tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44466820738572508432024-03-18T22:26:09.439-05:00Mock Ramblings<a href="http://www.mockwriting.com/">WWW.MOCKWRITING.COM</a>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.comBlogger3980125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-49608316035465010782024-03-18T09:00:00.007-05:002024-03-18T09:00:00.140-05:00The Lost Girl, part fifteen<p>The palisade was made of old growth: large, heavy logs a good three feet across, sharpened at the top and driven deep into the earth. They were woven together with something that looked like steel ribbon, gleaming and well-maintained. For all that the place had the look of a simple forest outpost, Chris was willing to bet that it could stand off almost any conventional attack. </p><p>He padded along at Antoinette's side, watching as they neared the wall. If he'd held to his human configuration, the gates would have been well over three times his height; they were wide enough to drive a tractor-trailer through. They were also firmly closed. </p><p>Someone called out, and after a moment there was a sort of distant groan. Chris watched as a massive head and shoulders heaved into view, looking out over the top of the wall. </p><p>Peter, unexpectedly faced with a giant, slowed and called out: "Hello! We seek entry to your city!"</p><p>The giant frowned and leaned forward, fumbling a ridiculously large set of lenses into place over its eyes. It looked them over, then shook its head. "No beasts," it said. "No beasts inside these walls."</p><p>On Antoinette's left, Elyssa stood up. It wasn't an instantaneous transformation; her body resorbed fur and claws, reshaped bones and flesh, and returned the clothing that she'd taken with her into the change. "Better?" she asked. </p><p>The giant nodded. "No turning back once you're inside. You wear a person's body, and you keep to that."</p><p>Chris shrugged his way back to a human configuration as well. "We understand," he said. "We mean no harm."</p><p>"Best that you don't," said the giant, then nudged the gates open from the inside. "Come inside, then, if you're willing to follow the rules. We had a caravan arrive earlier, and the market is yet open. There is plenty of time to find what you need, and seek a place for the night as well."</p><p>"We recognize your hospitality," Peter said, "and we are grateful for it."</p><p>The giant sniffed. "No need for gratitude that we meet our most basic obligations here," it said, but a small smile curled around its lips. <br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-42629205815485432112024-03-15T09:00:00.179-05:002024-03-15T09:00:00.140-05:00Dark Armor: Accepting A Surrender<p>The fighting was all but finished by the time they returned to the central hall. The captured invaders left their weapons where they'd laid them, and remains of the Royal Guard came forward to begin the work of collecting them. Pallian didn't stay to watch; he followed Amedin back to the hall. Once everyone was assembled -- more or less -- Kolpis raised his voice. "Who remains to speak for you, troops of the Emissary?"</p><p>The woman who had first offered his sword to the Black Knight stood near the front. She turned to the remnant of the troop and called: "Overcaptain?"</p><p>Nobody answered. </p><p>"Captains?"</p><p>There was a brief pause, then two of the troopers made their way forward to stand beside her. She acknowledged them, then turned back. "I will speak for my soldiers," she said. "I am Dessa of Nordich, the most senior of the remaining captains. These two are Orelan and Barria."</p><p>Amedin whispered something. It was utterly silent, but with the helmet Pallian could see his lips move.</p><p>"You invaded our lands, our capital city; you laid siege to and invaded our citadel," Kolpis said.</p><p>"We served Kilas Irrighast, Emissary of the Second. All that we did was driven by <i>his</i> will, and now he lies dead."</p><p>Pallian wondered just how literally she meant that. Were they merely trained to utter loyalty, or had they been given initiations to bind their actions to the Emissary's commands? He couldn't ask, and Amedin -- and therefore Kolpis -- didn't seem to consider the matter important.</p><p>"You will swear your loyalty to the House of Teres and the nation of Teregor?" asked the young nobleman. </p><p>Dessa of Nordich took a moment to regard the Black Knight. Pallian ignored the attention, holding still as he regarded the exchange. After a moment she said, "We were ordered into battle, not to sacrifice ourselves to the very last. Yes, I will swear us to you -- both myself, and on behalf of my soldiers." She held up a hand and turned away. "Our Master is dead," she called, raising her voice for her troops. "Our oaths are voided. I will swear us to the service of this place and these people if they will spare our lives. If any among you cannot hold to such an oath, step aside now. I will consider all who remain bound by the oath I speak on your behalf."</p><p>There was a momentary stirring -- mutters, movements, soldiers repeating the captain's words to other soldiers further back. After a moment, a man came forth and planted himself by the wall, across from the bulk of the troops. Another followed him, and then a woman. A heartbeat after that another man stepped out, and then another woman. </p><p>"The Second will dissolve your bones for this, Dessa," said the first of the dissenting men. </p><p>Dessa looked at him with something just short of contempt, and shrugged. "The Second would punish us for our failure here regardless. I feel safer among enemies who seem, at least, to be willing to take us in."</p><p>The man spat, and Dessa turned back to Kolpis. "I am ready to offer bond for those of us who have not stepped aside."</p><p>Amedin glanced at Pallian -- a slip, since he shouldn't have acknowledged the Black Knight as anything more than the Champion of Teregor -- then stepped forward. "Will you swear to serve the House of Teres and the Nation of Teregor?" asked the half-dead priest. </p><p>"We so swear," answered Dessa. </p><p>"Will you serve as soldiers and guards, to protect the court from its enemies and ensure the prosperity of its people?"</p><p>"We so swear," Dessa repeated. </p><p>"Will you remain loyal for all of your days?" asked Amedin. </p><p>"For so long as the House of Teres and the Kingdom of Teregor endures," Dessa replied. </p><p>Pallian nodded at that before he could stop himself. He shouldn't have done it; it was another tell, like Amedan looking to him for guidance. Fortunately, Amedin was nodding also; most people would only see that. </p><p>Dessa's eyes were on him, though. She wasn't most people.</p><p>"High Trainer Westrov, Lord Kolpis, would you and your troops see to getting our new soldiers settled? We'll need to know what remains of their command structure, whether they can be integrated with our existing troops, exact numbers..." </p><p>Kolpis grinned. "Fear not," he said. "We'll make it work" He glanced back at the Black Knight, his expression momentarily speculative. </p><p>"Excellent," said Amedin. "I'll see to repairing the doors and their enchantments." He glanced back. "Black Knight, attend me. Until some member of the royal family can be found, the defense of the citadel falls to me."</p><p>Pallian nodded, and Westrov and Kolpis went to confer with the three formerly-enemy captains. It was several minutes before they had the troops moving, and the dark armor was starting to feel like a prison, but Pallian managed to keep himself under control. </p><p>"What of us?" asked the squat, dark-haired man who had been the first to refuse Dessa's oath. He and his four companions were standing together, unarmed, surrounded by a detachment of Kolpis' private guard. </p><p>Amedin turned his head, but it was Dakrin Eld who spoke up. "You want a chance to face off against our Champion, Squad Leader?"</p><p>The man hesitated, and Dakrin Eld cackled with an old man's abandon. "A prison cell might be best, until things are decided. Or I could remove you from the city, leave you to find honest work starve, or turn brigand. You could even try running back to the Tomb of the First. Perhaps your loyalty would save you there."</p><p>Amedin said, "Dakrin..." </p><p>Dakrin turned on him. "You're no longer my tutor, Amedin. That time is well past. If you dislike what I do here, take it up with the Wizard-King."</p><p>Amedin sighed. "Very well," he said. "Conduct them to the gaol, until the royals return to make a decision or they themselves change their mind about swearing loyalty."</p><p>The chief of Kolpis' private guard inclined her head to the prisoners. "This way, if you would."</p><p>When they were at last gone, Amedin turned to look at Pallian. "Walk with me, Black Knight. I must consider the gates, and there are things I needs must learn from you."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-70016876463580015812024-03-14T09:00:00.002-05:002024-03-14T09:00:00.136-05:00The Lost Girl, part fourteen<p>"Stay close," said Peter. "I'm going to push us through as fast as I can, so we may be cutting through some dangerous areas. Stay alert, and if you have to stop for something <i>call out</i>." He glanced at Chris. "Or snarl loudly. Whatever. Just make sure we all know."</p><p>Chris sniffed, and glanced across at Elyssa, who had also taken a full wolf form. She hadn't taken her necklace into the new configuration; she was still wearing it, like a slender silver collar as she paced along on Antoinette's far side. Morri had dropped back, and was taking the rear again; Agatha had fallen back beside her.<br /></p><p>The landscape shifted as they walked: cloudy skies, clear skies, a brief drizzle, a momentary glimpse of daytime moon... trees shifted around them, appearing and disappearing as they passed certain points. At one point, something hissed from back in the underbrush, but it was gone again before Chris could even growl back at it. Peter was shuffling the landscape around them, moving them closer to wherever Tammy Lynn could be found.<br /></p><p>There was a brief commotion behind them, and when Chris glanced back he saw Morri on one knee in the dirt, tugging something away from her neck. Beside her, Agatha shook her hand out, dispelling a bit of darkness that still lingered around it. Above them, something was retreating up into higher branches, whimpering softly as it fled.<br /></p><p>Peter stopped and turned back. "Are you all right?" </p><p>"Yeah," his partner replied, her voice rough and her tone disgusted. "It just reached down and wrapped around my throat. Pulled me right up off the ground. Agatha saw it and cut me loose." She finished freeing herself, and held out a length of <i>something</i> for the rest of them to see. It wasn't rope, but whether it was tendril, tentacle, or vine Chris could not be sure. </p><p>"Oh, good," said Antoinette lightly. "Something else to have nightmares about." </p><p>"Will you?" asked Morri, cocking her head as she regarded the smaller magus. </p><p>"Not until this is done," Antoinette told her, and Morri nodded respectfully at that. </p><p>"Keep moving," said Peter, but he had a pistol out now. Chris wondered about that; he wasn't certain that he would <i>trust</i> a pistol out here. A blade might actually prove more effective, especially when paired with magic. Then again, if something else attacked and Peter's pistol failed him, well... that was where he and Elyssa came in. Morri and Agatha as well. It was, he supposed, precisely why the Ministry made use of Registered Outsiders. </p><p>"Here we go," Peter muttered to himself, as the path they'd been following resolved into the stone road they'd departed earlier. The road ran ahead for a hundred yards or so, cutting a straight line through the trees; then their way was blocked by the gates of a wooden palisade. "Tammy's in there somewhere, I think."</p><p>"I could--" Agatha hesitated visibly. The forest held its share of shadows, but the area around the palisade had been cleared, and the morning sun bathed it in light. "I could scout the place after dark."</p><p>Peter glanced back at her, appraising. "That's good to know, and ordinarily I'd wait and ask you to do it. I don't think we have that kind of time, though." He glanced at Antoinette. </p><p>"Straight in?" she asked. </p><p>Peter nodded. "I'll be our face, so I won't have my guard up. You'll need to be the one with magics ready, and the others should be alert for ambush or other treachery." He glanced past her, including the rest of them in his next words. "Don't start anything, but if it comes to violence then do what you need to do. We keep each other safe, we bring Tammy out of this, and we do it with as little drama as possible."</p><p>"All right," said Antoinette, glancing at Elyssa and then turning her gaze on Chris. "You heard him. Low-key, easy-going, and no violence if we can avoid it."</p><p>Agatha raised a hand, and both the magi turned to look at her. "If it does come to violence..." she said hesitantly, "...the two wolves should go to their halfway shapes. That was... I don't know, but when Chris did it last night it scared me. It might scare anyone else out here, enough to make them hesitate."