink,
POP!
Klink,
Klink,
Thud.

"I counted three, let's try again."
Jack picks up another rock, and does the same thing with it.
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Klink,
Thud.

"It seems they were one-shot traps. Mind you, those rocks wouldn't have set off anything that was entierly mundane, but hey, life isn't without some risk. D, as you have the light, I might suggest that you take the lead."

ooc:[Hey, my first serious RP as well.]

[ June 07, 2003, 22:45: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp picks up a stick and raps it hard against the first step and the cieling and walls. "first steps safe." another step down, another *rap*-*rap*-*rap*-*rap*. "second steps fine." *click* *clunk-nk-nk-nk-nk-nk-nk-nk-nk* *rap*-*rap*-*rap*-*rap*. ooc:[darts] "that one was one-shot to. third steps fine."
they continue down the stairs, setting off a swinging wooden board and the landing, which is a trap door. narp goes back up, grabs a rock and drops it in. not a sound is heard.

[ June 08, 2003, 00:04: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[well, it's been over 24 hours since the Last post, so I guess I'll step in, rather than waiting for David]

"Hmm, I didn't think I'd have need of construction techniques here, but it seems I do."
Jack touches his fingertips together, draws them apart, and five thin green lines can be seen stretching from between his fingers.
"Normally this technique is used for building fairy palaces and cloud castles, but it will work here for a bridge."
With a flick of his wrists, Jack flings the five glowing green strands across the gap, where the stick to an outcropping. He then taps the green strands on the near side, and again, they stick. He then flicks his wrists and the strands stretch to the other side again. Continuing in this vein, Jack has several hundred lengths of thin glowing thread covering the trap door. He then proceeds to wave his hands across the the strands, bracing the side. After a time, the pit cannot be seen for the glowing threads. At that point, Jack taps his fingers together again, and the strands seal to themselves, drop away from his fingers, and contract so that the energy mat is quite tight. After a few seconds, the lines fade to invisibility. Jack then taps the apparently empty air between the edges, and a hollow thunk can be heard. Apparently satisfied, Jack calls up a breeze which moves some dust over the pit, which settles on the invisible bridge. Jack then calmly walks across.
"Come along, it's quite solid."

[ June 09, 2003, 01:24: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

(ooc: RL and other interests have crept into my time schedule, so I'll do more lurking than posting here for a while.)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[this is bad. i'm having an allergy attack. i'll try to cudgel something together. brain stuffed.]
as narp, jack and d. cross the threads, narp pays attention to his balance, jack pays attentions to his spell, and d. studies the construction and mutters obscure notes to himself. at the far end, they find a long cave, lighted magically, with a clay golem at the far side, covered in runes, blocking any view of what might be ahead. at the sight of the companions, the golem charges. D. attempts a dispell spell, but the golem ignore's it completly. as completly as it ignores narp arrow, which skips off it to the side. narp's bow looks even more worn. narp draws his sword and trys to keep it busy.

ooc:[the golem's supposed to be a puzzle. magic and sword together. i can't think of a creative way to kill it, though.]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Magic AND sword, hmm? I think we can arrange that.]
"Hey Narp - the golem seems to have a limited quantity of energy - every time you hit it one set of runes strengthens and another weakens, but it doesn't Last long. It seems to be re-routing its power from magic protection to physical protection as needed. The same thing happened in reverse when D tried his dispel. Narp, if you will keep pounding away on it; D, if you will wait just a moment to try your dispel again. Oh, and you might want to shade your eyes for this."
Jack squints
"Soleil Chaud"
At Jack's words, the room brightens up like noon at the Sahara, and just as hot - it seems Jack is trying to bake the golem away. The golem shifts some of its energy to compensate.
ooc:[David, as you won't be talking for a while, you won't mind if I have your character do something, I hope]
Taking that as his que, D hits the golem with a dispel again. Distracted by Jack's spell, the golem's routing runes crumple, and it loses its ability to shift energy to compensate; now it is stuck with all of its energy in magic-defense mode.
"Okay Narp - your sword should work now."
ooc:[Sufficient?]

[ June 09, 2003, 20:26: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[yep. ugh. post later. feel horrible now]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Hope you get to feeling better.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[as long as i don't think much it's bearable. lets see...]
narp swings at the golems neck, decapacitating it. the golem still holds together, though. thinking fast, narp aims at the spot where the anti-magic runes glow the strongest, and puts a big ragged line through them. magic flares out in a big light before it's re-routed, but it's to late. the golem doesn't have enough magic to defend against the physical wounds and the magical heat. quickly collapsing and drying out, the golem turns into a pile of dirt on the floor, revealing the end of the cooridor.
at the end of the cooridor is a mage, behind him is a stone wall. he looks like a mage, he has a robe like a mage, and it looks like a mages robe.
"i have a proposition for you." he says. "in an underground labrynth, gaurded by traps and monsters needing both a fighter and a mage or two, are some spheres of stability. these spheres will stabilize the area in five miles around you. even with my great power, i can only manage a mile's radius. my proposition is this: i will give you certain items to ease your journey as well as provide you with a dimensional door there and back. in return, one of the spheres is mine. now, the dangers in this labrynth are greater and more than what you have faced now, but, i am in a hurry and you are the only adventureres for fifty miles. what say you?" outside the cavern, the lurking wolf has heard every word, due to magic done by the mage. originally, the wolf was startled and ready to run, but his innate curriousity kept him there. now, the wolf hear's, for his ears alone: "and what about you? a sphere of stability would be of use to a wolf, and i would even fashion something for you to carry it with."
back to our intrepid hero's:
narp says "why shouldn't we attack you? you tried to kill us."
"your attacks would be futile. besides, you where in no danger. well?"
"then my second question is, why didn't you get them yourself?"
"a dimensional door cannot be opened from within the labrynth. even your skill at teleportation would be futile, jack. now, please, confer."
the mage dissapear's, although nobody has any illusions of privacy.
narp says "i don't trust him. but i do want one of those sphere's. and, if we get the spheres, he has to get us out. but, he could kill us. but, there's danger in every adventure."

ooc:[it sounded like a wizard with a quest cave, but i didn't want to do a normal wizard with a quest. i've tried to leave an uncertain impression over wether this ones good or evil, although i suppose we'll find out later http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .]

[ June 10, 2003, 20:00: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[yep. update.]

[Jack Simth]

The battle done, Jack cancels his sun spell, and the temperature goes back to normal.

"He does seems to be wrong about one thing, at least. His reason for staying is that nobody can open a door from inside the labrynth - that wouldn't be a problem, given a powerful mage. You could just hold one open. It's likely that he can't get in that way, either. Then again, that could be why he mentioned the traps, and I just misheard. If it were just a matter of opening a portal, sending someone through, having that person grab a sphere, and come back, he wouldn't need adventurers; he'd need a brick-carrier. It's likely he would open a door to the entry of the maze, and keep it open while we went in to move the spheres around. Oddly, once they started moving his direction, they would actually stabalize the portal, too, so that he wouldn't need to. This is about the only way he could get his hands on them in a timely fashion, as you can't teleport the spheres themselves or open a dimensional door near them."

"About the spheres of stability: ultimately, they won't be necessary. The instability of the forming region imports life of various sorts; we have already seen it bring in wolves, trees, grass, and us; the imported life has a cumulative stabalizing effect. In a few days, perhaps weeks, things will be totally stable anyway, and the spheres would be unnecessary for what he seems to want them for. Interesting though - he didn't say why he wanted one - he simply listed a few facts about his own abilities and the spheres' abilities, leaving us to draw the conclusion that he wants them to stabalize his domain."

"If the spheres work the way I suspect they do, he may want them for the bound-up energy. Remember those rocks I tossed down the stairwell? In theory, both of them will have a stabalizing effect similar to that of the spheres, only on a much smaller, more local scale - about an inch or so, just enough that the rocks themselves won't be absorbed by the next change. I didn't need to put much energy in there. Someone who knew how could extract that energy, but there isn't much, so it would be rather pointless. With enough energy to stabalize five miles . . . you could turn a human into a dragon, a very BIG dragon, permanently. He does appear to be getting along in his years, and dragons never die of old age - they just keep slowly growing in size and in power until something kills them. Some other things you could do: keep a rather large castle floating above the clouds for a millenia; produce a healing spring that will Last nearly forever; end the world; feed a zillion people for a century; feed a hundred people for a zillion years; nearly anything, really. Mind you, this doesn't necessarily say anything about his motives; there isn't any way to tell what he wants with one of these spheres."

"As for not teleporting and no dimensional doors - that's almost certainly an effect of the spheres. As far as that goes, he's right - I couldn't teleport within a thousand yards of such a thing. I've got other ways of traveling that wouldn't be affected by it; however, they are much slower and I would have difficulty bringing much with me."

"Personally, I don't have any use for a stabalizing sphere, either way. I can infuse things with energy to prevent their dissolusion in an unstable region, or (given time - and I have lots of it) into a building to protect everything inside. I'd much prefer a good reference on planar travel, as I will need one of those to get back to my master's tower, so I can read more of his books."

"If these spheres aren't what he says they are, I should be able to tell once we get close. I'm game, especially if he'll give me a good book on planar travel."

ooc:[Even if he gets the book, it will take Jack a while to read it, and he likes traveling around like this. Besides, he has a decade or so of vacation built up.]

[ June 11, 2003, 03:55: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[does jack have to talk so much? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif i'll come up with something brilliant for mr. mage to say. and D., since he should probably say something.]
"your partially right" the mages voice comes out in midair. "the labrynth cannot be teleported into except at the entrance, not just because of the spheres influence, but because the labrynth was deliberatly constructed that way. teleportational travel is cut off so well that the research to get to the entrence took me a noticable portion of my years. the research to move a sphere of stability took a substantual portion of them."
ooc:[gotta have paragraph's] "the protections inside the maze only have the difficulty of the additional time it took to learn how to transport more than one person. in truth, that might have been suffient against most who could try the attempt. as for what i could do with one? have you considered the difficulty of drawing magic out of an imposed partial change nullifying artifact? nothing so crude or nearly futile, i assure you. i will tell you no more. i guard my secrets. if you do not wish a sphere of stability, i will offer a spellbook of spell mastery, instead. through it, you could learn all the spells of a paticular realm, up to master level. of course, you must wait from six months to fifty years for it to update itself, but what matters years to those who measure in centuries?"
D. says "what do you call yourself?"
"sometimes, an idiot."
ooc:[yeah, all that and the only thing i could think of for D to say is 'what do you call yourself?' i've got to try harder]
D. "what use would you suggest for a sphere of stability?"
"perhaps you could consider using it's influence to nulify changes you disaprove of, to speak of only one advantage. not the easiest thing for one of your learning to do, but it has possibilities. enchantments can be detected, but how do you detect stability? you three must learn subtle. your dispatch of my golem was not subtle. effective, but noisy."
ooc:[so i moved something he said, and gave a question to D.]

[ June 11, 2003, 04:15: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"A book of Mastery? It is worth much trouble to obtain such a tome. And yes, I would prefer such a tome over the sphere, as the sphere would hamper my own movement, which I consider very valuable."

"As for the golem, subtlity wasn't needed; we were herded here, so you already knew we were coming. The stealth of a subtle attack would have been quite pointless. However, the speed of a noisy solution was useful. Wisdom lies in knowing which tool is most appropriet to the situation."

Jack stops speaking, and thinks:
.elbissopmi krow 'srotitepmoc sih ekam dluoc ti ,niaga neht ;tluciffid erom krow sih ekam dluow tI ?ytilibatS fo erehpS a htiw tnaw egam noitamina na dluow tahW .ytlaiceps sih eb ot mees soed noitamina tub - srood lanoisnemid dna gnitropelet eht htiw tahw ,dezilaiceps yllatot t'nsi egam eht ylsuoivbO ?egam noitamina na eb siht dluoC .deilppa eb ot ti rof tiaw neve t'ndid ti ;noitulos a dah ew ees dluoc ti sa noos sa delf rood eht dna ,ecneserp ruo ot dednopser melog eht ,efil gnissap fo sulumits eht ot dednopser spart eht :tca yllamron tonnac taht sgniht ot ytivitca gnitnarg tuoba erew ereh deretnuocne ew slleps eht tsoM ?cigam tsuj naht rehtruf sezilaiceps egam siht taht eb ti dluoC .ylkciuq stcurtsnoc tnemtnahcne egral fo yteregetni eht gniyfiyrev rof euqinhcet ralimis a esu I .tsiser taht secalp rof gnihctaw dna retfa yletaidemmi gniwollof evaw retnuoc a htiw egnahc ronim yltnatropminu fo evaw niht a tuo gnidnes fo rettam elpmis a s'tI ?tluciffid eb ytilibats gnitceted dluow yhW

ooc:[For those of you having migranes, that is perfectly sensible. Jack's strange (if you haven't noticed) and doesn't think in a manner compatible with mind reading (so the mage can't read Jack's mind). For those of you who don't want to take the time to puzzle it out, a translation can be found here. (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1055309067.txt) But that's cheating!]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[does jack have to talk so much? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ooc:[YES! Of course he does! He has a lot to say! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]
ooc:[Seriously though, how many specialists don't have a lot to say when they are talking about some fine point of their specialty? Jack's specialty just happens to be magic and energy.]
ooc:[Also, even if Jack does get a good book on planar travel, he may very well need a different reference to be able to find the right plane to go to.]

[ June 11, 2003, 06:28: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

(ooc: I'm still lurking people, think of me as having cast a 'veil of invisability' on my character. If need be, I'll wisper any comments to your characters.)

Jack, ma I lufrewop ro keew woh tuoba yrassecen si naht erom laever ot ton ,revewoh esoohc I .stra lacigam eht ni desrev llew ma oot I ,yrassecen si noitalsnart on

Jack, Narp,.. I was just thinking,.. if this 'Labyrnth' has 'Orbs of Stability' (which is a very powerful aftifact) there is a good chance that there will be much more 'treasure' to be found. Sure there will be dangers, but we are adventurers so danger is our profession. And just think of the tales we well be able to tell if we succeed. I say we fetch this wizard his orb and find out what other treasures we can liberate from the labyrnth.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[David: .ekatpu eht no tsaf sa yliressecen si draob eht no enoyreve ton tub ,sey]

[ June 11, 2003, 20:10: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Jack Simth]

Having obtained Narp's, D's, and Jack's permission, the mage hands each a set of gloves and says"These gloves will allow you to move the spheres of stability once you reach them."
The mage then tosses Narp a small ring, and says
"Simply speak 'Cliff' at this ring when you are at the entryway, and I shall open a portal to bring you back."
With that, the mage gestures, and a portal appears on the ground in front of the party, and everyone steps through. (The mage can make another portal to transport Katchoo's character if the wolf wants to join.)

The party finds itself in a stone room, with an open archway on one side. Faint purple runes can be seen on the cieling, walls, and the arch. Jack looks at the doorway and says
"That's odd - the air isn't moving right in there."
Jack reaches into his robes, pulls out a small wooden disk, and tosses it through the doorway.

It stops in midair.

"Hmm. It seems we have a very stable situation in there. What makes this room different?"
Jack then proceeds to examine the walls, cieling, and doorframe.

ooc:[First task: figure out how to traverse the maze without suffering the same fate as that wooden disk. I have some ideas on how my character can make it happen, but I will give the rest of you some time to think of things.]

[ June 11, 2003, 20:12: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp steps close to the archway, but not in it and examines the disk intently. after several minutes, he pulls a stick out of his pack and pokes it hard alongside the disk. it stops. then he slowly pushes on it, and it slowly moves. pushes harder, and it stops. pushes lighter again, and it moves again. "hey guys" he says "come look at this. i'm not sure how you'd use this, but it isn't impenatrable."

ooc:[i got the idea from an actual substance that acts much the same way. side not on narp: he almost became a scholar, which is why he thinks first. i got an idea for the mage and the end of this quest that will turn him into someone we'll have to fight much later on, but it's a bit cliched. if anyone has any non-cliched ideas, i'll happily give it up. now that i revised it, i think it will go very well with what's been going on. should i post the idea?]

in a secret labratory, the mage smiles to himself and says "i wonder if he knows just how uncreative your average wizard is. fireballs and lightning bolts, that's all most of them think about." he chuckles to himself. then he turns his attention to a three dimensional picture in the middle of his room. it's patchy and fuzzy and will probably get worse, but since he's got a spell to record it all as well as a well-trained memory, he's confident.

[ June 12, 2003, 00:02: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"Yes, yes we can. These runes on the wall produce a destabilization field that locally counters the stabalization effect of the spheres. The only thing I was having a little difficulty figuring out was how to get it the two feet into the stabilization field so they would activate."

Jack pulls another wooden disk out of his robes. He then sets it in the air in front of him [variation on a levitation spell - not in the field] and points his hand at it. Thin green glowing strands of energy jump from each of his fingers, collide in mid-air, and then proceed towards the wooden disk. Where they have hit the disk, glowing runes can be seen. On close examination, the lines forming the runes seem to be made up of runes themselves. The disk starts rotating and, after several minutes, becomes completely covered in glowing green runes. At that point, the glowing strands from Jack's hand stop, and the runes settle into the wood of the disk. Jack then repeats the process with two more little wooden disks from his robes. He then tosses them into the arch again, borrows Narp's stick, and gently shoves then deep into the maze. After a moment, all four disks (the three Jack enchanted plus the experimental one) fall to the ground. Jack then pushes the stick into the area, and, satisfied by a total lack of resistance, walks in and calmly picks up one of the enchanted disks and the unenchanted one, putting both into different pockets of his robes.

"You will have to come in here to get them - if they leave the stabalized area we'll have to use the stick again to get them back up and running."

"It's odd though - those runes weren't covered by anything; anyone walking by could read them. It seems like whoever built this place is more worried about something getting out than someone getting in."

ooc:[How about the place was built to contain a threat that the mage dosen't know about - after all, why would someone leave several ludicrously powerful artifacts sitting around in a maze, unless it serves some function to do so? There has to be some reason. If they individually slow things enough to stick a coin in the air, perhaps several of them focus enough to stop things completely, perpeptually preventing disaster by containing something. That way, we can report back to him empty-handed, or fight off the contained threat, or discover that the mage doesn't really care about the spheres at all - he just wants the threat released, believing it will do his bidding / be grateful and grant him something. All three would work, and they aren't too cliched; which would you prefer? How long do you think the mage will be able to watch us? After all, if scrying worked well, the mage would have provided us a map so we would stand a better chance of success.]

ooc:[As to the substance you mention - are you referring to Silly Putty?]

ooc:[As to the thread's name - perhaps "The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers?"]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, i was thinking the maze could contain an artifact powered by a sphere of change, which would be usefull given his alteration skills, would explain stabilization effects in a dungeon, there containing it, and would explain why he's so intent on spheres of stability - distraction. how about an unstable sphere of change? the labrynth is keeping it stable, but the mage doesn't know that? ok, the second rooms gotta be a bit harder than the front...silly putty? couldn't remember what it was called.]

stepping through the doorway, the three are confronted by an odd sight: in a room that is ten feet wide and eighty feet long, agaist the right hand wall are three animated heads that look like dragon heads ten feet long - lizardlike and fanged. they appear to be made of sandstone. in the far left corner away from them is a door. to get to the door, the heads must be disabled. narp takes a few measered steps toward the first head. it waits until he is within it's reach and then dives toword him. narp is ready and jumps back while swinging cutting some teeth off. the teeth levitate back into place and seal themselves. D. comments "i think the animative force is behind the right wall, at least the walls heavily shielded. if the animative force is not attached to the heads, attacking them will do nothing to it. not to mention that the heads are magically shielded against dispel. the shielding comes from the base, so cutting parts off and casting dispel on them will probably work."
narp lunges forward and slices off an eye, then jumps back just ahead of the fangs. D. casts dispel on the eye, and it remains on the floor. the head turns so as to keep it's good eye on narp and moves back a bit. narp steps foword, the head moves back. another step, and the head dives for him and narp dodges to the side, hitting the wall. swinging his sword hard, narp cuts the front of it's mouth off, then drops to the floor as the head slams into the spot where he was. narp rolls toward toword the base of the head and starts hacking. the head doubles back with suprising swiftness, catching him in the back and slamming him against it's own base. thinking fast, narp wedges his sword between the base and the wall. the head jerks back, pulling his sword through. D. casts dispell while the whole thing falls down and smashes on the floor. beyond where the head was, narp finds a very servicable trianglular shield about two feet high and a foot and a half wide at the top next to a skeleton. "i could use this" he says, picking it up.

ooc:[the heads are sort of snake heads with teeth. i'm not sure i was clear. they cut easy because animated stone is softer than normal. or so most books seem to have it:). each of them must be destroyed in a different manner, so there should be something to do for a bit. i imagine the mage will be able to watch us just long enough for it to be an interesting part of the plot. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

[ June 21, 2003, 02:29: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"A common tactic for producing smart defenses is to take an impression of a real creature's essence to imprint in the spell. The advantage is a more intelligent golem produced very quickly that can learn. The disadvantage is that they keep to the habits of the source creature. If this is the case here.... Hmm, that next head looks like a male...."
"Belle Lézarde Faux"
At Jack's words, an (illusionary) scintillating dragoness enters the room from behind the party, and walks up to the next head along the line. Noticing that the head is thoroughly distracted, Narp cuts it off with his sword, and D dispells it.

Noticing its fallen companion, the final head successfully disbelieves the illusionary dragoness, and it fades away.

"That obviously won't work again. What to do with the third?"

Quick cutscene to the mage in his lair. The image is now much fuzzier. Watching the scene, the mage mutters to himself
"Interesting solution."

Back to the party...
"Hey - that next skeleton has a book...."
Jack quickly retrieves it with a levitation spell, and glances at the cover; the title reads Zeitliche Justagen.
"A book on time bending! This should be a good read."

Jack then quietly checks the book for curses. Finding none, he hides it in a pocket of his robes.

ooc:[Sounds like a decent plot.]

ooc:[It might not be Silly Putty - that is a brand name for an odd substance that will act like rubber if you act quickly on it, but can be readily molded. I also remember seeing a form that came in a pan which was much more liquid (it was also white in color). It's difficult for me to say which.]

ooc:[Sorry about giving your character actions, but he is the only one with a cutting weapon; D has only cast two different spells in this thread - dispel and a light spell on his staff - and my character has said he has no offensive spells yet - that pretty much leaves your sword.]

[ June 12, 2003, 07:52: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[feel free to have narp swing his sword as many times as nessesary. he's good at that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif idea for three: invulnerable to physical or magical damage, but not both at the same time. i just got to get creative and come up with words. having trouble thinking up stuff. we need more people to take on some of this plot stuff. ]

[ June 13, 2003, 05:34: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[We don't really have any way to deal magical damage (I could bake a clay golem with a hot sun, but I can't really do anything to stone without flooding the cavern), so that won't work well. Besides, we did that with the golem. However, we may be able to use one of the fallen heads to sneak a dispell past the defenses into the source behind the wall to cut off its supply of power, causing it to become normal stone. Like so:]

Jack notices that he can now get to the fallen first head without being in the range of the surviving third, and walks over to examine it more closely. After a few minutes, he says
"I think I know how we can unravel the enchantment now. It seems the defenses watch for spells coming from outside. We just need to put a delayed dispel into one of the heads, and repair it. After that, it will rejoin, the dispel will go off, and it will skip the defenses."
"Retarde Le Charme"
Jack puts his hands together and then draws them apart; as they separate, half of a small glowing green sphere can be seen between them.
"D, dispel this for me."
D casts dispel at the half-orb, but just before the dispel takes effect, the orb completes itself, encompassing the dispel-spell. Jack then places the glowing sphere into the mouth of the first fallen head, and closes it. He then taps his fingers together, and again, glowing green lines can be seen flowing between them. He quickly writes several runes on the severed head, then backs away.

The fallen head then rises and re-attaches itself to the wall. Jack smiles and incants
"Dégagement"
At that, the heads slow down, the glow leaves their eyes, and they are still.

"We should be able to proceed now."

[ June 13, 2003, 07:21: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[guess i didn't think to much about that one. D, can you give yourself some offensive spells, please?]
the three adventurers find a room with doors on the left, middle and right. the door over the left has rabbits circling it, the one on the middle owls and the one on the right turtles. Narp says "in classic literature, the rabbit represents speed, the owl represents wisdom and the turtle perseverence. it seems we are being offered a choice of tests. i think between the three of us we stand the best chance at the middle door. what do you guys think?"
D. "i'm just tagging along."

ooc:[ok, just post a preference, then i'll troop our adventures through a door and come up with some problems and a few solutions. i really should have come up with something for the third head, i'm over my allergy attack. D, could you post a few spells for your guy please?]

[ June 13, 2003, 07:26: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"We might just learn something from a wisdom test, and that is always valuable. However, if there isn't too much of a hurry...."
Jack sits down and begins reading his newest book.

[ June 13, 2003, 08:23: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[going now]
after about an hour, jack gets up and the three adventerers troop through the middle door, where they are faced with a simple trap: the walls on both sides of the cooridor are covered with stone blocks, which are covered with spikes. the door slames shut behind them. a carved face appears on the opposing wall and says "you will be presented with 3 riddles and 5 questions. fail at any and die. to answer, say 'the answer is' and then state your answer. the first question is: given the insolubility of oridice, what is the best magical spell for melding it with nydium?"
the three adventureres huddle and jack says "oridice strongly resists magic and combining with other materials, so a spell of magic vulnerability and a spell of solubility would seem nessasary. but the face seems to specify only one spell is nessesary, which seems impossible. what are the properties of nydium? every time i asked my master about it he'd say i wasn't ready. and then he would shudder a little."
narp "before i learned that my capabilities where better spent as a fighter, i spent some years learning to be a scholar. i once found an obscure reference in an old book that simply stated that 'nydium is a dangerious material. nydium is volitile.'"
jack "a spell of characteristic balance then? but the oridice would resist it. perhaps if it was sequenced...if the nydium is magically volitile to, which is the only solution i see, then make that part of the spell the strongest and balance that characteristic first and it should work."
everyone else "ok."
jack turns to face and says "the answer is: a spell of characteristic balance, made so that the part to balance the magical resistances is stronger and goes off first."
the face says "the answer is correct. the first riddle is: what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening?"
narp "this thing is really old, isn't it?"
everyone nearly trips over each other giving the answer.
the face says "the answer is correct"
ooc:[hope you don't mind my sticking words in jack's mouth. feel free to post some rewrites if you don't like them. didn't see any other way to solve a question and a riddle though and i felt i should do a big post. 4 questions and 2 riddles to go. just occured to me that not everyone might have run into that riddle, so the answer is: a human. crawling in the morning of his life, walking on two feet in the noon, the answers i've read say afternoon but it make more sense to me as noon, walking with a cane in the evening.]

[ June 13, 2003, 08:36: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[As long as we don't have others' characters say anything that puts traits on / removes possible traits from the speaking character, it should be OK.]

ooc:[The other way this could be done is for one of us to pose a question that the other's character should be able to answer, and wait for the other to post the response. You are running a fighter-type character, so questions on weapons or armor are appropriet; I'm running a mage, so questions on physics or logic are appropriet. We also ought to throw in imaginary questions (like the nydium/oridice question). Your character is a good target for story-world history, as mine's from a different plane and your's was going to be a scholar; my character is a good target for magic physics, as he's a rather skilled mage. D's is a good choice for a mouthpiece when riddles are posed, as he is a wise and mysterious character, and is thus likely to have responses for them.]

Face: "The second question: What is a cranequin used for?"
ooc:[Question for narp - weapon related; real.]

[ June 13, 2003, 09:42: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "well, a crenequin is a crossbow, so it's used to shoot bolts and kill people. but is that two uses?"
D. "doesn't that make it a weapon?"
narp "your brilliant!"
narp "the answer is: a crenequin is used for a weapon."
face "the answer is correct."
ooc:[don't you just love the internet?]
face "The second riddle is: Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."
ooc:[i use yahoo. but this is solvable, and one of those kick yourself when you look up the answer ones. i actually thought i had solved it, but i hadn't. going now.]

[ June 13, 2003, 10:11: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "It is a problem on parsing, with the key problems being the sentences 'There are only three words in the English language.' and 'What is the third word?'"

Jack "'There are only three words in the English language.' could be parsed as 'There are only three words in "the English language".' in order to make it true."

