Saus

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: Saus

Post by Graybeard »

Sister Rose and Brother Miguel exchanged looks, again, but this time it was interest, rather than concern. "We're all ears," Miguel said. Maybe we can actually take a break here and do the kind of fact-finding that we're supposed to be in Kiyoka for; I feel like the cultural exchange has been sort of unidirectional up to now...
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Re: Saus

Post by Drannin »

Argus settled back and got his thoughts in order. "Okay. Now, I've said this before, but let me re-iterate. When you folks found me, I was basically a gutter-mage. But back in Tsuirakushiti, I was somebody. I had power, both personal and temporal. When you can convince someone's house to kill him, it makes you very well-respected. And no," Argus said at their reactions, "I wouldn't do such a thing. In good part because I couldn't get away with it. But that's how Tsuirakuan power politics play out. It's a crazy game of 'what do you think I could get away with?' Personal power comes into play as more of a 'what if' than a 'will be.' A blatant display of power is actually a sign of weakness. It's warped as all hell. But I played the game well. I had to."

Argus stretched slightly. "In any case, my specialty was nonliving manipulation, and I was... AM... damned good at it. I was on contract as a prime architect to the wealthy and powerful. When I became wealthy and powerful, I started research at the Academy. My focus was imbuing nonliving objects with a sort of life of their own."

Harker interjected. "We ain't talkin' about golems, see? More like animatin' a chair to walk around on its own. Or makin' a house recognize and respond to its owner, for security purposes. And convenience."

"And finally," said Argus, "Animating the entire island of Tsuirakushiti itself." The sudden silence was actually quite gratifying. He looked at his two priestly companions. "That's exactly the look I got from the high council before General Izayoi demanded that I get full funding. Things were fun after that."

"You were trying to animate the whole damned island?!" Brother Miguel apparently forgot his vows for a moment.

"More or less," said Argus. "By tracing a complex series of runes throughout the city superstructure, I hoped to 'awaken' the whole deal. Tsuirakushiti is just pulsating with magical energy... by putting s sort of will behind it... the city could have drawn in massive amounts of mana and done just about anything."

Argus started ticking points off on his fingers. "Reshaping the city internally to save on building costs. Shifting magical flows so that the island could actually move... in fact, with some new overlays, it could actually teleport to anywhere in the world. Then there was bending magical flows to generate impenetrable magical shields, or fire magic pulses capable of blowing up mountain tops. Tearing up pieces of ground and adding them to the city to allow it to grow. Hell, we could have made new floating cities by slicing off mountain tops, spinning them around, and then putting the required thaumotech into place." Argus dropped his hand. "It basically would have led to Tsuirakuan dominance worldwide. Even the blasted elves would have been nothing before us. In theory, at least. I'm really not sure what the elves are capable of." He neglected to point out that a certain Veracian god wouldn't have been anything before this type of power.

The silence had grown to the point where it actually absorbed sound. Even the sound of the cart moving sounded quiet. Rose and Miguel were speechless for a long moment. It was Brother Miguel who first opened his mouth. "So... why haven't we heard about a Tsuirakuan Empire?" he asked with forced mirth, his voice quite dry.

Argus looked off into the horizon. Bit cloudy... "It didn't work," he said blandly. "No real reason. No fatal flaw. It just didn't work. I got too ambitious and overstretched myself. It was like trying to make a fireball spell open a barbecue franchise. It just... didn't work."

Harker looked thoughtful for a moment. "I always thought you should've worked on perfecting 'animate house.' Lotsa buyers there. You just got greedy."

"I know," said Argus. "But I had to try it. I just failed. That's all."
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Re: Saus

Post by Graybeard »

"That sounds very interesting," Brother Miguel said neutrally, hoping to encourage Argus to say more. However, he detected a peculiarly pained look on Sister Rose's face and decided to take a brief conversational detour. "Something the matter?"

"Mmmm ... I guess not," Rose said, in the tone of voice that said that something was very definitely the matter. "You're just reminding me of something involving a distant ancestor of mine. One who had some big plans of his own that didn't quite come off as expected, either."