</p><p>Chris cocked his head, and Agatha asked, "What? I'm not allowed to be scared by the terrifying half-beast shape?"</p><p>Chris shook himself and looked back at the heavy, sharpened logs of the palisade and the high, wide gate that gave passage through it. He could get past those walls without much problem, but not without attracting attention and not without turning an unknown situation into something definitely hostile. It was better to have Antoinette in charge here; on his own, he might just have gone in. </p><p>"Wait," said Morri. "You're scared of them but you're not scared of me?"</p><p>Agatha shrugged. "I wouldn't like to fight you," she said carefully. She paused for a moment, thinking. "I especially wouldn't like to fight you without a lot of darkness to work with, because I'd need it to avoid having you hit me or grab me. But... you're a warrior. I know how to deal with that. When Chris suddenly went to claws and fangs and fur and tail and still somehow a human shape, I just... I don't know. It shook me. I'm not saying it was rational."</p><p>Morri shook her head, then grinned. "I'll allow it. Especially since I owe you for saving me from that hangman thing back there."</p><p>Agatha grinned back hesitantly, then turned to Peter. "I'm ready. If, um, you are."</p><p>"Calmly," said Peter. "Let's go see where Tammy Lynn is now."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-31921354239938005512024-03-13T09:00:00.001-05:002024-03-13T09:00:00.235-05:00Challenge: Tropes I want IRL<p>(This post is part of the <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge/" target="_blank">Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge</a>. You can find links to other writers' answers over at <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/" target="_blank">Long and Short Reviews</a>. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Sort of.)</p><p><b>Prompt: <i>A book trope I wish happened IRL more often<br /></i></b></p><p>Well, let me just put this out there: the one I want isn't a "book trope" so much as it a "comic book trope". Specifically, it's the trope of "something weird happens and suddenly somebody has superhero powers/somebody comes of age and discovers their mutant powers". Yeah, that would have incredibly messy effects on the current political and social order, but I hold to the hope that shaking up the entrenched interests with a bunch of super-powered plebes would be worth it. </p><p>I got bitten on the face -- just to the left of my nose, in fact -- by a brown recluse spider a few months back. If this trope happened in real life, I could have gotten superpowers from that. I could 100% lean into The Brown Recluse as my superhero name: the fifty-something guy who mostly goes about his business until, I don't know, somebody robs the bank while I'm trying to use the ATM. Next thing you know, there are webs everywhere and some very confused bad guys who are missing their guns and their wallets. <br /></p><p><i>Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? </i>I mean, at this point in my life I've got a pretty good idea. Most of it is tired and not even all that surprising. ("Original sin? What's so original about it?") I'd be fine using psychic powers to fight corruption at the highest levels of industry, state, and church. </p><p>So, yeah, that's my answer: the world needs more superhero origin stories. <br /></p><p></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-83794587577046520312024-03-12T09:00:00.029-05:002024-03-12T11:59:27.132-05:00The Lost Girl, part thirteen<p>"Hey, Wolf?" Morri called out as she approached. It was the most tentative that Chris had heard her sound so far, which wasn't very. "We good?"</p><p>He nodded. "We're fine," he said. He'd left the bruise on the inderside of his chin, after making sure that his jaw was intact and his teeth were all still in place. That one was too public; it was safer to let it heal at its normal rate. He'd healed everything else, though.</p><p>Morri leaned down, inspecting his face from below. "Damn," she said. "You really do heal fast. Do all wolves...?" </p><p>Chris shook his head. "I seem to be tougher than most." </p><p>"Well, I'm not going to argue with that," Morri told him. She studied him for a moment, her expression speculative. "Thanks for sparring with me -- I needed that. Glad I didn't do you any real injury."</p><p>"I'm going to be spending most of today as a wolf, I think," Chris told her. "Antoinette's still pretty angry with me, and the less I say the less likely I am to get myself into more trouble."</p><p>Morri glanced over to where Antoinette was breaking down her tent with quick, efficient movements. "I think you're going exactly the wrong way on that," she told him. </p><p>Chris shrugged. "We'll see."</p><p>Morri shrugged back at him and then strolled away. Chris looked at his own small pack, then shifted down and forward until he wore a full wolf's body. It was a small magic, taking a bit of clothing and equipment with him through the change; easy to do out here. He circled the camp once, tasting the air and checking for scents; the forest was rich with them. </p><p>He circled back to where Antoinette was pulling her pack on. She looked down at him and sighed. "You know what? <i>Fine</i>. Be like that. We can talk about this after we get the girl back -- but we <i>will</i> talk about it."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-18832826014148031732024-03-11T01:23:00.008-05:002024-03-11T04:47:04.557-05:00Fuck Daylight Saving's Time and Trying to Sleep<p> It's twelve twenty-four in the morning, and I am awake. </p><p>Beautiful Wife is trying to suggest that I should not be irritated about this because I have been asleep for hours. I have, in fact, been asleep since about six-thirty this past evening; this is true. But I could have slept straight through until morning; this is also true. </p><p>I have also spent the last hour lying in the bed, sleep-mask on and CPAP machine wheezing gently as it did its job, paralytic with exhaustion and praying to Morpheus himself to let me sink back into the deep blackness and weird-ass dreams of REM sleep, while: </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Secondborn and Firstborn (newly returned with Beautiful Wife from a trip to tour a college) played with the dog, causing him to become loud and snarly in his enthusiasm. </li><li>My alarm went off to remind me to remind Secondborn to take his meds. (Gentle Reader, I did no more than turn that alarm off and slump right back down on the bed. Fortunately, it's a distinctive ring tone, and Secondborn heard it and took his meds anyway.)</li><li>I got to listen to the <i>thumps</i> and <i>clacks</i> of people closing cabinets and drawers, oven and microwave doors, because nobody in this house knows how to close <i>anything</i> gently enough to be quiet about it. </li><li>The screen door to the porch closed itself several times in rapid succession, with a gunshot-noise impact each time: <i>Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! </i>Actually that may have been the actual door; it's not sitting in its frame quite right, and it takes a bit of effort to get it to latch.<br /></li><li>Beautiful Wife hollered up the stairs to ask if the boys wanted scrambled eggs. Note: the bedroom door is at the top of the stairs, the boys' doors to either side.<br /></li><li>Beautiful Wife hollered back down the stairs that Firstborn had, in fact, put himself to bed as well. (I dared hope that this would lower the overall volume level. Alas, I hoped in vain.)</li><li>My mother-in-law's two small dogs, barking and yapping, were taken outside to pee. </li><li>My mother-in-law's two small dogs, barking and yapping and presumably done peeing, were brought back inside and put to bed. </li><ul><li>Both these trips were accompanied by full-volume -- by which I mean to say <i>loud</i> -- conversations. <br /></li></ul><li>The alarm system on this already-loud-and-creaky wooden house loudly proclaimed: "Open: Patio Door!" every time someone opened the door to take dogs out, bring dogs in, or just step outside while they waited for the oven to heat so that they could make cookies at twelve-twenty in the morning because they wanted a snack before bed.<br /></li><li>A herd of hippos (I think) performed an impromptu tumbling routine (I think) across the second-floor landing just outside the bedroom door.</li><ul><li>Possibly they were moose.</li><li>They might have been practicing the vault instead; gymnastics is an uncertain science. <br /></li></ul><li>Beautiful Wife and Mother-in-Law held some sort of conversation across the ground floor of the house. This did not involve text messages, intercoms, or carrier pigeons; they just talked loudly enough that they could still hear each other in different rooms. </li><li>Crotchstomper McSnuggles went up and down the stairs several time. The stairs are wooden, and in addition to being creaky they provide a perfect sounding board for the <i>click-click-click-click-click-click</i> of the dogs claws. </li></ul><p>Y'all, I have been awake since six o'clock this morning -- which would have been five o'clock if the goddamned Daylight Saving's Time "spring forward" bullshit hadn't rolled through to confuse the issue. I have spent all weekend trying to get caught up on sleep, an effort which has apparently thrown my body for a complete loop all by itself. I have an <i>amazing</i> amount of shit that I need to catch up on at work this week -- not just like "I'm behind," but like, "I have been covering for another co-worker who was working part time and is now out on bereavement leave while I am keeping the boys on track for school <i>and</i> making myself available to help out my mother-in-law while she's recovering from back surgery and the City Manager's Office has just thrown another project my way despite the fact that it really shouldn't be my area anymore and -- while technically simple -- it's going to take a large amount of labor to implement <i>and also</i> it's one of those things that shouldn't be urgent at all except that it's coming from the City Manager's Office so it automatically gets high priority." </p><p>So yeah, by the time Beautiful Wife and Firstborn got back from touring the college, it was about six o'clock, and I was barely on my feet to greet them properly. I put myself to bed because the alternative was to start drinking and just push through, a course which -- I'm sure you all know -- <i>always </i>ends well and carries no possibility of ill effects. <br /></p><p>It would really have been nice to be going into this week on the back of a solid ten or twelve hours of sleep. And I don't mean to insist that the entire house should come to a complete halt, with nobody moving or making any noise just because I went to bed when my sleep cycle bottomed out. On the other hand, I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for some slight, token level of reduced noise rather than the fucking cacophony I was subjected to instead. At least some kind of <i>attempt</i> at keeping it down? Some mild hint of consideration for the fact that I don't usually go to sleep at six-thirty in the fucking evening and maybe -- <i>maybe</i> -- the fact that I have means that I might really need that sleep?</p><p>Fuck it. I'm going into work. The boys are on spring break, and I have no obligation to get them anywhere. Maybe I can catch some shit up.<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-68198753180174891012024-03-08T09:00:00.003-06:002024-03-14T21:04:17.724-05:00Dark Armor: The Heart of the Defence<p>The bulk of the troops had been pressing against the passage that led back to the nobles' chambers, and they were eager for action. They were not prepared to be assaulted from behind, or to be trapped against whatever defenses waited ahead. Desperate incantations shivered off the dark armor, no more effective than arrows or crossbow bolts, than blades or mace-heads. </p><p>Pallian was ill-suited to be a Prince of Teregor. He knew this, because instead of feeling a rush of power he only felt regret. He trudged forward, restricting himself to gauntlet-sword and shield as he cut his way through. In addition to their captains -- who were better-equipped, though nowhere near well enough -- these troops had mage-ensigns assigned to them. </p><p>The Shadow of Edrias located and eliminated them with a cold efficiency, often before the troops around them even noticed she was there. </p><p>By the time the Black Knight was close enough to note that his old friend Kolpis stood to arms beside the arms-trainer Westrov and shouted commands at the guidance of the half-dead priest Amedin, the troops in front of him were throwing down their arms and backing away. </p><p>Pallian kept the gauntlet-sword ready, but ceased cutting as he continued his approach. </p><p>Amedin met his eyes through the helmet and asked, "The Emissary of the First has fallen?" </p><p>The Black Knight nodded. </p><p>"Mercy!" cried a woman's voice, not in pleading but in demand. "We served honorably, but our masters were defeated. Spare us, and we will serve you honorably as well."