The Southern Continent (part 2)

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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Alberich
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

Udo's questions had been about the Black Guard's command structure and where their headquarters was, and how many wizards they had and where, and also whether they'd seen anything like the magic altar described in the temple notes. And he wasn't too fussy about how Alleece and the others got the information. To him, "Geneva" was a city in a fantasy world.

Udo had held on to Alleece as she leaned on him, and agreed with what she said. "Yes. These kobolds here were the bravest warriors I've ever seen and it's important to keep them alive - for the next generation, with lots of, ah, gah. And you should let all the tribes know of their valiant deeds. Which should be retold for ten thousand years! But before we leave, or they do, I would like to see them one more time." There was a little ceremony of his own he wanted to perform.

To Sensei's note, Udo added, "Bringing the fight to them sounds like a great idea! We'll 'draw their attention away' all right - away from this world and into hell! And if they're operating out of Port Lorrel, then I think I know where we can get some help. Last time I was there, Port Lorrel was pretty firm Eisenfaust territory. Anyone builds up a private army there is gonna look like a rival, and when it comes to getting us in past all these grunts to take out this Eli and his bosses, I bet they'd be delighted to help!

"One warning. Gabriel Goatkisser had a hard magic hit on top of the rest - like an archmage almost. But he was grabbing something on his chest when he did it." Drusia or Tamina was in a position to explain that a crystal had been found there, like the one they'd acquired in the temple, and probably to guess that the stone had been used to channel magic from someone else, and to tell him what'd been done with the "dammy-ass" stones in Gabriel's body. Udo reminded his companions that Khoo still had an extradimensional space full of Ralkin magic books, and had to decide which ones to destroy. But if any of them was harmless, he wanted just one for a souvenir.

"Hey, Khoo and Dru," he added. "I've been thinking...if that altar can be used to control their followers with suggestions, the way the note said - if we got access to it, d'you think one of you could get control of it - like, tell every Ralkin that every other Ralkin is about to stab him in the back, and maybe they wanna do some preemptive stabbery? Thin the herd a little?"

He wondered if his initial lie to the Blackguards had stayed in the heads of the few escapees - meaning, his lie that the group had been "sold out" and that this was why they'd been ready with ambushes and defenses up. If they shared that information through scuttlebutt, the way soldiers did, maybe the Ralkin troops would be primed for a suggestion like that. Or at least, when the magic started flying, to rethink their career choices.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Happy belated Christmas everyone! I'll get back to posting tomorrow. :)/OOC
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Drusia
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Drusia »

I stay close to Tamina, in case she needs something. And because I think it's an important symbol. I am Tamina's weapon - thus Tamina defeated the regenerating general. I want her people to know that.

"Hey, Khoo and Dru," he added. "I've been thinking...if that altar can be used to control their followers with suggestions, the way the note said - if we got access to it, d'you think one of you could get control of it - like, tell every Ralkin that every other Ralkin is about to stab him in the back, and maybe they wanna do some preemptive stabbery? Thin the herd a little?"

"I'm not touching that thing with a stick," I tell Udo honestly. "Waiter-kun can do as he likes, but I wouldn't recommend it. Even if it worked, and I'm not sure it would, that sort of magic gets in your head. It changes the one controlling as much as it changes the person being controlled, and never for the better."

Smoke and mirrors are one thing, but mind control... that's dark magic. Let the Cimmerii play with that crap - I won't go near it.

-- Drusia
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Tamina retreated to Leli's hut after the battle, she hasn't come out yet Dru./OOC

Just then, the door to the Elder's hut opened and her apprentice emerged, stone-faced and blinking owlishly in the early afternoon light. The kobold walked on wooden legs to join her companions with a pair of objects clasped in her hands, one was the amulet Leli had used to intercept the Ralkin's communications, the other was a short, twisted staff retrieved from some darkened corner of the residence, clearly not of her people's design. Alleece stood up and walked over to her approaching tribeswoman, giving her a comforting hug which was met with a perfunctory clap on the younger woman's back. Tamina sat down at the campfire without meeting anyone's eyes and murmured a question in tones of lead to find out what her friends had learned.

"I'm going to Port Lorrel." She said quietly, once she'd been brought up to speed. "There'll be a ship sailing from Grendell later today."

