Goriel and beyond, part 6

[Jack Rothwell]

"AHHHH!" Tamina added, clutching onto Udo's arm and wincing in preparation for impact.

[Graybeard]

In fact, there was no impact; the defensive spells stopped the incoming missile, and none followed it. A few minutes later, the airship took station over a field near the Vatnikov compound, and the ramp was lowered so that Sister Rose and Argus could meet up with the party.

"But what are you going to do?" Rose asked Drusia, Udo and Tamina as she prepared to alight; it seemed that there were multiple agendas here.

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OOC: Nothing more to add at the Vatnikov compound until Anfisa and Desiree make their final decision (if it hasn't been made already). Once that's in hand, the two parties can coalesce and we can get on to the next adventure, whatever it is.

[Drusia]

OOC: Nothing more to add at the Vatnikov compound until Anfisa and Desiree make their final decision (if it hasn't been made already). Once that's in hand, the two parties can coalesce and we can get on to the next adventure, whatever it is.

OOC: Well, Desiree has flat-out said that she's going with Rose (and Therese). Anfisa has pretty much flat out said that she's going with Desiree. So unless Anfisa has more to say, I think that point is made. Desiree needs to have a talk about some things with Anfisa, but that keeps getting interupted, and would be best done in pirvate anyway.

As to Drusia, she's sticking with Udo and Tamina - and going after the Ralkin. I admit to being slightly confused by the whole Rose/Argus + Tamina thing that seems to have been happening of late - I thought we were splitting again, not coalescing. Or is Rose's comment in your post supposed to be the jumping off point for us to head off on our own?

[Graybeard]

OOC:

As to Drusia, she's sticking with Udo and Tamina - and going after the Ralkin. I admit to being slightly confused by the whole Rose/Argus + Tamina thing that seems to have been happening of late - I thought we were splitting again, not coalescing. Or is Rose's comment in your post supposed to be the jumping off point for us to head off on our own?

The Tamina thing is confusing me too. I thought we were setting up for Udo, Tamina and Drusia to head off and deal with the Ralkin, while everyone else takes the next steps in the cult-of-death super-thread (with all the side issues involving ... relationships). However, the idea of Tamina becoming apprenticed to Argus seems at odds with that. So what are people's actual intentions? That was kinda what I had in mind to resolve, using Rose as my mouthpiece. She's good at that.

So if we can resolve that, then we can get all the characters back together for long enough to spin off subgroups as appropriate, and then get on with it. If we can discuss it off-line, then we can fast-forward to some appropriate point, say with everyone re-boarding the airship that's going, while the others go their separate ways. Incidentally, in case there is any uncertainty, Therese will be sticking with Rose, rather than going Ralkin-hunting.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Kobolds (in case it wasn't blatantly obvious from the last seventeen threads Tamina has been in) are very much 'in the moment' in terms of their behavior and ideas, especially when they're young. I never at any point suggested Tamina learning a bit of rock magic from Argus would be a long term thing. I just didn't expect the break to happen this soon and wanted to set-up a possible short term side-track to give Tam a legit reason for sticking around a little while longer, and give her a chance to prepare for the battle to come.

Heading back to the southern continent to let her people know that the Ralkin are still running is her first priority, dealing with the bastards is the second.

So, on that note.../OOC


"But what are you going to do?"

Tamina, fairly shaking with relief at the failed missile attack and being back on solid ground, looked over at Argus with a longing expression which could have easily been misread by someone not privy to the firework display that was the interior workings of the kobold mind, then shook her head regretfully.

"Need to get back to the Killikah first." She said, looking depressed as her duty called to her. "Have to know 'bout Ralkin. Have to stop Foo-silly-us, 'fore he hurts peoples again. But..." She smiled at the middle-aged man. "Will you... umm... teach me if I see you 'gain? Really like to know how to move the rocks with the mind." She finished.

[Drannin]

Argus smiled and nodded at Tamina. "Absolutely. And I'd like to learn more about your magic, as well."

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, then, to move toward the next page, with a little background noise at the end; kinda long, but anyway:]

Therese sat atop a hill above the dwarven ruins, gazing thoughtfully -- silently -- toward the mountains where the group had spent the last two days.

The airship's passengers had descended to retrieve their colleagues and plan the next leg of the trip, while the ship itself returned to Goriel to refuel for the long haul to wherever it was going next, and pick up the last stragglers at the embassy. It would return in two or three hours, unless the feuding barbarians in Goriel created trouble, which seemed unlikely. Argus and Tamina were off somewhere, going over some earth magic. [OOC: Feel free to transact this here, or not; the same goes for the other pairings. /OOC:] Sister Rose had taken Tim to a quiet location, to start to teach him mind-speech. Desiree and Anfisa were back at the wagon, having their own -- intimate conversation about themselves, each other, their plans. She wasn't sure what Drusia and Udo were up to; something involving these sinister "Ralkin," presumably.

And she sat alone, but she was used to that.

Where did that Blaise's personal effects go? she wondered. Rose had obviously been worried about that matter. If the man's connection to the Convergence was as strong as they believed it to be, Therese could understand why. Sooner or later she'd have to come back to this accursed place and deal with whatever the man had been carrying. But not now. There were too many other things to do, too many futures to consider.