</p><p>Kolpis scowled, but the Black Knight raised a hand, then lowered it. He waited. </p><p>The woman who had spoken came forward, stopped before him, and lowered her weapon to the ground. There was a brief pause, and then a scuffling as the soldiers behind her in their dual-gemmed armor did the same. </p><p>The Black Knight didn't speak. Not where anybody beyond the House of Teregor might learn of it. He turned back to Amedin, Westrov, and Kolpis, and nodded. </p><p>"We accept your surrender," said the withered, half-dead priest called Amedin. He knew what Pallian's presence here must mean. "Spread the word among your allies, and let us gather in the hall to discuss what comes next."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-49466594347439630962024-03-07T09:00:00.001-06:002024-03-07T09:00:00.247-06:00Terra Povos: The Tainted Rose<p>We now attempt to catch up with The Tainted Rose and its cargo of murderers and very expensive potential gladiator. </p><p>Turns out the Alderman doesn’t have a coastguard, he has a bounty hunter. So that’s who taking us with him in pursuit of the Tainted Rose. The bounty hunter is Ugly Kevin, and his boat is the Kraken Bait. The front of our boat has railings that give partial cover. The ballista can be fired once every three rounds, or once a round if you put three people on it. His crew consists of “the heavies” and a couple of archers. Bromilda is his secret weapon; he has an Elasmosaur that he can hook up to.</p><p>The Tainted Rose has about an hour’s head start. The two boats have the same siling speed, but Bromilda can improve that for us. The Rose is a Caravel; our ship is, of course, a pinnace. He has some torture devices and a coffin for keeping captured bounties in (it has air holes). He also has magic stuff that he might be willing to sell. </p><p>We agree to split whatever treasure’s on the Rose 50/50. He’s got two Protection from Arrows scrolls, one Wind Wall. But our real plan is to use the ballista to knock out the rudder. As we’re following them, we see a couple of guys come out and dump an object into the water. About an hour after that, two more guys come out and do it again. That puts us about at the spot where they dumped the last one. We don’t see anything in the water, and neither does Bromilda. Three hours in, we’ve closed about a quarter of a mile. We consider sending Bromilda down to see what they’re dropping, but that would cost us a time and as long as the drops aren’t a threat, we don’t care. </p><p>We sleep in shifts. Once we get to the twelve hour mark, we get a better look, and it looks like they’re pouring something out of the barrel that flows into the water and sinks. It looks like they’re dumping barrels of rocks overboard. We get to hour 17, and the start lowering down a skiff with something on it covered in a big tarp. They kind of push it off from the ship. It doesn’t look like there are any people; it looks like something with a big tarp over it. </p><p>Amergin sends his owl to take a peek at the skiff. It takes about half an hour, and we’re still following the Caravel. Owl: “Looks like some big square <i>thing</i> with a tarp over it.” </p><p>Amergin is of the opinion that we should scuttle the skiff. Whisper asks Ugly Kevin about grapnels that could be fired by the ballista. He loves that trick! Yes, he has plenty of such items. We load up, and James does the aiming and firing. It spears the tarp and whatever’s under it and sticks, and we drag it along as we continue following the Caravel. We get to Maximum range for a ballista, and out of range for bows and crossbows. Whisper brings us in a bit closer. At 23 hours, we enter the outer edge of bow and crossbow range; we give Bromilda an hour or so to rest while we hold at this range. </p><p>The archers on the other boat are readying up. They aren’t reacting to the skiff at all. We get Ugly Kevin to offer parley. </p><p>Rose says we can negotiate if we can beat the opposing offer. How much? 3,000. Ugly Kevin is thrilled by the prospect of maybe claiming that 3,000. </p><p>We offer her the final treasure from Durest’s playground, plus half of what we find along the way. She signals back: <i>You don’t know what we’re up against. Check the skiff first.</i> We pull the skiff in a little closer, and Whisper goes down the rope towards the skiff. Nothing moves. There’s a big stone block with a tarp; it has a ballista bolt through it. It’s not Magma Stone; it’s just stone, but it’s been worked over real closely. Lithos detects magic, finds nothing. Whisper removes the tarp. The stone block was smooth, but it’s been hacked open to an empty space in the center; something has been removed from it. Maybe a dragon egg, maybe some other sort of magical beast. </p><p>Rose flashes back that her bargaining position is better than we thought; she has something hyper-valuable. </p><p>We signal back: we don’t care, she can keep it.</p><p>She flashes back: <i>I don’t need to keep it but it limits my options.</i> </p><p>Amergin: <i>What’s your counter-offer? </i></p><p>She needs 10,000 GP. If we can’t supply it even after Durest’s Playground, we owe her. In exchange, we get the murderers. </p><p>Her: <i>I can’t do that</i>. </p><p>Us: <i>One of the prisoners? </i></p><p>She says she can give us information. </p><p>Amergin: <i>About a greater evil???</i></p><p>Rose: <i>You saw what was in the skiff? I can help you apprehend them. I have information. </i></p><p>Lithos: <i>Are they on your boat?</i></p><p></p><p>There’s a pause. <i>Of course.</i> </p><p>Amergin sends the owl over with a little note, but she signals him to keep the owl away. </p><p>Amergin: <i>Drop your anchor to indicate agreement.</i></p><p>Rose: <i>Information. And after you apprehend them, you owe me 10,000 GP. </i></p><p>Us: <i>Okay. But it better be worth it.</i> </p><p>Rose: <i>How much can you pay me now?</i></p><p>Us: <i>Nothing! That was our point!</i> </p><p>We agree to all drop anchor while she thinks about it for an hour. Then she raises anchor and sails off without any further signaling. </p><p>So, fine. Aim at the rudder and fire the ballista to damage it. We take cover below the railing. The Archers on the Rose open up on the people loading the ballista. The archers shoot Uncle Baldy and one hits and manages to take him down. We drop back a little further, taking ourselves out of archery range, and get Archibald back on his feet; Amergin buffs James, who fires at the rudder again and hits. The crew of the Rose are very upset; they know what we’re doing. </p><p>James keep shooting, and hits with most of his shots. After a while, the Rose is rudderless. We’re currently closing, but we turn aside and circle, coming around the far side of the boat. We send Bromilda up from underneath the Rose, to bump it and hopefully scare the hell out of the crew. </p><p>She comes up and bumps the boat and comes back to us unscathed. </p><p>Amergin: <i>Last chance.</i> </p><p>Rose climbs up onto one of the crates and moons us. </p><p>James takes the shot, but misses. She scuttles out of the way. </p><p>We consider our options. After a while we circle around to the part where we have a skiff that we can build into a fire and send over there, with Bromilda to tow it from well underwater. We do. Fire comes up and grease and burning timbers coat the bow. Three of the crew fall overboard, burning and dying. Two of the crew on the foredeck escape, and the ship starts turning in a circle as Bromilda drags it around. Rose starts yelling for her people to haul the treasure out. Leaf gets hauled out too. </p><p>We begin moving in, and firing the ballista. We have four archers trained on us. Amergin drops an Obscuring Mist spell, and we turn in to engage them. Some of the sailors are trying to shoot at us, while others are trying to deal with the fire. Meanwhile, Ugly Kevin’s crew is als firing, and one of the archers in the crow’s nests of the Rose clutches his gut and falls into the water. </p><p>James is aiming the ballista at Rose, and finally hits her. The ballista bolt buries itself in her gut and spins her around. Three archers shoot at Uncle Baldy, but miss. Lithos drops Protection from Arrow on Archibald. Ambergin casts Jump on himself. </p><p>The fire crew on the Rose is starting to get the fire under control. James fires again, takes out another sailor, who dies. Three arrows would have hit Archibald, but he’s protected. </p><p>James fires off the last of the ballista bolts. He targets one of the lieutenants, but misses. Lithos throws Magic Missile at the lieutenant on the bow, and Pythia – who has been reloading the ballista – heals Kevin. Archibald sings to inspire courage… and also ducks behind the ballista. The archers on the Rose shoot again, but mostly miss; his protection wears down a little. </p><p>Archibald shoots at the Lieutenant in the bow, and takes him down. The guys in the stern start moving down onto the middecks, and Whisper humps across to the Rose and lands beside a sailor. He attacks and misses. </p><p>The remaining archers shoot at Archibald, but don’t damage him. The heavy makes his way across and takes a shot, taking down the Rose’s sailor. Our crossbowmen take down one of the archers. James steps across using one of Kevin’s Floating Disks and throws a spear, connecting with a sailor. He goes down. </p><p>Lithos goes across and drops Color Spray, taking out one of the lieutenants and three other sailors; they are stunned, blinded, and unconscious, and will be varying levels of that for a while. They will not live that long. Archibald shoots but misses. A sailor attack Lithose, damaging him but failing to take him down.</p><p>James attacks the sailor who attacked Lithos. Lithos moves around behind the guy, but goes fully defensive. Amergin heals Whisper. Baldy shoots the archer in the bow; Pythia heals Lithos. Whisper stabs the lieutenant… </p><p>James hits the sailor as the rest of the crew takes out more of their crew. He goes down. Lithos goes to coup-de-gras the nearest of the guys that he stunned. </p><p>The lieutenant holds up a hand. “Wait!” He drops his weapon, and motions for the others to do the same. “Rose! It’s over!” </p><p>The Duergar slipped off the boat five hours ago. The trader lady was coming to get him. The Duergar took the egg and turned himself invisible, then jumped overboard. He paid her 3,000 GP to waste our time. Brinja left after us, so if we turn back and race for it, we won’t be too far behind her. </p><p></p><p>We commandeer the map, the treasure on the deck, and Rose’s Thorn; Archibald’ll give her the masterwork rapier as a parting gift. Baldy now has a +1 rapier. 15,000 silver in a chest; a second chest with 400 GP and a masterwork light crossbow. 2,300 silver, a potion of shield of faith +2 and treasure map and another masterwork light crossbow, 3,000 Gp in a cut purse with B.G. initialled on it – but that’s evidence and it should go back. Also, the escaped Duergar's name is Durnak.</p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-37141000997582770272024-03-06T09:00:00.001-06:002024-03-06T09:00:00.172-06:00Challenge: Non-Fiction<p>(This post is part of the <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge/" target="_blank">Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge</a>. You can find links to other writers' answers over at <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/" target="_blank">Long and Short Reviews</a>. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Sort of.)</p><p><b>Prompt: <i>Non-fiction books I've read lately<br /></i></b></p><p>Confession time: unless you count online operating references, I haven't been reading any non-fiction books lately. So, instead, I'm going to mention a couple that were recommended to me: </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O56PUCS/" target="_blank">Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth</a> by Lee Jackson. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007QV00LA/" target="_blank">Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day</a> by Stephan Talty</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P8BHCYR/" target="_blank">The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History</a> by Kassia St. Clair</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BJL5J4V/" target="_blank">A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present</a> by Mark Forsyth</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083J1FXY8/" target="_blank">A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)</a> by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084M1XT1T/" target="_blank">Magic: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present</a> by Chris Gosden</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Prairie-Fires-American-Dreams-Ingalls-ebook/dp/B0727NC3NN/" target="_blank">Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder</a> by Caroline Fraser</li></ul><p>What about you? What non-fiction have you been reading? <br /></p><p></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-80017436172708944012024-03-05T09:00:00.093-06:002024-03-06T23:03:04.337-06:00The Lost Girl, part twelve<p>Eventually, there was a campfire. Chris was none too sure how it happened, who had gathered the wood, or how late it was in the night; he had let his body slide into a full-wolf configuration, and was enjoying the heat as he rested and healed. </p><p>He cheated, of course. When he was certain that Peter and Antoinette were asleep, he shaped the words and phrases and healed himself. Here in the Grey, that was easy. But wolves were tough and they healed quickly, and likely nobody would notice. </p><p>"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Antoinette had asked again, and Chris had sighed. </p><p>"No," he said. "If I wanted to die, I'd take care of it myself."