"You're not coming with us Tammy?"

"Can't. Won't." Was Tamina's reply to the other kobold's question. Alleece shook her head sadly at the response, but no surprise crossed her face.

"I'm leaving after we bury our kin." She went on, finally lifting her head to look with glazed eyes to at her travelling companions. "I'll... understand if you think it's too dangerous to come. But... I have to go. I have to end this."

OOC I'm aiming to start a new thread in a day or two./OOC
Alberich
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

Udo nodded to Drusia's response. It fit what Tamina had said -- that the Ralkin, and their magic, was all about control. Well, if things got really desperate, they could try a move like that. Otherwise they could just stomp Ralkin ass in the old, familiar way, while loudly accusing them of various sexual irregularities.

"I'm going to Port Lorrel. There'll be a ship sailing from Grendell later today....I'm leaving after we bury our kin...I have to go. I have to end this."

Udo nodded to that too. "Spoken with true kobold courage! And we're with you all the way!" - he clapped his countryman on the shoulder to make clear that he, too, was included in this declaration of death-defying support.

After the kobold burial rituals were done, there was one other ritual, one never seen before, in which Udo, with great solemnity, awarded his entire collection of shiny Tsuirakuan medals of valor to the surviving kobold defenders. His explanations as to what they symbolized were perhaps a little unorthodox, but were heartfelt in the extreme. He didn't even ask biscuits in return. This left him with only a single service medallion such as any Torouku would have after a year of service. And somehow he felt just as happy with himself afterwards.

That left him with only one private bit of business in the village - his farewell to Alleece, whom he imagined to have been his lover, his companion in transports of delight, the night before the battle, and whom he imagined to have advertised his amazing virility with symbols of honor painted on his body. Once he had her alone, he spoke from the heart.

"Milady," he said, "I just wanted you to know - I think you're making the right decision. Your people need a future, and that means it needs kobold girls to bring up the new gah - to survive, and to carry on the memory of what your countrymen did today." Which didn't explain why she was wearing a Frozen North Expeditionary Medal, but so it went. "The odds they were up against - they were just the most amazing warriors anywhere, and when we've finished off these Ralkin scum, which we can totally do, no one will dare to try that again!

"And me, well, I'll never forget our time together" -- in point of fact, he had forgotten quite a bit of it thanks to the kobold fruit-root juice he'd been drinking at the time -- "which is the greatest ecstasy I could ever imagine, and it'll carry me through this adventure and be my sweetest dream forever!"

[OOC: Not trying to cut short the burial scene if you're planning to write it; just including this in case you're planning to jump us forward to Grendell.]
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Browncoat »

{Udo might not be the most skilled, and his mind is certainly cluttered, but underneath that, he really is a good man}

Angrist wasn't overly fond of funerals, but he felt he owed it to the dead to stay for this one. And it was fascinating to see how everyone handled it differently. Udo showing true feelings which were normally covered with bluster. Tamina holding herself together with strength of will; grief locked behind purpose. Drusia...Angrist couldn't read how the elf felt. And himself...Angrist was filled with regret at the loss of the innocent.

{If only I had gotten here a little sooner...No. I can't change what happened. All I can do is try to prevent recurrence.}

Yet logic does not hold complete command over emotion. This day would join all the other times of sorrow and regret. Eventually, they fade somewhat, but they never really leave. Angrist bowed his head and his inhibitors shifted.

{If I had removed these, could I have saved them? Would I have killed again? Are their lives more important? Is there really a better way, or am I deluding myself?...I hate funerals}


[OOC: I'm trying to set Angrist up for some internal conflict which will eventually play out, but even I'm not sure what the results will be. He tries to avoid killing and he fears that with his capabilities he will unintentionally kill again. But the violence Gabriel brought is forcing him to question his principles. This funeral is going to weigh heavy on Angrist for some time]
They kicked me out of the asylum. I miss the jello.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

A few hours later the group found themselves back in Grendell.

After the funeral the rest of the tribe had stayed behind to pack for their journey, although Alleece had volunteered to see them off. The younger kobold had fallen in stride with Tamina as she walked. Niether had spoken on the trip, save for Alleece questioning whether she really wanted to take the Ralkin artifacts her people had obtained from the wizard's attempts to conquer them with her.