Now what was that about? Miguel wondered. The only thing I can think of in Rose's past is nothing to be uncomfortable about; quite the contrary, it's something she should be proud of. Well, let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes. He said, "Argus, you might be interested to hear that our coach driver here is a direct descendant of the great Archbishop Nuria, one of the founding fathers of the Reformed branch of the Veracian Church. His development of the doctrine of --"

"No, no, that's not it," Rose said, waving the conversation away with uncharacteristic impatience (and mildly unsettling the horses for a moment by so doing). "I shouldn't have said anything at all. Sometimes the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, but enough generations go by and the sins are just forgotten, and they should stay that way. I'm sorry I interrupted, Argus; please continue if you -- hello, what's this?"

A woman was standing at the side of the road a short distance ahead of them, holding up what looked like a large sign saying "RAMANZEL OR BUST."

[OOC: Viking, can you get involved here?]
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Re: Saus

Post by Viking-Sensei »

The bath in the creek had been... refreshing, although Sasha would still give anything for an actual mage with an actual cleaning spell at this point. Or hot water. Hot water would work too. And hot food... mmmmm... hot food. Anything civilized, even by Veracian standards, would be welcome at this point.

She'd given up on catching the morning and afternoon postal coaches, which had been her best route of transport thusfar, and had picked a comfortable boulder to settle down on for a few hours of going over her notes.

The events that transpired in the world's history between the ancient Errant War and the slightly more recent Mage/Priest War were fuzzy, at best. There were whole tracks of human history that simply weren't documented. After humans "lost favor" with the elves and were cast out on their collective asses, there was a long rebuilding period of which there was almost nothing known - mostly because the elves stopped recording it, no longer being concerned with the affairs of humans, and the humans hadn't started recording it, mostly because they were too busy trying not to starve or freeze to death.

It was halfway through the second journal of notes before she noticed the sound of a cart approaching and stood quickly up to greet the oncoming cart. She considered showing a little leg, but given the amount of trudging that she'd been doing through unpleasant environs (and the fact that at least one of the people appeared to possibly be Veracian clergy) she decided to just try and look friendly and enthusiastic, and hope for the best.

"Hi, you and your talking badger have room for one more?"
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Re: Saus

Post by Graybeard »

Brother Miguel and Sister Rose looked at each other. The young woman didn't look too dangerous. "Sure, hop on," Rose said.

There were still three or four hours of daylight left, which should get them about half way to Ramanzel if the map was anything approaching accurate. Problem was, they weren't sure that the map was any good at all. The town they'd just passed, which Rose had counseled avoiding, didn't seem to be shown on the map. Two other towns that Rose recognized did appear, but so did another, about an hour down the road, that she was pretty sure wasn't there, or at least hadn't been the last time she'd been in this area. Rose decided the map should be considered advisory in nature rather than definitive, but Ramanzel had to be out there somewhere, so she kept the wagon heading south.

"Hi, I'm Brother Miguel, this is Sister Rose, and this is Doctor Cleveland," Miguel said by way of introduction. "We're conducting a small research project for the Church and are heading in the same general direction as you. What takes you to Ramanzel? It's a rather out-of-the-way destination, to put it mildly."

Before Sasha could respond, Argus produced a low, involuntary groan; his shoulder was still hurting.

[OOC: D, hope you don't mind that groan, just wanted to leave you a narrative hook to work off of, in case you get back to this before V-S does.]
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Re: Saus

Post by Viking-Sensei »

"My name is Sasha Doyel. I'm an anthropologist, specializing in archeology." Sasha said, gently pushing her bag with her equipment further under the seat with her feet. "I'm out here looking for ruins, trying to learn more about the history of humanity in the time between the Errant War and the Mage/Priest War. But I'm not doing anything heretical, I promise." She said earnestly, looking somewhat nervously at the priest, nun, doctor, and otter.

It suddenly occurred to her that this group going into a bar would be very interesting, and quite possibly funny.

"Is your friend there ok?"
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Re: Saus

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[OOC: Sasha "Doyel"? I thought her name was going to be Sasha "Mitchel." Anyway...]