</p><p>"But you... flirt with it. Tempt it. You like to see how close you can come."</p><p>Chris had closed his eyes. "Yes," he admitted. "But this wasn't close."</p><p>"She nearly took your head off, and this wasn't close?"</p><p>Chris shrugged. "Morri has her needs. I have mine. This wasn't close. Charleston was close. The bonetaker was close. This was... Morri wasn't ever going to kill me, or maim me."</p><p>Antoinette had swallowed. "That wasn't how it looked from over here."</p><p>"I should have warned you," Chris had said. "I thought you understood. Morri will be calmer, now. And I'll be fine by morning." He let his eyes close. </p><p>Antoinette made a noise that was surprisingly close to a growl. Then she'd moved off to her own small tent and the sleeping bag inside. </p><p>Later, and well after Chris had finished healing himself, Elyssa came and sat down beside him and Clarissa spilled out of the amulet and sat down beside her. Out here in the Grey, she was far more solid: dark-haired, honey-skinned, and studying him closely with grey-green eyes. <br /></p><p>Chris twisted around, and put his snout over Elyssa's knee, looking up at her. The contact was a comfort.<br /></p><p>"Who <i>are</i> you?" asked Elyssa, quietly and after a moment. "I saw how hard she hit you. She'd have <i>killed </i>me. How did you survive that?"</p><p>Chris pulled away and shifted back to human form. "I've always been strong," he said, which was true but admitted nothing. <br /></p><p>"Chris," said Clarissa, reaching towards -- but not quite touching -- the amulet that hung around Elyssa's neck. Then she stopped and looked around, but Antoinette and Peter were in their tents. She lowered her voice to a breath of cold night air and said, "You keep doing things the rest of us can't. Even the Ministry is starting to notice." <br /></p><p><i>Damn it. </i>She was probably right. He was still angry, and he wasn't being careful enough. He'd need to keep himself under tighter control. "I've just been lucky," he said stubbornly. <br /></p><p>Elyssa laid a hand on Clarissa's shoulder, then leaned down and brushed a hand across the top of Chris' head. "That's what we keep telling people."<br /></p><p>He met her eyes for a brief moment, nodded, and then rolled over to go to sleep. <br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-2512129954687790792024-03-04T09:00:00.148-06:002024-03-04T09:00:00.173-06:00The Lost Girl, part eleven<p>Morri dropped into a fighting stance, and Chris settled warily into a matching one. He was still in his human form; a half-wolf configuration would be stronger and have a little more reach -- and claws -- but he was trained primarily as a duelist, not an infighter. Taking a half-wolf form would change the shape of his legs, and consequently the way he stood, balanced, and stepped. Morri didn't think he could damage her -- that much was obvious -- and Chris was <i>profoundly</i> reluctant to grapple with her. He was pretty sure that if Morri got her hands on him, he was finished. </p><p>He moved closer, and she came in with her fists up, light on her feet... a boxer's approach. He dodged her first swing, then her second. He pulled back, then stepped in again, provoking a straight punch towards his face. </p><p>He was already stepping offline when it came, and that was all that saved him. His attempt to brush it aside barely nudged it, and his simultaneous knuckle-strike to the inside of her upper arm felt like punching concrete. He stepped back immediately, barely getting his arms up in time to push aside her return blow. </p><p>"Damn," Morri said, though her stance never wavered. "You <i>are </i>strong. I actually felt that."</p><p>He took another step back, slid into half-wolf configuration, and attacked with a series of light slashes at the edge of his reach. Morri pulled her arms back, shielding herself, but he'd expected that. If he had the range right... He was already moving back out when Morri's fist came at him like a meteor, and he still felt the bruising impact on his own forearm. She was definitely stronger than he was, and by a considerable margin. His claws had drawn blood from the backs of her forearms -- again she looked surprised -- but she hadn't been kidding when she said she was tough. Out here in the Grey, he thought she could probably shrug off bullets, at least anything short of a lucky shot. </p><p>Then she came forward, pressing in, jabbing and swinging as he backed away. She was still using her arms, so he kept his distance and tried for a kick. </p><p>His claws tore through her pants and drew three lines of blood just above her right knee. She stumbled briefly, but he couldn't follow through and backed away instead. He glanced around, looking for something to hit her with -- hopefully a good-sized tree, if he could lift it -- but saw nothing. </p><p>She charged, going -- he thought -- for a tackle. He had a better measure of her strength and weight now, though, and managed to duck off to the side, cutting her ribs as she passed and tripping her into the fallen leaves. He spun and leapt, hoping to come down on her back, but she was already rolling out of the way and caught his ankle as he landed. </p><p>He only had time for a brief moment of panic as she tried to yank him off-balance; he managed to come down straddling her, and punched down at her face. Maybe he should have used his claws, but he didn't want to risk taking out an eye -- or even damaging her features, really. </p><p>Her head rocked back with the blow, but she still managed to catch his arm and yank him close, trapping it. Then she rolled them over so that she was on top. He tried to slide out as she repositioned herself, but she was faster and more practiced, and a moment later she had his arm and shoulder locked between her legs, his body pinned to the ground by the legs across his throat and chest. </p><p>He could have tried biting, but she'd have dislocated his shoulder. Instead, he tapped her leg twice with his palm, and after a moment she released her lock. </p><p>They climbed to their feet, watching each other warily. Morri looked at the slices on the back of her forearms; Chris rolled his shoulder and heard it pop. </p><p>"All right," she said. "New rules. We take turns. I want you to hit me as hard as you can. I'll just stand here. And then you stand there while I hit you. We go back and forth until one of us can't get back up."</p><p>"You <i>did</i> just beat me," Chris pointed out. </p><p>"Yeah," said Morri, "but it wasn't enough. It needs to be..." </p><p>Chris frowned. "More brutal?"</p><p>Morri looked... Was that shame? ...but she nodded.</p><p>Antoinette said, "Chris..." but he ignored her. </p><p>"If that's what it takes," he said, and stepped in. </p><p>His first punch caught Morri in the diaphragm, and she wheezed but didn't quite double over. She straightened, and he nodded to her. </p><p>She threw a straight punch to the chest, and knocked Chris about three feet back and onto his ass. He shook his head in surprise as much as pain, and got back up. Morri's eyes widened; then she lowered her head. </p><p>He moved to face off with her again, seeming human again as he considered her. Then he spun a kick into the side of her thigh and watched her crumple over, clutching at it. She shook it off and climbed back to her feet almost immediately, though she seemed to be favoring the leg just slightly. </p><p>Then she stepped in with an uppercut that would have broken a mundane's jaw and possibly removed his head, and Chris felt himself lifted into the air. He didn't feel himself land on his back, and for a moment all he could see was a field of faintly blinking lights. There were sounds...</p><p>"Aigh--" He swallowed, got control of his voice. "I'm all right."</p><p>"Are you sure?" asked Elyssa.</p><p>He blinked, focused. She was kneeling over him, one hand on the pulse in his throat. He shifted his head around slowly, then nodded. </p><p>"He's all right!" Elyssa yelled. "Antoinette, back down! He's all right."</p><p>A moment later Antoinette was staring down at him, her expression blank. Then she turned and walked away without a word. </p><p>Chris shifted his shoulders, rubbed at the bruise on his chest. </p><p>Peter knelt beside him. "Sorry about that. Morri is--" </p><p>"Don't apologize for your partner," Chris ground out. "I knew what I was doing. If you're going to apologize, go apologize to Antoinette for not warning her that this was going to end up this way." He lowered his head, let it rest against the ground for a moment, then added: "And give her my apologies, too. I know I'm a shitty partner, but I'm trying."</p><p>Peter swallowed. "All right."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-41171554420925485302024-03-01T09:00:00.000-06:002024-03-01T09:00:00.249-06:00Dark Armor: The Battle in the Obsidian Citadel<p>Battle wasn't hard to find. </p><p>They'd followed the passages towards the central hall, and found it lit from the outside. The double doors had been smashed in, and troops in curiously antiquated armor were formed up in the hall, while others in similar armor were spread out to cover various doorways. </p><p>"Oh, lovely," said Dakrin Eld, and gestured. A wave of frost flowed over their foes, and Pallian strode forward in his armor. Third-princess Ashmiren had vanished, but Ember had simply stepped to one side of the passageway they'd arrived through, standing next to the ghostly ancestor who'd chosen to accompany him. </p><p>Pallian drew a deep breath, focused on his sense of third-princess Ashmiren, and projected a thought in her direction: <i>Wait 'til the Emissary shows itself, then take it out. I'll cut into the troops, but your skills are wasted there.</i></p><p>A soft breath of the night wind came back to him. <i>I'll be ready. </i></p><p>He reached the first of the Emissary's troopers and cut through them as they stood stunned and half-frozen, then began carving his way into their ranks. A moment later there was a sort of muted growl, and half of them -- the ones not close to him -- were<i> </i>on fire. They screamed, but their screams were muted...</p><p>A lone figure, previously hidden by their numbers, spun and saw the Black Knight approaching. "<i>You</i>," it said. Pallian merely continued cutting his way forward. </p><p>The figure was tall and heroically proportioned, dressed in a breastplate and a battle skirt, with sandals laced up to just below its knees. It held a cutting-spear, and screeched as it turned to face him. <i>There</i>. Pallian started towards it, but then it shrieked as it began to dissolve into mist. It pulled itself back together momentarily, but by then most of the enemy troop was on fire -- at least, the ones in the Entry Hall were. </p><p>Pallian shifted slightly as it threw the spear, letting the Black Knight's shield turn it aside, and came forward as it continued to struggle against being dissolved. It pulled itself back together again and raised one hand; the cutting-spear reappeared in its grip. </p><p>The Black Knight slapped the tip aside with his shield, then stepped in and drove the gauntlet sword through its torso. The breastplate was no impediment at all. The Emissary shrieked again<i>,</i> but suddenly the Shadow of Edrias was behind it, opening its throat before slipping away to dance through the remainder of its troops. </p><p>Ember and the Ghostly Ancestor moved into one of the corridors, tearing through the suddenly leaderless troops. </p><p>"We'll hold the hall," called Dakrin Eld, gesturing to the flesh-clothed ancestor beside him. "Clear them out!" </p><p>Pallian smiled inside his helm, and started forward. Ashmiren was gone again, but he knew she was keeping pace; any surprises in front of him were likely to get a surprise of their own.