Jack "The other problem is thus: if a word is third, then it is in something; some order; some sentence. However, the question leaves it dangling. As the English Language has no inherent order, third is meaningless in that context, so that option can be ruled out. Likewise, words ending in -GRY have no inherent order; third is again meaningless, so that target can be ruled out."

Jack "The principal of proximity then indicates several options: It could be referring to the third word in the riddle, the third word in the sentence of the question, the third word in the previous sentence, or the third word in the perviously referred to phrase (which incidentally has three words)."

Jack "The third word in the riddle is "words" - this fits every criteria in the riddle, but is rather distant from the question, and thus has a weak fit."

Jack "The third word in the sentence of the question is "the" - which is used everyday, but only as a word, not as a thing. Again, it fits, but is weak, as it can be avoided if one sets their mind to it."

Jack "The third word in the previous sentence is "only" - which isn't used everyday by everyone, and so can be ruled out.

Jack "The third word in the perviously referred to phrase ('the English language', if my parse of the sentence is correct) is 'language'. This is very close to the question, has been directly referred to, and is used everyday by everyone that speaks (which excludes the very young, coma patients, some monks, and a few others, but is good enough for most riddles). Thus, it is 'Language'."

Jack "Does anyone disagree?"

D "Works for me."

Jack "All right then. The answer is 'language'"

ooc:[I looked it up to confirm, but I had it right just from the problem; I've never encountered that one before, but I have fun with deliberate valid-but-not-intended parses of sentences sometimes, and knew what to look for.]

Face "Correct. The third question is: Who finally succeded Emporer Pesci of Mare after his death?"

ooc:[Fake history question - answer however you like - but note we are running low on riddles - we need two more questions (after this one) and only one more riddle.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "well, lets see...there where heirs, two males, one female, the oldest was insane, second was married but infertile and the third was a drunkard. ordinarily next would be any siblings of the emperor, there was two, the oldest was the chief counciler and therefore neither he nor his children could rule and the second had given up his personal claim to go in the army, which brings us to cousins."
"the second had three children, one had similarly given up his claim, the next was willing but had contracted a nearly always lethal disease, and the third was again insane. next was first cousins, there was one, but she was considered to ruthless and wasn't notified of eligibility. her step-son was eligible, but declined, but his daughter, who had been living on a farm in the outermost borders of the empire, was interviewed and found to be acceptable."
"however, the nobles of the empire objected and thus, for three days, the emporor was the second son of the second brother, who was forced to become emporor at sword-point. he engineered the end of this plot, during which he killed the traterious nobles and then gave the throne to the step-granddaughter of the third cousin, who managed to bring to light certain activities of her step-grandmother and have her imprisoned, thus giving rise to more popular stories. the seconed second recovered but was infirm the rest of his life, during which he became treasurur. so the successer was him."
narp gives the answer to the face.
face "the answer is correct. the next question is: given a spell of conjuration, two disconjoined metals of your choice, a disparate circle of power, an enchanted item of anti-disaperation and a snowball, how do you conjur a griffin?"

ooc:[whoosh. i hope that all make sense.]

[ June 13, 2003, 23:22: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Two disconjoined metals? Normally a standard Griffin-conjouration spell requires three - gold, silver, and platinum, in addition to some obscuration. Ah, I know - anti-disaperation enchantments require that the enchanted item contain an amount of platinum. Then you choose gold and silver for the metals, use the circle of power to evaporate the snowball to provide steam for the necessary obscuration, and use the standard conjouration spell for the griffen."

Jack "Mind you - enough power and you can get past all the requirements, but that wouldn't be any fun."

Jack gives the answer to the face.

Face "The answer is correct. The final riddle is: A man walks up to you and says - 'everything I say to you is a lie.'
Is he telling you the truth or is he lying? Note: there is no third option."

ooc:[Let's see, this is the Last riddle, and we have one more question to deal with, correct?]

[ June 14, 2003, 02:54: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[yup, one queston. wise and mysterious? this one to D.]
D. "well, to answer this we must simple take into account the unreliability of humans speech."
D. "the answer is: it's simple really, he was exagerating and getting ahead of himself. he really meant that most of what he was going to say would be a lie."
face "the answer is correct."
ooc:[always seemed to make common sense to me, and i like it better than it's a paradox. or, for another answer, you could say that because he hasn't given any relevant data for you to judge true or false, the statement is incorrect. the statement itself rules itself out as a full statement.]
face "the Last question is: have you now answered all the questions correctly?"

[ June 14, 2003, 06:58: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[The riddle isn't a paradox - the answer to the riddle was that the guy was lying when he said that: If he says "everything I say to you is a lie," then that statement can't be true, as it would imply that the statement made was also false. However, if the statement is false (a lie) then a true statement would be "not everything I say to you is a lie," or eqivalently "Sometimes I will tell the truth"; thus he was lying. However, the spell thinks in binary for that riddle, and exaggerating packs down to Lie as far as it is concerned. To make it a paradox, he would have needed to have said "This statement is a lie."]

D "Well, at the time the question was asked, we hadn't answered the Last question yet, had we? So, technically, we haven't. Does anyone see a flaw here?"

Jack "After we answer we may have a problem - does the question refer to before or after we answer?"

D "Good point. We should qualify it - perhaps 'As of the moment you asked, we had not yet answered the Last question, so no'"

Jack "Works for me."

D "The answer is: As of the moment you asked, we had not yet answered the Last question, so no"

Face "The answer is correct. You may pass."

The door behind the party re-opens, and the wall with the face rises up into the ceiling; beyond lies a doorway. Over the door, an inscription can be seen: Il Labirinto: Oltre quale si trova lo spazio di sosta eternal della sfera difettosa

Jack "I recognize this language - it roughly translates to 'The Maze: Beyond Which Lies the Eternal Resting Place of the Flawed Sphere.' I wonder what it is refering to?"

D "It makes sense that there would be a maze in a labrynth. Do you think there will be a minotaur?"

ooc:[Have you ever heard of the secret of the maze? It's a simple procedure that will eventually solve any two dimensional edge entry edge exit maze that doesn't have odd restrictions (such as one-way doors or one-time passageways or no backtracking).]

[ June 14, 2003, 09:39: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp sits down, pulls off his pack and begins rumaging through it. he pulls out a pan, a pot, a few small pieces of firewood he forgot about, an eating dagger and a couple of fighting daggers, some lint, a small firewood ax and a big ball of string. "this should help."

ooc:[does that answer your question? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif i'm being nagged for the computer so that's all i can post right now, i foolishly squandered my time on simcity2000. then, when i get the money for a brand new microwave power plant, few months later beam wanders and boom. so i decide to build hydro and just forget that the raise lower terain thing is technically cheating. next thing i know, i get an earthquake and most of the city burns down. rebuilding is fun.]

they pass through the doorway and find themselves again facing three doorways. this time though, other than the runes which can be seen periodically decorating the labrynth, the doors are the same. in fact, on each of the walls the only varations are the runes.
miles away, a mage peers at a distorted and staticy three diminsional picture. "they appear resourcefull. most history books put the reign of the three day emporor at three weeks. and 'the many uses of snowballs' took a master wizard to write, yet i do not think he has read it. although, that spell is not a master spell. now, that rune...." the image destabilizes then stabilizes on a rune on one of the walls. "could it be it doesn't hold...NO! IMPOSSIBLE! IT MUST!" the wizard bangs his fist on a nearby table.
back to our heroes:
beyond the right door, the cooridor goes about forty feet, the turns right. beyond the left door, it goes into the darkness a hundred feet, then nothing more can be seen. twenty feet beyond the center door there is a grate and clanging noises can be heard beyond.
narp "whatever is beyond the center door, it was meant to deal with one intruder. chances are, three can deal with it handily. also, it probably is the fastest route, as it is guarded. unless it's meant to be a trick or a trap more dangerous than it seems. but, all these ways could be a trap. i say center."

ooc:[yep, narp's a fighter now.]

back in the lab, the wizard creates another image, this time, again of the wolf. considering, the wizard mused "the presence of an intelligent wolf would improve there chances and may cost me little in comparison to what i will gain. perhaps..." making his voice momentarily audible to the wolf, the wizard says "in return for your assistance to them, would you consider a tracker that would allow you to see where all the animals are in ten miles? or perhaps, with your sense of smell, a suit of mail that changes to match your appearance and is light as a feather? i will understand your reply."

ooc:[no Posts sunday. time for me to sleep.]

[ June 15, 2003, 07:53: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Katchoo]

Outside of the Maze the grey wolf bites down into the warm flesh of a freshly killed rabbit. Abbrubtly though, the voice that came from everywhere came again...

"..in return for your assistance to them, would you consider a tracker that would allow you to see where all the animals are in ten miles? or perhaps, with your sense of smell, a suit of mail that changes to match your appearance and is light as a feather? i will understand your reply."

When the wolf first heard the voice he was mildy fightened, since the voice came from no place that the wolf could taste its scent. Yet the wolf came back to an ease with the understanding that he would be defenseless against an attacker he couldn't scent in advance, so why waste the time fretting?

As before, the wolf understood the meanings from the voice. Magic and man-made skin...

What use are man-made objects to me? Thought the wolf. I was born, I live, and I will die. These are the realities I live with. The other animals in the forest live with this understanding. So do the plants. I live with this certainty and accept it.

But man does not. Man sees these certainties but spends his existance making every attempt he can to alter them. These certainties are what make and hold the Natural World around us. To spend one's life in the persuit of avoiding the inevitable is foolish and wasteful.

Magic is the gravest perVersion of Nature, and hurts her deeply. Man uses magic to bring water from nowhere, to extend his life, and to end the life around him. This is done with no respect to the consequences of Nature. Man simply does not realize the depth of the life around him. What he treats as lifeless or inanimate most assuredly is not. A tree torn apart to make furnishings still exists, knowing what it is, what it was. As long as the smallest part of it exists, then it lives. This is part of the ignorance Man shows to Nature. When magic is used, Nature is forced to change unwillingly, to act unnaturally.

Every part of Nature shares it's existance with the rest, and this sharing also ties us to the pain brought onto her.

I feel the Magic within that cave. I feel the pain of Nature being twisted unnaturally. This is why I did not follow the 3 travellers inside. I could not tolerate the perVersion. The crying of Mother Nature would force me to protect her, and in turn, hurt the travellers.

So I will wait here and see if they return from within. I will see if Mother Nature strikes back and keeps them within forever, or if they begin to understand what truely exists around them.

The wolf snorts out a blow of hot air from his nostrils and turns his attention back to his supper.

If you give these 3 travellers anything, give them understanding.

[Jack Simth]

Jack "The center door works for me. Most defense strategies produce a simple way of finding the thing defended: Follow the path of most resistance. So far, this labrynth has followed that principle, and there is nothing to indicate that it won't continue to do so."

D "Works for me."

With that, the party of intrepid adventurers pass through the center door, towards the grate.

As they approach the grate, a figure can be seen on the other side. It is a very large, heavily muscled creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. It wields a very large two-headed, two-handed steel axe in its hands. It snorts as it sees the party and says:

"It hath been a very long time since I Last tasted meat. Thine will do quite nicely. The lever to thy left shall open the gates and let thee in. The Sphere Room lies just beyond the door behind me. Come and pit thyselves against my axe, if thou doth wish to gain entry."

ooc:[So, should we: 1) open the gate and fight it, 2) try shooting it through the gate, 3) open the gate and try to talk a way past it, 4) try to talk it into a better mood with the gate closed, 5) wait till it falls asleep and sneak past, 6) wait till it falls asleep and kill it in its sleep, 7) try magic, or 8) something else?]

ooc:[Actually, the secret I was referring to is much simpler - just put your hand on a wall and walk forward, keeping your hand on the wall. Unless the maze changes, you can only pass a given way a limited number of times, some passageways can only be traversed one direction, you can't backtrack, the mage isn't edge-entry and edge-exit, or the maze is arranged in more than two dimensions, you will eventually solve the maze.]

ooc:[The in-game terrain shaping in Sim City 2000 isn't cheating, as it costs money to do, and can be done in real life - it is mostly a matter of bringing lots of dirt in or shipping it out.]

[ June 15, 2003, 09:52: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[no, it's not really cheating, but one of the challenges is dealing with the terrian you have. yep, the minataur now has pants.]

narp "if you want food, my companions are capable of creating it. now, how old are you? do you know anything about the reign of stoder the able? theirs very little in the history books, you know. or how about anywil of anble? or..." narp starts to ramble on and on and on...

D. wispering to jack "the minatuar may not be a minion of evil, i say that we should engage him in conversation and only attepmt to subdue him if nessesary"

ooc:[not going to update much now. tired.]

deep in the cave, the mage's eyes light up.
"so, it is your contention, then, wolf, that wolves and other beings do not struggle against death? the very roots beneath your feet say otherwise, as even they struggle against each other, to kill or be killed. that is all they can do, it is their nature. it is the nature of intelligence to seek more. your own curiosity bears this out."

ooc:[i'm not sure wether the wizards going to be evil/power hungry or power hungry/foolish/good side which he doesn't pay enough attention to. jack, getting tired of the maze?]

[ June 19, 2003, 21:03: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[I'm getting tired of the trap-untrap cycle with no real plot-decision points, anyway. Ultimately, this is a form of storytelling, and repeated variations on the same thing get dull after a short time. We've dealt with three so far - the time-freeze, the stone dragon heads, and the riddle box (four if you include the minotaur). I could use a break from the cycle for a while - reaching the sphere room and deciding what to do with the spheres, then dealing with the mage in the cave should provide that.]

Jack, whispering to D "I suppose that should work"

[B]Listening to Narp, the minatuar's eyes soon go glassy, and then he falls asleep on his feet, and begins to snore softly.[B]
ooc:[You did specifically say Narp was rambling on and on and on - falling asleep seemed a natural response, as he is stuck behind some bars for the moment]

Jack, whispering to D "Do you think he's faking it?"

D, whispering to Jack "No, I don't think so. Do you think pulling the lever would wake him up?"

[ June 16, 2003, 10:47: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[didn't we decide it was an unstable sphere of change that the labrynth was keeping stable?]

D "as long as narp keeps talking, i think it'll keep sleeping."
narp "...and then there's the lost king of kentovia and the ancient scrolls of encilada and have you heard of the enchanted axe of entilda? the old kingdom of hincidia is particularly interesting to and..."
D "lets wait a bit more."
after a few more minutes, loud snores can be heard coming from the minotaur.
D "i think it's safe." pulls the lever. the grate moves up, with much creaking and groaning. the minotaur is so dazed he doesn't even twitch. narp notices though.
narp "hey, when did we decide to open the grate?"
the minotaur's eyelids twitch and he stops in mid-snort.
D "what was that about the search for the hyncida?"
narp is off again. the minotaur subsides.

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[We did decide that was it, yes - however, we haven't decided what we will DO about it when we get there - destroy the spheres, repair the unstable sphere of alteration, fix a problem with the stabilization that is possibly causing the shifts in the region, et cetera. If we leave things there, then we also need to decide if we are going to reset the different traps on the way out, make new ones, or leave everything open - such decisions probably need to be taken care of with in character conversation and a little narration. If we choose to destroy the spheres, we could even tie in Katchoo's character's reason for not following the party, with a small amount of creativity (source of the instability, perhaps - perhaps the spheres were built using energy harvested from a few continents, and the energy fought back, damaging the enchantment for the sphere of change, causing the instability in the first place).]

The party quietly walks past the minotaur (dragging Narp, who is still talking), and reach the door with no apparent difficulty.

Back in the mage's cave, the mage's viewing spell finally fizzles out completely.

Mage "Hmm, it seems there is nothing that can be done until they return this way."

Back in the Labyrinth

D "Now that is proof positive that no learning is ever wasted."

After a quick check for traps, the party opens the door, steps into the room beyond, and blocks the door behind them.

The Sphere Room is suprisingly plain - the room itself is shaped as a pentagon, there is a large pentagram inscribed in the floor. At each vertice of the pentagon formed by the pentagram rests a stand, four of which have silver spheres on them, the fifth of which has fallen over, with the matching silver sphere resting in a corner of the room.

In the exact center of the room, there is an identical pedastal, only this one is supporting a black sphere that shimmers very slowly.

Jack "This entire room seems to be a focusing lens, pushing the effect of the silver spheres on the black one. Come to think of it, the entire labryinth was arranged in a pentagon as well. The entire complex seems to be focused on keeping that one black sphere under the influence of the silvers. As the silver spheres aren't changing any, and there is more than one of them, I would suppose that they are the Spheres of Stability the mage was referring to."

D chuckles
D "Most likely - but think for a minute: what do you suppose could still shimmer at the center of all that?"

Jack "Well, the pentagram is incomplete at the moment, but is still rather functional, so it would just about need to be a Sphere of Change. Even at that though ... it has to be unstable. There's scarecly any other way. Four focused Spheres of Stability and it's still shimmering. It's unstable."

D "That is my conclusion as well. So, what are we going to do about it?"

[ June 16, 2003, 11:25: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

Hi people,

Just wanted to let you know that 'time' is at a premium right now so don't expect me to contribute to this RP thread. I will however look in from time to time to follow the story.

Cheers!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "and then the king of...huh, what? we're in the sphere room? when did that happen? where did the minotaur go? you know, he was a good listener. is that an unstable sphere of change? maybe we should put the tripod back up."
going around the room to the fallen tripod, narp puts the protection gloves on, then picks up the sphere, pulls the tripod up, and puts the sphere on it. unfortunatly, his hasty action damages some of the protections.

in the mage's lab, the image clears for a second. the mages eyes widen. "FINALLY!" he says "the sphere of change will be MINE!"

he dismisses the image and quickly begins casting the spell to take him to the entrance to the maze.

as a few of the runes in the room develop cracks, narp says "oops"

ooc:[i think we could have him arrive in the sphere room just in time to barely contain the bLast using all the protection spells in the labrynth, which comes after some tense moments as we run around trying to fix the protections, jack teleports us out, for the purpose of wolf continuity, we could have jack's teleport spell latch onto the remnants of the teleport spell that got us here, then we watch wherever the labrynth is under go up in smoke because it doesn't have to be that far, giving the mage a fate unkown. what do you think, jack? i see some cliches. or we could have the mage teleport the sphere to a wasteland area, maybe in another dimension, which creates the bLast.]

[ June 16, 2003, 23:16: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Actually, with the protections damaged, it makes sense that the teleport block might be sorely weakened. I was thinking more along the lines of we pump all the energy back out of the spheres - remember how way back I said it was life energy that stabalizes things? Suppose it wasn't simulated life energy, but the real thing; harvested from the area permanently taking energy that is supposed to cycle forever (it would explain Katchoo's wolf's strong aVersion to magic, and the flaw in the sphere of change - the life energy objected to being used so) we let the energy back out (the energy itself will aid us in this - it wants to get back out) which will probably cause a very dense jungle to form above our heads as the local flora and fauna feeds on the superabundance of life energy - still a bit cliche, but slightly less so. Besides, if we clear the spheres safely, we get to face off against the mage.]

Jack quicly tosses some glowing green bands at the spheres, and they are momentarily bottled up
Jack "That should hold things for a moment, but they won't hold out long."

Jack looks at the spheres and blinks
Jack "Whoever built these was a total idiot. That isn't clean energy. Every bit of energy used in making those things was drained from the environment; you're not supposed to do that. At that level of drain, it not only kills most of the local life and render the area barren for centuries, but you can't control it well; the energy objects and can't be forced into the tight energy bands needed for good runes. That seems to be what caused the instability in the first place. However, I think we can fix this. Retarde Le Charme"

Jack quickly produces six of the same glowing half-spheres he caught D's dispel with at the dragon-head room

Jack "D - dispel these. I can then use your dispels to break the spheres in a controlled fashion, releasing the energy back to where it belongs. Had those spheres been made right, that wouldn't work; however, the energy will be our ally in this."

D quicly casts dispel at each of Jack's half-spheres, and each time the dispel is caught. Jack quicly runs around and places the glowing orbs near the spheres - one each for the stability spheres, and one for the sphere of change - and then backs away.

Jack "Dégagement"

With that, the six glowing spheres dissappear, and the dispels hit the five silver spheres and the black sphere. Immediately, thick bright green bands of energy start rushing out of the spheres and going through the cieling. Everywhere they touch, green plants spring up.

Jack "It's time we leave."

D "Agreed."

The mage chooses this exact moment to enter the sphere room...

Mage "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[ok, running with this. animation...hmm.]
mage "YOU'VE DESTROYED IT! I WORKED MORE YEARS THAN ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN ALIVE, AND YOU DESTROYED IT! YOU WILL ALL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS!"

"ANIMANTRIX GEOLOGIX EMPOWERERST"
the rock underneath their feet rumbles, then shifts. a mound raises up in front of the mage, then spears upwords eight feet and forms into a vagly humanoid shape three feet across. roots and bits of rock stick out here and there. drawing his sword, narp charges toword the golem and swings. a dispel spell from D flashes over his head. a glowing sphere from jack pops up around the golem. narps sword and D's dispel bounce off, and the golem bashes through jack's sphere with one punch.
narp says "uh-oh"...

ooc:[ok, you get this one and i defeat number two. it was either another golem or tenticles coming out of the floor, and i didn't want to do tenticles. david, i was just thinking D. could use a few more spells. anyway, i've arbitrarily just given him scrying, as it's a wise and mysterious kind of spell. if you think of any others he wouldn't have used yet, load our stuffed dummy up, jack.]

[ June 17, 2003, 01:54: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Remember that book on time bending? Despite the lifespan, Jack is a very fast learner.]
Jack "Langsame Zeit"
With that, a thin green web stretches over the golem, and it slows down to the point where its motion cannot be seen at all. After a moment, the web fades, but the golem is still quite stuck.

Mage "I won't be thwarted so easily!"

"ANIMANTRIX GEOLOGIX EMPOWERERST"

Another golem rises up to do battle, this one a bit larger, as the mage is throwing more energy into it.

ooc:[Sorry narf, but I can't really see him making a weaker golem after the first goes down...]

Jack (whispering) "Come on, just once more and I think I will have it down."

Jack "Hey, Narp, would you like to try out the speed and strength spell I mentioned earlier?"

ooc:[The magic words: Vitesse et force - If you accept, just remember: after combat's done, you'll have quite the hangover from it. Till then, however, you will be a very hard target to hit, and your sword should rend stone (although the sword may suffer for it).]

ooc:[Do you think all the noise will wake the minotaur? If so, which side do you think he'll attack first? I suspect the mage, as he is closer to the door....]

ooc:[D is probably a good candidate for stealthy spells too. He should probably have invisibility. Perhaps he should also have a silence spell for stopping mages that still require speech for their spells.]

[ June 17, 2003, 05:28: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i got a headache - have to postpone my post. feeling better, post coming.]

narp "it would make things a bit better, yes."
jack "Vitesse et force"
narp moves forword in a blur and hacks off one of the golems arms, then the other. the golem swings, but narp dodges it easily. narp lunges forword and his sword peirces the center of the golem's chest. running sideways, he wrenches it out. D. puts a dispel in the hole and the golem goes down.

narp dashes at the mage and swings, cutting the mage in half. dirt and debris rain down. not the mage. the door swings open again, and the mage can be seen. in one corner the minataur can be seen, hacking at the glowing bars of a rocky cage with his axe. the mage, if it is him, says "GLOBULEX ENERGIST ABSORBIX SEEKEIX". foot high spheres mound up and take form from the earth, then roll sedatly at the heroes. narp swings his sword at one, but the blow just stops on contact. the sphere charges at him, taking him by suprise and hitting him in the ankles. narp goes flying head over heels and slams against the wall. picking himself up warily, narp readies for another assault, but the sphere is going as slow as the other spheres again.

ooc:[standard energy absorbing spheres. they use ambient energy to run and suck up energy on prolonged contact. energy aimed at them is sucked up as it enters. there's ten of them, so they can't really be ignored. the minotaur will probably get out once the wizard is sufficiently distracted. makes sense. now, if he decided what he really wants is a vacation, that would wrap things up.]

[ June 17, 2003, 08:20: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"Privez de l'énergie"
With that, glowing green force encompasses the absorbtion spheres.

After a few moments, the green force dissapears, and the absorbtion spheres are nowhere be seen.

Jack "Silly mage - that's basic meta-magic: energy absorbers require outside energy to function. Deprive them of that and they dissapate in very little time; it's just like making a controlled burn to stop a forest fire. Come on, even an apprentice can deal with those. Oh, wait, I did, didn't I? I'm sure you can do better than that. Come on, even those toy golems were harder to deal with than those spheres."

Mage "Toys? You think those were TOYS?! I'LL SHOW YOU TOYS!!!"
<font size = 3>"ANIMANTRIX GEOLOGIX EMPOWERERST"</font>

Yet another golem forms, this one considerably larger. Oddly Jack smiles and rubs his hands.
Jack "Thanks, I just needed to watch it one more time."
"Animantrix Geologix Empowererst"
With that, Jack forms a golem so large its head scrapes the cieling, which promptly crushes the mage's golem.

The mage turns very white at that. Through the door, the glowing bars containing the minotaur can be seen to fade out.

Jack "Oh, and Narp:"
"Guérissez Les Blessures"
With that, Narp feels his injuries vanish.
ooc:[However, it won't do anything about the hangover - different type of problem.]

[ June 17, 2003, 08:58: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[library night. and there was much reading. i really must come up with better spells. oh well, time for the wack-until-it's-over part of the fight.]

the minataur roared and swung his axe. as the axe swung down, the mage yelled some words that no-one, minataur, fighter-scholar or mages recognized. as the Last word left his mouth, the axe hit his shoulder. before it was halfway through, various items teleported onto his body as dirt, rocks and roots bLasted out of the ground, knocking the minataur's axe, the minataur and to a lesser degree because they where in another room, the figher and the wizards away. within seconds, debris covered the mage from head to foot, and grew into a large and awkword covering of armor. within those seconds, the debris glowed, melted together, and shrunk. the glow faded and narp swung his sword as hard as possible.
the cut it made was only a deep scratch. before the sound of the impact had died away, he had swung ten more times, althogh not as hard as the first. the shape swung hard at him, and he dodged. the true attack was a kick, which clipped him, sending him staggering. the minataur, recovering, charged and swung, leaving a crease in the armor. abviously, the axe was enchanted. the mage shot a fist towards the minataurs chest, but a blue glow spread accross the minataur as it uttered an ancient word, then the glow faded. the blow only jolted the minataur back. moving in more warily, narp rained blows upon the armored mage, focusing on the already weakend arm, dodging and spinning away from the blows and sometimes being clipped, while the minataur exchanged blows with a more equal level of toughness and D. cast repeated dispels and the two large golems bashed at each other. at that moment, the frozen golem speeded up again and moved to assist it's partner. while this was going on, jack...

ooc:[ok, i got this idea from sience fiction. powered armor basically, with a tactical display, otherwise narp wouldn't have trouble with a wizard in single combat, translated to fantasy. it's also resistent to magic. he also has the use of his emergency Cache of magical artifacts. it was either this, or have him vanish and leave something that spewed fireballs, and that would probably kill or severly wound us before you got a sphere up.]

[ June 18, 2003, 08:38: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Let's see - the mage's two smaller golems are pounding on Jack's big golem; Narp and the minotaur are pounding away on the mage - that means D and Jack are currently being ignored, while all potential opponents are busy - this has potential.]

... was mumbling to himself while writing some odd runes in the ground.
Jack "Let's see ... the control sturcture is there ... the power structure there ... and the motion structure is there ... All I need to do is replace the control structure...."
After a few moments, the runes pack themselves into two small green darts, which fly at the mage's golems. Upon impact, the runes controlling the mage's golems flare red, while the darts flare bright green. The darts quickly dissapate, but they leave a bright green stain on the mage's golems. The red runes touching the stain turn green, and the green quickly infects all of the runes on the two golems. Once all the runes are green, the golems stop fighting each other, and turn towards the mage. Unfortunately, only the smallest of the three can fit through the door. It grabs the mage from behind, temporarily immobilizing him.

Jack "That golem can't beat the enchanted armor, but it should be able to hold him for a few moments. Meanwhile, focus your efforts on his head - that is where the control runes are located."

Meanwhile, D quietly casts silence on the mage.

The minotaur hears Jack, and swings his axe at the armored mage's head...

ooc:[Oh, and Jack could probably arrange for the party to avoid damage from an explosion - remember, his master has been trying unsuccessfully to kill Jack for around 300 years....]