"He took a nasty fall and landed on his head," Brother Miguel said as Argus groaned again. "We got him fixed up as best we could, but magical healing isn't perfect, and the pain hangs around for a while." He decided Sasha really didn't want to hear about the calcification problem.

"Doyel ... Doyel ... I'm not recognizing the name," Sister Rose said. "You're not from around here, then?" A head shake confirmed her thinking. "Well, we're all in this together. None of us have ever been to Ramanzel, but our ... inquiries ... are taking us there as well. However, they're more on the 'human' side of anthropology." This was true, at least in principle. "We want to talk to some people about the things that cause them to emigrate from that area." Now why was Sasha looking at them like that?

"Speaking of which, I don't suppose you've seen a great big bat flying around here and suddenly transforming into a short, squat man in priest's robes, have you?" Miguel intended the question humorously, but Sasha was really giving him the eye now ...

[EDIT: Didn't really intend to put words in Argus' mouth, sorry...]
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Re: Saus

Post by Drannin »

Argus raised an eyebrow. Good Lord, folks. Just hang a sign on yourselves saying 'suspicious,' why don't you? He massaged his shoulder. Calcification was relatively easy to repair, but the aftereffects took some time to wear off. The body knew it had been mistreated and revolted in the only way it knew how. Were it possible, his tissue would probably be holding up picket signs. Which was a bizarre thought, and no two ways about it.

"Right now, my main interest is in investigating some liquid painkiller," he quipped.

"Ya mean booze?"

"Yes, Harker. Booze."

His beaver companion (oh, weave, he was already companions with the irritating bastard again...) looked thoughtful. "Or do ya mean..."

"Harker, just leave it there, because you WILL say something horrendous." Argus glared at his familiar (blast it!) and turned politely to their new arrival, trying to dispel the tension. "So, Ms... Doyel? Have you found anything interesting as of yet?"
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Re: Saus

Post by Graybeard »

Brother Miguel listened to the exchange between mage and familiar with a combination of amusement, interest -- and concern. Like most members of the Reformed denomination, he didn't have a problem with moderate use of wine, but from what he'd gathered from Sister Marilyn, "moderate use" wasn't always the name of the game where Argus was concerned. There was also the fact that familiars, in his experience, tended to speak truth with (and therefore about) their mages, even when the truth was ... inconvenient. Still, you couldn't blame the man for wanting a bit of "liquid painkiller" under the circumstances. Now how would I react if I knew I had an unusual, incurable illness that was going to kill me slowly? he wondered. Not coming up with an answer he liked, he glanced at Sister Rose and raised an eyebrow. Her faint nod told him she'd been thinking the same thing.

In fact, she'd quietly put her Empathy back on as soon as she'd recharged her magical batteries after the Heals, and she cleared her throat. "You know, I think it would be a good idea to make a brief pause in the next town before we head on down the road. Argus, we're concerned about your injury, but even more, I'm worried that the travel stress may be starting to get to us all. Let's see if we can kick back a little before we hit the road. Sasha, do you mind?"

And so it was that, an hour or so later and after an encounter with a cave bear that really wasn't worth mentioning, a priest, a nun, a mage, a student, and a beaver walked into a bar.

[OOC: And take the joke from there...]
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Drannin
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Re: Saus

Post by Drannin »

(OOC: Here's my crack at it)

The five sat down at the bar, to a great many stares. Not really a good thing in this establishment. 'Gritty' was the polite term for it. 'S%^$hole' was perhaps more accurate, but it was a watering hole for a group of people in desperate need of watering. The bartender looked them all over, his eyes lingering on Sasha marginally more than Harker, then wandered up. "What'll you folks have?"

"Just a tea, please," said Brother Miguel, smiling.

"Glass of milk," said Sister Rose, absently.

"I'll have a peach schnapps," said Sasha Doylen brightly.

"Uh, just some wine," said Argus, not really in the mood for something stronger. Yet.

"I'll have a solid oak stick," said Harker, quite seriously. THIS got some attention.

"Still into munching random bits of wood, are you?" This from Argus, who looked amused.

"No," said Harker. "But with what you folks have been ordering, we're about to get our asses kicked, and I'd rather be prepared."
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