Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack "Does anyone disagree?"

D "Works for me."

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Jack gives the answer to the face.

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Jack "Works for me."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

D "Works for me."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Back in the Labyrinth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

Hi people,

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

Cheers!

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack "Dégagement"

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

Jack "It's time we leave."

D "Agreed."

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

Mage "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!"

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

"ANIMANTRIX GEOLOGIX EMPOWERERST"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Meanwhile, D quietly casts silence on the mage.

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

ooc:[Let's see - D was always the well-supplied one, he would likely have a canteen handy.]
Thinking quickly, D opens his canteen and throws it at a flying lightning bolt. They collide, and the water vaporises, sending the canteen flying. However, the resulting water vapor in the air grounds out the remaining lightning.
ooc:[I'd have him use a snowball, but one wasn't handy....]

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

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

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

Jack "Agreed."

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

ooc:[still not entirely satisfieed with it.]

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

ooc:[It works.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

D "Rabbit's ready."

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

narp mumbles "thanks."

narp looks at the piece of rabbit.

narp is still looking at the peice of rabbit.

narp is still looking at the peice of rabbit.

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

D "Works for me."

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

D "Sure"

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

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

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

D "Ah. I see. Well then."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

D "That works, I guess."

D builds a fire and starts cooking the rabbits.

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

Narp "Ouch Arthur?"

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

Narp "Is it Ouch Arthur or Just Arthur?"

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

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

Arthur "AARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Arthur knocks himself on the head and promptly passes out.

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

Re: The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers
 

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

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

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

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

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