Kiyoka

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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

Brother Farley smiled appreciatively at the politician joke, then said, "Well, your spellcraft is more likely to be useful up there than mine, I think, at least once we get onto the roof. Still, if you don't mind, I'd like to cast Gecko Toes on both of us before we go up there. The roof slopes only very gently, since we don't have to worry about snow piling up on it in this climate, but better to have something to make sure we can stick tight to it if we need to. Okay with you?"

A few moments and incantations later, as he climbed the ladder, Argus asked, "So your specialty is animal spells?" The sensation of feet adhering a little more tightly to the ladder rungs than usual was odd, yet reassuring in its own way.

"Not exactly," Farley replied. "'Body magic' is more like it. I'm a pretty good healer, but I can also do things like Climbing, Feather Fall, Agility, Iron Skin, a few other physical enhancements." (So that's why Corporal Yugawa is interested in this kid, Argus thought lewdly, but kept his thoughts to himself.) "Unfortunately, I don't think any of them are likely to be useful up here. But -- hey, what are these?"

He was looking at the indentations in the soft, tar-like roofing material that Grope had left when he jumped across the alley to squash the Gewehr thug. The dents were clearly footprint-like in shape, but a good twice the size of what any normal human foot would make. It didn't take long to find other, similar prints on the roof, and to see that they were spaced in such a way as to imply an inhumanly long stride.

"So someone has been here -- someone real big, from the looks of it," Farley said. "Can you get anything from those?"
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

"Give me a moment," said Argus, contemplating the footprints and the stride length. Huh. Somebody that large... I wonder how big his... Argus decided to quash that thought. It was probably unfitting for the roof of a church. On the other hand, a rather large number of intriguing practices apparently took place beneath him- i.e. the smitings- so maybe he was wrong.

Well. Anyway.

Argus stretched out his hands and muttered an incantation. Rather than the mathematical, analytical incantations that accompanied his normal magic, these spoken runes had a more spiritual, mystical feel for them... considering that all magic, really, was a mystical practice. Kneeling down, he touched his hand to one of the footprints, reaching out to it, touching the innate magical flow. Inserting a stream of divination chanting, Argus reached out and touched the sensory impressions left on the roof.

As he feared, it was awfully vague. Inanimate objects did not have minds, and really didn't store information very well. Well, except for books and information crystals, but that was a little different. All he got was an impression of extreme weight, enough to dent the roof material... and something else... a scent... one he hadn't experienced in decades... one that had used to get his blood pumping with pure fear-

Argus' eyes flashed open. "Troll."

F@#^

(OOC: Not sure what the policy is on cursing, so I'm erring on the side of caution.)
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC:
Drannin wrote:F@#^

(OOC: Not sure what the policy is on cursing, so I'm erring on the side of caution.)
I don't think we have one, formally. Personally, I'd like to see this thing stay at PG-13, which allows some cussing, just not to the point of dominating the story. There have been intermittent outbreaks of Anglo-Saxonisms, and for that matter, my own characters swear considerably more than I do in real life, but you surely won't be criticized for not doing it explicitly. So back IC:]

Brother Farley thought for a long moment, then said, "It's possible, I think, as weird as it sounds. I can't think what else could have made these tracks. The other thing: I remember, when I first came to town, there were rumors that a troll had been killed somewhere up in the mountains -- and that something appalling had been done with its body. I don't know any details; the rumors died out after a while. Caught some people's attention, though, because trolls are supposed to have been extinct in Tsuiraku for centuries.

"Another thing: trolls hunt in pairs, don't they?" He didn't really expect an answer, but the expression on Argus' face certainly amounted to one.

Farley started down the ladder. "I think we've seen enough here for right now," he said. "I want to report this to Father Egbert -- he'll be happy to hear that we, I mean, you, are already making some progress. And I need to get ready to go to the play with Kristi. Why don't you go get settled in at the Happy Wanderer -- it's just a few blocks due north of here -- and we can get together again in the morning once we've had some thinking time and a good night's sleep?"
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Sareth
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Sareth »

[OOC: I swear enough that I sometimes offended other soldiers. i try to keep it in check on forums, but if I go to for, lemme know and I'll edit...]
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

It was late. Argus was tired. He had learned that there was possibly a troll nearby. When there was one there were at least two.

Argus hated trolls.

So much for Springheel Jack. The folklore probably just came from when somebody saw a troll and ,understandably, was scared out of their mind.

Argus hated trolls. They were number two on his hate-list. After the bastards in Tsuirakushiti.

