Getsemiel

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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Drannin
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Drannin »

Argus' jaw dropped in amazement, and Harker gave a long,low whistle. "Unbelievable. Full ionic conversion and hydrogen condensation on such a scale. Instantaneous, at that. The best thaumic weather converters couldn't do that when I left the city. For such advancement to take place in so little time..." slowly, a wide smile spread across Argus' face. He looked at his daughter. "Fayna, darling, how much of this did you design personally?"

Fayna smiled coyly. "Now Daddy, this magic technology had been in existence for many years now. I simply took an existing concept and made it far better than anyone ever dreamed of." He eyes glowed with the triumph of accomplishment, and Jerecht grinned broadly.

Harker took in the sight, an astounding display of magical ability. "Minimal power usage too," he noted. "Damn near 100% efficiency. Crap." Harker looked up at Argus. "Boss, don't take this the wrong way... but I think your kid just surpassed you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Argus said quietly, his heart bursting with pride. For his daughter to have come so far in just a few years...! The family legacy was clearly in good hands. "Well, done child. You have no idea how proud you've just made me."

He scanned the skyline and noted the rapidly escaping airship. He frowned. "Speaking of locating Maduin, that escaping vessel is FAR to much of a coincidence. How much speed does your vessel have?"
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Graybeard
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Graybeard »

"That's an airship? This is the first one I've ever seen."

Well, that's reassuring,
thought Sister Rose. Ever since the balloon and its inexplicably lethal passenger had reached the pass above Snamish, she'd worried that the increasing use of airships in Veracia was going to lead to the hidden town being discovered by those that it needed to be concealed from. If Desiree had never seen an airship, probably none had come close enough to see the town. (Yet.) She stored this observation in the back of her mind for later use if Desiree or Eli were showing nervousness about their home.

The more important point was the young woman seemed to be getting her equilibrium back. Maybe this was a safe subject to talk about, and help the process along? (For both women, although Rose didn't admit that to herself.) She smiled. "I suspect we're about to get the chance to ride in the thing, to try to find that boat, although I don't expect to succeed. I'm rather looking forward to it. I've only been in an airship -- a few times myself --" quite a few, but military airships aren't like this one... "and the world just looks -- different from up there. You get a new perspective, a look at the natural beauty of things that you can't see from down here. It's rather humbling, actually."

Talk of an airship ride (not to mention the person she was discussing it with) had drawn Eli to the conversation; he'd never been in one either, Rose was sure of that. (How about Tim? Some of the Orthodox Veracians viewed air travel as unholy, un-Luminositan. A militia lieutenant should have fewer hang-ups about such things than a small-town Veracian, but one could never be sure, and Tim was still an Orthodox priest.) An idea took shape, connected with something she'd realized she needed to do, although she didn't look forward to it. "Tell you what," she said. "Maybe you could get our things in the wagon packed up for us to take along for the ride. I have to send a message back to my friends up north, and as soon as I'm done, I'll help." She started for the wagon, trying to figure out what she was going to tell the parrot, and pausing only momentarily to look at the cloud that had suddenly formed over Getsemiel to the north.

[OOC: VERY delayed edit to harmonize this with things that came out later about Rose, but it doesn't change anything substantive in the slightest. /OOC:]
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Brad's look at the cloud was more close-up, of course.

"Wow..." he breathed to Lillith, as though still under the influence of one of those brownies from the temple. "Did you see that, sweetheart? People who can do things like that can certainly find Maduin, and maybe even find the boat we're looking for, do you think?"
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Sareth
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Sareth »

"One can hope. More importantly it will help prevent the fires from spreading." Lillith was busy looking down below, watching the effect of the sudden rain on the disaster unfolding beneath them.

The sounds of the discussion between Argus and Fayna carried over to the pair, and Lillith felt a small flare of something unpleasant. She quickly fought it down before she could even figure out what it was. She walked over and took Fayna's hand in both of hers. "Thank you," she said. She glanced down. "For that."
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Drusia
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Drusia »

"I suspect we're about to get the chance to ride in the thing, to try to find that boat, although I don't expect to succeed. I'm rather looking forward to it. I've only been in an airship two or three times myself, and the world just looks -- different from up there. You get a new perspective, a look at the natural beauty of things that you can't see from down here. It's rather humbling, actually."