</p><p><i>Notes for the next entry: <br />(Westrov the Arms-Trainer)<br />(Kolpis, Pallian's old friend, representing his House at court)<br />(Dakrin Eld, Ancestor, Great-Grandfather's brother; teleporter)<br />(Ghostly Ancestor, hanging out with Ember to guide it and be protected by it)<br />(Fleshly Ancestor, pledged to protect Pallian as best he can)<br />(Amedin Halfdead, Master of Initiations and Advisor to the Wizard-King of Teregor)<br />(Kareth Teres, the Wizard-King)</i><br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-11832060541988629022024-02-29T09:00:00.002-06:002024-02-29T09:00:00.251-06:00Terra Povos: A Game Of Musical Wagons<p>Amergin, male dwarf druid<br />James male-presenting dwarven stabby thief<br />Pythia female dwarven cleric<br />Whisper male dwarf rogue<br />Lithos male goblin wizard<br />Archibald male human bard</p><p></p><p>As we’re walking out, Leaf is like: “You guys really saved my buns in there, you’re my friends.”</p><p>Archibald: “Why were you locked in the basement?” </p><p>Leaf: “The Senator’s son and I were like brothers. And now he’s dead, so I ran to Dane’s place, and he was worried I was going to get him in trouble so he threw me in the dungeon.”</p><p>Archibald: “So, who killed him?”</p><p>Leaf: “I have info! But it’s back on my ship.”</p><p>We go back and forth a couple of times, but he insists that he needs to give us this information on his ship.</p><p>Ambergin insists on going with him. Leaf is now really excited about us coming with him “to meet the crew”. Archibald tries to convince him to come back to the inn with us first, to have a drink before we head for the ship. He agrees.</p><p>We get back to the Shattered Golem, and Leaf is like, “Oh, this is your inn? It’s kind of lame. But very nice!”</p><p>We get him a drink and he sips it slowly; Lithos pours a cup of tea. Whisper spikes his drink and we put him a room, and take the opportunity to sleep and restore our spells. Leaf suggests that we should probably wait until evening before heading back to the ship. We know he’s a member of the crew.</p><p>We spend some more time talking to him. He can help us, but he needs us to help him. He has this treasure map. It’s on the boat. If we help him get the treasure, he’ll tell us everything. We keep discussing: there’s this place called the Crypt of Trickery, also known as Durest’s Funhouse… and it’s built by a fan of Durest Inglorian. Leaf has a coinage problem, A bad one.</p><p>We decide to help him out by giving him some of Balin’s gems. Alderman Thunderbrew has stupidly posted two guards out front. They are not privy to what’s going on, and they are not at all smart. Archibald puts them to sleep with Lullabye, and Whisper slips into the house and retrieves the moonstones.</p><p>They have basically bullshitted his way through retrieving the moonstones.</p><p>Lithos: “How likely is Rose to try to kill us?”</p><p>“Not at all! Rose the Unmaiden? She would never–”</p><p>Yeah, she would. He starts laying out ship’s defenses, and where the map is (in the bow). Baldy: “This isn’t your map, is it?”</p><p>“Rose took it from me!”</p><p>So if we go at night, there’s a bar in the back. The bow has the lieutenant’s quarters, Rose’s quarters, and the brig. The brig doubles as the treasure chamber. Leaf is very enthused about his plan. He’s less enthused about our plan, but he agrees.</p><p>So our plan is basically that James and Whisper will break into the vault, while the rest of us come and be a distraction. Amergin leads the way, and one of the guards nods at him. Leaf is right behind him. One of the archers spots Leaf and looses an arrow at him: “You motherfucker It misses, but the archer calls: “It’s him! It’s the guy!”</p><p>Archibald moves up behind Leaf. One of the two city guards watching the customs house steps in and trips Leaf and puts the blade of the halberd to his throat: “Don’t you dare move!” </p><p>Pirates: “Hey! That guy’s ours!”</p><p>Amergin: “We got him, we brought him, we got this.”</p><p>Leaf: “You motherfucker! You brought me here to steal the treasure map!”</p><p>Pirates: “Bring him here! Rose wants to meat with him! She’ll meet with you too!”</p><p>We march Leaf forward, and Amergin looks at Leaf: “You have one more chance.”</p><p>Meanwhile, another guard and a sorcerer emerge from the customs house. The sorcerer says that Rose laid a charge against him. He’s not that interested in the whole thing. Rose isn’t really a pirate or a smuggler, just a somewhat unsavory businesswoman.</p><p>So we all go marching forward, and Leaf keeps trying to hint that Archibald should raid the vault in the customs house. We walk into the party, and four or five of the dwarf pirates grab Leaf and drag him into a corner, where they restrain him. The two archers on the top and the two guards on the bow return to their posts.</p><p>Rose is clearly a swashbuckler type; she’s wearing very nice leather armor, probably magical. She’s got this fancy jeweled rapier, which she calls her thorn. The rest of the crew have either axes or bows. She leads with, “I must apologize that this pathetic excuse for a dwarf is the first introduction to the crew of my ship.” She seems super-nice. “So how did you get involved in his shenanigans?”</p><p>Baldy begins to tell the tale, and they’re just enraptured. Rose is impressed with the strange human. And, well, she wants help getting the treasure.</p><p>Meanwhile James and Whisper have reached the abandoned warehouse and slip past it to the shrine. They wait for a few minutes to study their movements. Then Whisper makes a distraction and James dashes across the final stretch of the dock and vaults through the porthole. He lands on the bed, where two of the lieutenants are going at it. One of them leaps up and grabs an axe, and James right back out the porthole. He climbs back up on the dock, then tries to sneak over to Whisper.</p><p>He fails and gets captured.</p><p>So we renegotiate a little bit, and Baldy gets with Rose. It’s a very… give-and-take sort of event, replete with marvelous devices and an Enlarge spell. Rose makes sure Leaf sees how Archibald comes limping out there, looks at Leaf, and says: “Tonight.”</p><p>Leaf collapses completely. “So Balin was in contact with this deep dwarf trader, a lady named Brinja: standoffish, with orange hair in a ponytail, no beard, pinkish skin; carries a short sword, a buckler, and a crossbow. The cargo was some huge wagon, but I didn’t see what was in it. Must have been heavy, because it took two large cave lizards to pull it. Balin was going to use it to win in the pits. So they went in with a thousand gold each, and they tried to offer Brindja 3,000. This trade came from the deep road, so she wouldn’t have gone through customs here, she’d have gone through customs in Deepwatch. She supposedly had a duergar bodyguard.” That would explain the extra set of tracks at the crime scene.</p><p>Archibald lays out what we know.</p><p>Alderman: “Oh! She went through customs at Deepwatch?”</p><p>“Can you send word?”</p><p>“And spend MONEY?”</p><p>Us: “YES.”</p><p>Brindja had declared a load of magma stone, and apparently her goods were inspected by a junior inspector, who marked her down as a large block of magma stone. She’s from Blackstone, which is an area that exports these sorts of stone. So either the inspector was on the take, or she has a stone cage, or an illusion.</p><p>We do some asking around, but nobody seems to be selling huge quantities of food. The main source of food around here is fish. Whisper is listening for anything that might be pertinent while tending the bar for a bit. Amergin checks the fish markets for large purchases, but learns nothing. Baldy checks with the road guards, but they don’t remember that wagon going out. We do hear a little about a weird red-headed dwarf woman with no facial hair.</p><p>Lithos talks to a wagonwright and learns a bit about how the big stonehauler wagons operate. After some checking, we find that there was another inn where a dwarf lady stayed with a big wagon, but she left two nights ago.</p><p>Our best bet is that it’s down by the water somewhere, so we go find Rose and Archibald asks her about wagons and transports. This dock has the customs house; we should go look at the other docks, the ones the smugglers use. We head over there and ask them. On the way there, we pass a side-passage. Someone has ditched a very large wagon there.</p><p>We go investigate. There is definitely a big square imprint in the back of this thing, like a stone block was sitting back there. There is no trace of food there. It looks like maybe a smaller cart was used to pull the slab down to the smugglers’ docks. Looks like a whole lot of people were involved in making the transport. We head down to the dock where it was taken.</p><p>Most of the vessels here are small, so they’d maybe take it out to a larger ship. So Jorin took a large stone out last night; Calaman told us. He was taking it… out to the Tainted Rose. We head back to find the Tainted Rose sailing away.</p><p>We go report to the Alderman and ask for a coast guard ship to carry us out. He has… one small local craft that he uses to deal with pirates and bandits. We’ll pick up there next time. </p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-74946519646858267202024-02-28T09:00:00.001-06:002024-02-28T09:00:00.321-06:00Challenge: Waiting Rooms<p>(This post is part of the <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge/" target="_blank">Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge</a>. You can find links to other writers' answers over at <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/" target="_blank">Long and Short Reviews</a>. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Sort of.)</p><p><b>Prompt: <i>How I amuse myself in waiting rooms.<br /></i></b></p><p>"I read books," he said, surprising exactly nobody, "or I tell myself stories, think about the stories I'm working on now." He patted the pouch on his belt. "And I turn off the television in the waiting room if I find it too annoying."</p><p>"...You do what?" she asked. </p><p>"Turn off the television. There's always a television, it frequently has the volume up, and often there's nowhere you can reasonably escape it." </p><p>"So you just... walk over there and turn it off?" </p><p>"Sometimes," he admitted. "If nobody else seems to be watching it. But, well, a while back I stumbled on a mention of <a href="https://www.tvbgone.com/" target="_blank">TV-B-Gone</a>, and I ordered one. And it works on everything I've tried it on so far, including that one Wendy's that just won't turn off Fox News."</p><p>"But that's-- Okay, that actually sounds handy."</p><p>He shrugged. "It's situational, but it sure has been nice to have the option."</p><p>"Okay," the interviewer said, glancing down at the notepad in her lap. "Do you always write about yourself in the third person?"</p><p>"Only when I'm being interviewed in a waiting room."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-77451791517702835862024-02-27T09:00:00.103-06:002024-03-06T22:35:35.994-06:00The Lost Girl, part ten<p>"Hey, wolf?" </p><p>Chris turned to see Morri walking over to him. "Yes?"</p><p>"I need a punching bag," she said. "You're supposed to be tough. You game?" </p><p>Chris looked down at the his bag, which he'd tossed beside the thick trunk of a massive white pine, then looked back at her. "I was going to gather firewood," he said, with a slight shrug.</p><p>She glanced at Elyssa, then at Agatha. "Let the other two handle that," she said. "I need to work some energy off, or it's going to be a problem later."</p><p>Chris frowned, and glanced at Peter, who was in the process of setting up a small, hexagonal tent. </p><p>"I'll spar with Peter if I have to," Morri said, more quietly. "He has phrases for it so I don't hurt him and he's almost enough of a challenge, but..." Her expression twisted. "...that isn't a real fight."</p><p>He looked to Antoinette, who met his eyes and lifted one hand, turning the palm up in a gesture that he took to mean that she wasn't sure what was going on but had no particular objection. </p><p>"All right," he said. "Elyssa, Agatha, are you okay with finding firewood without me?"</p><p>Elyssa quirked a grin at him. "Is that even a question?" Agatha just nodded. </p><p>Chris shrugged and turned back to Morri. "All right, you're on. Rules? I'm assuming no claws, no biting."</p><p>Morri shook her head. "No, that's not going to do it. I need a real fight. I want you try to kill me -- claws, fangs, whatever. No firearms, but anything else goes."</p><p>Chris frowned at that. Morri was nearly his own height and more heavily built, with a square musculature that carried no excess bulk. She wasn't a wolf -- there was no hint of animal musk in her scent -- but she was a registered outsider and likely had her own tricks. This whole thing could get completely out of hand frighteningly quickly. "Can you give me a better idea of what to expect?" he asked. "I don't mind bruises, but I don't want anything broken -- or anything else that might screw the assignment."</p><p>She smiled hungrily. "All right. You're going to attack me -- as yourself, as a wolf, as something in between. I don't care. I don't have claws, but I'm strong and I'm tough. I'm going to punch you, kick you, grab you. I might take you to the ground. Does that give you enough of an idea?"</p><p>Chris nodded slowly. "We should move outside of the camp for this."