[ June 18, 2003, 10:40: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[fireballs could be his death spell. ok, he's still got his magic items. although he's going to have to go with movements and automatic.]
narp begins wacking the mage about the head. the minataur deliver's another solid whack. and the mage makes a serious of hand getures. a blue light washes out from the mage as an artifact uses all it's energy. all the golems collapse and the blue light settles over the rooms, preventing any further golems. however, damage has been done and the mages movements are slow and jerky. as the mage punches in his direction, narp grabs the weakend arm and holds on. the minataur chops downword hard, and the armor on the arm develops cracks. a crack is heard as the arm breaks. lightning shoots out of the wounded arm and another item becomes useless. a third item activates and the mage no longer feels the pain.

ooc:[so, three items used up, the mage is badly damaged although it doesn't hurt and there's no golems - me and the minataur would have to have run through the big ones anyway to get out of the way of the fireballs when he dies. and there's some miner lightning bolts flying out randomly.]

[ June 19, 2003, 03:52: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Let's see - D was always the well-supplied one, he would likely have a canteen handy.]
Thinking quickly, D opens his canteen and throws it at a flying lightning bolt. They collide, and the water vaporises, sending the canteen flying. However, the resulting water vapor in the air grounds out the remaining lightning.
ooc:

Jack "[i]Langsame Zeit"
With that, a thin green web stretches over the mage, and he slows down considerably. After a moment, the web fades, but the mage is still moving slowly.

Meanwhile, the Last of the energy leaves the spheres, and a rumble can be heard.

D "It seems that the engeneers took shortcuts relying on the stabilizing effect of the spheres to take up the slack. We really must be going."

Jack "Agreed."

With that, D and Jack start heading towards the exit with great haste.

ooc:[The mage won't be able to react in any reasonable amount of time, so it will probably be much safer to leave him and run than to continue fighting in a collapsing cave. Which way will the minotaur go, do you think?]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i tried posting something, but it came out bad. i'll post something good later. later:]
the minataur took off running. minataur's, apparently, can run fast when motivated. the grate, no longer backed by runes, barely even slows him down. narp scoops up the two wizards and takes off, keeping behind the minataur to let him take care of any doors. peices of ceiling start to rain down all around them and the floor begins to shakes.
as they head through the rooms, peices of ceiling pumel them, although narp manages to aviod the larger ones. as the minataur crashes through the snake head room, narp notices that the snake heads in the snake head room have regrown and makes a note never to get in the way of a minataur in a hurry.
after a time that seems longer than it probably was, they emerge into sunlight. the minataur streches and says "sorry about being rude, but the only thing that cell produced was dwarven journeybread." with that, he adjusts his pants, ooc:[thus perserving the pg rating] and heads off.

ooc:[still not entirely satisfieed with it.]

[ June 19, 2003, 21:05: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:

Narp, D and Jack find themselves in a small clearing in the middle of a dense jungle. Oddly, the wildlife doesn't quite match the plants. You would expect to see monkeys or parrots in a jungle like this; instead, the wildlife consists of squirrls, rabits, deer, wolves and the like - creatures you would find in a forest, not a jungle. There is not a speck of fog to be seen.

Jack "As usually happens in cases like this, the plant life soaked up most of the energy. Things will even out over time as the animals eat the plants and distribute the energy, but for now, things will be a bit odd. The local fauna will likely have a large population boost come spring, but that shouldn't hurt anything. On the plus side, the area for many many miles should be stable now."

ooc:[Not that we have said what it is - we can still declare mountains in the distance or whatever if need be.]

Jack "Narp, you should be coming down off of that spell I put on you soon, so we probably ought to set up camp here until you start to feel better."

That said, Jack unrolls his cot so Narp will have something comfortable to rest on while he gets over the hangover from Jack's spell.

Jack "Oh, and I suppose we will need something to eat, won't we?"
"[i]animantrix geologix empowererst"

With that, a small golem forms,
Jack (to golem) "Catch a rabbit and bring it back here."
Hearing that, the golem runs off into the jungle at a remarkable pace.

Jack "Don't worry - the golem will be back in a few minutes with something for us to cook up; I included a small haste spell in its matrix. Meanwhile, we need to start a fire. Anyone have some flint?"

D "I'll take care of the fire."

A few minutes later, camp is set up and D has a fire cheerily blazing away, with a spit prepared for when the golem returns.

After a few minutes, the golem returns with a rabbit, which had apparently been run down. D skins it, dresses it, and puts it on the spit to cook.

Jack (to golem) "I suppose I ought to do something about you, shouldn't I?"
"Dissolvez"

Hearing that, the golem dissolves into powder, its purpose complete.

ooc:[It has been a while since we've done any camping or eaten anything, I suspect it's about time.]

[ June 20, 2003, 01:45: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

all of a sudden, narp doubles over clutching his head. he staggers to the cot, falls down and mumbles "i think i'll just lie here awhile."

a loud booming sound is heard and the ground rumbles. falling dirt can be seen in the entrance of the cave, and the edge of the collapse is racing towards the cave mouth. within seconds, dirt is filling the cave mouth. the falling dirt fills up the entrance and dust covers everything for a hundred feet.

narp clutches his head and mumbles "does it have to be so loud? or dusty?"

[ June 20, 2003, 05:34: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack (whispering) "D, do you think you could use that silence spell of yours to turn the volume down for Narp? Not enough so that he would be deaf, mind you - just enough so that sounds aren't bothering him?"

D (Also whispering) "Yes, yes I can."

D quietly casts a low-powered Version of silence on Narp's ears, to Narp's considerable relief.

Jack "As for the dust, a light fog ought to take care of that"
"Brouillard Mou Chaud Petit"
A thin, warm fog settles over the area, which makes the dust damp, and so it falls to the ground.

Jack "I haven't used that spell on myself since the first time I tried it; sure, it makes a person a virtually unstoppable fighter for a time, but I don't care for the price attached. However, I do have some small experience in making the price a little more bearable. Unfortunately, the stresses aren't of a type that can be readily healed. Fortunately, you should be over it after several hours."

D "Rabbit's ready."

Jack quietly puts some of the rabbit meat on a fork, and offers it to Narp.

Jack "I know you don't feel like eating at the moment, but it is necessary for restoring the energy you lost in the battle, and will speed the recovery along a bit."

[Krsqk]

Long after the camp below had quieted down and its occupants had drifted off to sleep, the dark figure remained perched on its branch pondering all it had overheard. Finally, it stood, swirled, and vanished, its departure betrayed by only a slight rustle. An ominous storm began brewing over the nearby solitary mountain...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp mumbles "thanks."

narp looks at the piece of rabbit.

narp is still looking at the peice of rabbit.

narp is still looking at the peice of rabbit.

a hand comes shakily up, takes the peice of rabbit and brings it to his mouth, where he blows on it a few times, stares at it dubiously, then eats it. after a few more peices, narp spends two hours trying to go to sleep before finally succeding.

ooc:[i get migraines, so that's where i'm getting this from. except that i've gotten so annoyed with them i've gotten to the point where i just eat if i'm hungry. if i throw up, i'll feel better. if i don't throw up, i'll still feel better.]

[ June 20, 2003, 06:40: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Krsqk - Is it okay if we pretend Narf posted first? The reason I ask is because Narf's post was a continuation of live action while yours reqires a delay, and this kind of thing falls apart very quickly when people get into an argument; further, the timing is close enough that Narf was probably typing when you posted.]

Jack and D also eat, and, after Narp drifts off, D puts up a brief intrusion-detection spell. Finally, Jack and D both go to sleep.

After a good night's sleep, everyone (especially Narpichez) is feeling better. Unfortunatly, the first drops of the storm are hitting the camp.

Jack "I don't think we need to be wandering around in this rain."
"Évitez La Pluie"
With that, the rain starts avoiding a circle with a radius of about a dozen paces, centered on Jack.

Jack "That should also suppress any nearby lightning, and the dense jungle should suppress any fire caused by more distant lightning."

Jack "Hang on - this storm feels off, as though it is from a weather-control spell. Well, it doesn't appear to be immediately threatening. So, does anyone want to pick a direction?"

[ June 20, 2003, 07:00: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "well, we could head towards that mountain with the weird looking clouds over it. according to the fifth book of 'a short study of weather magic', unusual cloud formations usually means someones messing with the weather. now, the first book of 'intermediate investigation of weather magic'" D. says "relevancy." narp "oh, yeah. you know the 'short guide to relevancy', pocket Version...what? you don't have to glare at me! as i was saying, would indicate that scholarly discussions should wait until there's no rain. and that since whoever's doing the weather magic doesn't seem to be aiming it at us, we can ignore it. but, and this is relevant, according to 'the in-depth study of villinious mages, wizards and other magic Users' that's it's short tittle, you know, vilinious mages are the most likely to use broad range weather magic because it's effects can be very unpredictable. we can at least knock on there door, so i say go."

[ June 20, 2003, 07:11: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Odd - where I come from, wheather mages are in good employ for their ability to prevent drought, flood, and hail. Here it's a tool of villany? That's just strange."

Jack "However, up the mountain works for me; high ground will avoid any flooding from the storm, and should offer us a good view for scouting out the terrain, perhaps finding a town where we can pick up some supplies."

D "Works for me."

With that, the small band of adventurous explores begins the trek towards the mountain.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "unfortunatly, the mad emporor ester meddled so much with the weather about thirty to fifty thousand years ago that weather magic is still unpredictable on this continent. not much else is known about him, or other continents because of that. with all the changes, it's probably gotten worse. most good weather mages do stuff to put things back on track, so most of what they do isn't noticable. unfortunatly, most mages don't talk to scholars to much. no offense to you to, but i've met some pretty secretive mages. and a few with little respect for knowledge that didn't lead directly to power."

narp "isn't there something where forgetting though? breakfast?"
after another golem and a large rabbit, they head off toward the mountain.

[ July 11, 2003, 00:12: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "The one mad emporer would explain the bad reputation for weather magic, wouldn't it?"

Jack "Secretive mages though, that's just strange. It doesn't serve a good purpose. Even for the crazies that lust after power for its own sake, it ultimately doesn't do any good. Sharing spells, techniques, and information between a larger community allows for more rapid magical development as the same ground doesn't need to be covered over and over. Secretive mages are left in the dust, unable to compete. To encourage sharing, the Council created the Spell Journals. There is one basic criteria for recieving the Spell Journals: a mage has to contribute articles to them every now and then. This also allows acess to the backlogs, for a mage and any associated apprentices or journymen. As the Journals have been in place for several millenia, all of the most effective spells and techniques are in them, and they are often found nowhere else. Villans have very little hope of getting anywhere with their villany. Not only are they outnumbered, but they are outgunned as well."

Jack "For that matter, mages needs to be honest about their abilities in order to compete well in the market. Mages that exaggerate their abilities quickly develop reputations for not being able to live up to their promises; mages who hide abilities lose contracts to those that don't. A secretive mage is just foreign to me."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "well, there's three basic types of mages here. there's the ones that cooperate, which are rare, the ones that do sometimes, which are less rare, and a number of ones that hoard. sounds like your plane is more organized than this ones. even the empire, whenever it gets major control, has trouble getting mages to cooperate. "

narp digs around in his pack and comes up with a bunch of pages, loosly bound between wooden slats. pulling out a quill pen, which he doesn't need to dip, he scribbles a few things and then says "could you tell me some more about your plane? i'm putting down ideas for a modest five volume work. small volumes. maybe only a thousand pages."

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Cooperate? It's actually pretty rare to get more than one or two mages working on the same project. Shucks, there is still active debate on which is the best way to churn butter. Everyone just shares their information."

Jack "A thousand pages, small? That's tiny! Oh, you mean each, right? That's about right for small. Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest history buff. Besides, without instructions on reaching it, I'm the only one who could verify or contradict your info, aren't I? Publishing under such circumstances would only ruin your good name; I would suggest holding off on any publications until such time as I can find a route home, so there can be independant verification. That said, I can give you a brief overview."

Jack "I suppose I should start with the formation of the Council; before then, the situation was much as you describe the current one on this plane. They actually started out as an underground operation, brought together by sheer necessity; a mage by the name of Thozray had taken over the world, and was being quite the tyrant ..." Half an hour and twenty pages of notes later "... after Thozray was finally defeated, the Council decided that everything they had been doing to defeat Thozray was useful for other purposes as well, and so made the council a permanent orginization. In truth, it was an empire that finally got mages to work together - but it was in opposition to the empire. Besides, somebody needed to step into the power vacuum left behind by Thozray's death, and noone on the council trusted anyone else enough to allow for a clear leadership position."

Unfortunately, Narp's quill finally runs out of ink.

Jack "Perhaps we can continue this later. Besides, we have reached the foot of the mountain."

[ June 20, 2003, 09:18: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[it's got a minor enchantment, it'll refill. we should probably close this until tomorrow so krsqk has a chance to post.]

"thanks for the overview. some independent confirmation is nessasary, but as estaf said after eight hours of sitting and watching snow drift down 'you can take notes anytime'. after doing that for a few years, he started work on 'a short treatise on snowflakes'."
"exactly why he started is not known, although some people say it had something to do with his crowning acheivement 'an overview of the natural forces of the world'. snowflakes get a brief mention of ten chapters. oh, that doesn't sound brief? it's a forty volume work and each book is eight thousand pages. i could only find one of them, and i have to say, it tells you way more than you want to know about snowflakes. it's also why i can definitly spot some weather effects."

[ June 21, 2003, 05:34: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: No problem with the post re-order. I was going to edit it this morning to make it a little more fluid, but you had already posted.]

A figure on the mountainside above slips quietly around a boulder. Almost immediately, the sound of a struggle breaks out, followed by a bright flash. A large, burning projectile makes its way over the trio's head and landed far back into the jungle.

Jack: "...and that appears to be a flying carnivore of some sort--most probably a large bear. What an interesting phenomenon. Now if I can just get it to do that another time or two..."

Behind the boulder, the figure inspects his appearance. Seeing a large tear in his robe, he angrily shoves the boulder and swirls away in a fit of dust. The rock teeters a moment, then finally submits to gravity and plunges down the mountain in the direction of the trio of adventurers.

[ooc: still debating a couple of points about my character, so I don't want to meet up just this minute. I'll be close by, though.]

[ June 20, 2003, 21:42: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Well now that doesn't look right."

Jack absent-mindedly waves at the boulder, and it teleports back up the mountain, coming to rest just in front of the mysterious figure, on his robe.

Jack "It looks much better higher up, don't you agree?"

D "It looks much better sitting there than plunging down at us."

Jack "Yes, all that noise and dust - I much prefer the still image as well."

D starts to say something, but then changes his mind.

ooc:[Fair enough Krsqk, we'll see your character when he's ready.]

[ June 20, 2003, 19:42: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: what is this, Still Life of a Boulder? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

The figure takes a second to mend his torn garment and turns to continue up the mountain, when he notices a very large and very familiar boulder blocking his path and resting on his robe. He attempts to carefully coax the robe from underneath the rock, but it tears on its way out.

Figure "BLast! That makes five times today! Muttermumblearrghgrrarrrrh..."

He mutters a moment, then bends over and tosses the rock in a high arc towards the jungle. Lightning from the storm clouds above strikes the boulder, which explodes into a cloud of smaller pieces. The cloud swirls into a vortex and sweeps down on the figure, picking him up and depositing him near the summit before reforming into a boulder again. Bending over, he mends his robe again with obvious disgust. A brief attempt is made at standing back up, but he suddenly grabs his head and starts moaning something about the pain and would somebody please turn off the lights.

[ooc: I think he's ready for some company, or at least some good food. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

[ June 20, 2003, 21:59: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Seeing the shattering boulder and the ensuing dust swirl that moves against the wind, Jack looks intrigued.

Jack "Hey now - that's definitely not natural. Where's it coming from? Ah, the whirlwind dropped someone on the peak - let's go see who it is."

D "Sure"

With that, Jack quickly teleports the party to a spot just below the mountain peak.

D "Jack, why didn't you do that earlier and save us the walk?"

Jack "I was talking with Narp, and could use the time. Besides, a little walking never hurt anyone, and it's not like we have an exact destination in mind."

D "Ah. I see. Well then."

At this point, the party can here someone moaning something about pain and lights.

Jack "Well, it seems that whoever is up here is in a bit of trouble. Let's go see what we can do."

The party walks up to the peak, and spy the figure, bending over and in obvious pain.

Jack "Here I can... oh, healing doesn't work so well when that's the problem. Umm, you were complaining about lights? I think we can do something...."
"Toit Illusoire"
With that, an illusion of a roof covers the figure, putting him in shadow.
ooc:[An illusionary roof blocks real light, by Jack's Version of the spell, at least.]

Jack "You'll also need a bite to eat."
Jack quickly forms a golem.
Jack (to golem) "Gather dry wood for a fire, and catch two rabbits."
The golem starts heading down the mountain, but Jack teleports it off into the woods before it can get very far. A few minutes later, Jack teleports it back, and it is carrying lots of dry wood, and two rabbits.

D "Are you sure we should be helping him before we even know who he is?"

Jack "Hmm, I suppose that's a good point. If you'll get started on the rabbits, I'll ask."

D "That works, I guess."

D builds a fire and starts cooking the rabbits.

Jack (to figure) "Greetings stranger. This is D,"
Jack nods towards D
Jack (to figure) "that is Narp,"
Jack nods towards Narp
Jack (to figure) "and you can call me Jack. What shall we call you?"

[ June 20, 2003, 22:34: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[short note: keep-the-rain-off spells are not regarded badly for the most part, but if you start moving clouds the local vilagers get nervious because the weather patterns still havn't settled down from the meddling of a mad emporer. the situation has been made worse by the random changes, although the extent of the changes is not known. i'm making an 'an about the world of the MOTMIA' topic. i'll try to include everything, but the other people here, all four? of them, hey wolf? you alive?, probably have different views of what they mean for there stuff, so pm me as many corrections for as much as you want. there's no hurry, but when we get a few more people, could everybody pm me a bio? thanks.]

[ June 21, 2003, 01:11: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Figure "Umm, (arrrgh) just call me (ouch) Arthur."

Narp "Ouch Arthur?"

Arthur "No, (man this hurts), just Arthur."

Narp "Is it Ouch Arthur or Just Arthur?"

Arthur "Never mind. (ooooogh) It's fun and all tossing rocks, but I always forget about the (owie) hangover. Thanks for the roof, by the way. (eeeek). Oh, and please don't toast that rabbit--I prefer slightly blackened."

Narp "Isn't that the same as grayed?"

Arthur "AARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Arthur knocks himself on the head and promptly passes out.

[ June 21, 2003, 02:32: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Oops--I double posted. This never happened, you understand? You didn't see any of this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[ June 21, 2003, 02:31: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "no, no, how silly of me. slightly blackened would be light brown."

narp is about to go off on color comparision, when D, getting an idea, says "maybe you should watch for threats."

narp imediatly becomes alert and starts scaning the surounding mountainside and jungle. after a few minutes, he says "just a few wolves, three eagles and two owls. nothing to worry about. mind if i work on my sword?"

when nobody objects, narp finds a flat rock, sits down next to it, pulls a grindstone and a small hammer out of his pack and begins to scrape at and occasionally bang on, his sword.

[ June 21, 2003, 05:40: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Narp - I sent you a small bio on Jack.]
ooc:[Krsqk - Didn't see any of what? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

Hearing Arthur's growl and the following thump, Jack turns around and pays more attention to him.
Jack "Hey, I didn't notice this head injury earlier. This is something I can fix."
"Guérissez Les Blessures"
With that, Arthur's wound heals, and he wakes up (much to his dismay, as the hangover is still there).

Jack "Hmm, that stone doesn't look very comfortable, here, try my cot."
Jack unrolls his cot, which hovers quietly a foot off the ground.

[ June 21, 2003, 03:06: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[you call that small? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif ]

narp "to bad about your headache. is it from a speed and strength enhancement spell? i had one yesterday and you have my sympathies."

*scrape, scrape, bang*

[ June 21, 2003, 03:14: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Thinking that perhaps Arthur's ears could use the same treatment that Narp's got, D casts the same low-powered silence spell on Arthur's ears.

Unfortunately, this takes his attention away from the roasting rabbits, and one side of one of the rabbits gets slightly blackened. Fortunately, that's how Arthur ordered it.

D "Lunch is ready."

D quickly divides up the rabbits, giving Arthur the slightly blackened half.

Jack "So Arthur, where do you hail from?"

[ June 21, 2003, 04:58: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur rolls over and comes to, awakened by the smell of blackened coney. Partially deafened by the silence spell, he barely catches Narp's question.

Arthur "Umm, yes, sort of. I sacrificed the speed portion for additional strength. Unfortunately, the increase in strength from such a method has an inverse square relationship to the duration of the spell--thus the sudden hangover. Fortunately, although the side effects are more intense than normal, they wear off sooner, probably soon after dinner."

Arthur "As for my place of origin, I would say here. At least, it used to be here, right under our feet (your feet, at least). Apparently, this mountain has taken over this real estate. I was climbing it in hopes of seeing something familiar. After using that strength spell, though, I was forced to take a faster mode of transportation to get here before the side effects kick in."

Arthur takes a massive bite of rabbit. "Say, this is just how I like it! Which one of you gents went to chef school, anyway? The only thing I like better is that bland apprentice-magician-produced stuff." He smacks his lips loudly. "You wouldn't happen to have a gallon or so of orange pekoe available to wash this down?" The remnants of the coney bones (some with teeth marks) are tossed into the fire.

[Jack Simth]

Jack "We have slightly different variants then - my Version rides an adreniline rush; it Lasts until the target no longer feels immediately threatened or the caster cancels it, which makes it ideally suited for combat. The hangover occurs almost as soon as the target comes down off of it, and the duration of the hangover has no relationship to the duration of the spell, although the severity of the hangover does."

ooc:[It isn't as though there are a limited number of spells.]

Jack "You actually like that stuff? Well here."
When Jack moves as though he is handing something to Arthur; when he starts, his hand is empty. When he finishes, there is a grayish-white object about the size of a dinner plate in his hand.
Jack "Enjoy."

Jack "Sorry though - I've never heard of orange pekoe; I'm not from around here."

D "I'm the chef; just tell me if you want that deafening spell removed - It helped with Narp's hangover."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "is that you doing the weather magic? if it is, i hope you have good control. ester made that nessesary."

narp has finished with his sword, which at least looks faintly useable now, and is adjusting the straps on the sheild to fit him. next, he'll see what he can do with his bow, which probably won't be much.

ooc:[yaay! i finished the about thread.]

[ June 21, 2003, 05:45: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur grabs a stick, pops his food on the end, and burns it in the fire a moment. Smacking loudly, he munches on it with obvious satisfaction.

Arthur "Mmmm, burnt blandness--there's nothing quite like it! Hmm, Jack, it does seem our variants are different. Mine is not physically based--it actually temporarily imbues the target with force magic. The advantage is that much greater strength or speed can be achieved than with a standard physical enhancement. The disadvantage is that the side effects on mages not skilled in force magic are pretty severe, and non-mages can be disabled for up to 10 or 15 hours."

Arthur "D, was it? Did you say something about a silence spell? Could you speak up, I can't hear you very well. Ah, that's much better. Could I impose on you to repeat your question, Narp?"

Narp gladly repeats it, with many embellishments and additions to the history of the mad emperor.

Arthur "I guess you could say that I'm doing the weather magic, though it would be more accurate to say that it's being caused by me. I don't actually decide the what, when, or where of what happens. In fact, I can't seem to find any tangible link between myself and the occurances. The closest I can come is Last night when I started coming here, and the storm formed over this mountain; or maybe the lightning bolt that destroyed the boulder. I was going to destroy it, but the storm beat me to it. I was so surprised I nearly forgot to form the vortex at all."

Arthur "So, no, I don't have good control over it. In fact, until these recent habitat changes, I didn't have any weather magic. My best guess is that the skill was transported into me from the same causes as the land changes. In fact, I have seen in the past day and a half at least a dozen animals or plants which seemed to possess some rudimentary magical abilities, or at least attributes. Two or three were potentially dangerous, such as trees with fire magic, or carnivores with time magic. I have tried to draw out the magical energy without harming the possessor; but in every case, it resulted in the death of the creature."

Arthur "If it were only a matter of learning to harness the magical energy, it would be simple to learn this new skill. Instead, it might be more of a curse."

Arthur turns and takes a seat near the edge of the firelight.

[ June 21, 2003, 06:51: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[for future reference that i should have posted already and will add to narp's bio, narp tends to think and act like a scholar or a fighter until something specific happens to get his interest going in either one. so a simple request to repeat wouldn't normally get him interested in scholarly things. in the case of the minataur, it was his age, and the things he might know.]

[ June 21, 2003, 07:09: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: gotcha. I was relying on my memory of exactly what the question was, and thought your mention of ester was more extensive than it was. I'll try to keep your ramblings down to a minimum. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[Jack Simth]

As Jack finishes up his meal, he dwells on Arthur's words.
Jack "Yes, you would need to be skilled to make your variant work - force magic can be dangerous stuff. And yes, it would be the subject's skill that counts; too much and you could blow someone up."

Jack "As for the weather, you appear to be suffering from a subconcious skill, in this case, weather control. It's a common side effect of chaotically introduced life energy, but usually only when sentient life forms were part of the introduced life energy. There could be any number of causes for such a release; mass death on a nearby plane, the destruction of magic items produced from harvested life energy, or even mass death on this plane, although the Last is unlikely."
Jack glances at D and Narp
Jack "Do you think we could have caused this when we destroyed those spheres?"

Jack "On the plus side, subconcious skills are usually remarkably well controlled, even if you can't determine the exact shape. Have you ever studied just how much calculation goes into walking on two legs? Rest assured, it's a lot. Weather is comparatively simple. You shouldn't be causeing any ice ages, if that is what you are worried about."

Jack "As for controlling it, it isn't really a matter of learning to harness the energy - it's already harnessed. The problem will be in bringing the control to where you can deal with it conciously. Think of it like your heartbeat. It will usually respond to what is needed, but it isn't easily controlled. It can be controlled, eventually, by will alone; unfortunately, that takes lots of time. There is a faster way it can be done, however: I can build a familiar for you. Well, technically not a real familiar, more of an illusion slaved to your subconscious. It will give the weather control a voice, and having something to talk to will help considerably in getting things under control; you'd just tell it what you want, and in most cases, it would perform as ordered. It might be a bit quirky, however."

Jack "As for the plants and animals, something similar happened on my home plane a long time ago. They never did find a way to draw the magic out without killing the subjects. However, it was found that the magic could be bound and redirected to harmless effects. They eventually produced a series of golems that ran through the affected area and applied the binding to all magic capable non-sentients in the area. It didn't take very long for the golems to fix everything, just a few centuries."

Thinking for a moment, Jack glances at the golem he produced to fetch the wood and rabbits, which is still waiting patiently for further orders.

Jack (to golem) "I suppose I ought to do something about you, shouldn't I?"
"Dissolvez"
With that, the golem dissolves into powder, its purpose complete.

Jack "Well, those are the highlights of my knoweledge on the subject. What do the rest of you think?"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[since i'm tired and i just watched pinky and the brain...are they still tube socks after they've been worn for a while?]

narp "i never studied subconsiously triggered magical skills."

D "since your emotions and your subconsience are linked, calming yourself will reduce the number of side effects - after all, people can think things they wouldn't do."

ooc:[i'm going to sleep now. as an interesting experiment, push your arms against the side of a doorframe for a bit, then drop your arms and relax all your arm muscles. if you've got them all relaxed, your arms should rise.]

[ June 21, 2003, 08:40: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: I will be out for probably most of this week due to computer problems. I might be able to slip a post or two in before then, but don't count on it. If you'd like to go exploring or something, feel free, especially since I never said anything about joining you yet. I'm sure I can catch up later. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Enjoy the journey!]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[ok.]

[Jack Simth]

After a bit, Jack squints and looks at the terrain below

Jack "Does that look like a town to you?"

D "Yes, yes it does."

Jack "Shall we go take a closer look? They may have more information about what has been going on."

D "Or at least some decent ale."

Jack "What about you, Arthur?"

Arthur "I'll be staying here for a while longer - I think I see a few things that might be the remnents of my house."

Jack "What about you, Narp?"

ooc:[Arthur was living here, and it is fairly rare to get someone living very far away from everyone else; it makes sense that there would be a town nearby.]
ooc:[Hope to see you again soon, Krsqk]

[ June 22, 2003, 06:05: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Narp "by all means. although we should be cautious, there probably scared, and scared people often act hastily."