He checked in at the Happy Wanderer and purchased a large bottle of wine. Then he returned it and got a flask of powerful whiskey instead. He needed it. There were trolls around.

Argus really hated trolls.

As he flopped down on his comfy bed, in the relatively plush inn room (at least compared to his usual lodgings) he considered his reasons for hating them.

Man, Argus hated trolls.

Oh yeah. They were killing machines who slaughtered his comrades in the battlemages when he was stationed up north. They were huge, powerful, fast, too damn stealthy for something that size, and some of them could use magic. The females, he thought. Argus had never stopped to check. He had always been too busy attempting to Not Die.

Argus fucking HATED trolls.

They used to terrify him, just thinking that they might be sneaking up on him. Then he learned some tricks to killing them and the fear subsided. The hate remained.

Argus' feelings on trolls were well-documented at this point.

He cracked open the whiskey and got started on becoming very, very drunk.

Argus was decidedly less than fond of trolls. Somewhere in mathematically impossible levels of negative fondness.

He really didn't like them.

(OOC: Everyone clear on Argus' feelings on trolls? ;) )
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

Whiskey bottle in his past, Argus was dreaming about trolls and Kureji Mesuinu (and best not to consider the details) when he awoke with a crushing sensation on his chest.

Beyond a certain age, a crushing sensation on one's chest evokes a certain concern that one may be having a heart attack. However, it only took Argus a split second to realize that that wasn't his problem: there really was a crushing weight on his chest, in the form of a huge, oversized version of an apothecary's standard, as might be used in a giant twin-pan scale.

And it was getting larger, and heavier, by the second.

Worse yet -- vastly worse -- he realized, as he looked frantically around the room for a way to get out from under the load that had pinned him to the bed, that a man wearing the robe-uniform of a Tsuirakuan battlemage was silhouetted in the room's window.

"Good evening, Doctor Cleiviein," the man said in an icy-cold voice. "Don't get up. Don't even try."
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

About a dozen separate curses swam up in Argus' head in an instant. He quashed them. This was not the time. A splitting headache signaled that he was going to have one beast of a hangover. If he survived this, which of course he intended to. He ignored the pain and disorientation. He was familiar enough with it that this was not difficult at all.

So. He was trapped, under one of the oddest methods of confinements he had yet to come across (and he had been in the Mesuinu household). A battlemage was standing across from him, apparently quite confident in his position of power. And why wouldn't he be? Argus was a hungover old mage past his prime who had been taken by surprise with ridiculous ease.

So be it. Argus knew a fair number of spells that could squash the man, knock the weight from his chest, or at least take the bastard down with him.

Argus was honestly not afraid of death. The thought no longer troubled him. It was quite inevitable for him, so why get so worked up? However, he was being driven of late to cause as much trouble to the High Council as he could before his death, and so a little restraint might be in order.

No point in needless yapping. He was well and truly pinned. He just stared at the man blankly, without a drop of fear in his eyes, just as though the battlemage was just some guy who had wandered into the wrong room by mistake. Argus waited expectantly to hear what the man had to say.

Probably a threat or ultimatum. Battlemages were so blasted predictable. Having been one, he knew.
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

"You and your lady friend from the mission have been brought to the attention of Captain Kitaura," the battlemage announced. "Gaining the captain's attention is generally a mistake." The weight continued to grow heavier. "He is unable to register his ... displeasure ... with your lady friend, because the mission still enjoys the protection of our political masters in Tsuirakushiti, for whatever reason." The tone of his voice made it clear that he, and Kitaura, did not have a high opinion of the Tsuirakushitians' view of the matter. "You, however, are under no such protection." The weight was getting oppressively heavy by now.
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

Oh. I see where this is going.

"Just... so... we're clear... are you here... to quietly dis...pose... of me?" It was hard to breathe with the heavy weight on his chest.

Argus hoped the man would say yes. He had a killer hangover and wanted to take it out on someone.
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

"Just... so... we're clear... are you here... to quietly dis...pose... of me?"

Weakness, the battlemage thought, erroneously. "I am here to warn you that you could be disposed of -- and if your curiosity about the military forces of Tsuiraku does not diminish suddenly and drastically, you will be disposed of. Captain Kitaura has no patience with spies, particularly decrepit, broken-down outcasts who are ungrateful for the opportunities that Tsuiraku presented them, but also including the nest of espionage that we foolishly are forced to tolerate in your ridiculous mission. I have no choice but to let you live -- for now -- and I might even let you survive sufficiently intact to take that message back to your masters. Or not." The man's smile had elements of weasel, python and vulture in it.
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