"It's tainted." She'd argued.

"It's necessary." Was all Tamina had replied, the tone in her voice had ended further argument.

The tiny port was still busy even as the afternoon wore on, even so it was easy for the travellers to locate Captain Moriarty and his distinctive ship on the waterline. The handsome man's smile of greeting faded as he saw the morose expression on the happy gah he'd met days before.

"<I see you've had a hard day.>" He said, addressing the woman in her native tounge.

"<Very much so.>" Tamina replied.

While the kobold and the sailor spoke about booking passage back to Lorrel. Alleece took Udo's hand and led him gently away from the group. The young humanoid open her mouth say something but stopped herself. She cursed under her breath in the kobold tounge, then stepped forward and kissed the highwayman breifly but firmly on his mouth.

"Be careful." She managed, patting his chest with a rueful smile. "Don't be TOO brave."

OOC I think Udo deserves it :D . I'll open a new thread tomorrow with the group sailing to Lorrel. 'Prison Break' needs to move along a bit to sync up before they arrive but we should be ok for a merge pretty soon./OOC
Alberich
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

Not understanding the curse, Udo responded to the kiss just as you might expect - by kissing back, passionately. "There's no such thing as 'too brave,'" he said - "and I'll fight them with the courage of a kobold!" Given how the killikah had defended their village, there was no irony in this.

Alleece left him then to rejoin her people, along the jungle path where they'd first met. He sold what he could of captured and looted enemy equipment, though he'd kept Gabriel's pistol and a rifle (weapons that held no interest for his companions). What he couldn't bring, the kobolds would trade away in time, but at least now he had some money on top of what he'd liberated from a few handy dead ones. And one more errand --

Udo couldn't find a Tsuirakuan lawyer in Grendell, but he could find a branch of a Tsuirakuan bank here, and there he wrote a letter and packaged it with the least harmful of the Ralkin books they'd taken. If he wasn't back in person in ten days, it was to be sent. If any message came purporting to be from him and saying not to send it, it was to be sent immediately.

The letter was addressed to the elven ambassador in Tsuirakushiti, with a copy for Tsuirakuan Homeland Security. It explained that a group in Tsuiraku, which used this ancient elfin "Ralkin" magic as evidenced by the captured book, was operating out of Port Lorrel, and had shown signs of considerable wealth and power. It detailed some of the magicks he knew they had, such as the altar, and ended - "I provide this in case Your Excellency's government does not wish to see this group grow further in strength."

Now, if Good triumphed over Evil, this letter would never be sent, and all would be well; but if he got captured or killed, there would be revenge. His optimism was still far greater than the evidence would justify, but something about the fight with Gabriel -- like the personal thrashings he had twice received -- made him think precautions would be good. Just in case.

He made his way back to the others without stopping. Well, hardly stopping. All right, so he stopped to pick up a couple of interesting pictures from a local vendor. Okay, and a travel game. Okay, okay, and he got one of the more sanitary kinds of relief from another kind of vendor, but what would you expect? Alleece had had to leave and there was no time for another night with her. He might be going to his death here. He'd earned it, hadn't he? He hustled back.

[OOC: I assume that Gabriel's anti-magic armor is too thoroughly ruined for any of the PC's to wear it; but if I'm wrong about that please advise. Even if there was only an armored anti-magic "athletic supporter," Udo might be interested in the protection it could offer.]

[OOC2: I didn't specify what kind of game Udo was able to find for the voyage - if this'd been Tsuiraku he'd probably have found something like this, but as it is, he had to take any port in a storm...anyone who wants to add a gaming scene or a hint of one, for character development or cheap laughs, is welcome to.]
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Gabe wasn't wearing anti-magic armor, Aleron was defending him using the amulet. Starting a new thread later today. Happy new year everyone!/OOC
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Drusia
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Drusia »

Jack Rothwell wrote:**snip**
OOC: Just making sure, since I'm slightly confused - Tamina doesn't mind others coming with her, right? Dru wants to finish off the Ralkin as much as she does.

I mean, I'm assuming that the plan is for the PCs to go with her. It just wasn't really clear from what she said.
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