Jack, Narp and D head west down the mountain toward the town.

[ June 27, 2003, 05:17: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

After walking for a while, the group comes across a very orderly cobblestone road that looks freshly put down, which appears to head towards the town.

Jack "That's odd; how did this road survive all the changes?"

Jack looks at the road more closely.

Jack "Ahh, I get it - natural magic. Some of the more skilled craftsmen have it without knowing it. In the case of cobblestones, it shows up as an enchantment on the stones that keeps them in place; that enchantment must have doubled as a stabilizer while things were shifting. Interesting."

D "Yes, but the real interesting question is why someone went to the trouble of building a cobblestone road outside of town."

Jack "There may have been a town here at the time. Remember Arthur's house?"

D "You have a point. Still though, cobbles are usually only put down in wealthier neighborhoods; perhaps this was the route to the local manor?"

Jack "That would make for a good road to have bandits on, what with the tax money and merchants and all, wouldn't it?"

D "It might. Of course, it would be routinly patrolled by the local lord's knights to prevent that."

Jack "Yes, but with all the confusion, some strange things might happen. Ah well, we shall see."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[help! a cliche's got me!]
narp, quietly "don't look now, but somebodies watching us."
D "where?"
narp "forty feet ahead, behind the reddish-brown tree. one of you should check for more."

narp shrugs his shoulders, as if he's stretching. it also loosens the straps of his sheild.

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Oh, I don't know - Arthur's experience suggests some twists are possible, doesn't it? http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/devil.gif]

D (quietly) "That's the lookout. Now that I'm looking, I can sense six more completely hidden behind the trunks of large trees, presumably waiting for a shout from the lookout. There are three about ten feet ahead of lookout and three about ten feet behind. It would appear that their plan is to have travelers surrounded."

Jack (quietly) "Also, there is something bothering me about that cherry tree behind the lookout. So, should we walk into the trap or try to preempt it?"

ooc:[Have you ever read the Xanth series? They have some very interesting cherry trees there....]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[please, no punishment, or i shall have to 'fire' you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ]

narp "well, this seems simple if one of you has an invisibility spell. you just cast a spell of silence on the lookout, D. then, jack, you put him in a bubble and one of you makes sure it's invisible from the start. then we charge. or one of you could put an invisibility spell on us and then D casts silence, then we charge. or we could just charge."

[ June 22, 2003, 07:11: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Ahh, you have read Xanth, or at least heard of it. Let's see, we did give D invisibility, right? If not, we have now.]

Jack (quietly) "Hmm, then we could take them one by one, couldn't we?"

D (quietly) "Nobody's watching the lookout; sloppy of them. I can handle the invisibility, and the silence; unfortunately, invisibility spells fall apart at the first brush of battle. Invisibility is good for a first strike, but we would be visible again after that."

Jack (quietly) "All right then; we silence and contain the lookout, then take them down one at a time?"

D (quietly) "That's the plan."

Jack (quietly) "Won't the others hear the battle sounds?"

D (queitly) "Not much we can do about it."

With that, D silences the lookout, and Jack places a bubble around him, while D makes the bubble invisible.

As D, Narp, and Jack approach the lookout, the lookout tries to signal his comrades, and looks very panicked when he can't.

Jack (quietly) "So, which one first?"

ooc:[Okay - so you decide what the tree does, and which way it goes.]
ooc:[Actually, there are a few twists we could put on this fairly easily - there isn't anything that says these people have to be bandits, after all; one person to challenge travelers while several lurk in the shadows for backup works well for toll roads or tax collectors or the local law enforcement or ....]

[ June 22, 2003, 10:07: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Well, it has been about 24 hours since the Last post; that clears me for making another despite that I was the Last to post, doesn't it? Just in case, I'll keep it short.]

The lookout, panicked at not being able to shout out, tries to run.

With the barrier up, he hits it head first, and falls unconcious.

Unfortunately, the barrier makes a loud ringing noise at this, alerting the people in hiding, who peek out from behind their trees, and see the lookout lying prone on the ground, and the party of adventurers standing nearby. Of course, they make the logical conclusion that they are under attack.

Jack "I knew there was something we were forgetting."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i suggest that as an addition to the world, that the empire be currently at a low point, at only 1/5 of the continent, and that there be little contact between the continents generally, at any time. that would allow for greater diversity. toll collecters? we could be mistaken for the local bandits...]

at that moment, there is a shimmer in the air behind them and a burly-looking soldier, probably a sergeant, appears. there is an amulet on his chest, and a large crossbow in his hands. he shouts "HALT, BANDITS!".

seeing as he is twelve feet away, narp decides to halt and put up his hands. at the same time, he says "we're not bandits."

sergeant "his lordship and his wizard will decide that."

ooc:[so now we have a lordship? and his? wizard?.]

[ June 24, 2003, 02:43: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Works. Yes, they would think us bandits, especialy considering that, when it comes down to it, we DID strike first, even though it was a non-fatal strike.]

Jack glances at the crossbow, and looks the burly soldier up and down
Jack "We aren't bandits. Besides, how are you going to enforce your words? With this?"
Jack holds a crossbow bolt in his hand, and the buly soldier glances at his crossbow - no bolt. Jack then tosses the soldier his bolt back. The soldier catches it, and blinks at it a few times while Jack continues.
ooc:[Ain't teleportation fun?]
Jack "Although, I would be interested in conversing with His Lordship and his wizard. That is a very interesting amulet you wear, and I would be interested in talking with its maker."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[yes, after the dust and the rain and the way narp looked even before that, i'm imagining we don't look to clean. maybe we should have found a stream.]
most of the solders blanch, but the sergeant only says "if you will come with us, then, sirs? and, if you would, release kendrick?"

after kendrick is released, everybody heads done the road, still going west and the solders somewhat confusedly form an escort, directed by some discrete hand signals by the sergeant which the guests politly ignore.

ooc:[and our status has been upgraded. of course, as an escort, the're closer. so that's it, unless there's something you wanted to add. if so, i'll change it.]

[ June 24, 2003, 05:24: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[I'm done with my previous post.]
As the party and escort travel down the road, Jack engages the sergant in conversation.

Jack "We are travelers from a far land, and are unfamiliar with this region. If thou would'st be so kind, could'st thou inform us of the full titles for His Lordship and his wizard?"

Sergant "His Lordship's full title is Lord Baron Roger William Peixes IV of Lago. His wizard's title is Master Wizard of Lago."

ooc:[This actually gives us several pieces of information all at once: The level of the Lord we are seeing: Baron (low level for the nobility, but controls land), Lago (the name of the region the Baron controls), and Roger William Peixes IV (the lord's name); Master Wizard is a position, similar to Master at Arms; of Lago specifies that he is working for the Barony of Lago.]

Jack "Only a title for the wizard?"

Sergant "That's right."

Jack "Thank you."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[only a title for the wizard? what's that mean? ok, lets see...]

while jack talks to the sergeant, narp, falling into the roll of man-at-arms, falls behind a little and engages the solders in conversation, soon finding out that the crops have been good, taxes have been not to bad, road duty is somewhat dangerous, that there are about fifty armed bandits known to be camping somewhere in the woods and that there very hard to find and if his lordship keeps the troops called up for much longer, the taxes are going to be bad, at which point the segeant calls for 'silence in the ranks'. narp moves up a little and ceases bothering the solder's.

ooc:[i couldn't find a clever way of having him do that in conversation, but assume that it was a short conversation and, unless either of the wizards have been listening, he'll tell them everything he's heard, which won't all be what you will, since you'll be getting the officail story, and narp might find out something else.

[ June 24, 2003, 07:20: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[only a title for the wizard? what's that mean?]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ooc:[Just that he doesn't give out his name (Like D and Jack), and prefers a title to a letter (D) or a short fake name (Jack); that could mean he is slightly more paranoid than many.]
After an hour's walk, the group reaches the gates of a modest manor, surrounded by a vast expanse of ripening grain. The sergant talks to the gatekeeper for a moment, and the group is let in without further ado. At this point, the escort becomes replaced by a few members of manor's staff, who lead the group to some large double doors. At this point, Jack quietly uses a little illusion to neaten up the party's appearence. At the doors stands a herald, who asks
Herald "How shall I announce you to His Lordship?"

D "I am Wizard D."

Jack "I am Magician Jack."

ooc:[Title for rank in Jack's world in the Mages Guild: Magician (Apprentice), Mage (Journyman), Wizard (Master); they can be used interchangeably, but in court, the more formal Magician/Mage/Wizard is always used; this may or may not apply to the realm we are in now.]

ooc:[On a side note, if the court wizard is familiar with this, he is likely to assume that Jack is D's apprentice, as apprentices don't usually travel far without their masters - that is for Journymen or above.]

ooc:[Narpichez's turn to intruduce himself.]

[ June 24, 2003, 08:05: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[update. just in case you don't know. as narp is acting the part of the humble bodyguard, he wouldn't get greeted or announced by name, which is what he wants. narp's thinking like a solder and partly like a scholar and so the first thing, it seems to him, is that what he should get is information...which is sometimes better got by being ignored.]

the doors are opened and the three enter the great hall. a herald annouces "a party from a land unkown, consisting of the wizard D with apprentice and bodygaurd, to see Lord Baron Roger William Peixes IV of Lago and his Master Wizard of Lago"

in the hall are four tables, arranged with one at the end on a dais and two lower down stretching along the hall and a rough one, probably for the use of servants, near what are probably the kitchen doors. there are a few men-at-arms at the lower ends of the lower tables, but not of course, at the servants table. behind the table on the dais, which is the finest, is presumably the lord, who is showing a touch of age and has a moustache and a small beard. his is wearing fine, but practical clothing and his gaze shows a sound mind behind it. sitting to one side is the wizard. he wears fine robes with no runes or symbols on them. the wizard leans over and mumers something in the lords ear the leans back.

ooc:[the wizards clothing may or may not be important. i just threw it in there. the wizard just gave him a breifing on our illusion, and other stuff i'm leaving up to you - since he's a master wizard, probably more than that. i'm basing this of off what i know of medieval customs, as a bodygaurd who's not noble - as he's not and as he's been trying to appear - he would be officialy ignored for the most part. it doesn't neccasarily say anything about the lord, just the culture. in addition, if we're invited to sit down, narp will as a bodyguard, have to stand behind the wizard. D will go somewhere on the high table and jack will go on one of the two lower tables. jack probably wouldn't have gotten noticed except as an apprentice, but you've already introduced him. that's what i remember of medieval customs anyway, which i might not all remember right.]

[ June 24, 2003, 08:45: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Which would also mean D is going to be doing all the talking to the various personages, Narp can listen in and taste all the food D eats, but is stuck at the Lord's table, forbidden to speak unless specifically addressed; that leaves Jack for quietly talking to the servants - not that any outside speech would be permitted while the Baron is in a public conversation.]

Baron "You may approach."

D walks towards the dias, with Jack and Narp following two steps behind, off to the right and left.

Baron "What brings thee to our domain, Wizard?"

D "We are but humble travelers, who wish to pay our respects to Your Lordship."

Baron "To where dost thou travel, and from whence dost thee come?"

ooc:[Narf - you can have D field this one.]

ooc:[We get to make up our own mideval customs, as they varied from generation to generation and land to land, and even (to some extent) court to court.]

[ June 24, 2003, 09:29: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[true. looks like jack's going to be fishing for information while narp's feet get flat...something my feet are in danger of.]

D "I am lately come from the city of pitaza and was headed to the north country, for i had heard things of interest, when i was caught up in those most unfortunate disturbances. i was surveying these new changes when i spotted thy magnificent domain."

ooc:[well, i already used one actual food name - a dirivative can't be to bad.]

the lord looks pleased at the flattery - unless you look at his eyes, which, while not unfriendly, show a realization that flatering words do not a freind make.

lordship "since thee hast traveled so far, perhaps thou wilt partake of my hospitality?"

with a gesture, plates are placed for the travelers, one first at the higher tables, one at the lower tables and one offered at Narp's left elbow so as not to impede his sword arm - although nobody would bring up that reason. D sits, jack sits, and narp stands, with his plate, which he puts in his right hand, because in case of trouble it's easier to drop it and go for his sword, behind D, who has been placed opposite his lordship.

after enough time for D to eat some of his food,
lordship "now, we can talk more comfortably. i have a bandit problem and for some reason scrying is not working well. i would be gratefull if you could help."

ooc:[guess Narp will have to get D to dismiss him sometime, or no chatter. the baron may still suspect us, after all, if someone is blocking his wizards scrying, that someone could be Jack or D.]

[ June 24, 2003, 09:45: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Meanwhile, down at the lower table, Jack tastes his food once, then sets it down because it's burned too badly for his liking, while the rest is almost raw.
ooc:[Historical note: long ago, the ovens used to cook things didn't do so evenly, especially for things that couldn't be turned or stirred, such as bread. Thus, bread coming out of a mideval kitchen would be burned on the bottom, hard and overcooked in the middle, and just perfect on top. The guests (and sometimes the head of the household: the Baron) would get the perfect portion from the top (D), family would get the middle portion, and the servants would be left with the burnt portion (Jack and Narp). The servants were left with anything the guests and family wouldn't want to eat.]
Deciding he would prefer some of his bland conjoured rations to the burned meal, Jack decides to engage the servants in conversation. Unfortunately, he can't get a word in edgewise - the table is just overflowing with gossip, which Jack listens in on.

"How long do you think it will be until the Baron has solved the bandit problem?"
"Not long; he can't afford to let it go on much longer."
"Yeah, I heard that even the well-gaurded tax carts get ambushed; the Barony is running off of the treasury."
"That can't Last long."
"No it can't - and what happens when the treasury runs out?"
"Then we will have to seek employment elsewhere."
"But we already work for the kindest baron in thirty leagues!"
"I know, I know. These bandits are just far too orginized and well equiped."
"You'd almost think they had support from somewhere."
"They even ambush peasants! Just Last week, my uncle was robbed on his way to visit me. They took all six of his coppers, and stole his coat!"
The rest of the gossip is just variations on the same plus the standard castle variety: who is thinking of marrying whom, which members of the court are the most demanding, how people's crops are doing, that kind of thing.

By the end of the meal, Jack still hasn't gotten a word in edgewise, but he has learned a few things.

ooc:[That should cover just about anything Narp would have wanted to ask the servants that they would actually answer anyway.]

ooc:[We will get a chance to compare notes overnight; apprentices and bodygaurds are always assigned to the same room as their masters; the apprentice to do the master's bidding, the bodygaurd to gaurd against nighttime assasins.]

ooc:[The court mage would be very worried about D; the report from the sergant would indicate that it was Jack (the apprentice) who humbled the gaurds (stole the bolt and released Kendric). If that is what the apprentice can do, what about the master? We may have a nighttime visitor.]

[ June 24, 2003, 21:28: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[my brain is being squashed flat by my new empire, so no new Posts now. lets see what i can get my brain to come up with.]

D "i would be glad to help. what is it that seems to be the problem?"

wizard "well..." and D and the wizard are soon chatting about scrying interference and exchanging all sorts of magical terms.

narp eats the stuff on his plate, listens, watches, notices that jack isn't eating his food and resolves to tell him that if he's going to act like an apprentice, it's best not to be picky about food. makes you stand out. besides, he thinks, if you don't breath through your nose, some of it's not bad.

after the meal, there shown to there room, which contains a bed and two cots, one near the door and an adjoining bathroom with bath. then the servant who showed them to there room leaves.

narp taps his ear.

ooc:[are we being listened to? some of that...ugh.]

[ June 26, 2003, 06:40: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack yawns and stretches, incidentally covering his mouth with his arm
Jack "No eavsdropping spells, but we are subject to a scrying spell. Fortunately, scrying isn't very compatible with magic detection; you always end up detecting nothing but your scrying spell."
Jack bends over, stretching his back, and incidentally causing his robes to cover his face.
Jack "There, I've put illusions of ourselves over ourselves, so if you'll make us, but not the illusions invisible, D?"

Just as D does so, Jack summons his ration; then everyone has the peculiar sensation of seeing themselves wander off from where they are to get ready for bed.

ooc:[So now everyone's invisible, and there are illusions of us preparing for bed.]

Jack slowly eats his ration between talking; not that anyone can see, as it is invisible too....

Jack "We should be able to talk freely now."

The party catches up on what they learned during dinner, and Narp informs Jack not to be so picky.

Jack "I suppose next time I'll teleport it out; only the wizard will know I'm not eating at the table. He will know I can teleport stuff already anyway, if he got the report from the sergant." Jack laughs briefly "He'll probably even know why."

Jack "So, D - how far do the Baron and Wizard want our help to extend?"

In another section of the castle, the Master Wizard of Lago frowns while staring at a fuzzy image in a small crystal ball.

Wizard "That's odd ... the lower edge of the covers aren't rising, even though they are starting to crawl under them. Ah, I get it, they are covering against scying. Clever; I was almost fooled. That D is good; but not good enough. I'm just going to have to do this in person."
The wizard then begins the trek to the other side of the manor.
ooc:[If he was one of the top 100 wizards in the empire, he wouldn't be working for a Baron; he would be either independant, a major guild player (if one exists on this plane), or working for a Duke, at least; he will likely have a fairly small set of spells that he can get a lot of milage out of. So far, we have had him use scrying, invisibility and enchantment (in the sergant's amulet), perhaps others.]

[ June 26, 2003, 08:31: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: irrelevant now]

[ July 05, 2003, 00:24: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[nevermind]

[ June 27, 2003, 06:36: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i meant to say west. and now everybodies heading west. fixed. it depends on wether or not he's ambitious. maybe he likes it here. um, looks like i blew the consistancy. should we go back to heading east down the mountain?]

they talk a bit more, then D says "someone approaches. it is the wizard."

narp "he's probably detected the illusions. lets stay invisible and see what he says."

a few moments later, the wizard strides into the room. with a sweeping glance, he takes in the entire room. then, he looks striaght at jack. "if your an apprentice, your the most talented one i've seen in a long time. why not simply say your an advanced journeyman?" then, looking at narp "and i suspect you are not just a humble bodygaurd." then, looking at D "your the biggest enigma of all."

"so, why don't we drop this charade and focus on three things. do you have an agenda? do you know anything about the weather magic at the top of eagles peak? and do you know anything about the bandits?"

ooc:[he's using a spell to see through illusions. i've decided that the reason he thinks D is an enigma is because D has some illusions he can't see through. now, i made him sound more hostile than he is because he's worried and hoping he'll startle us into the truth - if we have been lying. and i should have brought up the wether magic thing sooner, but if we make it so that only he and the baron know and they havn't told anybody so as not to raise a fuss, it fits. only one sp error and nothing to change. good. i normally have 5-8 things.]

[ June 27, 2003, 05:45: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: thanks for the help. I don't mean to highlight inconsistencies; but my brain is fried after this week, and I couldn't resolve it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ]

After a lengthy visual inspection of the summit, Arthur settles on a specific site as the most likely spot for his home's remains. A brief "localisez la magie" creates a dozen or so gold lines which seek around a bit before detaching themselves from Arthur and planting themselves in the turf. After an "entfernen der Schmutz" at the site of each marker, two rings, a cloak, and a medium-sized ball are shoved in a cloth bag and stowed in Arthur's robes. The remaining holes are hastily filled, and with a final "Cachez-les," Arthur turns his back on his former home.

Arthur "Where would those three go? Most likely, the town and the road would attract their interest. That should have them winding up at the manor in Lago with that meddling wizard. I'd best head that way. Créez le vortex." A swirling funnel again appears, taking the mage toward the distant manor. "Localisez la vie forte." Signs of life are detected in the direction of the town and the manor house, and deep in the forest. Slightly delayed, but unusually strong, a response is sensed from under the hills north of the Baron's residence. Arthur continues his journey toward the manor into the night.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[sounds like the wizard of no name has been blocking arthur's weather manipulations...this has the sounds of a pc villian. well, that was a good one to highlight.]

[ June 27, 2003, 06:23: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[I believe I have already established Jack's position on secrecy when Jack and Narp were talking about Jack's home plane. That pretty much means he is going to answer reflexively....]

Before anyone can stop him, Jack speaks up.
Jack "Because I'm not a journyman; I haven't passed the exams for that yet, and I'm can't take them for another...."

At that moment, D finishes casting silence on Jack.

Jack "..."
Jack "..."
Jack "..."
Jack "?"

Jack, just realizing that he can't be heard, sits down and begins working away at D's spell.

D "Four years. I'm sorry I stopped him, but he does have a tendancy to ramble on."

Just then, having finished untangling the spell, Jack speaks.

Jack "Hey, that was fun!"

D "Not that it Lasts long; I've trained him well."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

wizard "well. what do you know about weather magic?"

D "i aviod it, generally. and i know of no wizard working weather magic nearby."

narp stands in the corner, thinking.

ooc:[couldn't think what else to post. all set for a confrontation here. based on what krsqk posted, he knows someone is messing with the weather. krsqk, could you ooc the extant of your contact with the wizard?]

[ June 27, 2003, 07:16: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Wizard "I see. What do you know of the bandits?"

D "Just a few rumors and what the Baron told me at dinner; that they are a problem."

The wizard, perhaps sensing some truth behind D's words, visibly relaxes a little.
Wizard "Well, you are unlikely to be able to do anything about it, so I would suggest rejecting the Baron's reward offer in the morning. He has made the same offer to a dozen other visitors, and none of them have returned."

With that, the Wizard takes his leave.

A short while later.
Jack "That's odd..."

D "What's odd?"

Jack "He started to mouth something about not a threat shortly before he left. Why would we be a threat?"

D "Hmm."

ooc:[Could it be that the wizard is secretly supporting the bandits, and in the process harvesting much of the tax money? Perhaps he could be making a bid for the barony, but needs to have the authority transfer come from a legitamate source to prevent the Empire from crushing him; it would explain his secrecy and tie the situation up nicely.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, except where krsqk comes in. we need a post from him, before we continue, i think. his Last post sounded villinious.]

[ June 28, 2003, 08:24: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "So, what offer do you think he was referring to?"

D "Considering the Barony's problems, I would surmise that the Baron is going to offer us a reward if we can eliminate the bandit problem. So, do you think we should accept when he offers?"

Jack "I'm game. What about you, Narp?"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[what if, instead of being evil, the wizards under the mental influence of another wizard, but doesn't realize it? because he conversed quite readily with D about the supposed problems scrying at dinner. besides, i don't want this wizard evil.]

Narp "if you will shield this conversation from scrying?"

two spells later...

Narp "strange. at dinner, he was friendly, but it seemed to me he was talking in circles sometimes when describing the problems he was having. now, he appears agited and doesn't want the problems investigated. now, the principles in the short guide to relevancy suggest that only those with reason to object to something will object. although this is obvious, it is also a starting point. what we must determine is why. pride? if so, he hides it from the baron. he was pleasant before. or, to give him the benifit of the doubt, perhaps his fustration rendered him momentarily unpleasant. or, the option we must consider, treason. unfortunatly, it fits all the variables. pleasantness before the one one is hiding ones intentions from, unpleasantness before whoever you want to disuade, and of course, not accomplishing the stated goal of whoever you supposed to be loyal to. but there's something else..." he shakes his head "...i just can't think of it."

Narp sits on his cot and starts muttering the names of various tomes, scholars and hypothesis

ooc:[i'm not sure when our characters should start considering mind control, because the moment they do, Jack or D could probably detect it. Narp could go to sleep still not able to remember the reference he's looking for. sp check later.]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Works, and I think we can fix your dilemma on when to have the idea pop up, and even why D and Jack wouldn't notice immediately.]

D "He was very much a different person just now than he was at dinner - I don't think he was acting."

Jack "Mind control, perhaps?"

D "Wouldn't one of us have picked it up? Hang on - that would only work if he were being actively controlled when we checked. I didn't check him for magic just now when he walked in the room - did you, Jack?"

Jack "Yes, but he was clean. No mind control spells of any type. Then again, magic isn't the only way to control a person's thoughts. There is also telepathy, but the only way to check for that with magic would be to review his memory and look for mysterious blanks; it's too much of an invasion of privacy."

D "Telepathy?"

Jack "Yes, it allows communication without magic. An unethical person could, in theory, use it to control someone who didn't know enough about it to defend themselves. Fortunately, standard magic defenses against mind control also function as a defense against telepathic mind control, and vice-versa, so it hasn't been a problem on my home plane."

D "I'm safe then - but what about you, Narp?"

Jack "I could enchant something for you that would protect you when worn, if you like; it would only take a minute or so - it is a surprisingly simple spell."

ooc:[There - now we have considered it, and have a reason for D and Jack missing it; although, it does move it from being a wizard controlling him to a psionicist. Satisfactory?]

[ July 02, 2003, 07:54: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[yep. now, lets see...Narp was thinking of something, and now he'll come up with the reference...reference, reference, here reference...]

Narp "of course! jill's 'short study of telepathy '! strategically speaking...of course!"

he mutters to himself some more, then "if we block the telepath, the telepath will know we surmise his existance, and will take steps to eliminate us. what we need are amulets that will block our thoughts, but will throw of psuedo-thoughts. thoughts that show us going west again. and of course, little random thoughts about the terrain and the weather. then we need to sneak into the wizard's tower, break his link with the telepath, and make an amulet that will mimic his thoughts if the telepath checks. then, we should be able to track him back to wherever he is when he checks on the wizard. after that, we simply chase after him with the baron's soldier's. presuming we havn't made a mistake in our logic."

ooc:[naturaly, something needs to go wrong with the plan. maybe the telepath finding out to soon. i dunno.]

[ July 02, 2003, 08:29: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack rubs his chin briefly.

Jack "I can do that, however...."

D "However what?"

Jack "Well, no cloaking works once a telepath tries to control the subject, or dig through memories. The blocking would still work just fine, but the blocking working is a dead givaway that cloaking is happening."

With that, Jack pulls out three of his wooden disks, and begins enchanting away.

Jack (still busily enchanting the wooden disks) "This will take a while. A simple block would only take a few minutes. However, for cloaking, I have to produce the thoughts to fool our unknown adversary with, and they have to be personalized to each of us. I should be done by morning."

Jack (still busily enchanting the wooden disks) "Cacher des Pensées"

Jack (still busily enchanting the wooden disks) "In the meantime, I've put up a block and cloak on the room, with simple dreams for the cloak. You two rest up; I'll be up all night anyway, so I can keep watch."

Jack (still busily enchanting the wooden disks) "By the way - should I make some for the Wizard of Lago and the Baron as well?"

ooc:[There - now something can go wrong with the plan - the cloak will fail if he tries to control someone who is protected, or search our memories. Also, as Jack and D normally block, the cloak might alert the telepath that something is up, if the telepath has tried (and failed) to sneak a peek before.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[post comming...]

Narp "well, yes i did say one for the wizard. one for the baron would be good as well. now that i think of it, we couldn't chase after him with the baron's soldier's. i need to read a few more books on tactics. we would be detected fast because of the soldier's. instead, we're going to have to sneak into his camp ourselves and take him out. then we can signal the baron, who could bring in his soldiers. and jack could make some of those golems if we have to much trouble. of course, some of the bandits are bound to have mithril or adamantium weapons or something, but that should do quite nicely. any suggestions?"

ooc:[if there's none, then put everyone else to sleep. we still need to figure out what to do with krsqk. perhaps the wizard took something of his that he found out in the woods, not realizing it was krsqk's? we could then have krsqk retreive it and wander off. the villagers could put all the strange weather down to the changes, and we go merrily on.

[ July 03, 2003, 07:23: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack (still buisily enchanting away) "The reason I asked is because the telepath seems to be controling the wizard on a regular basis - he will know something is seriously up if the wizard is suddenly defended, and so will be on gaurd. However, if we find and stop the telepath first, that won't cause a problem, and we have a better chance of catching whoever it is by surprise."

D "But then couldn't the telepath use the wizard's abilities?"

Jack (still buisily enchanting away) "Yes, he could. However, he would likely still be back at the castle, and so the telepath wouldn't be able to use much of the wizard's offensive capabilities."

D "He could still scry, spying on us."

Jack (still buisily enchanting away) "Yes, and if he has the wizard watch us while we travel, and compares that to the cloak, he will figure things out. Nothing is totally foolproof. I can deal with either."

D "So, if we cloak the Wizard and the Baron, the telepath will know the next time he tries to control the Wizard. If we don't, the Wizard might scry on us as we leave, blowing our cover. Well Narp, you are the tactition of the group, what are your thoughts on the matter? We'll go with whatever you think best."

ooc:[I think that's the Last of my comments on the planning stage.]

