The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[well, actually, i was thinking of it going from the open wall. doesn't matter, though. as for targetting, i was thinking of it as non-targeted - more a result of rage than anything else , which was why it hit the whole room, although i was also thinking along the lines of low clauraudience. i think that and the two T's gives him enough skills to be a true danger without overload. Narp's closest to the door...i'm assuming the wizard's going to have protective spells on his stuff.]

Narp felt himself get flung forward and toward the window. desperatly, he grabbed onto one of the bookshelf, hard enough to stop himself and slammed against the wall. as the pain of the bLast roared down his body, he dimly thought 'maybe that wasn't such a good idea', then collapsed on the floor

the wizard, already having some shields up, is only knocked of his feet and has his breath knocked out of him. but his shields are mostly gone.

on the wall, a sentry, who had spun in startlement at the sounds, suddenly jerked, then mechanically lifted his bow and aimed at the wizard...

ooc:[i'm assuming the bookshelf partially protected him. the telepath's trying to get rid of the one he percieves as the most danger, once he gets protected, now that he's thinking, he's thinking the wizard could protect himself. but those are just excuses, i thought it made a good plot point.]

[ July 10, 2003, 06:39: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Let's see... D was climbing down the tower when the bLast hit; he is likely unaffected. Krsqk and Narp are uncouncious in the room, the Wizard of Lago (we have a name for him now, courtesy of Krsqk: John) has his breath knocked out of him, and Jack is standing on the ground outside the tower. That leaves D and Jack as being able to act.]

Jack, noticing that Narp isn't flying out the big hole in the wall, looks around a bit, and notices the gaurd drawing his arrow.

Jack "Can't have that...."
Jack "Arc"
At that, the bow is teleported out of the gaurd's hands, and into Jack's.

Jack "We do need to stop this..."
Jack "Mur d'esprit"
As Jack's spell is cast, a glowing green sphere encompasses the entire manor, temporarily preventing psionics from functioning.

Jack "That won't hold up for too long. Need to go somewhere we won't be observed and make a smaller Version."

Jack quickly flies up to the room, and teleports D, Narp, Arthur, and John off to the mountaintop, then follows and puts up another, much smaller and more stable Version around the group. The one at the manor quickly disintigrates.

Once there, Jack begins the task of healing everyone up, starting with Narp and Krsqk.

D "Why here?"

Jack (while healing Narp) "It's the first place I thought of that fit; if our adversary scans the countryside looking for places he can't scan, he'll find us, but he won't be able to do much about it without a human agent to control."

Jack finishes healing Narp, and moves on to Arthur. D wakes Narp up.

Jack (while healing Arthur) "He'd be able to bring agents here, but that would take a bit of time, even if he finds us immediately."

D "I see. We'll need to move soon."

Jack finishes healing Arthur, and then wakes him. Meanwhile, John finishes catching his breath, and stares at Jack for a bit.

Jack "Narp, need a new bow? I forgot to return a gaurd's when I took it from him to keep him from shooting the Wizard of Lago."

Jack "Hmm, my cot's still in our room at the manor."
Jack "Hamac Magique"

With that, Jack's cot returns to him.

ooc:[So now we are all back at the mountain, and nobody in the immediate vicinity is mind controlled. John's free for the moment.]

ooc:[I hope I didn't ruin anybody's plans, but both your characters were unconscious, and I thought it a good idea to deal with that sooner rather than later. We'll still need to deal with the Psi, but it has been put off for a little while. I'm sure we'll be much more effective in person, as we'll be able to target him then. Arthur has the spell to track him down; just follow the life sense spell he's been using.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

in the baron's room, the baron jerked upright. there had been some crashing sounds...

fifteen minuetes later, he had heard the reports of the sentry's. loud noises, what sounded like weather magic, a sentry forced to aim at the wizard and the strangers and his wizard disapeared. it all made sense. these strangers had been sent by the telepath to kill or kidnap one of his freinds and now, he was going to make them pay. he frowned a moment. he didn't like vengeance. no, he'd exact justice. he smiled and ignored the worry in one corner of his mind.

another fifteen minutes later, nearly all of the baron's soldier's streamed out of the baron's gate's, scout's riding out in the general direction of the mountain - although he was certain he'd gave them orders to scout all around, despite a growing certainty that they where on a mountain to the east.

and twenty minutes ago, one hundred well-armed bandits had moved out of a certain location and headed toward's the baron's castle. they would arrive well after the baron's soldier's where gone.

and on the mountaintop, Narp sat up, said "thanks Jack", stood up and started testing his limbs.
"good as new."

ooc:[the telepath caught the baron when he was just waking up and confused. i upped the bandit problem to one hundred to make things interesting.]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Narf, did you get my note to check your PM? It's still listed as unread.]

Arthur (waking) "Thanks, Jack. Consciousness is definitely better than unconsciousness." Looking around, he notices John appears to be staring at Jack with a slightly dazed expression. "Hey, stop that. It's nothing you couldn't do if you practiced a bit."

D "Well, it appears we could have used the thought-cloaking a bit sooner than we thought. Obviously, we will have to be more cautious going after this guy, whoever he is."

Arthur "Speaking of which, what do we do next? The Baron mentioned the bandit problem, so that's one option. The telepath is a definite option as well. And, we might have some explaining to do to the Baron about why there's a hole in the wall and his Master Wizard, three guests, and a stranger who falls out of towers and conveniently is gusted up again are all missing. We could head back there to patch things up before deciding what else to do."

