The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[does jack have to talk so much? i'll come up with something brilliant for mr. mage to say. and D., since he should probably say something.]
"your partially right" the mages voice comes out in midair. "the labrynth cannot be teleported into except at the entrance, not just because of the spheres influence, but because the labrynth was deliberatly constructed that way. teleportational travel is cut off so well that the research to get to the entrence took me a noticable portion of my years. the research to move a sphere of stability took a substantual portion of them."
ooc:[gotta have paragraph's] "the protections inside the maze only have the difficulty of the additional time it took to learn how to transport more than one person. in truth, that might have been suffient against most who could try the attempt. as for what i could do with one? have you considered the difficulty of drawing magic out of an imposed partial change nullifying artifact? nothing so crude or nearly futile, i assure you. i will tell you no more. i guard my secrets. if you do not wish a sphere of stability, i will offer a spellbook of spell mastery, instead. through it, you could learn all the spells of a paticular realm, up to master level. of course, you must wait from six months to fifty years for it to update itself, but what matters years to those who measure in centuries?"
D. says "what do you call yourself?"
"sometimes, an idiot."
ooc:[yeah, all that and the only thing i could think of for D to say is 'what do you call yourself?' i've got to try harder]
D. "what use would you suggest for a sphere of stability?"
"perhaps you could consider using it's influence to nulify changes you disaprove of, to speak of only one advantage. not the easiest thing for one of your learning to do, but it has possibilities. enchantments can be detected, but how do you detect stability? you three must learn subtle. your dispatch of my golem was not subtle. effective, but noisy."
ooc:[so i moved something he said, and gave a question to D.]

[ June 11, 2003, 04:15: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"A book of Mastery? It is worth much trouble to obtain such a tome. And yes, I would prefer such a tome over the sphere, as the sphere would hamper my own movement, which I consider very valuable."

"As for the golem, subtlity wasn't needed; we were herded here, so you already knew we were coming. The stealth of a subtle attack would have been quite pointless. However, the speed of a noisy solution was useful. Wisdom lies in knowing which tool is most appropriet to the situation."

Jack stops speaking, and thinks:
.elbissopmi krow 'srotitepmoc sih ekam dluoc ti ,niaga neht ;tluciffid erom krow sih ekam dluow tI ?ytilibatS fo erehpS a htiw tnaw egam noitamina na dluow tahW .ytlaiceps sih eb ot mees soed noitamina tub - srood lanoisnemid dna gnitropelet eht htiw tahw ,dezilaiceps yllatot t'nsi egam eht ylsuoivbO ?egam noitamina na eb siht dluoC .deilppa eb ot ti rof tiaw neve t'ndid ti ;noitulos a dah ew ees dluoc ti sa noos sa delf rood eht dna ,ecneserp ruo ot dednopser melog eht ,efil gnissap fo sulumits eht ot dednopser spart eht :tca yllamron tonnac taht sgniht ot ytivitca gnitnarg tuoba erew ereh deretnuocne ew slleps eht tsoM ?cigam tsuj naht rehtruf sezilaiceps egam siht taht eb ti dluoC .ylkciuq stcurtsnoc tnemtnahcne egral fo yteregetni eht gniyfiyrev rof euqinhcet ralimis a esu I .tsiser taht secalp rof gnihctaw dna retfa yletaidemmi gniwollof evaw retnuoc a htiw egnahc ronim yltnatropminu fo evaw niht a tuo gnidnes fo rettam elpmis a s'tI ?tluciffid eb ytilibats gnitceted dluow yhW

ooc:[For those of you having migranes, that is perfectly sensible. Jack's strange (if you haven't noticed) and doesn't think in a manner compatible with mind reading (so the mage can't read Jack's mind). For those of you who don't want to take the time to puzzle it out, a translation can be found here. But that's cheating!]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[does jack have to talk so much? ]

ooc:[YES! Of course he does! He has a lot to say! ]
ooc:[Seriously though, how many specialists don't have a lot to say when they are talking about some fine point of their specialty? Jack's specialty just happens to be magic and energy.]
ooc:[Also, even if Jack does get a good book on planar travel, he may very well need a different reference to be able to find the right plane to go to.]

[ June 11, 2003, 06:28: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

(ooc: I'm still lurking people, think of me as having cast a 'veil of invisability' on my character. If need be, I'll wisper any comments to your characters.)

Jack, ma I lufrewop ro keew woh tuoba yrassecen si naht erom laever ot ton ,revewoh esoohc I .stra lacigam eht ni desrev llew ma oot I ,yrassecen si noitalsnart on

Jack, Narp,.. I was just thinking,.. if this 'Labyrnth' has 'Orbs of Stability' (which is a very powerful aftifact) there is a good chance that there will be much more 'treasure' to be found. Sure there will be dangers, but we are adventurers so danger is our profession. And just think of the tales we well be able to tell if we succeed. I say we fetch this wizard his orb and find out what other treasures we can liberate from the labyrnth.