"I imagine," I reply softly. I try to summon a smile. "Thank you." She nods and turns away to speak with Brother Tim.

She's so nice to me. She has to know about my relationship Kenny. And she still....

I can't tell if she's being sincere or if she's a two-faced bitch. And I'm not sure which option is more disturbing.

I turn to Eli. "So... airship."

-- Desiree

OOC: Poor Rose - Desiree isn't in the best frame of mind at the moment. ^^;;
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Looks safer than that balloon." Eli replied, thinking back to his unwanted trip a few days before on the outskirts of Snamish. Despite his neutral tone, the half-elf's thoughts turned inescapably to what falling several hundred feet would do to someone on contact with the ground.

"How's your slow fall magic?" He said, on a completely unrelated note.
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Graybeard
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: Not a problem, Rose will go on being Rose, it's what she does. ;) I'm going to borrow Tim for one or two brief lines, then a thing at the bottom for discussion:]

"How's your slow fall magic?"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Sister Rose reassured Eli airily -- so to speak.

While the others got the disarrayed baggage ready for transfer from wagon to airship, if it came to that, she prepared and launched a parrot. As she did, she became aware of a problem.

"We can't take these birds with us," she said to Tim. "They've technically been declassified, but we're still not supposed to take them out of the country, which is where I suspect we're going." She watched her companion for signs of a reaction to that, but seeing none, she continued, "But if we leave them here, they'll die, and that will be bad too. I think we have to go back to town and leave them at the temple."

Tim didn't like that. "How will Fayna know where to find us?" he asked, quite reasonably. "We didn't make arrangements to rendezvous anywhere but here. Besides, it will be dark by the time we get to Getsemiel."

"Point," Rose conceded, but then she got the kind of smile that one gets upon having an "AHA!" moment. "Let me show you a little trick I learned in Special Ops." She found a stick, and with it, drew a simple message in the dirt along the shore -- BACK AT TEMPLE -- then covered it with leaves and other debris. Next she paused to mumble a prayer/spell, and magic flowed from her fingertips. The scratches beneath the leaves glowed bright green, then faded.

"That'll flare up again when Argus comes back," she said. "Nobody else will be able to see it, but it'll be plain as day for him." She didn't say exactly what would happen if Argus didn't come back with the airship; he'd come back. He had to. "Now let's get going. The sun will be down in an hour, and we have a long way to go."

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OOC: I'm not exactly sure how to proceed from here. Much depends on how long the airship chase/recovery of Maduin is going to last. Going back to town leaves options for everyone on hand to interact with people in town and each other, at least, which is one reason for this step, but it's kind of a stopgap before the real action resumes. Tim's point about it getting late is real -- this crew has had a long day -- and that may constrain the way the airship chase goes. One way or the other, we need to decide what's next. What say you, PF? You're the one with a "plot" in mind for the airships, right?
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Drusia
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Drusia »

"Looks safer than that balloon." Eli replied, "How's your slow fall magic?"

I blanche. "Um... non-existant?"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Sister Rose reassured Eli airily -- so to speak.

I blink. "I will be?" I ask, but she's busy elsewhere. I turn back to Eli. "She meant because it won't be necessary, right? Right?"

-- Desiree
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Drusia
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Drusia »

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

In a bar lit by glowing crystals that float above their sconces.

On the stage, a woman sings.

You see me now, a veteran
Of a thousand years of war
I've been living on the edge so long
Where the winds of limbo roar
And I'm young enough to look at
And far too old to see
All the scars are on the inside
I'm not sure that there's anything left of me

You ask me why I'm weary
Why I can't speak to you
You blame me for my silence
Say it's time I changed and grew
But the war's still going on, dear
And there's no end that I know
And I can't say if we're ever...
I can't say if we're ever gonna be free

Don't let these shakes go on
It's time we had a break from it
Send me to the rear
Where the tides of madness swell
And been sliding into hell
Oh, please don't let shakes go on
Don't let these shakes go on...