<br /></p><p>"Can I watch?" asked Agatha. Elyssa looked curious as well; for that matter, so did Antoinette and Peter. </p><p>"Fine," said Peter with a shrug. "Fighting first, campfire later."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-19792788404031994272024-02-26T09:00:00.067-06:002024-02-26T09:00:00.144-06:00The Lost Girl, part nine<p>Chris drew a deep breath and then released it. It was good to be out in the Grey again; he drew it in, let it fill him. He'd grown up in places like this, at one with the Grey or storing it inside himself to use inside the Mundus.<br /></p><p>Beside him, Elyssa tasted the air, then shook her head again. The forest was rich with scents, but none of them indicated the way the caravan might have gone. Morri had dropped back, guarding their rear and leaving the two wolves to lead the way while the magi remained in the middle. </p><p>They walked that way for over an hour, until the dirt road ran into the side of an ancient stone road and stopped. The shadows of the trees were growing darker; wherever they were, night was falling. </p><p>"Any chance it failed to rain here?" asked Peter. </p><p>Chris exchanged a look with Elyssa. They both shook their heads. </p><p>"No wagon tracks, either," added Morri from behind him. </p><p>Peter cursed softly. "All right. Follow me." He glanced up at the trees. "We'll probably have to make camp before too much longer anyway."</p><p>He turned left, his expression set as he passed them. <i>Concentrating,</i> Chris thought, but he didn't understand how that might work. Was Peter just focusing on Tammy Carterhaugh? Or...</p><p>Peter stepped off the road, and Chris and Elyssa followed him. What had seemed a mere break in the trees became a path, and then -- as they circled an ancient oak -- an extension of the stone road. It was definitely night now, and while that didn't bother Chris or Elyssa, Peter pulled up short. "We make camp here," he said. He glanced at Antoinette. "Can you lay down some wards?"</p><p>She spoke the word for <i>light</i>, shaping a glowing ball over her head. "Give me just a minute," she said. <br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-82250437000488799782024-02-23T09:00:00.015-06:002024-03-06T23:13:04.219-06:00Dark Armor: The Emissary of the Second<p>They came out in the same receiving room where the scroll had deposited Pallian days earlier. He paused for a moment, orienting himself. Then he turned to Ashmiren. "I trust your judgement, Princess. Will you stay hidden until I have the Emissary's attention?"</p><p>The shadowy figure nodded. "If you can buy me a few minutes to get into position, I will take out everyone I can." She turned to Ember, and the nightmare gave them both a nod. "I will wait, I think, and follow your lead. I do not wish to destroy your troops by mistake."</p><p>"Our troops," said Dakrin Eld, "may be living or dead, wearing livery or not. Word on the Emissary and its troop is that each has two rubies decorating their armor: one on their forehead, and one over their heart."</p><p>Ember made a sort of awkward bow. "I will look for such enchantments," it said. </p><p>The ghostly ancestor drifted to its side. "I'd like to stay with you for this battle," she said. "I can offer some guidance, and I suspect you'll afford me some protection."</p><p>"Guidance would be welcome," Ember told her, "and protection is easily provided."<br /></p><p>She reached out and scratched it behind its ears in a manner that suggested that she definitely thought of the nightmare lord as some sort of half-feral pet cat, and Pallian was suddenly very glad that the helm hid his expression. </p><p>"Very well," said Dakrin Eld. "We're inside now. Let's go find a battle. You lead, lad."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-49544167158911062192024-02-22T09:00:00.005-06:002024-02-22T12:15:51.224-06:00Lithos: Something Almost, But Not Quite Entirely Unlike Tea (part one)<p></p><p>"What are you doing?" asked Pythia, with a puzzled almost-frown. </p><p>Lithos
didn't turn and yell at her, but it was a near thing; he was very
frustrated. He was also very aware that his sister had no way of knowing
that. He took a deep breath and sat back, looking at the cup on the table in front of him. </p><p>The cup was small, even by his standards. And the brownish liquid inside it was... <i>not</i> what he'd had in mind. "I'm trying to make tea," he said, and scowled at the cup, "and failing abjectly at it."<br /></p><p>Pythia looked, if anything, even more puzzled. "You're trying to cast a spell to create a cup of tea?" </p><p>"There <i>are</i> no spells to create a cup of tea!" Lithos snapped. "I was trying to stretch my Prestidigitation into producing one."</p><p>Pythia's expression softened slightly. "May I?" she asked. </p><p>"You'll regret it," Lithos told her. "I did. I mean, it's not poison, it's just..."</p><p>Pythia
reached down, took the tiny cup, raised it to her lips, and took a
cautious sip. She set it back down immediately. "You're right," she
said. "That is <i>nothing</i> like tea." She frowned. "Well, <i>almost</i> nothing like tea."</p><p>"I know," he said mournfully. "I don't think Prestidigitation can do it."</p><p>"Well," said Pythia, then paused. "Have you considered a more... <i>alchemical</i> approach?"</p><p>"...You mean with boiling water and tea leaves?" asked Lithos. "I mean yes, if all I wanted was a cup of tea, that would of course work perfectly well. But what I <i>want</i> is to be able to <i>conjure</i> a cup of tea. Or a whole tea service."</p><p>Pythia dipped her head, accepting that. "You're clever," she said. "I'm sure you'll figure something out."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-38409300199703219152024-02-21T09:00:00.001-06:002024-02-21T09:00:00.144-06:00Challenge: Pets!<p>(This post is part of the <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge/" target="_blank">Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge</a>. You can find links to other writers' answers over at <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/" target="_blank">Long and Short Reviews</a>. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Sort of.)</p><p><b>Prompt: <i>Pets I used to have (or wish I could have)<br /></i></b></p><p>Well... The pets in my life have generally been dogs or cats, with the notable exception of the Yard Turtles. (The yard turtles weren't really pets as such; they were a pair of turtles that we rescued from the road and relocated to our back yard, where they lived long lives of reptilian luxury. At least one of them had been hit by a car when we found it; possibly both.)</p><p>But if I could just wish for a pet and get it... I'd want a miniature dragon. Or, heck, an actual baby dragon! It could ride around on me while it was small, and then when it got older I could ride around on it.</p><p></p><p>...Might be a little hard to keep it fed, though. Hm. Okay, fine, miniature dragon, but I want it to breathe fire and ice and lightning and stuff. </p><p>House insurance? Why would you be asking about house insurance?<br /></p><p></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-31743480118722574142024-02-20T09:00:00.110-06:002024-02-20T09:00:00.203-06:00The Lost Girl, part eight<p>"Well, this is certainly something," Antoinette remarked quietly. The tunnel had emerged through another arch, depositing them at the foot of a surprisingly solid dirt road. Old, heavy trees surrounded the road on either side, and from out here the arch was just an arch: a free-standing arrangement of mortared stone in a small forest clearing. "Someone's putting some work in to maintain this road."</p><p>Peter chuckled. "They are, but that's not going in our reports."</p><p>Antoinette looked puzzled. "Isn't this sort of thing illegal?"</p><p>"Discretion is the better part of legality," Peter replied easily, and Morri grinned hungrily at Agatha. "Having a passage to the Grey is legal. Trading with outsiders may or may not be, depending on exactly what's being traded. Bringing unregistered outsiders into the Mundus is illegal, but unless it causes a problem the Ministry generally ignores it; we don't have the resources to stop all of it, so we save our efforts for fairly egregious -- and public -- violations."</p><p>Antoinette considered that, then nodded. "All right, I can see that." </p><p>Chris could, too. He didn't like it, but he could see it. <i>No wonder the old snake asked if I planned to bind it...</i> That had been more than a year ago, nearly two, and he hadn't really understood at the time. It was only after he'd come to the Ministry and seen just what could be done with a <i>geas</i> that he'd begun to understand. </p><p>Peter turned to Agatha. "Do you know which way they went?" He glanced at the road, and then amended the question. "Do you know where they were headed from here?"</p><p>Agatha looked momentarily panicked, then shook her head. "There's a seasonal pattern," she said, "but I don't remember much about it, and I don't know what season we're in, here."</p><p>Antoinette turned to look at Chris. "Scent?"</p><p>He'd already been tasting the air; now he shook his head. "I think it's rained since they departed." He glanced at Elyssa, but she shook her head as well.</p><p>"All right," said Peter. "Then we'll do it the hard way. We'll start by following the road, though." He shook his head. "Before we do... I want you to look around this place. Study it. The Grey is malleable, and even if you're not a pathfinder it'll sometimes take you to a particular place if it's important to you."</p><p>Antoinette frowned. "So Seekers are just... better at bending it to their will?" </p><p>Peter considered that, then nodded. "Something like that. Pathfinders can command the Grey to shape itself to our will as we move through it; everybody else has to ask and hope it responds. It takes practice, and it's a matter of sensitivity as much as will, but if we get separated... well, even if none of you have that particular talent, you can still try to picture this place, start walking, and focus on avoiding everything that <i>isn't</i> here until you return here." He paused and looked at Antoinette. "Your Arcana will still work out here, so you could also get back to the Mundus through the cards." Then he looked a Elyssa, Chris, and Agatha. "If you can't find your way back, find someplace safe to stay and just wait until I can collect you."</p><p>They nodded, and then started looking around. Peter gave them about five minutes before he said, "All right, let's get moving. We'll stick to the established paths for now; I don't want to have to force my way through the Grey this close to the Mundus." <br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-85013693041796256642024-02-19T09:00:00.004-06:002024-02-19T09:00:00.249-06:00The Lost Girl, part seven<p>"Wait," said Maggie Hargrave, as they descended into the cellar. "Mother, let Agatha go with them."</p><p>Amelie Hargrave paused, considering that, then opened the door at the foot of the stairs and motioned everyone through. "That is... not the worst suggestion I have heard. Was it your idea, or hers?"</p><p>"Does it matter?" asked Maggie, sounding acutely exasperated. "We both want her back, and safe." Chris hadn't really focused on her before, but this was definitely the other girl from magus Frummelt's slideshow: brown-haired, lean, and intense. </p><p>"Hers, then," sniffed the <i>materfamilias</i>. </p><p>"<i>Ours</i>," Maggie countered. "I was about to suggest it to her when she suggested it to me." She broke off from locking glares with her mother and turned to Peter instead. "Agatha can help. She may be able to help you find the travelers, and she can definitely help you talk to them."</p><p>Peter looked to his companion, who shrugged her broad shoulders; then he looked to Antoinette, who nodded without hesitation. "As you wish," he said.</p><p>Agatha came forward then, but stopped alongside Chris and Elyssa; she didn't place herself beside the magi. "Thank you," she said. </p><p>"This way," said Amelie Hargrave, suddenly impatient. "The stone arch will take you through a short passage, and then out into the Grey. Bring Tammy back intact, and the Hargraves will owe you a favor."</p><p>"With our shields or on them," said Peter, which cause Amelie to quirk a grin at him.<br /></p><p>Chris was already staring at the stone arch; it was crude and roughly mortared, large enough to drive a truck through, and the passage on the far side had the look of some sort of underground roadway. It was the sort of connection that a family would use if they were engaged in regular commerce with the Grey, rather than just stepping out to recharge their magic. </p><p>Peter turned to regard it, then motioned them forward; they followed him through.