The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[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; 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 ]