[ July 03, 2003, 08:24: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: I'm mostly back, as I indicated in the "shiny new RP thread" thread. Hopefully you won't have to continue the dummy-stuffing process. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

The swirling funnel continued in the direction of the manor, its passenger periodically checking and rechecking for signs of life. The signals from town, manor, and wood seem fairly consistent--approximately 800 people in the town; a little over 100 in the manor house proper, with a few hundred more in the immediate vicinity; and forty to fifty in the forest. The real enigma was from underground. First, there was the delay--that could be explained by several things, most likely a magic detection/filtering spell. Second, the exact number of responses varied drastically with each check. The first check revealed only a single human, but after that, it showed anywhere from one to nearly seventy.

Arthur "It's almost like there's a cloak on that area. Odd, though--there don't seem to be any magic defenses put up, other than the filter spell. And I don't know why someone would bother to let the spell in, only to alter it on the way out--the effects would be immediately obvious, not to mention giving a good reason for a closer look. Maybe I'll have to look into it after having my chat with our friend the Master Wizard of Lago."

The vortex heads directly for a window on the top floor of a tower in the manor house. Arthur steps out of the funnel, dismissing it as he greets the tower's occupant, who had not yet noticed the entrance.

Arthur "Hello, John. And exactly what is my older brother up to these days?"

[ooc: Maybe the telepath returns as many signals as the number of minds he is looking into at the moment. Even if he is only controlling the wizard, it's likely he would be periodically checking on other people as a means of staying current.]

[ July 04, 2003, 05:44: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[there brothers? the plot thickens.]

Narp "so, we're stuck between the telepath checking the wizard, the wizard checking us and thus the telepath finding out and..."

Narp mutters a bit, then "if we take our leave of the baron, head west, let the wizard check up on us, then at night, because the telepath has to sleep sometime, jack, can you teleport us all a short distance only make it look like we left the general area? then we sneak back in using any subtle cloaking spells you guys know and look for the telepath. hopefully, we find him before he finds us."

D nods, Jack nods, then everyone but Jack goes to sleep.

on the fort's wall, a soldier looks up as he hears what sounds like a roaring breeze, but there is nothing there and the sound is gone. looking troubled, he continues his patrol.

ooc:[unless Jack thinks of something to say. short explanation: if Narp is deep in scholar or fighter mode, anything that might divert his attention tends to get ignored, which is why he has yet to babble. the muttering does take some of the place of that, though. like the library the baron probably has, or anything less than impending destruction.]

[ July 04, 2003, 06:53: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[i think you might have gotten in the way of krsqk's next post.]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ooc:[Oh, I'll shorten it then; perhaps have Jack mutter a bit at night while producing the amulets.]

As everyone is sleeping, Jack mutters quietly to himself while making the talismans.

Jack (under breath, still buisily enchanting away) "Let's see, what kind of thoughts would Narp have? He is a very deep thinker. That's hard to convincingly emulate. Hmm, I suppose I will just have to limit it to bodygaurd thoughts. As long as he hasn't been peeked at while thinking as a scholar, it should be OK.... let's see ... lots of sensory details and threat assesments...."

An hour later, Jack finishes Narp's talisman, and begins work on D's.

Jack (under breath, still buisily enchanting away) "As for D, his is the hardest. Ah, I know - I'll have him quitly considering A Verbose Tereatesies on Thermodynamics. I can just copy my own memory of it into the amulet; that will give it thirty years of speech-speed thought without repeating. I'll also need build a consideration routine, but I can do that; it should also boost it up to a century without repetition...."

Three hours later, Jack finishes D's talisman, and starts on his own.

Jack (under breath, still buisily enchanting away) "As for mine, I know me quite well. This one is easy; I'll just have me worrying some trivial detail of a harmless spell ... ah, my favorite: how can I add flavor to those apprentice rations...."

ooc:[Better?]

[ July 04, 2003, 11:02: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i think you might have gotten in the way of krsqk's next post. much.]

[ July 05, 2003, 01:20: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

The wizard turns and sneers at Arthur.

Master Wizard "Well, well, if it isn't my little brother who tries to play magician. What a pleasant surprise. I'd have thought you'd be trying to reassemble that little hovel you called a house."

Arthur "John, you know why I'm here. You have my ring, and I want it."

Master Wizard "And so do I. What's more, I happen to have it right now, and that counts for more than your claim to it. In fact--"

The master wizard suddenly stops short. His face seems to change for a moment, and he draws in a sharp breath. He quickly regains his composure and continues.

Master Wizard "Now, what was I saying? Oh, yes, about your ring. Well, it's just too bad..."

The conversation continues, but Arthur isn't paying much attention to his brother.

Arthur (to self) "That's odd. The response from under those hills changed to two exactly as John lost control then. Now it's back to one again. I'm going to have to check that out sooner rather than later, it seems."

[ooc: I would guess that our friend the telepath has been occupied elsewhere (his wife had some chores for him? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ), and rather than slowly catch up on the wizard's actions, he opted for a broadband download which required a brief but complete takeover of the wizard's mind, despite the risk that this would be noticed. This would seem to indicate that he prefers the shortest/easiest effective path rather than the stealthiest one, much like Arthur (why else would Arthur travel in a noisy tornado instead of something a little less noticeable?)]

[ July 05, 2003, 01:12: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[krsqk, we still don't have anything new to post. the balls in your court until we have something to do.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: I thought Jack had come up with something to do, before he changed his Last post. I didn't actually get to see it, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Did you want to end up in the wizard's tower, or were you going to head off elsewhere? Arthur and his brother were basically just going to bicker until either you showed up to interrupt them or headed off in another direction (toward the telepath or the bandits or wherever).]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Well, you stopped the post in the middle of an active conversation while Narp and Jack were committed to actions which would Last until morning. Narf and I were waiting for that conversation to be concluded before moving on, so that the time would align properly. However, if you are waiting for an interruption, I can manage that....]

Just after Jack puts the finishing touches on the Last talisman, he hears what sounds like bickering.

Jack (quietly to himself) "That's curious. Well, I'm done here, so I suppose I'll go investigate. However, I can't leave Narp and D ungaurded...."

Jack quietly puts several teleport traps up around the room. Anyone entering through the door, the window, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, or via teleportation will find themselves just outside the manor's main gate. As Jack designed them to prevent intrusion, they are all disabled by a loud knock at the door.

Satisfied, Jack flies out the window (the traps only affect those entering, so nothing happens), closes the window behind him, and flies around the manor to the room the bickering is coming from. At which point, he knocks on the window.

ooc:[Oops - he forgot to leave a note. Anyone coming back after a midnight trip to take care of something could have problems....]

[ July 07, 2003, 04:15: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[Narp will awake if there's any sounds of a fight. new proposal:no evil or good races, no supeirer or inferior races. in other words, no 'standard' elves or orcs, etc.]

[ July 07, 2003, 16:26: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

The bickering over the ring continues for hours. After logic, threats, begging, and persuasion (all steadily increasing in volume) fail, Arthur is about to resort to fisticuffs to retrieve the property in question. Before he can do so, the quarrel is interrupted by a knock on the window.

Arthur "Were you expecting anyone tonight..er, this morning?"

Master Wizard "No, but they can't get in, anyway; that window is covered in traps. Quit stalling, and let's see you if you can fight half as well as you can talk."

Arthur glances toward the window. Recognizing Jack, he decides to continue stalling for a bit.

Arthur "Say, isn't that one of the Baron's guests? I don't think he looks too comfortable perched on that ledge; maybe you should let him in. And isn't he dismantling your traps?"

Master Wizard (muttergrumblearggh) "It's that bLasted apprentice again. I'll just have to do this the old fashioned way." He strides toward the window, casting invisible and conceal enchantment on himself before working up a large fireball.

[ooc: I apologize again for the delay. RL has been crazier than I ever could have imagined lately. Provided I can get the washing machine fixed tonight, though, I should be back in business (fingers crossed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )]

[ July 07, 2003, 22:15: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

After dismantling the traps for a while, Jack changes his mind.

Jack "Ah, I suppose I really just want to get in - I can do without disabling the traps. These are fairly standard ones anyway; there's not much I'll learn by taking them apart. Besides, they might actually serve a useful purpose."

With that, Jack teleports a large section of the wall up onto the roof of the manor (window, traps, and all) using some levitation to keep everything from collapsing. Unfortunately, the Wizard of Lago, having wandered too close to the window, goes with....

Jack "Hey Arthur, how are you doing? By the way, where'd the Wizard go? You seemed to be having a bit of an argument with him. Something about a ring?"

[ July 08, 2003, 06:11: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[it's mmyyy preeecciouuusss. mmyyy preeecciouuusss.]

as the sound of some distant thumps echoed through the manor, the guards on duty looked up. 'what? he's renovating again?'

ooc:[they'll start heading for the tower if they see or hear something dangerous. ]

Narp, slowly awakening with all the argueing, decides to investigate and at least tell the people to quiet down. grabbing his sword just because it's automatic, he straps on the sword-belt and heads up to the tower.

findign the bottom of the stairs, he proceeds cautiosly upwards, although he doesn't think the wizard has any traps where people would have to go to meet him. just to make sure, he thinks as peacefully as possible, which, considering the book on weather effects, means downright dull. keeping his hands away from his sword-belt, he proceeds up the stairs.

cloaking himself in illusion, D heads out to the yard in front of the tower.

ooc:[one of you'll have a better idea of when to pop him in. maybe D should do something.]

[ July 08, 2003, 21:33: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur "Hello, Jack. I'm doing fine, I guess. Yes, we were arguing about a ring. I need it to further my training."

Jack "Your training?"

Arthur "Mages from my family are bound by several odd rules. One of them requires an apprentice to secure three signet rings before he can officially begin his training. He can receive some education after receiving each ring, but is forbidden to seek training beyond a certain point. The rings are arbitrarily distributed by the master when a student applies for apprenticeship. The apprentice must then obtain the rings from their owners; this usually involves some sort of trial or quest before the owner will surrender the ring."

Arthur "I obtained the first two rings fairly easily. My father, who held the third ring, died before I was able to return from the second quest. It passed to my older brother, who is now the master wizard here at Lago. He refuses to give me the ring under any circumstances, probably because we've feuded since childhood."

Jack "Can't you take the ring from him?"

Arthur "I could, although it wouldn't help me. In fact it's sitting on that table." Arthur gestures toward a table in the corner of the room. On it sits a ring. The signet appears to be one third of a shield. "According to our rules, the ring has to be willingly surrendered by the owner. I would forfeit any possibility of further training if I took it by force. In fact, he could accuse me before the Guild and have me put to death."

Jack "Can the Guild intervene in a situation like this?"

Arthur "The Guild is old and stuck in their ways. They have the authority to do anything they wish, but they never exercise it--they prefer to stay huddled up in their library, debating over the meaning of dusty old tomes full of rules and regulations. Even if I appealed to them, John could simply say that I was not yet ready for further training, and they would buy it. In fact, they would probably view my appeal as proof of my immaturity and impatience." Arthur pauses a minute before continuing. "The master is permitted to intervene if he feels a ring is being unjustly held. Unfortunately, my father was my master. After his death, my brother became executor of my apprenticeship as well as owner of my father's third ring. I would not have to study with him, but I am forbidden to seek apprenticeship with another until I can present the entire signet of my previous master as evidence of my ability and trustworthiness."

Jack "How have you been able to study, then?"

Arthur "After it became clear that my brother would not return the ring, I began to study on my own. I am forbidden to seek or accept training, but self-study is not prohibited. I visited libraries everywhere and I watched wizards and mages performing their various spells. I could not ask or answer questions; and if there's one thing mages and librarians hate, it's being ignored when they've spoken to you. My knowledge is broad, but limited, because I've been run off from nearly everywhere I've visited as an arrogant young upstart. I had to leave other places because the people I was studying caught on to what I was doing and started to try to teach me. Refusing help isn't looked kindly on, either, and I was back to being a know-it-all youth." He stands, streches, and walks over to the window by which he entered. "After about fifteen hundred years of self-study and being run out of town, I decided that it would be better to get the third ring and seek training. Not that finding training will be easy--most teachers don't appreciate students with broad, shallow knowledge. It's seen as a lack of commitment, or worse, an inability to study. I'll probably have to get a Guild board appointed to teach me, which hasn't been done in seventy-five thousand years or so--not since Rellath began his formal apprenticeship. Of course, that's not a bad sign--Rellath was the Last Grand High Master Wizard we had in our family."

Arthur "Not to change the subject or anything, but what's your take on this?" Arthur relates to Jack the particulars of his readings from the northern underground.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

on the roof of the building, the wizard cancels his fireball and starts muttering to himself: 'what was i thinking? he wants the ring. he can't have the ring. he's not ready. he's reckless. he just wants to cause trouble. no, he's never caused trouble. maybe i should just teach him a bit myself.' and so on.

at the door of the wizard's tower, Narp knocks.

in the yard, D uses a spell to make himself weigh about as much as a sack of flour and starts easily climbing up to where he can hear the wizard muttering. it looked like things where coming to a head and that shielding spell was needed. because he's still cloaked in illusion, no one can see him.

the guards continue there rounds.

ooc:[well, i think in a few minutes the telepath will be alerted.]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Precap (long post): Narp has both Narp's and D's talismans, but they aren't distinguishable by normal vision; three options for Arthur's observations, mostly already decided for option three: mind control; three as-yet undecided options for fixing Arthur's problem: get from thief (shady), ask dead Dad (lots of requirements), fix brother's mind control (possibility; still depends on brother); some background on Jack and his world.]

At that point, Narp knocks on the door, and Jack opens it for him

Jack "Hey, I finished your talisman. Here."

Jack hands Narp the thought-gaurding talisman designed for him.

Jack "Oh, and if you see D, give him this one."

Jack hands Narp another thought-gaurding talisman, not distinguishable from the first by normal vision....

Jack "As for the Northern underground, I see three possibilities. It could be that a travel agent does business there."

Narp "Travel agent?"

Jack "Sorry, a teleporational travel agent; most teleportation methods can only take someone where they have either been or can see. A travel agent is a mage of some level that has been to many different locals, and can thus teleport people to places they haven't been or seen. It's one of the things my Master back home does for money. This would explain the sudden changes in the numbers, as people keep popping in and out. Sure, the timing with your brother is suspicious, but coincidences do happen."

Jack "Another possibility would be certain types of complex spells. I read an article a while back on life detection spells where it noted that the most complex 1% of golems often registered on such spells when they were active, as do some of the most complex data processing spells when processing a lot of data at once. However, those are the cream of the crop for complexity; the golems that registered as such could usually read and write quite well (and could always be taught to do so), as well as properly interperting most vauge orders, much as a human servant might. Again, this possibility makes for quite the coincidence on timing, but coincidinces do happen."

Jack "The third possibility I can think of is a class of certain types of communication. Telepathy and some thought communication spells do that."

Narp "Didn't we conlclude that the Wizard was being mind-controlled by a telepath earlier?"

Jack "Yes, yes we did; I'd gotten so wrapped up in making the talismans that I had forgotten why I was making them. I suppose that makes it the most likely, doesn't it?"

Jack "As for your problem with the ring, I'm only familiar with guild rules from my home. However, if the rules are similar here, I can see a few possibilities. Mind you, I already have heard enough to know that not all of them are - where I come from, a dead master is sufficient grounds for finding a new one, as he isn't fulfilling his obligations as your Master."

Jack "The first possibility is the intervention of a third and fourth party. You can't steal it, but there may be the option of buying it off of the thief after the fact, or buying it off of the person who bought it from the thief. Mind you, this would be a very shady workaround, especially seeing as how it requires dealing with thieves. It would probably also require someone who isn't affiliated with the Guild."

Jack "A second option would be to look very carefully at the guild rules; does the apprentice-Master relationship end with the Master's death, or with the obtaining of a new Master? If it is with the obtaining of a new Master, I have a spell that might help; it was a prerequisite for the intermediate eternity class I took back in prep school. Unfortunately, that particular spell would require your father's Name, as well as the time, place, and manner of death his most recent death."

Narp "Most recent death?"

Jack "Yes, my basic immortality class taught how to maintain onesself to prevent death from natural causes; that method is suffecient for five or six millenia. Virtually everyone in the society I come from learns the basic class. The intermediate class taught how to maintain life after the destruction of the body; that method usually tacks another ten to fifteen millenia on how long a person can hang on before moving on by extending a spirit-recall spell to continuous use on one's self. Roughly half the population knows the intermediate method. The advanced class taught how to maintain the intermediate stage indefinately, as well as how to rebuild a body to inhabit so that you can exercise the much simpler basic methods effectively, with the clock restarted. Roughly one percent of the population knows the advanced methods. They have come in pretty handy during my apprenticeship. There have been no recorded cases of someone who knows the advanced method becoming truly dead without their consent in the million years since the method was discovered, and it was one of the members of the current council who discovered the advanced method. However, for the spirit summoning, each time a body is destroyed counts as a death. If he still counts as your master, Arthur, and if you have all the info needed, we could summon him and ask. Likewise, it won't work if he is already back by some means, or just wants to stay dead. Necromancy is frowned on for good reason, but the non-compulsory spells and techniques are considered acceptable where I come from."

Jack "A third possibility is that your brother wouldn't acutally mind giving you the ring, but he is prevented due to mind control. Alternately, he could be sufficiently grateful if the mind control gets removed to just give it to you."

ooc:[Recap (long post): Narp has both Narp's and D's talismans, but they aren't distinguishable by normal vision; three options for Arthur's observations, mostly already decided for option three: mind control; three as-yet undecided options for fixing Arthur's problem: get from thief (shady), ask dead Dad (lots of requirements), fix brother's mind control (possibility; still depends on brother); some background on Jack and his world.]

ooc:[It's a good thing I checked for other Posts before posting this....]

[ July 08, 2003, 23:51: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[krsqk, if you already have history planned that contradicts what i have down for the wizard's babbling, tell me.]

Narp quickly slips the second one onto his belt, before he forgets and puts the first one on his neck. "thanks." to Arther "may i presume that you've been caught in one of the 'object neccasary for apprenticeship' problems? now, there was one particular scholar who made a study of them..." before Narp can go on any further, arther cuts in "yes, yes it is."
Narp "oh. where's the wizard?" to Jack "Last i saw D, he was sleeping."

at that moment, D hoists himself up into the room. deciding not to drop his illusion yet, he instead makes sure there's no dangling loose ends to attract Jack. seeing that there's no apparent danger in the room, he decides to keep climbing. he had thought up an idea, if he cast a sufficiently complex mental illusion surounding the wizard's brain, he could confuse the telepath when he checked up on the wizard and make him think it was simple fatigue, although it wouldn't hold long it should be long enough. with this new complication, it seemed important to get the wizard out of the telepath's control fast. accordingly, he arranged all of the elements of the illusion in his mind.

ooc:[everybody in jack's world knows life-extension techniques?]

[ July 09, 2003, 03:51: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur "I tend to agree with the telepathy argument for the life detection responses. I suppose it would be possible for those sorts of coincidences, but I don't know how there would have suddenly been seventy of those complex golems or spells running around on my way here."

Arthur "As for the Guild rules, they are unfortunately clear and direct about both the terms of apprenticeship and necromancy. 11.1) Once application for apprenticeship, the apprentice is bound to secure all three signet rings. Until he does so, he is forbidden to seek or receive training from anyone, with limited exceptions upon gaining each of the first two rings. 11.2) The rings must be willingly surrendered by their owner. A third party may not be involved in the transaction. 11.3) Apprenticeship may only be terminated by the express desire of the master, or the master's death. The second condition is subject to rule 1) above. 27.3) Necromancy in any form is strictly prohibited by the Guild, and will be punished with death and/or banishment. There is actually precedent in the Guild case law which deals with this exact situation. In fact, it was Rellath himself who was the test case. Fortunately for him, pressure from the Guild as a whole (not the Guild board) caused the third ring holder to surrender it. Unfortunately for me, he had to wait about three thousand years before enough pressure mounted, and I'm only halfway there."

Arthur "As for the possibility that John would actually surrender it to me willing after/because of being freed from mind control, there is a chance of it. My only questions then are, who is preventing him from delivering it to me and what is his interest? If I/we can find satisfactory answers to those questions, I'll buy the possibility."

Arthur "Just so you know, I am opposed to taking any shortcuts or using any underhanded schemes to work this out. Just about any plan could be reverse-engineered, and there is no statue of limitations on violation Guild rules. The only way to have immunity is to rank either Grand Master Wizard or Grand High Master Wizard, and I'm about seventeen thousand years short of eligibility for that. I'll take shortcuts in just about anything else, but this has plenty of time to come back and bite me."

[ July 09, 2003, 04:44: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Definately vastly different rules. I can understand not wanting to break the rules or take shady shortcuts. After all, the goal is to get people to teach you willingly, and that requires their co-operation."

Jack "Any form of necromancy's illegal? Does that mean if I have to rebuild myself a body, they will execute me? That's amusing. Also rather pointless. Banishment might work. I might even accept it willingly if they give me a route home in the process. Then again, if this plane's Guild signed the Interplanal Castaway treaty, they would be obligated to do so. I'm not sure what the chances of that are, however, as there is a very large number of planes that were missed, or didn't have a strong Guild at the time. You seem up on Guild history; would you know? It would have been around fifty thousand years ago."

Jack "As for the why on the ring: at home, I've noticed that guild rules are seldom senseless, even when they seem to be so. It's possible that putting all three together restores an enchantment of some kind. However, there wouldn't be any way to tell what it does without all three. Of course, the only real way to track down the culprit and their motives would be to find the person controlling your brother. We might check those caves you keep getting the response from, especially with the timing. Can you cloak your thoughts, or do I need to make another talisman? Oh, and we should probably find D; with all the ruckus, I suspect the telepath suspects we're coming."

[Krsqk]

Arthur "Oh, there is no single Guild organized on this plane. There are several, and your eligibility is primarily determined by family (or, in some instances, nationality). My family's Guild is one of the three oldest, which brings with it both prestige and strong tradition. My particular clan has controlled the ruling body of our Guild for dozens of millenia. At times, though, the way we pointlessly follow tradition seems to outweigh the benefits of belonging to such a prestigious guild."

Arthur "Each of the top three guilds have Banned necromancy for their members. By default, most of the lower guilds have as well, and those that have not are forced to practice it in secret. The rules would not technically apply to an outsider such as yourself, but practicing it would be socially distasteful and would taint your reputation if it were widely known. It hasn't been necessary for long lives here mostly because those naturally possessing magical talent tend to live for several thousand years anyway, and also because natural causes of death are so easily avoided. Even accidents may be provided against without much trouble. Death in battle is generally accepted as final and is viewed as a sign of your foe's superiority. That makes achieving the Grand Master Wizard and Grand High Master Wizard ranks such a feat--one must have truly mastered his skill to survive so long. Also, both medicinal and magical means of extending life before death have been a focus of research, and are one of the few areas of knowledge which are freely and widely shared here."

Arthur "I do not believe that this plane signed the castaway treaty. In fact, few extra-planar visitors have ever stayed here for long, probably because there is little interest in changing the current power structure. Nearly everyone in content to leave things as they are, from the nobility to the peasantry to the wizards themselves. While there are few true conflicts, most are only interested in advancing their Guild or their own personal causes."

Arthur "It is possible that the three rings together release or create some enchantment. The practice was once common, but all but died out in our Guild fifty or fifty-five thousand years ago. Rellath was the first to have such a signet in seven thousand years, and I can't think of a single apprentice in any of the twelve clans with a similar situation since then."

Arthur "Perhaps we'll find out more after our explorations. By all means, let us find D and be off. If you have the time, I would appreciate your making me an amulet, probably with thoughts about the location of the rest of my home--it's useful enough to seem real, and not useful enough to possibly help anyone. I could do so, but it would take me quite a while (I'm rather weak in thought magic); and I need to dig through the Guild history to see if I can't find something to help me in there. Narp, I don't know much detail on the other Guilds; do you know of anything in their history that might be useful?"

[ooc: I'm leaning toward the releasing of some enchantment or other, but I don't know yet what would be important enough for someone to prevent, but small enough to fit in with the low-level characters we're dealing with. It's not like Arthur can suddenly be Supreme Lord High Ruler of the plane or anything. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[Krsqk, in your post you made a reference to relath. Jack is from another plane, so the only way you could know about him would be to be from the same plane.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: I thought I was the one to create Rellath. He was the Grand High Master Wizard on the current plane approximately forty thousand or so years ago. Did I re-use a name, and just not catch it? If so, point me to it, and I'll go back and change my Posts.]

[ooc: edit: If you're concerned about Jack not knowing about Rellath, Arthur mentioned him several Posts back, I think when referring to having a Guild panel appointed to train him.]

[ July 09, 2003, 06:14: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[never mind. mistook one of krsqk's Posts for one of Jack's. i should still update the 'about' so we can all keep everything sort of straight. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif i just saved all of the webpages just in case we loose any. i have another post partially done, but i'm gonna wait till our discussion has finalized a few things, like what the magical ability is like here. yeah, i know. i'm hurry up and wait.]

[ July 09, 2003, 07:13: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Ahh, they wouldn't have dealt with multiple guilds presnt; too much work to make a deal with every guild on the plane when the same amount of time could be spent to get several other planes in on it."

Jack "Hmm, so one way to immortality was forbidden, so another was resarched more strongly? Very interesting. So I will need to avoid things that ought to be fatal while here though, to preserve appearences. I can probably do that."

Jack "Didn't you say Rellath was in your family? And it was your father's signet ring? It could be an heirloom, passed down from him."

Jack "Although, we must be gathering D and going. It would take an hour or so to make a talisman for you, but if you can take the reigns of a spell, I can record a few minutes' thoughts from you and use those as the cover, then hand it over to you to maintain. It should only take a short while. However, if you normally block, that would be better; it's likely that the telepath has tried to take a peek at you before; if he was stopped by a shield, he would be expecting another if he tried again."

D reaches the roof, and places the mental illusion over the Wizard of Lago. Satisfied, he returns to the tower and climbs back down to the open wall.

ooc:[It could be a complete guild library; the data is encrypted and divided between two of the rings; the third is the decryption and viewing mechanism. It would take much study in order to use it properly (and thus won't affect the thread very often - a new spell every now and then whenever Arthur takes time to study - probably while camping), and it would represent enough power that someone would want it supressed. The only danger would be if all three pieces were brought together, so you don't need to start paying any attention to it until one person has two, and is seeking the third ... like Arthur is now. It would also be useful for furthering one's education in magic, and thus make sense for being a criteria for graduation from an apprenticeship.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i was going to do that with D. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ok, guild stuff...]

Narp, after thinking a while... "well, there is precedent for moving the apprenticeship to the next master if the current one is proven mentally incompetent. given the eccentricies of some wizard's, that could be difficult, although the mind control should help. but, if we manage to get it transfered, 25.3 states that if there is no succeser to the current master, the apprentice is to appear before a special board to determine what happens next."

"generally, the board appoints someone, so it can be somewhat random. also, you could appeal for a special board of inquiry with a claim of unfairness. although unlikely to convene, only one in seventy-nine are granted at Last count, they could overturn nearly any ruling and if they determine in your brother's favor, well, being locked in a pocket dimension for five hundred years, since your only an apprentice...and you probably don't want your brother to be locked away for twenty-five hundred years, as he is a wizard."

"baring that, if you can come up with a will from your father that would give the ring to you or sets forth any conditions that would give you the ring, that would work." Narp begins to happily qoute precedent and custom, although after a few minutes Arther realizes that his head is starting to spin and even Jack's eyes are beginning to look glazed at this flood of random minutae from Narp's large, but extremly eclectic store of information, which only a dedecated lawyer would be happy sorting through to figure out how it all affects his case. and the lawyer would probably figure out: not much. Narp would say more but at that moment the wizard teleport's back into the room. "Arther?" he says "i feel like i've been dreaming."

and a telekinetic bLast rips through the room as D hastily climbs down the wall.

ooc:[guild library sounds ok to me. paragraph's. much better. the bLast is general, aimed at the whole room, starts at one side, ends at the other.]

[ July 09, 2003, 19:47: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Okay, it's a guild library. I'll just go ahead and make it an artifact, since its effects are long-term (hundreds of years, at least, before they're really noticeable) and it won't have much effect on the story (besides altering background and providing for a quest or two). The first part of my post is overlapping the re-entry of the wizard and the bLast. I'm assuming the bLast is starting opposite the open wall and heading in that direction.]