<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-58058943530922676092024-02-16T09:00:00.004-06:002024-03-01T00:37:57.214-06:00Dark Armor: Violations<p>"Put your mask back on," said Pallian, as the carriage shifted again and its wheels bumped against the ground. He lifted the helm and let it once again enclose his head. </p><p>Beside him, Ashmiren nodded and slipped her mask into place. </p><p>"Both of you seem to be skilled at blending into the shadows," he continued. "Can you conceal yourselves when the doors open, and follow unseen while I return the armor to its place and try to uncover what exactly just happened?" After the Grandmother's work, Pallian was no longer certain that he didn't possess such talents himself... but even if he did, this was neither the time nor the place to invoke them. </p><p>"I can certainly try," said Ashmiren, while Ember responded with, "I will keep us hidden."</p><p>"All right. Stay secret; stay safe. I'll let you know when it's safe to show yourselves."</p><p>The carriage rolled to a stop, and a low <i>boom</i> -- more felt than heard -- indicated that the gate to the crypt had closed behind it. The carriage door swung open, and the Black Knight stepped out. </p><p>He was not surprised to see Tybben, hairless and dog-headed and dressed in an ornate red robe, waiting as his boot touched the ground. He <i>was</i> surprised to see a double-dozen dead ancestors gathered behind the disfigured servant. Still, this was the crypt and these were his people; even in his role as the Black Knight, he was not forbidden to speak to them. "What has happened?" he asked. "What brings you all here?"</p><p>Three of the dead started forward; four more pulled them back. Tybben said, "The Emissary has arrived at the Obsidian Citadel. It has forced the gates, and battle rages within. The Wizard-King remains absent, as does first-prince Ravaj. The Amedin commands the defense, but without the royal family or their champion..."</p><p>The Black Knight nodded. "My friends," he called quietly, "I need you."</p><p>Ember and Ashmiren stepped out of the coach as if they'd never been hidden inside it. The long-dead lords and ladies drew back as they came to stand beside him.<br /></p><p>The Black Knight looked around at his dead ancestors. "We will need someone to carry us to Obsidian Citadel," he said. "Someone who can pass its defenses, and doesn't fear death. If you can hide yourself and be ready to bring us back afterwards, all the better." </p><p>There was a brief moment of stillness and silence; then one figure, who was very nearly a skeleton, hawked and spat. "I'll take you in, lad. Dakrin Eld, your great-grandfather's brother. I can carry your friends as well, and I might even be a bit of help myself." He grinned, or at least Pallian thought he did; the movement of that nearly-fleshless jaw might mean anything. "And if I die at this, it's a good death in defense of the realm."</p><p>"I'll follow your lead," said another, whose bones were still clothed in flesh. "If you can get us there, I'll protect you as best I can."</p><p>"A third," said a woman's voice, firm and solid despite the nearly insubstantial figure who spoke. "I haven't dissolved anyone into mist in <i>centuries</i>. Let me help." </p><p>"Uncle," said Pallian, before this could get out of hand, "How many of us can you carry?"</p><p>Dakrin Eld looked around. "The six of us," he said. "It gets too risky after that."</p><p>"Then come forward," Pallian said, trying to sound certain and commanding when he was uncertain and even utterly baffled. "Let us counter this threat." <i>Please let that sound inspiring, and not like something from a tale for children...</i></p><p>Dakrin Eld stepped forward. The other two ancestors followed him. Pallian, Ashmiren, and Ember stepped forward to meet them<i>.</i> "Let's do this," said the ancient skeleton, and lifted a hand. </p><p>The world swirled away around them. <br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-10913262031441161082024-02-15T09:00:00.007-06:002024-02-15T14:37:37.989-06:00Terra Povos: Pit Fighting<span id="docs-internal-guid-4655b0c7-7fff-a447-03aa-63cc3e67cbb0"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin, male dwarf druid</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">James male-presenting dwarven stabby thief</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Pythia female dwarven cleric</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper male dwarf rogue</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Lithos male goblin wizard</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Archibald male human bard</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Max arrives to grab us in the middle of the night. The Alderman’s outside: Senator Ragnus Goldbeard’s son is dead! In his town! We have to help! Balin Goldbeard (middle child) has a place that he rents out here to do his carousing. One of the neighbors said she heard a disturbance, and saw a strange dwarf she didn’t recognize so she called the guard; the guards called Nori, and Nori called us. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper: </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I need 25 pounds of quicklime and a steel basin to make this go away. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Nori: “I can get rid of a body by myself! The guards won’t say anything, but if word gets out there’ll be quaestors crawlin’ straight up me butt! Give me an update in twenty-four hours.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper checks the lock before we go in; it doesn’t seem like the door was locked at all. There’s another dwarf, not so well dressed, over by the book case. There’s a table in the middle of the room with three tankards on it, spilled; there’s a book case toppled near the second dwarf, he might have been knocked into it. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper starts by looking at the footprints. There is more than one pair of bloody footprints leading out of the door. In the mess of footsteps on the ground there are four total footsteps. Amergin starts looking over the bodies, starting with the unknown one; he was stabbed in the gut, probably with a sword of some sort. Balin’s head was bashed in from behind with a large blunt object. Amergin attempts to detect poison; he finds nothing. Amergin and Lithos both detect magic; neither of us comes up with anything. Lithos looks at the fallen bookcase; the books there seem like they were chosen more for decoration than reading material. James checks the cabinet, and finds plates, tankards, and things like that. He finds a book that fell behind the cabinet; it appears to be a bestiary with several pages marked: black bear, crocodile, wolverine. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Archibald heads across the street to talk to the neighbor. She immediately adopts him and is serving him tea and crumpets and introducing her cats. He asks about what she saw and if there was any distinguishing about the dwarf she saw. She spends about ten minutes complaining about Balin and the company he keeps. “Definitely wasn’t from around here. Pinkish skin, maybe orange hair. Looked very mean, up to no good – had a sword, shield, and crossbow. But… she’s emphatic that she only saw one person. Archibald puts her back to sleep and backs out the door.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper checks the bodies for valuables. Balin has nothing of value other than his outfit, which is quite expensive; there are marks on his fingers where he clearly wore rings, and a moneypurse has clearly been cut away from his belt. A key has tumbled to the ground and is laying next to him. Whisper marks the key with a chalk arrow. He moves to the second dead guy, who has ten gold in a pouch a writ of admittance to the Lion’s Bane under the name of Riley. It’s about a mile outside of town; it’s a pit-fighting place, for Vat Fights in old brewing vats. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since this kind of establishment is borderline illegal, you ned a writ of admittance to get in. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin goes looking for animals that might have witnessed the murders. He’s going to use Detect Animals and then use Speak with Animals to interview them. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mouse: “Hello human! Where’s the food?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin: “There was food here?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mouse: “Lots of food! Always has friends. Sometimes food over there.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin: “What happened to the other two food-carriers?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mouse: “One of them didn’t eat. That was weird.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Do you know where he went?” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Out?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Do you know when?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Before the last food.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Lithos, meanwhile, goes over to check the sleeping bags. One of them has faux fur inside it, which kind of matches what the second dead body is wearing. There are also some weird crunchy patches in the cloth. The second one has 60 GP and a pouch of Jafreese’ Breeze. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">James goes to check one of the doors to the back; he starts by checking it for traps. She doesn’t find any. Then she checks the lock; it’s unlocked, Then she opens it very carefully. It’s a bedroom, and there’s 100 GP and 100 SP sitting on top of the counter. We take the money and the writ, and Whisper goes to inspect the chest at the end of the bed. It </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">is </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">locked. The bed is not made; Whisper attempts to open it and sets off an alarm. So now it’s screeching at us. He races back for the key, and uses it to open the lock; the alarm stops as well. He stops to examine the lock, which is a good quality lock. Inside are fifteen hundred GP in gems. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper locks that back up. James goes to check the keg in the front room. It has wine in it. It’s actually pretty good wine, and apparently not poisoned, and there’s about 40 bottles worth in it. Lithos checks the middle of the room; the table was definitely shoved aside. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Archibald comes in and looks at the bodies as well. Balin was definitely bashed in the back of the head with something heavy. His rings were basically ripped off his hands. The other guy was stabbed from the front, and then fell back against the shelves. James checks the dresser and finds a flask of alcu’ul, 15 GP in change, and… it’s obvious that this wasn’t searched. So this wasn’t the robbery that it was half-assedly rigged to resemble. The bottom drawer has a bong, another bag of Jafresse’ Breeze, and a flyer for the local distributor. The nightstand has a book of Jensenian poetry and a writ of credit for 1000 GP at the Lion’s Bane. Whisper swaps his mundane dagger for the masterwork dagger in the chest. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We close up the house, leaving the key inside. Amergin is taking the mice with him so they don’t gnaw on the bodies. We also take the noble outfit and its jewelry. The description of the dwarf sounds like a deep dwarf – which would definitely not be local – to Lithos. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We make our way out to the Lion’s Bane. Lithos and James knock on the door. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Massive Orc: “Closed.” He’s wearing a surcoat that says Thing #1 on it. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper, acting as the footman, shows the writ. We manage to bluff our way inside by promising Thing One 500 gp. The pit boss looks over at us: “Who the hell are these guys?” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Thing One: “They Riley!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Pit Boss: “You’re not Riley! Get over here.” His name appears to be Dane.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper looks around for somebody with pink skin and orange hair. There’s some humans who look like pirates. There are two armed and armored dwarves drinking up by the front of the place. On one side of the pit, a necromancer and a couple of skeletons are watching the action in the pit. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dane: “Who the fuck are you?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We explain about where we got the writ. Amergin discreetly shoves a bench into the pit, but the wrangler emerges and hauls the wolf back. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dane: “You’re not starting shit in my place.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin: “Ye started it by keeping wild animals trapped in here.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dane starts expounding on how his place is the only place underhill where you can see animals from overhill. He yields a bit, and tells us that Balin hung out here all the time with Leaf and Riley. He doesn’t know about any deep dwarves. He’s willing to let us hang out a bit as long as we partake in some of the activities. We pull out Balin’s writ of credit. Archibald: “Perhaps a wager?