The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[never mind. mistook one of krsqk's Posts for one of Jack's. i should still update the 'about' so we can all keep everything sort of straight. i just saved all of the webpages just in case we loose any. i have another post partially done, but i'm gonna wait till our discussion has finalized a few things, like what the magical ability is like here. yeah, i know. i'm hurry up and wait.]

[ July 09, 2003, 07:13: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Ahh, they wouldn't have dealt with multiple guilds presnt; too much work to make a deal with every guild on the plane when the same amount of time could be spent to get several other planes in on it."

Jack "Hmm, so one way to immortality was forbidden, so another was resarched more strongly? Very interesting. So I will need to avoid things that ought to be fatal while here though, to preserve appearences. I can probably do that."

Jack "Didn't you say Rellath was in your family? And it was your father's signet ring? It could be an heirloom, passed down from him."

Jack "Although, we must be gathering D and going. It would take an hour or so to make a talisman for you, but if you can take the reigns of a spell, I can record a few minutes' thoughts from you and use those as the cover, then hand it over to you to maintain. It should only take a short while. However, if you normally block, that would be better; it's likely that the telepath has tried to take a peek at you before; if he was stopped by a shield, he would be expecting another if he tried again."

D reaches the roof, and places the mental illusion over the Wizard of Lago. Satisfied, he returns to the tower and climbs back down to the open wall.

ooc:[It could be a complete guild library; the data is encrypted and divided between two of the rings; the third is the decryption and viewing mechanism. It would take much study in order to use it properly (and thus won't affect the thread very often - a new spell every now and then whenever Arthur takes time to study - probably while camping), and it would represent enough power that someone would want it supressed. The only danger would be if all three pieces were brought together, so you don't need to start paying any attention to it until one person has two, and is seeking the third ... like Arthur is now. It would also be useful for furthering one's education in magic, and thus make sense for being a criteria for graduation from an apprenticeship.]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[i was going to do that with D. ok, guild stuff...]

Narp, after thinking a while... "well, there is precedent for moving the apprenticeship to the next master if the current one is proven mentally incompetent. given the eccentricies of some wizard's, that could be difficult, although the mind control should help. but, if we manage to get it transfered, 25.3 states that if there is no succeser to the current master, the apprentice is to appear before a special board to determine what happens next."

"generally, the board appoints someone, so it can be somewhat random. also, you could appeal for a special board of inquiry with a claim of unfairness. although unlikely to convene, only one in seventy-nine are granted at Last count, they could overturn nearly any ruling and if they determine in your brother's favor, well, being locked in a pocket dimension for five hundred years, since your only an apprentice...and you probably don't want your brother to be locked away for twenty-five hundred years, as he is a wizard."

"baring that, if you can come up with a will from your father that would give the ring to you or sets forth any conditions that would give you the ring, that would work." Narp begins to happily qoute precedent and custom, although after a few minutes Arther realizes that his head is starting to spin and even Jack's eyes are beginning to look glazed at this flood of random minutae from Narp's large, but extremly eclectic store of information, which only a dedecated lawyer would be happy sorting through to figure out how it all affects his case. and the lawyer would probably figure out: not much. Narp would say more but at that moment the wizard teleport's back into the room. "Arther?" he says "i feel like i've been dreaming."

and a telekinetic bLast rips through the room as D hastily climbs down the wall.

ooc:[guild library sounds ok to me. paragraph's. much better. the bLast is general, aimed at the whole room, starts at one side, ends at the other.]

[ July 09, 2003, 19:47: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: Okay, it's a guild library. I'll just go ahead and make it an artifact, since its effects are long-term (hundreds of years, at least, before they're really noticeable) and it won't have much effect on the story (besides altering background and providing for a quest or two). The first part of my post is overlapping the re-entry of the wizard and the bLast. I'm assuming the bLast is starting opposite the open wall and heading in that direction.]

Arthur had never thought that he'd be glad to see his brother, but any interruption in Narp's babbling was a welcome one.

Arthur "John, how nice to see y--" He is interrupted by a massive bLast which knocks him off his feet and out the open wall. Before he goes far, he stops his flight with an opposing force to his body--which effectively breaks his fall in mid-air, but also stuns him. As he loses consciousness, his conjured support starts to fade away. As he slips from the support and blacks out, a massive wind gust suddenly catches his body and lifts it to the tower room from which he just fell.

[ooc: I've assumed everyone's next post will want to cover their own actions/reactions after the bLast, so I went ahead and resolved my part. One of you can take the wizard, as well. He may have rigged his tower with safeguards in the event of an attack there. I suppose he could just be severely injured, linger, and die, but that's just boring. ]

[Jack Simth]

As Jack goes flying from the bLast....

Jack "Hmm, this isn't a magical bLast. It seems our telepath has telekenisis as well. I wonder whose eyes he is using?"

With that, Jack uses a non-inertial teleport to move himself to a stationary position on the ground.

Jack (looking up) "I suppose I ought to do something about Narp...."

ooc:[Narf, if you can't come up with something to cover Narp, you can have Jack pull the same trick to get him down.]

[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 ]