Arthur sits down and works out the details of a spell which will restore his brother's tower to the proper condition. "Hopefully this works right. I may have some touch-up to do when we get back, though. Hey, Jack and D, could you two maybe look over this? Remember, don't teach me anything; just check it out and adjust it if you can think of anything else." Arthur touches a nearby flat rock. A network of golden lines spreads from his fingertips across the surface of the rock, which is then handed to D. (to self) "Of course, if I happen to get a glance at it before it's cast, that wouldn't hurt, either."

Arthur (standing and stretching) "I'll check out the surrounding area; maybe that will give us a little insight as to our next move. This one will take a little longer to get off, so I can work in more detail about the direction, and possibly destination, of anyone out there. Sort of like a wide-area scrying spell, without most of the detail. Oh, and Jack, one of those food rations would do nicely once I'm done. A little toasted, perhaps?" Arthur sits back down and closes his eyes, trying to recall bits of spells from his travels. Eventually he stands and walks over to the edge of a nearby cliff before working over his spell's assembly.

[ July 11, 2003, 22:50: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[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 ]

[Krsqk]

Krsqk is about to cast the life-detection spell when he subconsciously hears Jack mention food rations. He quickly puts his spell on hold, storing it for the moment in another boulder, and takes the ration from Jack.

Arthur "Hmmm, so we shouldn't start a fire. Maybe this will do it, then. Fogo." Arthur's hands burst into flame for a moment, then return to normal. The ration is nicely toasted throughout. "Ah, much better. Toasted tasteless is an improvement even over regular tasteless."

Arthur furtively glances at the rock with his first spell on it, noticing with mild disgust that Jack has only rearranged the existing elements. (to self) "He seems to be a little naive. Obviously, I'm going to have to give him a gentle push in the right direction." He passes the rock to D. (aside to D) "Okay, D, it's your turn. Jack must be one of those organized people--he's gotten this looking nice and efficient. Now, maybe you could think of anything I've left out? A silencing routine so it doesn't attract too much attention? Maybe a check of the ground and the roof so we don't have any missing pieces which would augment wind and weather damage? A minor scrying spell so we could visually inspect the results? Have at it--work in whatever you can think of."

Arthur turns to Jack. "Jack, I'd like you to take another look at the spell if you could. You did a nice job organizing it, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I wanted you to see if there was anything you could add to it. If you're worried about not training me, I just meant don't talk out loud so I don't hear what you're doing. I'm sure such an accomplished and well-trained apprentice as yourself could come up with something I've missed. There must be loads of things I haven't even considered, not having the training you've received. Actually, there's one thing I can think of to add. John is obligated to have the signet ring on his person at any time he leaves the tower. It's not tagged, and naturally resists teleport spells (that helps lessen the temptation to obtain it illicitly), but I'm sure it's nothing you couldn't overcome." John has a sudden coughing fit and has to walk away for a few seconds until he can regain his composure. "Think you could help us out here?"

Arthur "Speaking of the telepath, if you and D will finish looking my repair spell over, I'll wrap up my detection spell. Narp, can you think of anything to add to it? I've got body count, speed/direction, probable destination (a non-invasive, passive telepathy), and a duration of thirty seconds. What else would be of use to a tactician?"

[ooc: I'll try to be available to post again tonight, but I don't make any promises. My wife said, and I quote, "You make a list of what you want to accomplish tonight, and I'll make a list of what I want to accomplish, and then we'll split it." I'd already seen her list, and it involves about five hours of work rearranging our bedroom and spare bedroom so it's suitably arranged for her family coming in. I asked if I could put "Take a break" on my list, and she told me I could get a life. At least she can dish out the sarcasm as well as I can--it keeps me on my toes. Anyway, the moral is, I don't know if/when I'll have time to check in, so if you could pass enough time for D and Jack to check/recheck Arthur's spell and for Narp to advise Arthur and for whatever else you can think of, and I'll cast the repair spell, and the detection spell if appropriate, whenever I can get back here.]

[ July 11, 2003, 22:54: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Ah, I get it; you want to learn, but you can't be taught. I think we can arrange that."

Meanwhile, D starts incorporating some invisibility and silence so that people won't notice the repairs until after they are completed, and includes a bit of scrying to monitor progress.

Jack "John, you're supposed to have the ring on you? Hmm, I suppose I ought to retrieve it for you then, as I'm the one that teleported you away from it. Hmm, it doesn't like teleportation? Let's see...."

Jack moves his hands around an imaginary sphere, and after a moment images begin to distort when seen through the intervening space. A moment later, the center of the area turns black for an instant, the ring falls through into Jack's waiting hand, and the visual distortion dissapears.

Jack "The ring is still affected by gravity. I just had to reshape spacetime so that it would fall into my hands. I didn't actually touch the ring itself with a speck of magic."

Jack looks closely at the ring.

Jack "Wow. It's a good thing I didn't. This thing has about a zillion different alarms against tampering. Hmm, I've never seen that rune before ... ahh, that's what it does ... and this one ... hmm ... interesting ... all these gaurds on ... an information delevery system? Where's it getting the data from? Let's see ... Grr, it's not complete. The enchantment is dangling off to the side."

D finishes his modifications, and Jack takes another look at it.

Jack "Let's see ... you could save some time and energy here by reshaping space to move things past the wall, rather than around in the normal fashion ... a little timebending here will speed things up ... and the control structure from a golem can be adapted to automate the process and deal with any needed fine-tuning or touch-up on the spot ..."

Jack quickly alters the spell, incorporating several new elements.

Jack "Done. Now, I suppose I ought to give the ring back to the Wizard."

Jack starts to hand the ring to John, but then stops.

Jack "Hang on; you said John was obligated to have the ring with him whenever he left his tower; you didn't mention what the repercussions were when he didn't, nor if there were any loopholes for the method of his vacating the tower. What are they, and are there? I didn't exactly obtain John's permission when I moved him."