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Not the dire wolf, not for children. For you… rats.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Amergin hops into the pit. The rules are that you can only send down two people. If we win the first round, we win 300 gp and can continue the challenge. Whisper jumps down there with Amergin, and a couple of dire rats come out. They attack immediately, one missing Amergin and the other biting Amergin. Whisper tumbles around to flank, and taking more damage on the way. He stabs a rat. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It goes down, and Amergin curses loudly. He then casts Calm Animals, and the rats suddenly settle down. Amergin gives it scritches. “All right, next?” We’ve won 300 GP. The wrangler carries the injured rat back to the bat. He thinks Amergin is his friend now. Amergin: “Think on your sins.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Garg retreats back to the cages. Amergin bolts in after him. Dane: “Wait! Stop them!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Thing 2 jumps into the pit and follows him. They make it through the door and spike it close behind them, blocking Thing 2 out. The wrangler knows a secret, but Aergin misunderstands him and thinks that there's a door that Leaf used to get out. Thing 2 starts to force the door. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">There is a dwarf imprisoned in cell three… it’s Balin’s other companion, Leaf. There’s no secret exit. Whisper frees Leaf, and moves on to a human prisoner and a kobold family. They're armed, since they were going to be made to fight in the pits. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Up top, Thing #2 swings and hits Archibald. He goes down. Lithos fires off Color Spray and takes out Thing 2 and Dane (temporarily). Pythia heals Archibald, who pulls out his whip and trips Dane into the pit while he’s stunned. Lithos steps back and casts Shield on himself. James moves for the back door. Archibald tries to trip one of the guards, but the guard grabs the whip and tries to trip him; he drops his whip and backs off. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">James opens the back door and finds the kitchen; he goes inside. Pythia heals Lithos enough to pull him back from the brink of death. Archibald sings one of the guards to sleep. He then moves back over next to Lithos. Lithos uses the last of his spells – grease – and causes the other archer to fall into the pit. Archibald uses the wand of healing on Pythia and sets himself beside her. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The archer in the pit stands up and backs up. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Meanwhile, downstairs, Whisper tries to release the kobolds but fails. Thing One smashes through the door. Glarg the wrangler is not happy with this. Amergin: “We’re going to save the animals together. We’re going to get them back overhill.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Glarg is convinced. He hands Amergin the keyring and steps in front of the door, holding his halberd. Amergin tosses Whisper the keyring. He pops the kobold lock and moves over to the badger’s door – </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">off to the side</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> – with the intent of opening it next.Steve the Gladiator Prisoner charges straight down the hall and attacks Thing One, but misses. The family of kobolds charge down the hallway, right past thing One, who swings at them as they pass but misses. Leaf moves up next to Glarg. Amergin is still Speaking with Animals. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The dire wolf isn’t having it; he just lays down. The rats have a mixed reaction: the injured one runs out and starts gnawing on Dane. Glarg smacks Thing One with his halberd and damages him badly. “To the happy overhill!” Glarg yells. Thing hits him back, and now they’re both damaged. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whisper opens the badger’s cage as well, and it runs out into the pit; Thing One ignores it. Leaf attacks Thing but misses. Amergin throws some jerky on top of Dane. It comes out of its cage and eats the jerky, then starts licking Dane. Glarg and Thing try to hit each other; both miss. Whisper opens the Hyena door, and Amergin’s persuasion works much better this time. They run out and swarm around Thing One, who attacks one and hits it, Steve the Gladiator swings and misses. The kobolds get to the top of the pit, and one of the pirates pushes him back down. Leaf smacks Thing One with his warhammer, and Thing one goes down and starts getting gnawed on by hyenas. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dane stands back up too, draws his rapier, and skewers the rat. James comes back out of the kitchen and throws a spear at Thing Two but misses. Amergin emerges back to the pit and swings his club. Glarg runs out, looks at Dane, then moves over next to the wolf without attacking him. Pythia attacks Thing Two but misses. Archibald steps back and puts a crossbow bolt in his back; the archer in the pit promptly puts an arrow in </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">his</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> back, and Archibald goes down. Steve runs past Dane. Dane attacks Amergin and hits him, James moves up a bit and throws another spear, then misses. Pythia takes a five foot step and collects the wand, then Heals Archibald with it. Leaf attacks Dane but misses; Amergin moves to flank with Leaf and attacks Dane, but misses. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Glarg leads the dire wolf over to the ramp; the necromancer and his skeletons retreat into one of the rooms. Archibald puts another crossbow bolt into Thing Two’s back. Whisper emerges from the dungeon. Thing Two hits Lithos, and he goes down. The kobolds manage to climb up and swarm the pirates. The barmaid has retreated into the kitchen and is bitching to the halfling cook. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Leaf attacks Dane but misses. James puts a spear into Thing Two’s back. “Ha-Ha!” Pythia steps in and jabs Lithos with the wand of healing; the second archer wakes back up and tries to shoot Archibald; he misses so badly that he hits Dane instead. Whisper takes a shot at Dane from the doorway; the archer doesn’t see him, but Dane probably remembers that he’s back there. He shoots again and takes down the archer in the pit. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Steve the Gladiator races out the front door and disappears into the darkness. Thing Two takes Lithos back down. (OOC, James' player: "Again?" Me: "Yeah, well, despite all my rage I am still just a wee goblin mage...")<br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Leaf: “This is for putting me in a pit! Like an animal!” He attacks Dane. Dane attacks Amergin and hits, and Amergin goes down. James pulls out his pickaxe and charges, flanking Pythia; he misses. Pythia hits Thing Two with her greataxe and takes him down. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Archibald shoots at Dane but misses; he moves in close to the remaining archer. Whisper slides along the wall and tries to take a shot with his hand crossbow. He misses, and hits Amergin’s prone figure instead. Leaf hits Dane again, doing a bit of damage. Dane attacks Leaf, doing similar damage. Amergin and Lithos are both still bleeding out. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">James throws himself off the edge and takes a hit on the way down before slamming into Dane and smashing him into the ground. Pythia restores Lithos to consciousness. Baldy takes a five foot step back and shoots at the archer, who shoots back at him. They both miss. Whisper advances on Dane and tries to stab him with a dagger. He makes a perfect hit. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Lithos throws an Acid Splash at the archer, but misses. Dane surrenders, and James knocks him out. Pythia jumps down, and pulls Amergin back from the edge of death. Archibald steps in to keep Leaf from killing him. Leaf is very, </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">very </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">impressed with Archibald. He explains that he came by the house, found Balin dead, and went to tell Dane what happened. Dane promptly threw him in the dungeon. We throw Dane in one of the cages, cantrip him back to consciousness. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Who killed Balin?” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dane: “You guys just busted in here to find out who killed Balin? Look, I just locked up Leaf because he was going to bring the heat down on us! Balin had been losing, but he had some kind of plan to come back with some kind of creature that he was sure he could win with.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We leave him in the cage and walk out. The pirates and the kobolds have bonded over brawling, and they’re now swapping drinks. We are now down by five charges on the wand of Cure Light Wounds. We’re commandeering the rest of Dane's fortune. We loot the dead bodies; we take Dane’s Masterwork rapier for Uncle Baldy, and +1 leather armor for Ambergin. Dane is very sad about this. </span></p></span>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-70698909924102007352024-02-14T09:00:00.001-06:002024-02-14T09:00:00.317-06:00Challenge: What's New?<p>(This post is part of the <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge/" target="_blank">Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge</a>. You can find links to other writers' answers over at <a href="http://www.longandshortreviews.com/" target="_blank">Long and Short Reviews</a>. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Sort of.)</p><p><b>Prompt: <i>What's new in my life lately?<br /></i></b></p><p>Well, the big one is that Firstborn is getting ready to go off to college. </p><p>Hang on, I need to stop and sit with that one for a moment. </p><p>...Okay, I'm back. Yes, right: college. Firstborn. He's been accepted to a couple of places, and we're sorting through costs and scholarships as they come in. This is complicated by the fact that the standardized scholarship form -- the FAFSA -- got revised this year and so everything involved with that is going out late. </p><p>But mostly it's just weird to think that we'll only have <i>one</i> kid in the house most of the time. </p><p>Beyond that... we're starting a new D&D campaign, which (if you aren't familiar with the game) means that we're all back to playing weak, newbie characters. This is fun, but a bit jarring. We'll have to strategize more, and we'll have to be a <i>lot</i> more careful. </p><p>I have added another patch to the Patch Jacket. </p><p>I have ordered more teeth in anticipation of Halloween this year. </p><p>How about the rest of y'all? What's new with you?<br /></p><p></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-39112495716842551312024-02-13T09:00:00.039-06:002024-02-13T09:00:00.132-06:00The Lost Girl, part six<p>"Nothing," Chris told Antoinette quietly. "She's not here, or if she is she's well hidden. Maggie's friend Agatha showed us around a bit, and she seems to think that Tammy left with a wagon train that sometimes comes by to trade with House Hargrave."</p><p>Antoinette nodded, then glanced over to where Peter was reading back through a hand-written journal. "Kidnapped?" she asked quietly.</p><p>"Maybe," said Elyssa. "Maybe lured away. Maybe just decided to run off. Nobody seems to be too sure."</p><p>"Maggie didn't seem too sure, either," Antoinette admitted. "I don't think we get any answers until we get out there and locate the girl. Are you two doing all right?"</p><p>Chris glanced at Elyssa, who lifted a hand. "So far, so good," he said. "We can work together."</p><p>Elyssa nodded. "I know you didn't plan to have another RO, but... this is good. I can work with this." She met Antoinette's eyes. "I'll make you proud if I can." </p><p>Antoinette swallowed. "Don't make me proud," she said. "Just do the job. We're here to watch out for each other and do what the Ministry requires. They don't pay you twice if you do double the work."</p><p>Elyssa smiled, then stepped forward and pressed her cheek to Antoinette's. "Thank you."</p><p>Peter looked up as his partner returned; the older woman -- named Morri -- wore a grin that made Chris think she'd been out terrorizing the staff. She exchanged a few words with her magus, then stopped as he added a few more notes in his book. She noticed that Chris was watching her, and her smile widened as she looked over at him. It was not a reassuring expression.</p><p>"Lady Hargrave," called Peter, standing up and closing his notebook. "We'll need access to your passage now."</p><p>Lady Amelie Hargrave was standing in the doorway. "Of course," she said. "This way."<br /></p>Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.com2