Arthur had never thought that he'd be glad to see his brother, but any interruption in Narp's babbling was a welcome one.

Arthur "John, how nice to see y--" He is interrupted by a massive bLast which knocks him off his feet and out the open wall. Before he goes far, he stops his flight with an opposing force to his body--which effectively breaks his fall in mid-air, but also stuns him. As he loses consciousness, his conjured support starts to fade away. As he slips from the support and blacks out, a massive wind gust suddenly catches his body and lifts it to the tower room from which he just fell.

[ooc: I've assumed everyone's next post will want to cover their own actions/reactions after the bLast, so I went ahead and resolved my part. One of you can take the wizard, as well. He may have rigged his tower with safeguards in the event of an attack there. I suppose he could just be severely injured, linger, and die, but that's just boring. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[Jack Simth]

As Jack goes flying from the bLast....

Jack "Hmm, this isn't a magical bLast. It seems our telepath has telekenisis as well. I wonder whose eyes he is using?"

With that, Jack uses a non-inertial teleport to move himself to a stationary position on the ground.

Jack (looking up) "I suppose I ought to do something about Narp...."

ooc:[Narf, if you can't come up with something to cover Narp, you can have Jack pull the same trick to get him down.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, actually, i was thinking of it going from the open wall. doesn't matter, though. as for targetting, i was thinking of it as non-targeted - more a result of rage than anything else , which was why it hit the whole room, although i was also thinking along the lines of low clauraudience. i think that and the two T's gives him enough skills to be a true danger without overload. Narp's closest to the door...i'm assuming the wizard's going to have protective spells on his stuff.]

Narp felt himself get flung forward and toward the window. desperatly, he grabbed onto one of the bookshelf, hard enough to stop himself and slammed against the wall. as the pain of the bLast roared down his body, he dimly thought 'maybe that wasn't such a good idea', then collapsed on the floor

the wizard, already having some shields up, is only knocked of his feet and has his breath knocked out of him. but his shields are mostly gone.

on the wall, a sentry, who had spun in startlement at the sounds, suddenly jerked, then mechanically lifted his bow and aimed at the wizard...

ooc:[i'm assuming the bookshelf partially protected him. the telepath's trying to get rid of the one he percieves as the most danger, once he gets protected, now that he's thinking, he's thinking the wizard could protect himself. but those are just excuses, i thought it made a good plot point.]

[ July 10, 2003, 06:39: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Let's see... D was climbing down the tower when the bLast hit; he is likely unaffected. Krsqk and Narp are uncouncious in the room, the Wizard of Lago (we have a name for him now, courtesy of Krsqk: John) has his breath knocked out of him, and Jack is standing on the ground outside the tower. That leaves D and Jack as being able to act.]

Jack, noticing that Narp isn't flying out the big hole in the wall, looks around a bit, and notices the gaurd drawing his arrow.

Jack "Can't have that...."
Jack "Arc"
At that, the bow is teleported out of the gaurd's hands, and into Jack's.

Jack "We do need to stop this..."
Jack "Mur d'esprit"
As Jack's spell is cast, a glowing green sphere encompasses the entire manor, temporarily preventing psionics from functioning.

Jack "That won't hold up for too long. Need to go somewhere we won't be observed and make a smaller Version."

Jack quickly flies up to the room, and teleports D, Narp, Arthur, and John off to the mountaintop, then follows and puts up another, much smaller and more stable Version around the group. The one at the manor quickly disintigrates.

Once there, Jack begins the task of healing everyone up, starting with Narp and Krsqk.

D "Why here?"

Jack (while healing Narp) "It's the first place I thought of that fit; if our adversary scans the countryside looking for places he can't scan, he'll find us, but he won't be able to do much about it without a human agent to control."

Jack finishes healing Narp, and moves on to Arthur. D wakes Narp up.

Jack (while healing Arthur) "He'd be able to bring agents here, but that would take a bit of time, even if he finds us immediately."

D "I see. We'll need to move soon."

Jack finishes healing Arthur, and then wakes him. Meanwhile, John finishes catching his breath, and stares at Jack for a bit.

Jack "Narp, need a new bow? I forgot to return a gaurd's when I took it from him to keep him from shooting the Wizard of Lago."

Jack "Hmm, my cot's still in our room at the manor."
Jack "Hamac Magique"

With that, Jack's cot returns to him.

ooc:[So now we are all back at the mountain, and nobody in the immediate vicinity is mind controlled. John's free for the moment.]

ooc:[I hope I didn't ruin anybody's plans, but both your characters were unconscious, and I thought it a good idea to deal with that sooner rather than later. We'll still need to deal with the Psi, but it has been put off for a little while. I'm sure we'll be much more effective in person, as we'll be able to target him then. Arthur has the spell to track him down; just follow the life sense spell he's been using.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

in the baron's room, the baron jerked upright. there had been some crashing sounds...

fifteen minuetes later, he had heard the reports of the sentry's. loud noises, what sounded like weather magic, a sentry forced to aim at the wizard and the strangers and his wizard disapeared. it all made sense. these strangers had been sent by the telepath to kill or kidnap one of his freinds and now, he was going to make them pay. he frowned a moment. he didn't like vengeance. no, he'd exact justice. he smiled and ignored the worry in one corner of his mind.

another fifteen minutes later, nearly all of the baron's soldier's streamed out of the baron's gate's, scout's riding out in the general direction of the mountain - although he was certain he'd gave them orders to scout all around, despite a growing certainty that they where on a mountain to the east.

and twenty minutes ago, one hundred well-armed bandits had moved out of a certain location and headed toward's the baron's castle. they would arrive well after the baron's soldier's where gone.

and on the mountaintop, Narp sat up, said "thanks Jack", stood up and started testing his limbs.
"good as new."

ooc:[the telepath caught the baron when he was just waking up and confused. i upped the bandit problem to one hundred to make things interesting.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Narf, did you get my note to check your PM? It's still listed as unread.]

Arthur (waking) "Thanks, Jack. Consciousness is definitely better than unconsciousness." Looking around, he notices John appears to be staring at Jack with a slightly dazed expression. "Hey, stop that. It's nothing you couldn't do if you practiced a bit."

D "Well, it appears we could have used the thought-cloaking a bit sooner than we thought. Obviously, we will have to be more cautious going after this guy, whoever he is."

Arthur "Speaking of which, what do we do next? The Baron mentioned the bandit problem, so that's one option. The telepath is a definite option as well. And, we might have some explaining to do to the Baron about why there's a hole in the wall and his Master Wizard, three guests, and a stranger who falls out of towers and conveniently is gusted up again are all missing. We could head back there to patch things up before deciding what else to do."

Arthur sits down and works out the details of a spell which will restore his brother's tower to the proper condition. "Hopefully this works right. I may have some touch-up to do when we get back, though. Hey, Jack and D, could you two maybe look over this? Remember, don't teach me anything; just check it out and adjust it if you can think of anything else." Arthur touches a nearby flat rock. A network of golden lines spreads from his fingertips across the surface of the rock, which is then handed to D. (to self) "Of course, if I happen to get a glance at it before it's cast, that wouldn't hurt, either."

Arthur (standing and stretching) "I'll check out the surrounding area; maybe that will give us a little insight as to our next move. This one will take a little longer to get off, so I can work in more detail about the direction, and possibly destination, of anyone out there. Sort of like a wide-area scrying spell, without most of the detail. Oh, and Jack, one of those food rations would do nicely once I'm done. A little toasted, perhaps?" Arthur sits back down and closes his eyes, trying to recall bits of spells from his travels. Eventually he stands and walks over to the edge of a nearby cliff before working over his spell's assembly.

[ July 11, 2003, 22:50: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack looks at Krsqk's spell.

Jack "Don't be so hard on the Wizard; he's been under a lot of mind control, and I severed the connection; he could be in shock."

John "Actually, I'm trying to figure out where he got the energy for that; it was leaking power like crazy."

Jack reaches into his robes, and pulls out a palm-sized emerald, which is glowing very faintly.

Jack "I used a capacitor; they are good for putting a lot of power out very quickly, but they don't have much stamina. This one is almost completely drained, but it should be back up in a day or so, unless I have to sustain some big spells. But yes, I was in a hurry with that one; I needed to end the telepath's tampering for a while so nobody would get killed. It's requirements were beyond my normal production capacity, so I needed the capacitor. Having used it, supporting it was beyond my means, so it collapsed. This one..." Jack gestures at the much smaller Version the group is currently resting in "... is well within my production capacity."

Jack "Looks fine; you are doing a little more work than is necessary, but that's just because you had no real way of knowing where I stored the wall I removed so it would be easy to put it back later. It should still be floating there."

Jack (to self) "Let's see, he didn't want to learn anything, so I suppose I ought to just use the runes used here. Ah, some telekenisis...."

Jack alters the runes accordingly, making sure not to use any runes or techniques not already present.

Jack "As for what to do next, I would suggest taking on the telepath. Explaining to the Baron won't be very useful until we can be sure nobody's messing with his head, and I suspect that the bandit problem is related. Large bands of bandits don't usually work well; disagreements arise and everyone wants to go their seperate ways; while under most circumstances people would stay and work things out, bandits tend to be less inclined to give other people their due (they do steal by force for a living, after all). We should have much less difficulty with the Psi in person, as we will be able to fight back."

Jack glances at the moon.

Jack "This spell ..." Jack again points out the barrier surrounding them "... will follow me if need be, but it would be better if everyone had their own protections, in case we get seperated. Speaking of which, Narp, do you still have both of those talismans I gave you? I need to change their mode."

Narp does, and hands them over to Jack, who quickly passes his hand over them, then pulls out his own and does the same, then hands one each to Narp and D.

Jack "There, I just changed their modes; now they will divert any psionics directed at the bearer a short distance to the left. I built it in becuase I figured the telepath would get suspicious if he could still read us when we wandered out of his range; this should make us well camoflauged. Hmm, I suppose I we will need two more...."

Jack takes a few minutes to build two more talismans, these ones only diverting psionics, and hands one to John, saving one for Arthur. Afterwards, he conjours one of his rations for Arthur.

Jack (to John) "You probably ought to get in the habit of blocking continuously, so that we don't have to go through this again."

Jack walks over to where Arthur is sitting, and hands him his amulet and the ration.

Jack "Sorry about not cooking it more, but it is probably a bad idea to start a fire. Arthur, you mentioned that you can tell where the telepath is; do you think you could lead us to him?"

[ July 11, 2003, 08:22: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Krsqk is about to cast the life-detection spell when he subconsciously hears Jack mention food rations. He quickly puts his spell on hold, storing it for the moment in another boulder, and takes the ration from Jack.

Arthur "Hmmm, so we shouldn't start a fire. Maybe this will do it, then. Fogo." Arthur's hands burst into flame for a moment, then return to normal. The ration is nicely toasted throughout. "Ah, much better. Toasted tasteless is an improvement even over regular tasteless."

Arthur furtively glances at the rock with his first spell on it, noticing with mild disgust that Jack has only rearranged the existing elements. (to self) "He seems to be a little naive. Obviously, I'm going to have to give him a gentle push in the right direction." He passes the rock to D. (aside to D) "Okay, D, it's your turn. Jack must be one of those organized people--he's gotten this looking nice and efficient. Now, maybe you could think of anything I've left out? A silencing routine so it doesn't attract too much attention? Maybe a check of the ground and the roof so we don't have any missing pieces which would augment wind and weather damage? A minor scrying spell so we could visually inspect the results? Have at it--work in whatever you can think of."

Arthur turns to Jack. "Jack, I'd like you to take another look at the spell if you could. You did a nice job organizing it, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I wanted you to see if there was anything you could add to it. If you're worried about not training me, I just meant don't talk out loud so I don't hear what you're doing. I'm sure such an accomplished and well-trained apprentice as yourself could come up with something I've missed. There must be loads of things I haven't even considered, not having the training you've received. Actually, there's one thing I can think of to add. John is obligated to have the signet ring on his person at any time he leaves the tower. It's not tagged, and naturally resists teleport spells (that helps lessen the temptation to obtain it illicitly), but I'm sure it's nothing you couldn't overcome." John has a sudden coughing fit and has to walk away for a few seconds until he can regain his composure. "Think you could help us out here?"

Arthur "Speaking of the telepath, if you and D will finish looking my repair spell over, I'll wrap up my detection spell. Narp, can you think of anything to add to it? I've got body count, speed/direction, probable destination (a non-invasive, passive telepathy), and a duration of thirty seconds. What else would be of use to a tactician?"

[ooc: I'll try to be available to post again tonight, but I don't make any promises. My wife said, and I quote, "You make a list of what you want to accomplish tonight, and I'll make a list of what I want to accomplish, and then we'll split it." I'd already seen her list, and it involves about five hours of work rearranging our bedroom and spare bedroom so it's suitably arranged for her family coming in. I asked if I could put "Take a break" on my list, and she told me I could get a life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif At least she can dish out the sarcasm as well as I can--it keeps me on my toes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Anyway, the moral is, I don't know if/when I'll have time to check in, so if you could pass enough time for D and Jack to check/recheck Arthur's spell and for Narp to advise Arthur and for whatever else you can think of, and I'll cast the repair spell, and the detection spell if appropriate, whenever I can get back here.]

[ July 11, 2003, 22:54: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Ah, I get it; you want to learn, but you can't be taught. I think we can arrange that."

Meanwhile, D starts incorporating some invisibility and silence so that people won't notice the repairs until after they are completed, and includes a bit of scrying to monitor progress.

Jack "John, you're supposed to have the ring on you? Hmm, I suppose I ought to retrieve it for you then, as I'm the one that teleported you away from it. Hmm, it doesn't like teleportation? Let's see...."

Jack moves his hands around an imaginary sphere, and after a moment images begin to distort when seen through the intervening space. A moment later, the center of the area turns black for an instant, the ring falls through into Jack's waiting hand, and the visual distortion dissapears.

Jack "The ring is still affected by gravity. I just had to reshape spacetime so that it would fall into my hands. I didn't actually touch the ring itself with a speck of magic."

Jack looks closely at the ring.

Jack "Wow. It's a good thing I didn't. This thing has about a zillion different alarms against tampering. Hmm, I've never seen that rune before ... ahh, that's what it does ... and this one ... hmm ... interesting ... all these gaurds on ... an information delevery system? Where's it getting the data from? Let's see ... Grr, it's not complete. The enchantment is dangling off to the side."

D finishes his modifications, and Jack takes another look at it.

Jack "Let's see ... you could save some time and energy here by reshaping space to move things past the wall, rather than around in the normal fashion ... a little timebending here will speed things up ... and the control structure from a golem can be adapted to automate the process and deal with any needed fine-tuning or touch-up on the spot ..."

Jack quickly alters the spell, incorporating several new elements.

Jack "Done. Now, I suppose I ought to give the ring back to the Wizard."

Jack starts to hand the ring to John, but then stops.

Jack "Hang on; you said John was obligated to have the ring with him whenever he left his tower; you didn't mention what the repercussions were when he didn't, nor if there were any loopholes for the method of his vacating the tower. What are they, and are there? I didn't exactly obtain John's permission when I moved him."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Narp "well, i'm only an amatuer tacticain and except for a peek at his state of mind, you've thought of everything i could for the telepath. since the telepath was keeping john from finding the bandits, it might be a good idea to do that - and find out what the baron is doing. we need information, fast. we really know nothing about the situation and the books i found said information first, if you have time."

John "i thought i was shielding. excuse me a moment."

"done. if you want, i could put some power into this shield. the spell is ingeneus, to, but if you put in a rune to moniter it and few more runes here and there to do self-repair..." John illustrates on a nearby rock..."it'll use more power, but it will leak less and won't collapse so fast."

ooc:[your discription of it not Lasting long made me think of that.]

[Krsqk]

Fortunately, Arthur is already busy contemplating his detection spell and doesn't hear Jack's sudden dawning of understanding. Of course, he does manage to keep track of D's and Jack's progress and to store it for review later.

John "Oh, he wasn't exaggerating about the need to retrieve it. As executor of his apprenticeship, I am obligated to protect the ring with my life. If you hadn't gotten it, I would have to immediately return to the castle myself. Doing so would have opened me back up to the telepath, and I would prefer a few hours to build my defenses up again first. The amulet would have helped with that, but it wasn't worth the risk when you were capable of saving so much time."

John "And you're right, it is a good thing you didn't touch the ring itself. It has runes in there I've never seen anywhere else. There is even a mechanism to amplify and transform incoming magical energy before returning it to--more properly, redirecting it at--its source. I performed only the most basic of probes, and the backlash nearly put me out of commission. I haven't heard of a ring with this much protection since--well, I shouldn't say any more about it." John pauses for a moment. "Say, you happen to have any more of those food rations on you?"

Arthur quickly incorporates specific mental snapshots for the baron and the telepath. "I won't put too much hope in these, since the telepath could easily redirect them or return false information. The hope is that he won't be expecting the probes, or at least will be too busy to pay them much attention." He puts the finishing touches on the spell, takes a deep breath, and casts it.

A swirling cloud appears before the party, gradually coming into focus as a bird's eye view of the area. Five dark smudges appear on the map. Unsurprisingly, the town shows several hundred people. The manor only indicates thirty or forty, causing John to raise his eyebrows and look slightly concerned. The other three were far more interesting. A group of one hundred fifty was headed toward the mountain and would arrive within half an hour. Another group of one hundred, presumably the bandits, was headed from the manor to the woods, and would arrive in twenty minutes. And under the hills north of the manor, the response was over two hundred fifty.

Arthur "I'll pass the reins over to you now, Jack; the telepathy responses should come back soon. You may have to actively probe if they give odd results, but given the plain responses from the destination probes, I don't think that's likely." Arthur takes a seat, obviously fatigued. "There was some sort of defense up which I've never encountered before. I had to push and prod, and finally force, to get the spell to take effect. All that talk about scrying not working well definitely has some truth behind it. If it shows anything, though, it's that the telepath's defenses can be breached if he's distracted."

[ July 12, 2003, 06:48: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack quietly takes the reigns of the spell, still looking at the ring.

Jack "Let's see, how does that work ... okay, there's the capture ... there's the amplification ... there's the redirect. Hmm, how's it determining the direction ..."

John "Hang on, how are you reading it without probing?"

Jack "Well, every spell, enchantment or no, interrupts the natural flow of energy just a little. It's not much, and it goes back to its intended path immediately after the interruption. This highlights the runes behind any spell, if you can figure out what the natural flow of energy is supposed to look like. I can, so I can read it without any probes at all."

Jack "Oh, you asked if I had any more of those? No, but I make them, so it's no problem...."

Jack distractedly tosses John a ration.

Jack "Ah, that's how ... hmm, I can use that ..."

Jack reaches out his hand, and a very small green blip can be seen moving towards the ring. When it reaches, the ring immediately shoots out a blindingly bright flash of white light directly at Jack's hand. When it clears, blistered burns can be seen on the outstretched hand.

Jack "Yep, just as I thought; a reflection." Glances at hand "It does pack quite a wallop, doesn't it? I probably ought to fix that..."

Jack looks at his hand a moment, and the burns fade away.

Jack "One more test; what if it's delayed..."

This time, Jack forms a green band between his thumb and forefinger, and a little green blip forms in the middle. Jack drops his hand, and the blip heads towards the ring. When it gets there, the ring responds with an identical bLast of white light. However, rather than hitting Jack, it follows the path of the blip, and hits the ground, producing a steaming crater.

Jack smiles widely.

Jack "I have a new toy!" Jack's smile fades. "...Oh, wait, I'll need to give it back. It won't teleport with me anyway. Or do I need to give it back? John, you didn't answer my question about what happens if you don't have the ring on your person when you leave your tower. Does it qualify as official abandonment or something if someone else picks it up ... like I've done?"

Jack quickly checks to make sure he is out of John's lunging range; he is.

ooc:[Let's see, Jack wouldn't likely get a straight answer from John if that was the case (but he might if it weren't), but Arthur or Narp might speak up (especially Arthur, if there was something about the circumstances in his favor; he was the one who suggested Jack grab it, after all). If some guild rule forbade Arthur, it wouldn't be likely to bind Narp similarly, and Narp does seem to be up on guild rules. Just a thought.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: You're trying your best to make this awfully complicated, aren't you? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

John glares impatiently at Jack, while Arthur glances up from his seat. "The requirements are as follows. Ahem. 1) The ring's owner must not intentionally allow the ring to leave his care. Care is defined as on his person or within arm's reach. 2) The ring's owner must not intentionally allow anyone but himself to handle the ring, with the exception of the apprentice upon final transfer of the ring. 3) No third party may be involved in the transfer of the ring. 4) If any of these conditions exist without the will and/or intent of the owner, he is obligated to do his utmost to correct them, even at cost of his life. 5) If any of these conditions exist with the will and/or intent of the owner, or if he does not act to correct them, he shall be subject to such punishment as the ruling Guild board shall determine; ownership of the ring and any other related rights shall devolve on a party chosen by the board. It's pretty simple. If he abandons it on purpose, he's punished and someone else is appointed. If it wasn't under his control, he's obligated to regain possession of it."

D (aside to Jack) "From what I've seen of the guild in question, they take the possession and handling of apprenticeship rings very seriously, even when there is no enchantment involved. For a ring like this, which is obviously very heavily guarded, it's probably a very touchy matter."

Arthur "If you're thinking about any alternate means of getting the ring into my possession, remember that I'm forbidden to accept it and would have to return it to John. If you're thinking about further study on the ring, that's something that would have to be negotiated after I receive it, as John's forbidden to permit you to handle it. Frankly, I understand that the rules are quite blunt; but remember that our guild values its traditions very highly, and apprenticeship rings are among the oldest and most revered traditions we hold to. Besides, the sooner we resolve this, the sooner you can finish the detection spell and we can get on with our plans."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Narp looks at the map for a few minutes.

"ok, we have the telepath alone and unprotected and what looks like a bunch more bandits. well, if your outnumbered, the recomendation is generally attack. i think... if this is ok with everyone, Jack, you teleport something big over there so it looks like where running. John, you teleport us quietly to near where the telepath is, i'm assuming you know the terrain, then we find the telepath. after that, we've only got a massive bandit problem. ah, well. one problem at a time. did i say thanks for the bow? anyway, thanks. this one is near to falling apart."

ooc:[my writing hasn't been to good lately. need to do better.]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[You don't like complications? All right then.]

Jack "Fair enough then - as long as you are both in agreement as to who the ring belongs to."

Jack hands the ring over to John, then turns his attention to Arthur's spell.

Jack "From the looks of it, the telepath is busy coordinating an attack. Hmm, is that this mountain they are converging on? No matter; we won't be here much longer. This is actually quite a spell. In making it a visual display you may have added a feature you weren't expecting. Remember how you kept saying that the number of people in the caves kept changing? Now that I'm maintaining the spell, I can feel the number changing, but the display fills in the critical detail: those twenty some returns are all coming from the exact same spot. He did successfully deflect the seeker looking for him, but the visual aspect of the spell makes him obvious. I can't distinguish the Baron though. It could be that the posessed register as being at the telepath's location as well as their own, and so that seeker got confused and headed towards the telepath, then got deflected."

Jack "Oh, and Narp - you're welcome. I had to take it from the gaurd, but I didn't have any use for it myself."

Jack "As for the teleporting ... would a large boulder teleported so that it is resting against the door in your tower, John, suffice? If the teleport gets traced, he'll get someone to try breaking in, and that someone will find the door resistant to opening, both causing it to take longer to open and convinicing him that we are actually in there. I'll also send the psionic block along with it, incorporating your wonderful suggestions, John; we've all got talismans for protection and camoflauge now, so the block is only serving to give away our location; if our adversary thinks we are still using it, the spot he can't see will become his target - not us."

Jack glances at a sizeable boulder.

Jack "All right - I'm set; John, if you would...."

Jack and John simultaneously cast their teleports; the boulder and block end up in John's tower, with the rock leaning against the door. The group ends up next to a cave enterance.

ooc:[Note for when battling the Psi: the talismans will prevent the Psi from acting directly on the party - if he tries to mind control, he'll hit nothing (psionics diverted to a spot with no mind); if he tries to move one of our characters, that one will feel a breeze off to their left as the Psi grabs air (if he corrects to the right, he targets an undefended location, and he hits the corrected spot - on the real target's right). However, if he uses telekenisis to throw a rock, the rock is undefended, and gets thrown properly. However, we're camoflauged, so he will need to be able to see us directly, or through an agent's eyes, in order to target. We've already established that there aren't any possible agents in the cave.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: I wasn't prepared for Jack's sudden possessiveness about "his" new toy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I didn't catch that you were setting up conflict between Arthur and John until after your Last post.]

Arthur quickly does another life detection spell, slightly altered to make it look like it was cast from the castle. Signs of life are shown, with the usualy delay, a few hundred yards inside the cave. A detect magic spell, however, does not detect anything.

Arthur "That's odd. It's the same thing I encountered on the way to the manor. There seems to be some sort of selective filter which allows some spells to pass and blocks others. I don't know if it blocks on the inward path or the return path, though, or how it would affect spells cast inside it. It's almost like a semi-permeable membrane."

Everyone takes a moment to check themselves over and make any Last-minute preparations for whatever they will find.

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[I was just setting up the possibility; your character, your decision. No matter.]

Jack looks at the cave thoughtfully.

Jack "We could set up a probe ... let's see ... I need a spell detection stealth bubble to work in ..."

Jack sets up a spell detection supression bubble, and pulls a small wooden disk out of his robes.
Jack "Hmm, Last one; I'm going to need to find a decent carpenter soon. Ah well; they are for practicing enchantments, and that I have been doing. Anyway ... on the probe itself, I need a recall mechanism ... a scanning mechanism ... some spell detection stealth ... some psionic stealth ... and some memory ..."

Jack takes a moment to write several glowing runes on it.

Jack "There, that should do it. We'll know what's up in a minute."

Jack rolls the disk into the cave. A moment later, the disk rolls back out of its own accord. Jack picks it up, looks at it for a bit, and puts it in a pocket of his robe.

Jack "It took a quick look around from the inside, and came up with some interesting results. First off: John, that barrier is your spell. Nice work by the way, but I suspect you don't remember making it; there is a forced aspect to it, as though someone was searching memory for instructions rather than just doing it. As for what it does, it is a selectively permiable membrane. It traps any magic it finds on the way in and suppresses traces very effectively, but lets psionics and solid matter pass freely. I suspect it registers Arthur's detect life spell as psionics, but it takes a while to make that determination, hence the delay. The probe noticed several spells running on the inside, but didn't get enough of a look to tell what they do. We shouldn't have any trouble getting in."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[only the baron's soldier's where converging on us. now, let's see...the telepath can't send the baron back to where he thinks we are because the bandits are nearing the baron's manor, so i guess he just keeps going.]

they had been riding for an hour now and they where getting nervious. the baron seemed almost obsessed on that mountain peak ahead and only thirty had been left to guard the manor with bandits about. but, he was the baron and maybe he knew something they didn't.

the bandits could easily see the the baron's manor and the town if they climbed a tree, although it all looked like toy blocks. in two more hours, they would be there. the plan was simple, they couldn't take the town until reinforcements got here, so they would attack the back wall of the manor. with only thirty soldier's on guard, it would be easy.

Narp, remembering the Last cave they went into, picked up a stick and said "D, can you cast silence on the stick? and Jack, could you cast a life-simulation spell on it?"

"sure."

"adapting the spell from a flat, regular cylindrical base to a long, irregular cylindrical base will provide a little practice."

two short spells later, Narp rapped the stick around the cave walls, then stepped in.

a short walk and many raps in, the cave diverged into three different paths. from the left, one up the cave wall and going up, the other low on the cave wall and going down, the other level with the floor and going right. the wizard's could see a pale and shifting spell over all three doors and the space between. so, everyone stopped short of the room.

ooc:[hope you don't mind, but Jack's all out of disks and i didn't want to spend most of today, real-time, deciding how we're going to enter the cave.]

[ July 15, 2003, 19:03: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack looks closely at the door.

Jack "Someone spent a lot of time on this. Again, it has that forced look to it."

John "Yes, yes it does. Hmm, I recognize every one of thse runes ... they seem to be in my style ... and have my signiture. That's odd; I don't remember making it."

ooc:[We've never actually told him he was being possessed, have we? He could readily be in denial at this point (especially with the comment Narf gave him about thinking he had been blocking).]

