The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[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 )]

[ 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 ]