A few patrons applauded, but most were too lost in their drink. The woman bowed and stepped down off the stage. She walked to the bar, sat down, and motioned for a drink.

"Aren't you a little young?" the bartender asked her.

She looked up, meeting his eyes. "Didn't I just say? I'm far too old. See?" He looked at her eyes and, after a startled moment, nodded and poured her a stiff drink. She nodded her thanks and downed it.

"Not long now," she said to no one in particular. Then she stood, collected her things, and left. Outside, she made her way to a location where she should look out over the city. Tsuirakushiti gleamed beneath the mid-day sun.

"I hate this place," she sighed, again speaking to no one. "Looks too much like home."

Drusia turned, pulled on her cloak, checked to make sure her blade was easily accessable, and walked off in search of her prey.

-- Drusia

OOC: I was going to save this for the next thread, but... screw it. :p Consider this a preview.
Edit: Oh, almost forgot - apologies to Blue Oyster Cult for borrowing (and altering one line of) their lyrics.
Last edited by Drusia on February 2nd, 2012, 3:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Porcelain Fish
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Porcelain Fish »

[OOC: Sorry folks. My younger brother set fire to the yard and burned the back lawn and the satellite dish while he was home on leave (thankfully not the house, although some of the siding is now melted) so I can only access the internet from work. I'll try to post when/as I can, but I don't often have the leisure at the moment. Believe me, this did NOT figure into my grand plans. Hopefully I can pop a few words into Fayna's mouth over lunch and get things moving again./OOC]
Alberich
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Re: Getsemiel

Post by Alberich »

Dutifully, Tim assisted with the gear as Rose had directed, and proceeded with her to deposit the precious parrots. Blaise's horse would also need to be returned to the Church, as a matter of course. He'd prefer to ride it, but he was too tired not to fall, and was glad to accept a place in the wagon.

Tim's thinking was drowsy, as was he, but he responded to something she'd said a little while before.

"I think maybe it's not so strange for them to know each other," he said dreamily. "This Korou, he's Tsuirakuan, as you say. And let's think maybe Blaise got a hold of one of those crystals they use to talk to each other. That, ah, crystal net thing, where they talk about their, ah, common interests." Actually, he'd heard the crystal net was first and foremost for something else but didn't raise that issue.

"I mean, you tell me this Korou is all about that...studying old things and foreign people." The words "archaeology" and "anthropology" would take a while to roll off his tongue. "Blaise spends his time in exotic locales down south and finds something old and dangerous, makes hearts stop, sort of thing. If he gets hold of all these strange statuette things, maybe he gets a Tsuirakuan crystal, and talks to other people who are into the same things. Twenty years. Plenty of time to get hooked up with Korou. Like the stories about witches. You get an unhealthy interest in the wrong things, study them too much, the witches or the devils come find you to lead you on to more." Normally he'd be a little embarrassed to talk about those old ideas, not really from Church teaching, but weariness loosened his tongue a little.

"Maybe this Korou wanted friends in the Church anyway. Maybe had some already and got in touch that way. If he's that into old knowledge and far away things, he'd like to have a friend who could get into the Heretic Knowledge Vault, right? Don't know where that leads us. Big thing is if we can find him. Them. Stop them, bring him back, kind of thing."

The thought of flying in an airship didn't terrify him -- you could fall and die, but you could fall off a fast horse too, and he liked those. And climbing trees even. Getting obsessed with Tsuirakuan toys and their opulent ways, that was a spiritual danger, but there was no sin in using their tools, especially not to carry out the Patriarch's business. Blaise and his friends had had some devil-borne luck, but maybe the Good Father had sent these airships here as an opportunity. Would he get squeamish and pass it up? No!

Flying to Tsuiraku wasn't so scary. Getting there -- that was the scary part. Yes, Sister Sakura had been clear that their decadent ways palled...after a while. But what if he died first?
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