[Jack Simth]

Jack looks at Krsqk's spell.

Jack "Don't be so hard on the Wizard; he's been under a lot of mind control, and I severed the connection; he could be in shock."

John "Actually, I'm trying to figure out where he got the energy for that; it was leaking power like crazy."

Jack reaches into his robes, and pulls out a palm-sized emerald, which is glowing very faintly.

Jack "I used a capacitor; they are good for putting a lot of power out very quickly, but they don't have much stamina. This one is almost completely drained, but it should be back up in a day or so, unless I have to sustain some big spells. But yes, I was in a hurry with that one; I needed to end the telepath's tampering for a while so nobody would get killed. It's requirements were beyond my normal production capacity, so I needed the capacitor. Having used it, supporting it was beyond my means, so it collapsed. This one..." Jack gestures at the much smaller Version the group is currently resting in "... is well within my production capacity."

Jack "Looks fine; you are doing a little more work than is necessary, but that's just because you had no real way of knowing where I stored the wall I removed so it would be easy to put it back later. It should still be floating there."

Jack (to self) "Let's see, he didn't want to learn anything, so I suppose I ought to just use the runes used here. Ah, some telekenisis...."

Jack alters the runes accordingly, making sure not to use any runes or techniques not already present.

Jack "As for what to do next, I would suggest taking on the telepath. Explaining to the Baron won't be very useful until we can be sure nobody's messing with his head, and I suspect that the bandit problem is related. Large bands of bandits don't usually work well; disagreements arise and everyone wants to go their seperate ways; while under most circumstances people would stay and work things out, bandits tend to be less inclined to give other people their due (they do steal by force for a living, after all). We should have much less difficulty with the Psi in person, as we will be able to fight back."

Jack glances at the moon.

Jack "This spell ..." Jack again points out the barrier surrounding them "... will follow me if need be, but it would be better if everyone had their own protections, in case we get seperated. Speaking of which, Narp, do you still have both of those talismans I gave you? I need to change their mode."

Narp does, and hands them over to Jack, who quickly passes his hand over them, then pulls out his own and does the same, then hands one each to Narp and D.

Jack "There, I just changed their modes; now they will divert any psionics directed at the bearer a short distance to the left. I built it in becuase I figured the telepath would get suspicious if he could still read us when we wandered out of his range; this should make us well camoflauged. Hmm, I suppose I we will need two more...."

Jack takes a few minutes to build two more talismans, these ones only diverting psionics, and hands one to John, saving one for Arthur. Afterwards, he conjours one of his rations for Arthur.

Jack (to John) "You probably ought to get in the habit of blocking continuously, so that we don't have to go through this again."

Jack walks over to where Arthur is sitting, and hands him his amulet and the ration.

Jack "Sorry about not cooking it more, but it is probably a bad idea to start a fire. Arthur, you mentioned that you can tell where the telepath is; do you think you could lead us to him?"

[ July 11, 2003, 08:22: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]