Including her own. She found her attention drifting away from the Convergence, and toward -- more pleasant things. The half elf ... she was so much like Melusine. Her attraction was growing stronger every day. And by the Five Great Mothers, Therese was convinced that it was mutual. Yet Desiree and Anfisa clearly loved each other, that was obvious. She would never, never, never break up another relationship for the sake of one of her own. But might there be room in Desiree's heart for both of them? It seemed a novel thought, certainly one that Therese had never entertained before. She wouldn't be above sharing, would she? Relationships like that weren't unknown in Refuge-Nouveau, what with the imbalance in numbers of women and --

"Flamme?"

"GAAA!" she cried, thoroughly and completely startled for the first time in years, as somehow, Marge Vatnikov appeared behind her, more silently than any eighty-year-old woman had any right to move.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the old woman fretted. "I didn't mean to --"

She regained her composure quickly enough. "No, no, I'm the one who must apologize. I was -- preoccupied."

The concerned expression became a gentle smile. "I noticed. Want to talk about it?"

Therese considered, made a decision.

"Please, Grandmother."

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There was one more mountain ridge to be traversed, Sonny reckoned, and then he'd have to start down into inhabited territory. (Inhabited by Small Ones, that is.) He had no intention of exposing himself to the violent Small Ones of this territory one minute before he absolutely had to, but it just couldn't be helped. He started his distance-devouring, loping troll's gait, to gain time to get himself down into the trees as the light faded.

But wait. What was that bundle lying atop the ridge line as he started to descend it? A Small One's belongings, for sure, but what would it be doing up here? No sensible Small One would venture into this terrain.

He started to pass the thing by, but a loud rumble from his stomach (and a troll's stomach rumbles are very loud) reminded him that he hadn't eaten since he left the tribe's camp -- and he could smell food from within. It had been burned with fire, in the typical Small One way, and that would make it less attractive to a troll's taste buds, but it would still nourish him.

He looked around the ridge, to make sure no magic-wielding Small One had placed this tempting object here as a trap, and then tossed it over his shoulder; dinner, or at least a light snack, would be possible now, as soon as he made it down to the trees.

He resumed his trek.

[Alberich]

While people were shuffling around, finding out who had fired what at whom and who was going to go where, and before Rose took him off for lessons -- Tim found a moment to get alone with Desiree. Well, Desiree and Anfisa - that was as "alone" as either of them was getting right now. Speaking softly, he carried out the promise he'd been meaning to by delivering Eli's message of the other night as best he could remember it. --

"Desiree," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen with Eli, but when I saw him the other night I promised I'd deliver you a message. He wanted to say his biggest regret since leaving home was hurting your feelings, and he'd take it back if he could - and the other part I think you know, that he thinks he's doing all this to fix it so your people don't have to live in isolation."

Tim himself had been thinking that humans, half-elves, and elves alike were all better off if they stayed isolated from each other, but he didn't share this thought.

"The only good sign is, it means there's some kind of good left in him. They're corrupting him using his nobler aims." The way he tried to do on me. "If someone can get him away from this corrupting Ralkin magic. He didn't say anything about coming to look for you again, but the way he talked, he was in real agony about it - and sometime I think he might."

Tim didn't take the love-stuff as part of the message, and didn't want to deliver that part anyway. These two were ill-matched in the extreme. Having Desiree draw Eli might secure a tactical advantage, but if he could be saved from what possessed him - he'd do better to stay far from her.

Later, during his lessons with Rose, Tim delivered the information again, though he left out the specific language (the message was private, after all).

* * *

Udo, just as his boner from being grabbed by Tamina was dying down, developed another one at the thought of travelling around the world with both Tamina and a badass hot elf chick, with no god-freak bitches trying to tell him what to do, or crabby old mage farts reading misunderstandable paperwork that was really none of their business. He was hot to trot and ready for action, and if "action" meant going with Tamina down to kobold country 'til they found these killikah drits and shallirs and kicked their ass into the southern seas...that was fine by him.

The old fart had never gotten around to giving him those Gibazov papers, and that was too bad, since with a little time those papers would be a one-way ticked to Blackmail City, and instead of borrowing money to buy rubies, they could borrow it to buy the papers. From him. But that wasn't going to happen now, and globetrotting hot-babe adventures were more his style anyway. Onward and upward!

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Let me know if you want this adjusting any Drannin./OOC

The kobold sat cross-legged opposite the earth mage and stared at the pile of pebbles in front of her. Tamina's face was locked in an expression of intense concentration which looked strange on the humanoid's face. She extended a hand and channeled for a moment, then shook her head and made a frustrated noise.

"Ah! It's hard!" She dropped her hand and tapped it's stubby fingers against her breastbone. "Killikah magic all inside, pass 'long through touch... this... trying to make m' mana move without me... s'like a' been practicing how to be bad at it." She looked at Argus with big, sad eyes and her ears drooping. "Maybe kobolds can't do it."

[Drannin]

"Don't be hard on yourself," Argus reassured Tamina. "It's not easy, and you've never practiced it before in your life. YOu won't master it from the get-go. Besides, even if earth magic isn't your thing, there are other things you CAN do. Be pleased with yourself with what you can do, and don't beat yourself up over what you can't." He gave Tamina a smile. "Now, do you want to try again? If your magic passes through touch, perhaps you should start by putting your hands on the ground?"