The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[Katchoo]

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.

[Jack Simth]

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 ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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 ]

[Jack Simth]

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 ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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.

[Jack Simth]

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 ]

[David E. Gervais]

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!