Cheers!

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[David: .ekatpu eht no tsaf sa yliressecen si draob eht no enoyreve ton tub ,sey]

[ June 11, 2003, 20:10: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Jack Simth]

Having obtained Narp's, D's, and Jack's permission, the mage hands each a set of gloves and says"These gloves will allow you to move the spheres of stability once you reach them."
The mage then tosses Narp a small ring, and says
"Simply speak 'Cliff' at this ring when you are at the entryway, and I shall open a portal to bring you back."
With that, the mage gestures, and a portal appears on the ground in front of the party, and everyone steps through. (The mage can make another portal to transport Katchoo's character if the wolf wants to join.)

The party finds itself in a stone room, with an open archway on one side. Faint purple runes can be seen on the cieling, walls, and the arch. Jack looks at the doorway and says
"That's odd - the air isn't moving right in there."
Jack reaches into his robes, pulls out a small wooden disk, and tosses it through the doorway.

It stops in midair.

"Hmm. It seems we have a very stable situation in there. What makes this room different?"
Jack then proceeds to examine the walls, cieling, and doorframe.

ooc:[First task: figure out how to traverse the maze without suffering the same fate as that wooden disk. I have some ideas on how my character can make it happen, but I will give the rest of you some time to think of things.]

[ June 11, 2003, 20:12: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp steps close to the archway, but not in it and examines the disk intently. after several minutes, he pulls a stick out of his pack and pokes it hard alongside the disk. it stops. then he slowly pushes on it, and it slowly moves. pushes harder, and it stops. pushes lighter again, and it moves again. "hey guys" he says "come look at this. i'm not sure how you'd use this, but it isn't impenatrable."

ooc:[i got the idea from an actual substance that acts much the same way. side not on narp: he almost became a scholar, which is why he thinks first. i got an idea for the mage and the end of this quest that will turn him into someone we'll have to fight much later on, but it's a bit cliched. if anyone has any non-cliched ideas, i'll happily give it up. now that i revised it, i think it will go very well with what's been going on. should i post the idea?]

in a secret labratory, the mage smiles to himself and says "i wonder if he knows just how uncreative your average wizard is. fireballs and lightning bolts, that's all most of them think about." he chuckles to himself. then he turns his attention to a three dimensional picture in the middle of his room. it's patchy and fuzzy and will probably get worse, but since he's got a spell to record it all as well as a well-trained memory, he's confident.

[ June 12, 2003, 00:02: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

"Yes, yes we can. These runes on the wall produce a destabilization field that locally counters the stabalization effect of the spheres. The only thing I was having a little difficulty figuring out was how to get it the two feet into the stabilization field so they would activate."

Jack pulls another wooden disk out of his robes. He then sets it in the air in front of him [variation on a levitation spell - not in the field] and points his hand at it. Thin green glowing strands of energy jump from each of his fingers, collide in mid-air, and then proceed towards the wooden disk. Where they have hit the disk, glowing runes can be seen. On close examination, the lines forming the runes seem to be made up of runes themselves. The disk starts rotating and, after several minutes, becomes completely covered in glowing green runes. At that point, the glowing strands from Jack's hand stop, and the runes settle into the wood of the disk. Jack then repeats the process with two more little wooden disks from his robes. He then tosses them into the arch again, borrows Narp's stick, and gently shoves then deep into the maze. After a moment, all four disks (the three Jack enchanted plus the experimental one) fall to the ground. Jack then pushes the stick into the area, and, satisfied by a total lack of resistance, walks in and calmly picks up one of the enchanted disks and the unenchanted one, putting both into different pockets of his robes.

"You will have to come in here to get them - if they leave the stabalized area we'll have to use the stick again to get them back up and running."

"It's odd though - those runes weren't covered by anything; anyone walking by could read them. It seems like whoever built this place is more worried about something getting out than someone getting in."

ooc:[How about the place was built to contain a threat that the mage dosen't know about - after all, why would someone leave several ludicrously powerful artifacts sitting around in a maze, unless it serves some function to do so? There has to be some reason. If they individually slow things enough to stick a coin in the air, perhaps several of them focus enough to stop things completely, perpeptually preventing disaster by containing something. That way, we can report back to him empty-handed, or fight off the contained threat, or discover that the mage doesn't really care about the spheres at all - he just wants the threat released, believing it will do his bidding / be grateful and grant him something. All three would work, and they aren't too cliched; which would you prefer? How long do you think the mage will be able to watch us? After all, if scrying worked well, the mage would have provided us a map so we would stand a better chance of success.]

ooc:[As to the substance you mention - are you referring to Silly Putty?]

ooc:[As to the thread's name - perhaps "The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers?"]