Jack's eye wanders over to the hinges.

Jack "Hmm. It seems the focus was on protecting the door and lock. The hinges were ignored completely, and could be removed without difficulty. As we are in a hurry, I suppose we can do without disenchanting the door for now; the enchantment will still be here on the way out ... Narp, got a knife?"

ooc:[Someone searching through another's memory for instructions on complex tasks would likely miss something of how they are supposed to be used; forgetting about the hinges, for example.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[oops. musta missed that.]

Narp "at least seven or eight."

Narp sits down, pulls his pack out and rumages through it till he finds a knife about four inches long and an inch wide with a rounded tip. "this should do."

"i must remember to get a screwdriver once where back in town. now, i suppose it's best i remove those screws."

Narp sets to work on the screws. fortunatly, nothing blows up.

after a few minutes work, the screws come off. Narp carefully pulls the door out and lays it aside.

beyond lies a coridoor filled with heat. Narp's eyebrows are singed as he takes several steps backword.

ooc:[uh-oh, his scholar's showing.]

[ July 19, 2003, 09:03: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack peers into the halway.

Jack "That's odd ... there isn't enough power being used to sustain the heat that seems to be there."

D "You're right. That means one of three things: either the heat is an illusion, it isn't being generated by magic, or it isn't being added to and will cool off on its own after a while."

Jack "Well, the first is easy enough to check..."

Jack reaches into his robes and pulls out an empty cloth bag, and throws it down the corridor.

Jack "Now, we wait a few moments."

A few minutes later, the bag is still just sitting there.

D "It seems the heat is an illusion. I can take care of that."

D casts his trusty dispel on the corridor, and the heat dissapears. Jack walks in and picks up his bag.

Jack "It seems to be safe." Jack checks the detect life spell. "The psi seems to be just beyond the door at the end of this hallway."

The party moves catiously down the corridor.

When they reach the door, Jack looks closely at it.

Jack "This one isn't enchanted, but there are indications of traps of a mundane nature. Hmm, I wonder how the psi deals with them? I suppose there is probably a switch somewhere. Let's see...."

Jack begins examining the walls, floor, and cieling.

ooc:[Jack isn't used to dismantaling mudane stuff; he's likely to glance right past what he is looking for if it is concealed well.]

ooc:[done with this one unless we don't get any new Posts for a day or two.]

[ July 20, 2003, 07:58: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

After several moments waiting for Jack to find some sign of the traps he's looking for, Arthur becomes impatient and mutters something under his breath. The surface of the wall begins to glow as if it were red-hot, causing every crack and crevice to stand out clearly. A push switch to the upper left of the door, two dart traps on each side, and a trap door three inches to the left of Jack's foot are seen, besides numerous cracks and scratches in the wall which appear to be natural in origin.

Arthur "There, that's better. Narp, I think this is more your department than mine. Care to try your hand at the switch?"

[ooc: I suppose the switch doesn't have to disarm the traps; it could be a little more complex than that. Either way, Arthur'll let Narp take the darts in the arm. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

[ July 21, 2003, 03:10: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[gee, thanks, but no thanks.]

Narp looks at them for a few seconds, then says "ok. everybody back."

everybody shuffles off a few paces.

Narp grabs a large knife out of his pack. a really large knife. almost a small sword or a machette. then, he throws it, nothing fance, just a solid throw, at the switch.

*whack*

*clack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack*

*wham*

*BAM*

there was also a large block trap, which is now blocking the trap door.

the door swings open and a large block with a really long spear on the end of it with really long blades, covering the whole corridor so that only a contortionist could pass through unharmed is seen at the end of the corridor. there is no telepath there. with startling speed, the block starts heading toward the party. in fact, it's moving fast.

ooc:[can't be that easy. this wouldn't be much of a story if everything was easy.]

[Jack Simth]

Jack points at the block, and it is suddenly wrappen in a green glow, and starts moving slowly. The glow fades, but the slow motion remains.

Jack "That should buy us several minutes. Let's hope he doesn't have any mages within the shield capable of spell detection."

John "That was noisy. I don't think stealth is going to be much use anymore; detecting the spell would just be icing on the cake. The psi knows we're here by now."

Jack "You've got a point. I suppose I could just teleport the rock behind us, unless anyone else has a better idea."

ooc:[edit - nevermind my previous edit; I'm getting tired, and my grammer checking skills are going down the drain.]

[ July 22, 2003, 06:47: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: hit reply instead of edit.]

[ July 22, 2003, 07:04: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur casts a digging spell, and the block and spear drop nearly flush with the cave floor. Three figures are seen about one hundred yards down the tunnel, which appears to slope downward and to the right. All three are heavily armed with both melee and ranged weapons.

Arthur "Jack, any indications as to which of them is the psi?"

Before Jack can respond, the strangers fire their first volley. Two are firing bolts at an incredibly rapid pace, while the third is lobbing some sort of ignited shell. The shells shatter in mid-air, leaving a dust which lingers and does not seem to settle.

[ooc: The bows are chu ko nu or something of the sort--semi-auto crossbows fitted with exchangeable magazines. The shells just have a small combustible which burns down to the shell, causing it to burst. The dust is the damping dust Narp cooked up back on p.3 of the "shiny new RP thread" thread.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[note to self: get better traps. yeesh.]

Narp jumps to the side of the passegeway and yells "get some sort of blocking shield up, if you can!"

Jack says something about an interesting challenge. then a green glowing shield pops up. unfortunatly, it's fluctuating. John adds some more energy and the shield stabalizes a little.

Narp "ok, you think you could change it so i can shoot through? maybe make a little hole?"

Jack says something else about an intersting challenge, then a little hole appears near the wall. Narp fires off some shots, getting one of the crossbowmen in the arm and chasing them back around a corner.

Narp "we need to move and fast, now that we're detected."

ooc:[i know that Jack likes teleport spells for weapons, but that wouldn't be very tense, so i'm having the powder be to destabiling for teleport, since it would probably be an intricate spell, and while Jack's very good at it, he would be slowed down. at least, that's my excuse.]

[ July 22, 2003, 07:25: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Narf - clever.]

Just then, the damping dust starts impacting the shield. Every time a paticle impacts, there is a brief flare up, and a small grain of sand falls to the ground. Meanwhile, the glow from the shield decreases with each impact.

Jack "Damping dust! I've read about it, but we never got past theory on it; nobody could think of a worthwhile purpose, and the counter was simple enough - wind or excess energy. The spell that makes the wind is subject to the dust, but once the air is in motion it doesn't require a spell to maintain that motion, and the dust gets carried away. Excess power overloads the dust and negates its power. Arthur, are you up to a breeze?"

[ July 22, 2003, 07:33: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur "Hmmm. A breeze. Let's see what I can do..."

Suddenly, the air in front of the group is clogged with dirt and rocks which form a swirling funnel. The vortex sweeps down the tunnel, demolishing what's left of the shield. As the damping dust collides with the funnel, rocks and earth go flying in all directions, including several back at the party. The damping dust is carried along until the funnel impacts the tunnel wall down near the curve, with the resulting tremor dropping more dirt and stones along the tunnel. A brief rain shower helps clear the air of dust, both magical and ordinary.

Arthur "That should clear things up for a bit, although they probably have more of that dust. I hope you didn't want a drink anytime soon, Narp; I used the water in your canteen as a starter for that shower."

From around the corner, a brief greenish glow is seen as the cries of pain from the wounded soldier subside.

[ooc: Arthur does tend to take the direct path, even if it isn't the most practical one. Let's see; that probably leaves some effective damping dust along the floor, which could crop up later as (telekinetically propelled?) mud; someone has a healing spell/amulet/etc.; and we still have at least three healthy opponents. This is just getting good! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[ July 22, 2003, 07:46: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[didn't think of wind. but there is a problem: your pushing air against air, which would mean that you would have to keep putting power in it. breezes don't Last long if the fan is off. or in other words, i think there's a problem with your Posts. so my powder is still good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ok, it's my turn. but my brain is fried, so seeya tomorrow. ok,]

Narp "ok, Jack, you create one of those golems and send it after the ones in front of us. there probably going to send ones around behind us. that should at least tell us which of the other tunnels isn't a trap or if there's a hidden tunnel. D, you find us some place to teleport to. Arther, you find out where the telepath and his soldiers are. once Arther finds a likely location for the telepath, that's where we go. John, keep a watch for enemy spells. i'll keep watch."

Narp nocks an arrow and half-draws his bow.

ooc:[yeah, not much. but i couldn't think of anything else to do.]

[ July 23, 2003, 07:17: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack constructs another golem and sends it forwards.

After stepping into the mud, a green glow can be seen where the golem steps. With each step, the golem slows. After a few steps, it crumbles to dust.

Jack "Hmm, it seems the dust in the mud is still active. Let's see, the dust is stuck on the floor, so...."

Jack forms another golem, and sends it off down the tunnel. However, this one flies a short distance above the floor, and makes it through just fine.

Jack "It's fun playing with that golem spell; almost anything can be incorporated into it, with a little work."

[ July 23, 2003, 07:21: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: rrrrrgh_I_did_it_again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ]

[ July 23, 2003, 07:59: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur quickly checks for any signs of life.

Arthur "It seems our three friends have a few comrades around. I'd guess that there are parallel tunnels on either side of us, with a connecting tunnel running perpendicular through them." He pauses, then adds something to the spell. "In fact, it resembles a barracks, although only ten or twelve people are here right now. Jack, please verify this, but the three are running to our left, and five more are running alongside us in their general direction. There are two more farther to the left and stationary. I'm getting the delay from there, so I'd guess it's the psi and possibly a bodyguard. I can't tell exactly what, but it doesn't seem human."

[ July 23, 2003, 08:01: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack checks the life detection spell he is maintaining.

Jack "I've got the same readings. Of course, I should; it's the same spell at its core."

Sounds of battle can be heard down the hallway as the golem engages the soldiers at the end of the hall.

John "We could use some invisibility here, D"

D "Sure."

D makes the party invisible, then pulls out a small crystal ball and starts scrying.

[ July 23, 2003, 08:14: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[thanks to Jack for post-extending stuff]

a few minutes, and much tension, later...

D "i have there location."

Jack "i'm teleporting now. please fasten your hands together and put your bodies in an upright position. in the case of an emergency, scream as you go down the swirling vortex. please keep your appendages inside the dimensional effect at all times. thank you and have a safe ZAP."

ZAP!

as the party teleports in, they can see a round room with no one in it. and then a loud roar come from behind them.

ooc:[i was laughing while i was doing this. i'm at the weird part of tired.]

[ August 03, 2003, 02:06: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

At the sound, Jack calmly turns around, and sees what looks like a giant black bug. Its four legs clatter on the ground as it moves its two jagged arms to bring a half-eaten deer carcass up to its clattering mandibles, which make short work of the deer remains. The creature's antenna wave around momentarily, then it roars again. A woman's voice can be heard:

Woman "Oh do be quiet; nobody's here. If someone was, I'd know about it."

At that, the creature stops roaring, as though the voice held power over the creature. The woman steps into view from behind the creature; she is a shapely lass, wearing a fancy blue dress and a silver tiara.

ooc:[Good thing we are invisible to both sight and Psionics, isn't it? I'm thinking a giant black preying mantis, that roars.]

ooc:[Yes, that is a wierd point of tired.]

[ July 23, 2003, 10:01: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: assuming the psi/pet/hallway/entrance are behind us, I am going clockwise around the room.]

Arthur decides he would rather examine the room than the roar. It appears to be a combination armory and storage room. Next to the party are two sets of heavy, oaken, free-standing shelves. One is filled with comestibles and potables, the other with large cloth sacks. A well and a pump are next to the shelves. Further around are rows of racks for swords, spears, helmets, shields, and crossbows; most are empty, although a few weapons remain. A barred door beyond the racks leads to a cell. Completing the circle is a wooden doorway; the door is ajar and appears to lead to someone's private quarters.

Arthur finally turns to look at the beast, backing up to get a little more room as he does so. His foot catches in something as he turns, and he looses his balance, crashing into the nearest shelf. It rocks wildly, sending a massive keg crashing to the floor and soaking the party. Arthur attempts to stand up amidst a rain of vegetables but slips on the floor, now slick with foaming ale. He falls against the second shelf, which creaks loudly as it tips, then stops on the verge of falling. Before anybody can breath a sigh of relief, a shelf breaks, sending the entire unit crashing toward the party. The bags in the middle are carried with the shelf, which falls out from under the two on the top. Arthur rolls out of the way, while the others quickly step back. As the shelf hits the floor, it flips forward over the sacks on the floor. The two sacks from the top shelf are just catching up, and are catapulted directly at the party. Narp manages to catch one with a large knife and the other with his shield, causing them to burst and spewing flour over the entire party.

Damping flour.

Arthur finally manages to stand up, his foot still stuck in the bucket into which he was teleported.

[ooc: YAY! Time for some real fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ]

[ July 23, 2003, 22:42: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack hears the commotion, and turns around just in time to see the flour coat him. He looks down at himself, and notices he can see himself.

Jack "Hmm. Well, that's annoying. Ahh well; that's what capacitors are for...."

ooc:[The capacitor was inside his robes; neither the capacitor nor Jack's link to it would have been immediately affected.]

Jack squints, and and the flour on him can be seen to glow a brilliant green as Jack overloads it and the flour degrades into sand. The glow spreads out, forming an tight ovoid around Jack, where it clears considerably, flashing occasionaly as a little of the flour still in the air comes into contact. It quickly becomes clear that Jack is continuously supplying the shield, as it doesn't dim.

Jack "Now for the rest..."

At this point, the giant bug and the woman start to move on Jack, but suddenly find that they have more important worries when Jack casts his next spell; the other party members recognize it as a variation on the spell Jack used to retrieve John's ring. It has the same light bending characteristics, but this one doesn't have a quiet black dot at the center, and doesn't take nearly so long to form. No, this one forms instantly, and has a black sphere the size of a melon at its heart. The sphere forms touching the edge of Jack's shield, and the spell's true effect becomes apparent as everyone feels a strong tug towards the sphere, and everything starts rushing towards it; the swords, spears, helmets, shields, and crossbows from the rack, the comestibles and potables from the shelf, the large cloth sacks, the fragments of shelving, the dust and the very air in the room all rush into Jack's dark sphere. The only one in the room completely unaffected by it is Jack himself, safe in the shield he built.

ooc:[Any other objects weighing less than about 50 lbs that weren't well-secured would have flown into the sphere as well; a good grip (Narp's sword and shield, for example) counts as well-secured.]

After just an instant, the room is cleared, and Jack closes his hole in reality. Air rushes in through the open doorway to fill the void, ripping the doors off their hinges and howling like a banshee for a few seconds. Then Jack calmly turns back and smiles at the bug.

The bug starts to run out the open door, but a look from the woman stops it cold.

Jack "Sorry about that everyone; I couldn't figure out how to get the shielding around you properly because of the flour. Don't worry; we can get everything back; I sent it all to John's workroom."

John "All that damping flour in MY WORKROOM!?"

Jack pounds a fist into his palm.

Jack "I knew I was forgetting something. Sorry about that. I can help you clean it up later if you like."

ooc:[Some of the damping flour would have become ground into the cloth in the room; John, Arthur, and D still have some cleaning up to do before they can cast spells unencumbered by the dust.]

[ July 25, 2003, 18:24: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Narf'scompatshop]

ooc:[she's summoning her bandits. and the bug'll have enough flour on it to interfere with spells, for plot purposes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ok, don't post when your ready to fall asleep. gonna fix. ]

Reacting quickly, the psi stands still and closes her eyes for a moment. Also reacting quickly, Narp shoots the arrow which he had nocked. unfortunatly, the arrow is flicked aside two feet from her, into the wall, where it shatters. the peices go flying around the room, but nothing dangerous hits anybody anywhere vulnerable.

Her eyes snap open, and she frowns in concentration. Then, she mentally heaves the bug at the group. Narp is clipped on the upper shoulder and doees two full fips and a half-spin before hitting the wall, Jack is hit solidly on the upper chest and does three-quarters of a flip, ending up face down and somehow not very hurt and the bug hits John at an angle and knocks him flying into Arther, whose legs shoot out from under him. The bucket goes flying off his foot, bounces off the opposite wall and then the ceiling and finishes by landing on the bugs eye.

At that point, the bug rears up and looks for a target. a close target.

The psi appears to be concentrating with her eyes open.

ooc:[she's trying to find a way around our shielding. she can tell something is wrong, since her psi senses are telling her we're not where her eyes tell us she is. the bug is to distract us while she does that.]

[ July 24, 2003, 23:11: Message edited by: Narf'scompatshop ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Of course Jack isn't seriously hurt - he hadn't dropped the shield he used to hold off the flour coming his way and insulating himself from the effects of the wormhole while he eliminated the rest of the flour.]

ooc:[She's concentrating on getting around our defenses? Not for long....]

Jack teleports onto his feet, and then starts teleporting rocks from Arthur's mountain into the room, directly over the Psi's head. Large rocks. Lots of them. The woman notices before they hit, however, and starts throwing them telekenetically. Every time she does, Jack teleports the thrown rock back over her head. When Jack has a free moment, he teleports another rock in. After just a few seconds, the two reach equilibrium; it seems Jack can teleport things in just as fast as the woman can divert them with telekenisis. Equilibrium seems to be five large rocks, each of which gets teleported and telekenetically thrown a few times per second. Jack sweats profusely from the concentration, while the Psi perspires heavily for the same reason.

ooc:[Both Jack and the Psi are at their limit on how much they can handle at once. If the Psi tries something, she'll get hit on the head by a rock, and will be out of the fight. If Jack tries something, he'll miss a rock the Psi throws, and someone will get hit (probably Jack, if the Psi knows who is doing all the teleporting...). In the meantime, Narp, Arthur, D, the bug, and John are available for action; can the four remaining party members take on the bug?]

[ July 28, 2003, 18:31: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur grabs a nearby halberd and waves it in the general direction of the bug. Unimpressed, the bug snatches the weapon from his hands and snaps it in two with its mandibles. D and John decline to offer similar resistance and begin backing away, flinging anything they can find at the bug. All three periodically attempt to burn off the damping flour with which they are coated, but their attempts are fruitless. Just as the bug backs them up against a wall, John quickly tosses a side of pork into the air. While the bug is distracted, he dives under it and plunges down the well. Arthur and D look puzzled for a minute, but quickly decide to follow suit as the bug polishes off the meat. As they disappear down the well, a well-timed arrow from Narp smacks into the back of the bug's head. The arrow snaps, and the bug turns angrily around in search of its tormentor. Narp, across the room, appears to be a willing culprit. The bug begins to stalk in his direction.

[ July 27, 2003, 21:06: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Narp shoots it in the left eye. The bug leaves off stalking, rears up on it's hind legs and emits a shriek which momentarily stops everyone as they grab there ears in pain. unfortunatly, there was no rock above the telepath at that moment.

Narp takes the opportunity to shoot another arrow at it's right eye. unfortunatly, it snaps a limb up and blocks the arrow. then it charges at Narp. Narp throws his bow accross the room, drops his pack, waits till the Last second, then rolls under the bug. the case protects the arrows and the bug smacks into the wall. Narp takes a moment to shove the tip of his sword into a natural crack in the bugs armor while rolling. and he keeps on rolling till he reaches the other wall, where he rolls to his feet and turns to face the bug...

[ July 31, 2003, 07:48: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

The momentary break in the action gives Jack an idea, and he switches over to inertial teleports, placing the rocks the psi diverts in places where their intertia will carry them into the psi. It's only a slightly greater strain on Jack's concentration, as he is watching from a distance; the psi, however, is in the middle of it. When she knocks one away from her, it flies at her from behind. They are coming at her from multiple angles, and she now must react to new positions.

After a moment, it becomes clear that she can't handle the extra strain as one of the rocks gets through and hits her head rather hard, knocking her down. The remainder miss, but she doesn't get back up.

Jack teleports the ones that missed and drops them on the psi's head for good measure.

Jack turns and looks at the bug.

Jack "Now, what are we going to do about you?"

[ July 31, 2003, 08:30: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

At that moment, the well spews a veritable waterspout, from which the three missing mages appear. They seem waterlogged but otherwise healthy, and nearly all of the damping flour has been washed off. D promptly makes the party invisible again; Arthur sends a tornado to dance in front of the bug and distract it; and John fires off a couple of large fireballs. The flames glance off the bug's rear plating and strike the remainder of the shelves, quickly igniting them and devouring the remainder of the food. The bug shrieks again in rage.

John "That's a pity; I was looking forward to trying some of that salted beef. My, what a lot of noise from something with such a small head!"

D silences the bug, much to the relief of five pairs of ears.

Arthur "Much better. Maybe now I can think. Let's see..."

He sends a wave of force magic at the bug's legs to knock it down, followed by another wave to flip it. A blanket of force then holds it to the floor; by the strained bulging of its plates, it would seem that tremendous pressure is being applied to the gigantic insect. Everyone is grateful for the silence spell; it is evident from the wild gyrations of its legs and mandibles that it is making a dreadful racket.

Arthur "Should I just finish squishing it, or does someone have any ideas which would make less of a mess?"

A groan comes from what's left of the psi, who seems to be maintaining some level of consciousness despite the severity of her wounds.

[ooc: Given the filter spell and the "borrowing" of John's skills, it's possible that both the psi and the bug have death-activated spells. Also, it would be nice to get some answers from the psi. Doesn't have to be healing/interrogation; could be diary/journal/find-a-flunky-and-interrogate-him.]

[ July 31, 2003, 09:05: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "You seem to have burned enough of the flour off. We could teleport it somewhere; perhaps a cage, so it could be studied."

Jack "Meanwhile though, I ought to do something about that psi."

Jack walks over to the moaning woman, and baths her in a green light. Sparks flash as the flour is slowly overloaded, and after a moment, the flashes stop. Jack then forms a small green bubble between his hands, and places it into the woman's head.

Jack "There, that should hold your power in check for a time. I never did get to the method for chaining a spell to another unwillingly. That would probably be quite useful here. No matter. That was quite well played. Now then...."

Jack reaches down to start healing the Psi.

ooc:[Feel free to stop him if you think she's better off injured.]

[ July 31, 2003, 10:14: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

A few moments later, bandits burst through the door.

Narp hits one in the chest with an arrow as several throw familair bags through the air.

The psi, although still wounded, does something clever and suddenly backhands Jack accross the room. He slams into a wall.

Arther gets two bags in the chest and Narp gets one on his shield. John manages to duck and the bag hits the force wall holding the bug down. fortunatly, it doesn't burst. unfortunatly, it appears to be dissolving the shield.

ooc:[since your spell is covering her head, she's improved her neural signals. it'll improve her strength and speed, but she can't do it for long. and i decided my character doesn't have to be the only one to hit walls. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ]

[ August 01, 2003, 07:07: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack stands back up, and notices his left arm is dangling loose.

Jack "Hmm, that needs fixing...."

The psi makes a lunge at Jack, but he teleports her back, then levitates her in the middle of the room, keeping everything out of reach.

Jack's right hand glows green, and he runs it over his left arm, which starts responding again.

Jack "That's better."

The bandits throw a few more bags of flour at Jack, but he teleports aside before they can hit.

Jack (to Psi) "Hmm, I was expecting you to wait until I was done healing your wounds before playing again. I suppose it's because your reenforecements arrived."

The bandits let loose a volly of arrows at Jack, but he again teleports aside.

[ August 01, 2003, 19:18: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur quickly throws up a massive force wall in front of the bandits, channelling through his hands to avoid the flour clinging to his wet clothing. The wall is losing power fairly quickly, but should Last for half a minute or so despite the hordes of angry bandits pounding on it.

Arthur "Narp, why don't you rinse the rest of that flour off? It would sure make it easier for Jack to patch you up."

Another force wall knocks Narf off his feet and slides him into the pump, snapping it off at its base and rendering it useless.

Arthur "Umm...oops. Heh heh."

John grabs the bucket from the well and lowers it as quickly as he can. He manages to get a full bucket up and douse Narp with it just as the force wall disintegrates.

Arthur "What? That should have had at least another ten or fifteen seconds left! Ohhhh..."

Three wizards at the back of the group are just finishing up their dispels and beginning on some decidedly hostile-looking fireballs.

[ August 09, 2003, 21:51: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooo:[ok, i tried posting and it came out bad. boring.]

[ August 06, 2003, 08:18: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack kicks the sack of flour off the bug.

Jack teleports aside from yet another arrow, and glances at the now drenched Narp.

Jack "Ah, I see you've gotten the dust cleaned off. We can leave now then."

With that, Jack teleports the party to the animation mage's cave. Narp, Arthur, Jack, D, and John all find themselves standing on the ground, while the black bug and the psi can be seen thrashing about in the air, out of reach of everything.

Jack "There - much easier than binding them to the ground."

Jack "Arthur, there was a massive power drain on your robe; did you take a hit from a flour bag while I wasn't looking?"

Jack (to Narp) "Your shield still had some dust on it, but I thought it would be best to leave the dust there, in case you need to stop a spell anytime soon, so I left it behind during the standard teleport; I'll get it now."

Jack holds his hands a few feet apart, and does that same spacewarp thing again, and Narp's shield clatters to the floor.

In watching the shield fall, Jack notices that his right boot stayed behind as well.

Jack "Ah yes, I forgot I left my boot behind as well. Hmm..."

Jack holds his hands a few feet apart, repeats his spell, catches his boot, and baths it in a green glow. The boot sparks briefly at its toe as the dust overloads. Then Jack puts it back on.

Jack "That should do it. Is anyone injured?"

[ August 08, 2003, 07:44: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, it's been a few days. maybe my brain has cleared up. oh yes, the baron...]

Narp "any chance you could integrate the flour into the shield? In the meantime, maybe you should see if you can mind read the psi."

Narp sits down, pulls his toolkit out of his backpack and starts polishing his sword and new bow. he puts the shield down face-up near him.

"Oh, yeah. You should probably see where everybody is."

a few minutes earlier, near the mountain...

The baron shook his head suddenly. what was he doing? He was chasing the group that had...but...none of his actions where characteristic. He looked around in confusion. one thing seemed apparent: "Get some real scouts out!"

All rulers were trained to recognize mental influence. The effectivity depended on the individual and it wasn't perfect, but still...
"Head back! We're going back to the manor! Fast!"

The soldier's we're even more confused and worried about the baron's state of mind. But at least he had decent scouts out now.

The bandits approaching the manor could see it clearly now the rain was gone; it hadn't Lasted long. The leader gave an order and they all made sure that any bright object was either sheathed or covered with mud, that nothing would clank and pLastered their faces. The advance began again.

ooc:[The psi could have been smoothing over small disagreements; it could manifest, long term. it looks like it cleared up. Yaay! humourus song reference intended.]

[ August 09, 2003, 07:21: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Yep, it's been in progress for a long time. Progress, KS, that is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

Arthur "Power drain? Was that the sucking sound coming from my robes? Yes, I caught a couple of bags in the chest while you were fixing your arm."

Arthur confers with John for a moment, then turns to face the group.

Arthur "John and I think we should probably get back to the baron, or at least back to the manor. We need to check on the bandits which were headed there. There isn't any pressing reason for us to stay here since the bandits are gone and the bug and psi are incapcitated. We can come back later, or we could bring them along with us, if need be. And John's first responsibility is to the baron, even though this adventuring thing is fun."

John "Yes, and there is the small matter of my workroom to attend to." He rolls his eyes. "Actually, I have another important matter to attend to. Jack, D, Narp, I need you as witnesses. Should Arthur survive the battle with the bandits at the manor, or if there is no battle, the third signet ring shall be his. If I am killed in the battle, I solemnly charge Narp to act as my agent and to surrender the ring to Arthur."

Arthur looks at John in surprise for a moment, then turns to the rest of the group. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's find out what's going on out there!" He mumbles something to himself, then recalls the scrying spell they were using earlier.

[ooc: I'll let someone else decide what's happening out there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[ August 10, 2003, 20:46: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Sorry Narp, that stuff is inimical to magic; the best I could do with it is put some glue on it to hold the dust in place, but I don't have any glue with me. Besides, I'd have to keep leaving it behind every time we teleport or burn the dust out. By the way, Arthur, your robes should be clear of the dust now, it was burned out in the teleport."

Jack "However, I could enchant it to dismantle incoming spells and store the energy to power something. It would even eat dispels. However, I'd set it to ignore my spells, so I could pop it around with us. I could even seal it between the wood backing and the steel coating so it would be safe from dust. However, that would take a few hours, and we don't have the time quite yet. Meanwhile, consider what spell you would like me to put in."

