Clovius and beyond

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Graybeard
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: Waiting to see how Argus will react to this, if Drannin is able to come up for air in time to have a reaction. If he can't, then after a short wait, I'll put some words in Argus' mouth; I think I know what he would say and do. No reason why others shouldn't go ahead and react, however.
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Alberich
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Alberich »

Tim wasn't going anywhere near any dragons, Therese or no Therese, unless Rose gave some orders. He wasn't going to follow his own advice and run away either, not unless she gave the word. Whether he liked it or not (and he didn't), she'd been set over him, so it was she who must decide whether they'd go with Therese, hide out here, or leave. He looked to her for that decision.
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Graybeard
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: No Drannin yet -- we miss you, guy -- so a few words in Argus' mouth:]

Argus didn't like trolls.

"Why can't I just open a pit below them, and let the earth swallow the whole lot, trolls, dragon and all?" he grumped, but he complied with Therese's request. Magic flared, and the pile of boulders turned into a set of stairs leading to a stable platform at the top.

"Thanks!" Therese clambered up to her viewing platform to watch the action, which was heating up, from the sound of it. "Oh, wow..." she breathed, in tones that would not have been out of place back at the temple in Calfornica.

Sister Rose gritted her teeth as she tried, more or less successfully, to soothe her -- friend? lover? spouse? -- the day was getting closer when that was going to have to get resolved. "She lives closer to the trolls than any of us," she said, "and I think we have to rely on her judgment when she says this is the right thing to do. Anyway, we can't outrun them. If the trolls win, we have more than enough magical firepower to keep them at bay if they do come after us, they don't take well to magic. If the dragon wins ... well ..." Her voice trailed away, and she started to ready herself to cast some defensive and offensive magic. It probably wouldn't be necessary, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Argus didn't like trolls. But there were times when they were the lesser evil.
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Alberich
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Alberich »

Tim assessed it this way - "If we can't outrun them, and they're busy fighting, can we at least use the time to get a better place to hide?"

It seemed to him that a man who could manipulate rocks to make a crow's nest for Therese could just as easily make a hidey-hole for the rest of them, but he didn't voice that particular idea - better let the mages themselves say what they could or couldn't do. If that awful beaver creature could spy for his master, as he'd done in Goriel, it could be their eyes and ears 'til the dragon was gone...Tim doubted so large a monster would notice a creature so small. (And, truth to tell, he probably wouldn't mourn much if it did. But Tim had no real concept of the indestructibility of Tsuirakuan familiars.)
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Graybeard
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

A problem with Therese having taken the observation position, Sister Rose reflected, was that she couldn't easily report what she was seeing. Since Therese was inexplicably incapable of using telepathy, she couldn't relay her observations mind-to-mind, as would have been ideal. However, she was far enough off the ground that to call down to Rose and others below, she'd have to shout loudly enough that the sensitive ears of a troll might pick it up. Even if the hunters were as peaceably inclined toward humans as Therese expected them to be, that wouldn't be good. Tamina was up a tree on the opposite side of the trail, too far away for a quiet relay.

Well, there was only one thing to do under the circumstances. Fighting down her fear of heights, she ascended several long steps up the rock staircase, until she could get into a position where a Damping spell could cover both herself and her colleague. "How's it going?" she asked as soon as the sound-deadening field was up.

"I think the trolls are winning," Therese replied. "Four males, big ones, all hacking at it with swords. It has an arrow or two sticking out of its hide, which looks almost like armor, but of course, the trolls would want to beat it in close combat, it's an honor thing with them. Ah! wait!" A trollish scream penetrated the Damping. "One of them just got -- ugh -- just got a hand or arm bitten off! That thing has the most hellacious fangs ... but yes, I still think the trolls are going to take it."

An arm bitten off, just like that, Rose thought. I think I'm going to be sick ... no I'm not. She'd seen worse at Albigenish, after all, and she succeeded in calming herself. "Very well, come on down as soon as you see what the trolls are up to." She started back down the staircase ...

... And that was when the combination of the scene Therese had described, and her own acrophobia, decided to take exception to the downclimb.

She froze in position about fifteen feet off the ground. "Argus! Get me down from here!" she called, no longer under the protection of the damping field...

In the distance, the sound of battle stopped, for a brief, telling moment.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Jack Rothwell »

As the silence fell, a large pair of furry ears followed by a petite face whose features were arranged in a hopeful expression emerged their leafy hiding place some distance from the newly erected stairs. A faint question brushed the hearing of those nearby.

"Is it over?"
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: A little more Argus-borrowing... but we'll be ready to move on to Clovius shortly.]

"Is it over?"

Therese started to say something, but decided against it. Instead she shook her head and put a finger to her lips. The message "no, we need to be quiet" should have been clear enough.

Meanwhile, with an almost casual wave of his hand, Argus raised a railing along the stone steps, and an embarrassed and red-faced Sister Rose was able to use this to make it back down to the ground. Just before she reached the ground, there was another loud GRONK and yells in trollish, and the battle resumed.

What then passed between Rose and Argus is left as an exercise for the reader, but she wasn't too shaken, or too -- appreciative, to realize what had just happened. She shifted the Damping spell so that it covered the group on the ground, plus Tamina. "They know we're here," she said apologetically. "Damn, that was careless of me. We'd better move out, and hope that whoever wins is too busy butchering the loser to follow us." She looked around the group. "Unless anyone has a better idea?"
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Alberich
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Alberich »

Since that had been Tim's own idea not so long before, he wasn't going to argue with it. "Let's go!" he said.
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Graybeard
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: So, since everyone has decided they're not interested in the dragon and the trolls (reasonably enough), shall we fast-forward to Clovius?
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Drusia
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Re: Clovius and beyond

Post by Drusia »

Graybeard wrote:OOC: So, since everyone has decided they're not interested in the dragon and the trolls (reasonably enough), shall we fast-forward to Clovius?
OOC: Yes please. For once, Desiree and Tim are in complete agreement.
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