The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Narp - I sent you a small bio on Jack.]
ooc:[Krsqk - Didn't see any of what? ]

Hearing Arthur's growl and the following thump, Jack turns around and pays more attention to him.
Jack "Hey, I didn't notice this head injury earlier. This is something I can fix."
"Guérissez Les Blessures"
With that, Arthur's wound heals, and he wakes up (much to his dismay, as the hangover is still there).

Jack "Hmm, that stone doesn't look very comfortable, here, try my cot."
Jack unrolls his cot, which hovers quietly a foot off the ground.

[ June 21, 2003, 03:06: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[you call that small? ]

narp "to bad about your headache. is it from a speed and strength enhancement spell? i had one yesterday and you have my sympathies."

*scrape, scrape, bang*

[ June 21, 2003, 03:14: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Thinking that perhaps Arthur's ears could use the same treatment that Narp's got, D casts the same low-powered silence spell on Arthur's ears.

Unfortunately, this takes his attention away from the roasting rabbits, and one side of one of the rabbits gets slightly blackened. Fortunately, that's how Arthur ordered it.

D "Lunch is ready."

D quickly divides up the rabbits, giving Arthur the slightly blackened half.

Jack "So Arthur, where do you hail from?"

[ June 21, 2003, 04:58: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur rolls over and comes to, awakened by the smell of blackened coney. Partially deafened by the silence spell, he barely catches Narp's question.

Arthur "Umm, yes, sort of. I sacrificed the speed portion for additional strength. Unfortunately, the increase in strength from such a method has an inverse square relationship to the duration of the spell--thus the sudden hangover. Fortunately, although the side effects are more intense than normal, they wear off sooner, probably soon after dinner."

Arthur "As for my place of origin, I would say here. At least, it used to be here, right under our feet (your feet, at least). Apparently, this mountain has taken over this real estate. I was climbing it in hopes of seeing something familiar. After using that strength spell, though, I was forced to take a faster mode of transportation to get here before the side effects kick in."

Arthur takes a massive bite of rabbit. "Say, this is just how I like it! Which one of you gents went to chef school, anyway? The only thing I like better is that bland apprentice-magician-produced stuff." He smacks his lips loudly. "You wouldn't happen to have a gallon or so of orange pekoe available to wash this down?" The remnants of the coney bones (some with teeth marks) are tossed into the fire.

[Jack Simth]

Jack "We have slightly different variants then - my Version rides an adreniline rush; it Lasts until the target no longer feels immediately threatened or the caster cancels it, which makes it ideally suited for combat. The hangover occurs almost as soon as the target comes down off of it, and the duration of the hangover has no relationship to the duration of the spell, although the severity of the hangover does."

ooc:[It isn't as though there are a limited number of spells.]

Jack "You actually like that stuff? Well here."
When Jack moves as though he is handing something to Arthur; when he starts, his hand is empty. When he finishes, there is a grayish-white object about the size of a dinner plate in his hand.
Jack "Enjoy."

Jack "Sorry though - I've never heard of orange pekoe; I'm not from around here."

D "I'm the chef; just tell me if you want that deafening spell removed - It helped with Narp's hangover."

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "is that you doing the weather magic? if it is, i hope you have good control. ester made that nessesary."

narp has finished with his sword, which at least looks faintly useable now, and is adjusting the straps on the sheild to fit him. next, he'll see what he can do with his bow, which probably won't be much.

ooc:[yaay! i finished the about thread.]

[ June 21, 2003, 05:45: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

Arthur grabs a stick, pops his food on the end, and burns it in the fire a moment. Smacking loudly, he munches on it with obvious satisfaction.

Arthur "Mmmm, burnt blandness--there's nothing quite like it! Hmm, Jack, it does seem our variants are different. Mine is not physically based--it actually temporarily imbues the target with force magic. The advantage is that much greater strength or speed can be achieved than with a standard physical enhancement. The disadvantage is that the side effects on mages not skilled in force magic are pretty severe, and non-mages can be disabled for up to 10 or 15 hours."

Arthur "D, was it? Did you say something about a silence spell? Could you speak up, I can't hear you very well. Ah, that's much better. Could I impose on you to repeat your question, Narp?"