Jack "As for the bug and psi, we may as well leave them here. They're harmless as long as I continue to maintain all three spells. If we bring them, someone could dust them, breaking the holding spells."

ooc:[Of course, someone might come along in the cave, break the binding as well, and then gate them over. We didn't confirm that first mage's death, and it is his cave.]

[ August 11, 2003, 05:52: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Narp "well, i was thinking you could manipulate the metal to absorb the dust, but sucking up spells..."

starts muttering to himself about various enchanted shields...

Arther finishes his scrying spell..."There's about a hundred life forms approaching the castle. there's still only thirty there and the baron's turned around. Seems to have broken the psi's control."

ooc:[well, i didn't see that i had much to do. the only things left: mind read psi. can't do. check castle: can't do. teleport to castle: can't do. defend castle: can do. squeek like a mouse: can do. and if he's gonna take a few hours to think...]

[ August 12, 2003, 08:02: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur "Okay, I think we should leave for the manor house. The hundred presumed bandits are about 4 minutes out, while the baron and his men are closer to 20 or even 30. Jack, how about taking us back? Not to the workroom, either; I don't want to deal with the dust anytime soon."

John "The dining hall should be fine, as it's usually deserted around this time of night. We eventually need to head for the courtyard, but I don't want to risk appearing there in the midst of any guards that are left. Most the castle has heard rumors now that three ghosts are visiting the baron." He shakes his head. "The problem with most of these peasant folk is that they're so superstitious. Seeing magic in action does more to increase their superstition rather than lessen it. They just don't understand that magic is an orderly art, not a haphazard jumbling of mystical reagents and mumblings."

Three seconds later, the party is back in the dining hall, which is dark and deserted.

[ August 14, 2003, 04:47: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack retrieves Narp's shield with his spacewarp, while D lights his staff again.

Jack (as he hands Narp his shield) "While I could possibly manipulate the metal, I wouldn't be able to manipulate it where it's needed - touching the dust. If the dust were removed, I altered the metal, and then the dust were reapplied, I couldn't re-seal the metal without ruining the dust. This is one of those applications where it's actually much simpler to use a normal method. However, it should still stop a spell or two as is."

Under the light from D's staff, the dining room comes into view. Everything has been cleaned up and put away, although there is a slight lingering scent of the Last meal: roast duck. The red velvet chairs at the Baron's table have all been neatly tucked in under the tablecloth, which has a detailed scene depicting a silver knight, clad head to toe in shining plate, doing battle with with a large green dragon, wings spread and belching flame. The benches at the rough-hewn servants' table, worn smooth from years of use, have been slid under the table, without ceremony, and fresh straw has been lain on the floor.

Jack "Narp, how do we go about organizing a defense?"

[ August 14, 2003, 07:18: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i'm assuming the manor has a central turret which is the highest and then a lower wizard's tower and that the walls have lower tower's.]

Narp "mumble mumble. mumble. general mumble high ground mumble. defensive mumble mumble."

"Ok, Jack, John, Arther, D. D, you make all of us invisible, then we go up to the top of the center tower. two of you face the woods on the right, two of you face the woods on the left. If the bandits have any kind of leader, and we can't assume they don't, they'll attack all along the wall, then concentrat some of there forces on the weak points. Their greatest advantage is suprise, so Jack, you send a golem at the bandits. make sure no-one in the manor knows where it comes from, since we don't know their attitude towards us. we don't need it to do much damage, just reveal their presence. Since they'll have flour to, it probably won't anyway. Then, when the bandits are fully engaged, you all start bLasting at their rear ranks so there's no friendly fire. At that point, it won't matter so much when we reveal ourselves. I know the towers are in the way, but work around them. I'll give suggestions as nessasary."

ooc:[feel free to stick strategetic type words in Narp's mouth.]

[ August 14, 2003, 08:24: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack teleports everyone to the roof of the central tower, and then retrieves Narp's shield via spacewarp. The view from the tower would be splendid, if only it was light out. Jack teleports in a bunch of sand for the golem.

Jack "Let's see...."

Jack creates a golem from the sand he teleported in, but this isn't quite a standard golem; its left arm is thin and jagged, with no hand. It looks suspiciously like a saw blade.

Jack "There - that should get them noticed."

Jack (to golem) "Cut tree limbs off of the trees in that forest and drop those tree limbs on the bandit army in that forest from high above. Dodge anything sent your way. Do not enter any clouds of dust."

Hearing its command, the golem starts to fly off to the forest, but Jack intervens and teleports it to just above the tree line. The golem ducks into the trees, and a few moments later, low thuds and faint screams can be heard from that direction.

Jack brings in more sand and starts repeating the procedure....

Jack "That arm can't bend much - I had to reenforce it to make it hard enough to saw wood. But then again, it doesn't need to bend much."

[ August 16, 2003, 06:34: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

The forest did not come up to the castle walls--such a state would allow enemies to approach unnoticed. It did, however, come close enough that Jack's golems could harass the bandits until they were within two and a half bowshots from the castle. Those closest to the leader were staying fairly close together with shields held above their heads; several on the edges were dragging; and a few had thrown down their weapons and were in flight, cursing the "haunted" woods. All told, there were still eighty-five or ninety fighting men, several with slight wounds. Most were armed with swords, although eight or ten sergeants carried halberds.

The bandits had gladly left the cover of the wood and its assault of branches, finding it was still dark enough not to be seen. They had slowly advanced up the hill toward the manor house, stopping about a bowshot away for some brief instructions from their lieutenant, right around the time the party teleported to the central tower.

As the bandits resume their approach, several explosions occur behind them. When they turn around, a force wall sweeps through the group a foot from the ground, knocking dozens off their feet. A few try to run, but are stopped by a gruff word from their commander. They form ranks and head for the wall double-time, silently preparing for the attack.

[ August 17, 2003, 01:45: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[sounds like the alert has been given. maybe half servants/half guards? in any case, i'll call them all guards.]

shouts echo from the walls. A few moments later, globes of magical light flare out around the wall. John mutters "now those, i remember. A minor, but well-done spell." Guards run out of the towers and line the walls as ladders and grappeling hooks hit the wall. Bags of flour fly both ways, but the globes avoid those aimed at them. They don't appear to have any substance, simply floating in air. Guards push ladders and hack at ropes.

Narp "The defenders are holding, but barely. Maybe a noisy distraction would be better next time, Jack. A few minutes more, then bombard."

at the walls, several on both sides pull out low-level magical items.

ooc:[there. something fun for the next person. The globes don't nessasarily have to be all John's idea, to.]

[ August 20, 2003, 06:07: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack teleports his golems back, who are all holding tree branches, having had no quarry in the forest to drop them on for a time.

Jack "Noisier, hmm?"

Jack (to golems) "Cancel previous orders. Return to that forest, drop the branches you are carrying, find a tree at least three feet in diameter at its base, or failing to find such a tree, the largest tree in the forest; cut it down, bring it to a position five feet away from this tower, and await further orders."

The golems, having their orders, start to fly back towards the forest, but Jack again teleports them to just above the tree line.

Jack "There - give them a minute or two to find and fall a good-sized tree. When they get back here, just tell me where you want them to drop it. The crash should be very noisy, and even those who can't hear will feel the thump when it hits the ground. There should be no mistaking it."

Jack "... or did you want me bombarding them some other way?"

Jack "Hey Arthur, how tight of a control do you have on the weather? Could you force the attackers to go through snow drifts or something without swamping the turrets with it? That would slow the attackers down a lot, without hindering the defense much."

[ August 20, 2003, 06:58: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur "Snow? Well, I suppose I could get snow, but limiting it to such a narrow zone would more than likely limit its density as well. I don't think it would be more than an annoyance. Now, rain, that I can do. I don't think it would be easy to climb that hill in a raging thunderstorm..."

Arthur steps away for a moment and concentrates. Low clouds suddenly gather, very low, some just a few feet above the central tower. They converge on a spot over the base of the hill, triggering a deluge so heavy it sounds like a nearby waterfall. The storm remains stationary long enough to create a muddy slough, then begins methodically working toward the manor. The grass quickly becomes slick with mud, and bandits soon are slipping every few steps. A few completely lose their balance and slide down the hill, only to sink in the yard-deep mud there. The storm stops about ten yards from the castle gates and offers yet another gift to the already-weary bandits--hail. The warriors struggle to keep their balance on the slick hill while raising their shields to ward off the fist-sized stones. The few who were already at the wall are torn between continuing the attack on their own or waiting for their comrades.

Arthur "Jack, if you could take this and link it to a good power source, it could Last for a while. If you want to use a capacitor, we can give them a good burst and then try something else. Either way, I'll need a substantial rest if I sustain this for much more than another thirty seconds."

Meanwhile, John comments to Narp, "Well, Narp, I guess that rules out any kind of sortie from the gates. Maybe if we had some good light out there, we could hit them with ranged weapons."

[ August 23, 2003, 03:28: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[ok. post. if i remember correctly, Jack's drained his capacitater. i can't remember how long it takes to charge.]

Jack "The capacitater has been drained. it will be a while before it is charged again."

ooc:[ugh.]

a few bags sail upwards, but few manage to reach the clouds. those that do however, disapate it as Arther reaches the limits of his control.

Arther "Well, that's it."

From the wall, glowing red missiles shoot from the end of a wand held by a guard and seek targets standing below. several of the bandits stagger and a few fall. then a furious but limited echange of magic takes place, with the bandits getting the worse of it as they try to avoid hitting the other bandits on the wall, who are still struggling with the gaurds.

On the hill below, one bandit is moving things on an object. It appears to be made of two dials extending out from a handle, one vertical and one horizontal, moving on two curved peices. The bandit moves one of them to one quarter from the left and the other all the way to the top. The bandit then triggers it, and it shoots out a huge ball of heat, forty feet accross. The heat is not intense though. Repeated applacations while the bandits struggle helps them out of much of the morass. Narp, however, takes the opportunity to shoot the bandit, since the heat produces some light. Another bandit quickly takes it up, and Narp has his next target.

Narp "Yeah. But with only thirty guards and half of them servants, i wouldn't want to try to sally."

ooc:[not that i came up with that sally part immediatly. i've done better than this post.]

[ August 26, 2003, 05:39: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Yep - it's empty; it takes a day or so to fully charge off Jack's normal excess production, but he has been casting quite merrily recently and hasn't been able to charge it as quickly as he normally would. Hmm, Arthur wasn't around when Jack explained what his rings do, was he?]

Jack "Arthur, you're drawing off your internal reserves? Ouch. Umm..." Jack removes one of his rings, and runs his fingers around the inside for a moment "There, I've configured my spare to give you acess for an hour or so; just pretend it's a circle of mages producing power for your spells. It should more than sustain the spells I've seen you casting quite readily. I can make you one later - my standard fee is four pounds of lead, but I'd need that in advance, as my capacitor is currently drained."

ooc:[If you're curious why lead, ask him about it - I've got an explanation ready; it even makes some amount of sense.]

Jack hands the ring to Arthur, then glances at Narp as he nocks another arrow.

Jack "You need more arrows. Let's see ... are any of those the right size?"

Jack looks down at the battlefield, and teleports one of the bandits, an archer, to a point a foot past the edge of the tower, and holds him there with some levitation. Jack then reaches down and pulls the arrows out of the very bewildered bandit's quiver, and hands them to Narp.

Jack "Are these the right size? There are more archers if not."

Before the bandit can gather his wits, Jack cancels the levitation spell, and he falls. Hearing a moan from below, Jack glances down.

Jack "Hmm, not high enough. Ah well, I can try again."

Jack again teleports the archer, over the battlefield this time, well above the level of the tower. The poor guy falls and lands on one of his fellows; neither get back up.

At this point, Jacks golems start flying back, collectively carrying a hundred foot tall maple.

Jack "Ah, the tree's ready. Where should I have them drop it?"

[ August 26, 2003, 07:05: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Nope, he wasn't there. I don't think he even knows about the rings, except to sense that there some sort of enchantment present.]

Arthur "That sounds useful. I definitely would like to acquire one of these when we're done here. Four pounds of lead, let's see...yes...Yes, I can do that. Is there any particular reason for your fondness for lead?"

D "As for the tree, I recommend dropping it as high up the hill as practical without having the branches hit the wall. Drop it lengthwise across the hill, and it should roll or slide on down and cause some serious damage on the way."

John "Sound good to me. The only improvement I can think of is to set it on fire for the extra damage to morale."

Arthur puts the ring on and is immediately pleased with the results. Experimenting a little, he tries some lightning bolts, knocking two of the bandits off the wall. Meanwhile, the attackers on the hill have wielded their bows and are unleashing a hail of arrows on the castle.

Arthur "It seems I have better control of the weather with this. I assume the extra power is making up for the lack of finesse. Not bad, although it could backfire pretty badly if I push things too hard. Give me a minute, and I think I can sustain a force wall to shield off most of these arrows. Of course, that could block our attacks, but give me a few seconds' warning and I should be able to manage a brief hole if I don't have to deal with too much of that flour." He starts mulling over the requirements of the shield, muttering under his breath and ticking off items on the three fingers of his right hand.

[ August 28, 2003, 06:01: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[post coming. ok, not much for Narp to do...]

Narp "Yeah, the top of the slope is good. You just have to remember to release it low to the ground and with some momentium so it keeps going and doesn't make a hole."

at that moment, one of the item-weilder's among the bandits took aim at the tower with something. Then Narp hits him with an arrow. That gives one of the braver bandits a chance, and he takes up the abandoned sextant-like instrument and releases a ball of fire at the tower.

Narp *retaliating at the bandit* "Could one of you take care of that, please?"

ooc:[so i invented something.]

[ August 30, 2003, 06:37: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack pulls his capacitor out of his robes, taps his index finger to it, and a glowing green band can be seen trailing to the gem as he pulls his hand away. Jack then flicks his finger at the fireball, and the loop connects with the glowing ball of orange flame. Jack releases the green line from his finger, and it snaps back at the fireball. An instant after it impacts, the return path to the capacitor grows thick and bright as the fireball shrinks down to nothing. Once the fireball is gone, the green band is yanked back into the capacitor, and its glow increases slightly.

Jack "Hmm, not much was recoverable from that fireball. Ah well, it's something."

Jack tucks his capacitor back into his robe, and watches the golems head his way, still carrying the tree.

Jack "As for the lead - I suppose it might not have happened here; lead became the medium of exchange after an alchemist discovered a method to get enormous amounts of energy out of it. Unfortunately, the alchemist didn't live to enjoy the fruits of his labor, as he wasn't prepared for the discharge. The city didn't fare too well either."

The golems arrive, Jack directs them, and they head off to drop the tree.

Jack "It took four specialists to figure out what happened - a psychometrist, an alchemist, a minisculist, and an animatronist - but after a month they were able to recover his work. As an alchemist, he couldn't directly manipulate the forces he needed to, so his method was rather roundabout. However, he managed to convert roughly five percent of the mass of the lead to energy - three protons, three electrons, and seven neutrons per atom - leaving the rest of the material undisturbed. The pound of lead he had used released more energy than he was prepared to handle. After the investigation, it was found that the method lent itself surprisingly easily to magic, with the benefit that a mage could capture the energy to power spells. The result is a rather worthless yellow metal, useful for its conductive properties, low melting point, and color, but little else. Unfortunately, only natural lead works. There are a handful of transmutation spells that can produce lead well enough to be used for the conVersion, but they all require an energy input in excess of the amount gained from burning the lead."

At this point, the golems throw the tree down the hill, and the poor bandits that can't get out of the way in time are left lying flat in the mud.

Jack "My fee is just double my costs; it takes a little over a terawatthour to produce one of these gems, which can be obtained from burning two pounds of lead. Normally, I just get that out of my capacitor; unfortunately, it's drained at the moment, so I'd need the lead in advance."

ooc:[A unit conVersion can be gotten here (http://www.OnlineconVersion.com/energy.htm); beyond the conVersion to English units and some rounding, the numbers come off of E=mc^2 and the relative masses of the two elements (to get the element left behind as ash, find lead on a periodic chart, subtract three from the atomic number, and check the matching element.]

[ August 30, 2003, 07:38: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Having finished the spell assembly while listening to Jack, Arthur erects the force shield, which rises fifteen feet above the castle wall and extends a forty-five degree sweep each side of center, giving off an eerie golden glow.

Arthur "That should knock back any arrows, although a ballista could probably get through. A projectile with a small sack of damping flour could, too. Other than that, the buildings are probably safe. I'll have a light drizzle coat the buildings, just in case something flaming gets through." A pattering of raindrops is heard on the nearby structures. "So I can't transmute, then? I can probably get four pounds of lead from a metalsmith without too much trouble." A sudden thought strikes Arthur, and he does some quick calculations in his head, stopping to confer with Narp, John, and D.

John "Jack, you said that burning the lead would leave about four pounds of waste? Do you think the four of us could each take a fourth of it? It might be interesting to study, and I'm sure the guilds and metalsmiths would be glad to take a stab at finding a use for it."

A loud crack comes from behind, followed by four or five in a row. Several large lightning bolts strike the central tower from a group of twenty bandits gathered below, sending sharp stone and debris flying. Three guards, apparently unconscious and lying on the ground, are quickly stabbed by the intruders, who advance toward the tower on the run. A nearby sentinel attempts to halt their assault with a glowing net, which dissolves on contact with the bandits with a familiar series of flashes; the guard is rewarded for his vigilance with a half-dozen bolts through his chain mail. A warning whistle sounds, and a purple flare bursts overhead as four dozen more bandits scramble over the back wall and race to join their companions.

[ooc: This could be a pre-arranged attack, although the scrying spell should have detected them. It could also be the group from the psi's cave, attacking either on standing orders or a captain's/lieutenant's orders. Didn't they have some wizards with them? And how long have we been fighting, since ISTR the baron was around 30 min. away.]

[ September 03, 2003, 05:32: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[seems to me Arther is good at npc control, to. Narp wouldn't try to rip somebody off. Arther's just going to have to lump it.]

Narp "Oh, he means gold. That's pretty valueable here, " shoots "because it's pretty rare. If this get's out that'll " shoots "change. But a fifty-fifty split with the rest " shoots " of us would be fair."

Narp hit's a fouth bandit, then a fifth. And ropes hit the top of the tower and are followed by some assorted spells, including a fireball, two lightning bolts and a green something that cracks through the air, as horsemen enter the other end of the town at a reletivily silent charge.

And in the cavern's under the mountain, five wizard's stand around a pile of magical items, using up their power to create another teleport spell for twenty more bandits.

ooc:[another short post.]

[ September 05, 2003, 06:49: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack teleports the spells onto different paths before they can impact anything; the fireball is diverted to a few of the bandits throwing ropes on the tower, who scream momentarily before becoming silent. One lightning bolt hits another, who screams, falls, and twitches on the ground for a second before lying still. The other lightning bolt hits a bandit coated in chainmail, and grounds out. The green spell impacts the chain covered bandit, and he screams as his armor turns to acid, burning his skin off.

A moment later, the smell of burnt flesh reaches the tower.

Jack "Well, I wouldn't be burning all four pounds at once anyway; I'd burn two to get the energy for the gem, and pocket the rest for later. There's no sense wasting good lead; it's dangerous if you don't have anywhere to put the energy. Normally I shape the ash into a mount for the gem - which reminds me, Arthur, what kind of mount do you prefer: ring, necklace, torc, armlet, bracelet, button, brooch, no mount, or something else? Normally I'd throw the unused ash away, but as you believe it has some value, I suppose I can save it. As far as I'm concerned, it's your purchase, Arthur, so it is up to you to determine the distribution. Four even sized chunks with the remainder for experimentation? Works for me. There isn't any residue on them, however. The spell that triggers the burning is destroyed in the process of the burning. The ash is a perfectly normal metal."

Seeing a head poke over the edge of the tower, Jack starts teleporting bandits away, starting with those climing the tower. Most end up well over the battlefield, but he tosses a few back into the forest.

Jack "Also - I'll need to be directed to a lake, preferably a large one, that people don't fish for a living. It's needed to safely burn the lead."

Due to Jack's having forgotten to renew the self-preservation orders on his golems, they are easy prey for the bandits, get dusted, and crumble to dust.

John "I know of one - only the Baron and his guests are permitted to fish there, and they never catch anything anyway. They won't likely notice."

Jack "Oh, and don't worry too much about backfire; I build a safety mechanism into the gems - they examine the energy channel you provide and determine how much the channel can safely take. They then back off of that figure a bit and limit the energy they will provide to the lesser of that amount and the gems' production capacity. If your spells can backfire without one, yeah, it could make backfire worse. However, one of my gems won't increase the chance of backfire."

[ September 06, 2003, 05:24: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: After a month-long hiatus, I'm finally trying again, and my RPer's broken. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif Here goes...]

The horsemen, about fifty in number, ride in a wedge directly at the knot of bandits, who scatter to avoid being trodden on. Jack assists their escape by teleporting several more back over the battlefield. With the few remaining bandits disposed of, the horsemen vanish.

Arthur "Obviously someone's picked up a new illusion since Last time I was here."

John simply smirks and serves up another fireball to the Last bandit climbing the tower.

A shout is heard from the front wall, and the party spins around. Guards and bandits alike are running from the shield wall, on which a large bag of flour is resting. The shield is swaying and buckling in an alarming manner, and the green glow is swirling angrily. Arthur turns pale.

Arthur "The container for the wall is dissolving, which will release all that force magic! Most of it should be directed out toward the bandits, but enough will come back this way that the baron won't like what he finds."

John "Container? What are you doing messing with force containers?"

Arthur "I saw it used once when a mage wanted to reinforce his force wall. I thought it might help reflect larger projectiles. Of course, I only saw it once, and it wasn't exactly a large-scale operation..."

John smacks his forehead in frustration. Before he can speak again, a large gash rips across the shield.

[ooc: Not that good, but the best this rusty old codger can come up with. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif And Arthur gives a big http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif to Narp for trying to give away his gold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

[ October 11, 2003, 20:55: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, i forgot about this for today and am doing this kinda late at night. um, if it looks stupid, tell me. Jack is the obvious choice to do something.]

A large green hemisphere appears around the explosion, directing the bLast outward. unfortunatly, it also directs a large section of wall outward. a large number of top stones fly off the wall and begin rolling down the hill.

The remaining bandits decide this battle is not going the way they where told it would and that it is time to leave.

Unfortunatly, the furiously chanting wizard's in the cave do not know what has happened and transport the twenty soldier's, the best, brightest and most well-equiped. Right into the castle's great hall, where they immiediatly head upward to deal with the Last reported major resistance.

ooc:[one Last fight.]

[Jack Simth]

Jack surveys the battlefield.
Most the ground is covered in thick mud, and blood stains the ground a dark red where the dead and dying are strewn. A muddy trunk floats on a thick patch of mud at the bottom of the hill, stained slightly red with the blood of those it crushed. An empty helmet is stuck on the stub of a broken branch. All is quiet, save for a few shouts in the distance of fleeing bandits.

Jack "It looks as though we've won. The place is a mess, but that's expected."

Jack tilts his head to one side for a moment, apparently listening to something nobody can hear.

Jack "John, were you expecting any guests to pop in about now?"

John "No, why?"

Jack "Well, I just caught the faint echo of an inbound teleport. Someone popped into the main hall a few moments ago - quite a few people, judging from the mass in the teleport."

D "About how many people, would you say?"

Jack "Oh, thirty or forty, depending on how much they are carrying."

D "And if they were wearing chain or plate?"

Jack "Then it would be about twenty. But we've won - what good would reinforcements do now?"

[ October 15, 2003, 21:02: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur, who has ruefully been surveying the damage to the baron's residence, quickly checks for signs of life from the great hall.

Arthur "Not sure what you caught, Jack, but that's a negative from my readings. I can't find anything down there." He goes back to his damage assessment. "I know one thing for sure, though--I don't want to be here if the baron returns to this mess. We have some major renovations to do here, not to mention fixing the little problem you dumped in John's workroom." At this, John glares in Jack's direction, while Jack completely misses the act.

Jack "I know what I'm saying. There was a teleport, and there are people in the hall."

Arthur "There can't be. If they were there, I'd know. I'm not getting any return from there or anywhere near there. It's not like there are two dozen armed bandits marching up here to get us. Do you need me to go and check for you?"

Arthur walks over to the door and yanks it open to reveal the first of the bandits, who was reaching for the handle himself. The enemy are well-armed and well-armored, each equipped with full plate armor, solid-looking bucklers, and a mix of halberds and one- and two-handed swords. They appear to be operating under some form of speed and strength enhancement, judging by the ease with which they carry their equipment. Arthur is greatly surprised, but still manages to get off a fireball and spring back before the bandit can react. The fireball hits the armor and disappears. It appears to have been absorbed by the armor. Two similar spells quickly dispatched by John meet a similar fate. The bandits, twenty in all, pour through the doorway into a staggered double line before advancing on the party.

[ooc: I'm envisioning some sort of amulet which absorbs incoming magical energy and redirects it, possibly using it to heal the wearer or to power some other artifact. I'm also assuming the plate armor is of good enough quality to stop anything sort of a very-short-range hit from a crossbow or a gravity-assisted hit by a longbow, similar to the late era French and English plate armor.]

[ October 16, 2003, 03:56: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[tired...oh well.]

Narp "Jack, enhancement spell! Then get us to a room somewhere in the castle!"

Narp charges towards the bandits. With a couple of seconds, his movement becomes a blur as he shield-rushes the middle bandit. The flour on his sheild hisses as Narp slams into him. Unfortunatly, the bandit's strength and speed is unafected. Fortunatly, Narp is stronger and faster. In the background, as he shoves his sword up underneath the bandits helmet, he can hear Jack.

"The spell on the bandits appears to attract and absorb any spells not in enchanted items. If there enhancement is alchemical, it would allow them to make more powerfull amulets than usual, since no discriminatory routines need to be added."

Arther, Narp and John "Just teleport us!"

Narp whirles and blocks a strike from the right with his sword, blocks on the left with his shield and kicks at the one in front of him, knocking the bandit back. And keeps backing up so they don't suround him.

ooc:[Better enhancements, better training. But still outnumbered.]

[ October 17, 2003, 04:44: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Right."

Jack blinks, and the party finds itself in an inner courtyard, hidden from view of the tower by an intervening building.

Jack "We need a small army of our own, don't we?"

Jack begins forming golems, their bodies sized and shaped like Narp's, and teleporting swords and shields in from the fallen on the battlefield to equip them with.

Jack "Now, I don't know any swordsmanship, and can't program them with it. However, if you could show them the basics, Narp, they can memorize the motions instantly. Their skills will never be a match for even briefly trained troops - they can only repeat motions and adjust aim; they can't improvise - but their durability, tirelessness, and strength should make up for much of it."

Jack pauses for a moment.

Jack "Let's see... is there anything else I should be doing with these?"

ooc:[Such as cloaking them with an illusions of our appearence, or having D make them invisible, or having Aurthur/John equip them with fireball spells, or ....]

[ October 18, 2003, 00:26: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: You could always just teleport the golems over the bandits and have them "drop in" for a visit *snerk* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ]

Arthur "Well, it isn't much good to equip them with offensive spells. Perhaps a regeneration effect? We could add some armor to them. Oh, and the enhancement spell couldn't hurt, either."

John "Judging by what Jack said just before teleport, no spell is going to Last long if it isn't actually embedded in an object. Anything we do will probably dispel on first contact with a bandit. I don't know if a golem actually counts as an object, but we could embed the spells in a rock and incorporate that into a golem."

Narp is already busily swinging his sword. Five golems are attempting to imitate him. The lack of originality is amusing, but the strength behind the blows is staggering. Once they pass muster, D casts invisibility and silence on them.

Arthur "The only other thing I can think of would be some communication, but they seem almost too simple for that. I guess quantity will have to make up for quality this time." Not finding anything immediately requiring his services, Arthur sits on a large rock and begins patching up a portion of the wall which he can see from his seat.

John "When you're done, Jack, you could probably send a few illusions of ourselves around to the other side of the tower. Come to think of it, you could just tack the illusions to golems. Give one a real bow, and he may even get lucky and pick off a bandit or two. At least it will divert attention from where we are." John inhales the vanguard of a visiting swarm of gnats, causing him to cough quietly.

[ October 18, 2003, 05:03: Message edited by: Krsqk ]