Narp gladly repeats it, with many embellishments and additions to the history of the mad emperor.

Arthur "I guess you could say that I'm doing the weather magic, though it would be more accurate to say that it's being caused by me. I don't actually decide the what, when, or where of what happens. In fact, I can't seem to find any tangible link between myself and the occurances. The closest I can come is Last night when I started coming here, and the storm formed over this mountain; or maybe the lightning bolt that destroyed the boulder. I was going to destroy it, but the storm beat me to it. I was so surprised I nearly forgot to form the vortex at all."

Arthur "So, no, I don't have good control over it. In fact, until these recent habitat changes, I didn't have any weather magic. My best guess is that the skill was transported into me from the same causes as the land changes. In fact, I have seen in the past day and a half at least a dozen animals or plants which seemed to possess some rudimentary magical abilities, or at least attributes. Two or three were potentially dangerous, such as trees with fire magic, or carnivores with time magic. I have tried to draw out the magical energy without harming the possessor; but in every case, it resulted in the death of the creature."

Arthur "If it were only a matter of learning to harness the magical energy, it would be simple to learn this new skill. Instead, it might be more of a curse."

Arthur turns and takes a seat near the edge of the firelight.

[ June 21, 2003, 06:51: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[for future reference that i should have posted already and will add to narp's bio, narp tends to think and act like a scholar or a fighter until something specific happens to get his interest going in either one. so a simple request to repeat wouldn't normally get him interested in scholarly things. in the case of the minataur, it was his age, and the things he might know.]

[ June 21, 2003, 07:09: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: gotcha. I was relying on my memory of exactly what the question was, and thought your mention of ester was more extensive than it was. I'll try to keep your ramblings down to a minimum. ]

[Jack Simth]

As Jack finishes up his meal, he dwells on Arthur's words.
Jack "Yes, you would need to be skilled to make your variant work - force magic can be dangerous stuff. And yes, it would be the subject's skill that counts; too much and you could blow someone up."

Jack "As for the weather, you appear to be suffering from a subconcious skill, in this case, weather control. It's a common side effect of chaotically introduced life energy, but usually only when sentient life forms were part of the introduced life energy. There could be any number of causes for such a release; mass death on a nearby plane, the destruction of magic items produced from harvested life energy, or even mass death on this plane, although the Last is unlikely."
Jack glances at D and Narp
Jack "Do you think we could have caused this when we destroyed those spheres?"

Jack "On the plus side, subconcious skills are usually remarkably well controlled, even if you can't determine the exact shape. Have you ever studied just how much calculation goes into walking on two legs? Rest assured, it's a lot. Weather is comparatively simple. You shouldn't be causeing any ice ages, if that is what you are worried about."

Jack "As for controlling it, it isn't really a matter of learning to harness the energy - it's already harnessed. The problem will be in bringing the control to where you can deal with it conciously. Think of it like your heartbeat. It will usually respond to what is needed, but it isn't easily controlled. It can be controlled, eventually, by will alone; unfortunately, that takes lots of time. There is a faster way it can be done, however: I can build a familiar for you. Well, technically not a real familiar, more of an illusion slaved to your subconscious. It will give the weather control a voice, and having something to talk to will help considerably in getting things under control; you'd just tell it what you want, and in most cases, it would perform as ordered. It might be a bit quirky, however."

Jack "As for the plants and animals, something similar happened on my home plane a long time ago. They never did find a way to draw the magic out without killing the subjects. However, it was found that the magic could be bound and redirected to harmless effects. They eventually produced a series of golems that ran through the affected area and applied the binding to all magic capable non-sentients in the area. It didn't take very long for the golems to fix everything, just a few centuries."

Thinking for a moment, Jack glances at the golem he produced to fetch the wood and rabbits, which is still waiting patiently for further orders.

Jack (to golem) "I suppose I ought to do something about you, shouldn't I?"
"Dissolvez"
With that, the golem dissolves into powder, its purpose complete.

Jack "Well, those are the highlights of my knoweledge on the subject. What do the rest of you think?"