Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

[Graybeard]

Completely oblivious to the planning going on, Khoo staggered out of his cabin, his face as gray as the rain clouds above him.

"Oh, by the Sea God's great green gills..." he groaned to anyone who would listen, which may well have been no one at all. "Isn't this boat EVER going to stop rocking?" At some risk of further upsetting his already very unhappy stomach, he looked heavenward to where the rain was falling. No, this wasn't the same kind of super-localized effect that he'd been able to deal with on the way south. A Wind Sprite wouldn't do a thing to get them out of this squall and into quieter waters. There was nothing to do but tough it out.

He lurched back into his cabin, feeling slightly proud of himself for not having made it all the way to the railing so he could punch his cookies. To look on the bright side, they were getting close enough now to the land mass of Farrel that there was some small chance that his Crystal-net connection might work again; there were beginning to be enough Tsuirakuan traders in Port Lorrel that magical energy for the net might reach all the way out here. Maybe browsing his messages (the connection would still be too tenuous for much else) would get his mind off his seasickness. Once he'd landed on his bunk again, he pulled out his crystal ball and turned the thing on.

His mood brightened slightly along with the cabin. Yes, he could indeed check messages here. The first several were generally things he already knew: content-free reports on whatever had happened to the Tower of Artifex, an announcement from his employers that the Artifex Sashimi Palace would be closed until further notice (how could it not be, given the state the Tower was in?), and so on. There was an interview with Councilman Hinadori about the attack that was mildly interesting reading. Khoo had met the man at some Sashi Mu function and found him to be generally rather well screwed on, if gruff and forbidding even by the standards of the Tsuirakuan upper crust; nobody he'd ever want to do business with directly, but at least someone who might be more straightforward and trustworthy than most of the council. It sounded like things were about a week from getting back to normal, including resumption of classes at Sashi Mu. Well, that was more good news than otherwise. It might take most of that week to get himself extracted from this miserable bobbing cork on the Southern Sea.

He continued to page down the messages ... until one caused him to stop short.

TO: T. L. Khoo
FROM: A. L. Po
SUBJ: Found you, you naughty boy!
So THAT is where you went when things went to shit! It took me two whole days to home in on you and figure out where you were. Now why should a sky-city rat run off to the Southern Continent? It wasn't ... to get away from me, was it?

Anyway, I'm coming for you now. See you in Port Lorrel, and you're going to owe me big-time for this!

Anna-Lisa

Khoo didn't even look at the rest of the messages; the combination of this one and the pitching and rocking of the boat was more than his stomach could handle. Without even powering the crystal ball down, he burst through the door of his cabin, and headed for the rail to complete some unfinished business.

[Jack Rothwell]

"The fishes are grateful for it!" Called Captain Moriarty, his cheerfullness momentarily restored at the sight of the non-sailor emptying his stomach into the sea. "Fredricks! Tighten up that sail! The corner's flapping!"

The ship took another hard lurch as a casade of rainwater washed across the deck like a wave. Moriarty swayed with the vessel with the grace of long practice, grimacing internally at the damage being done to his fine suit. Fortunately, his cargo was secured and dry two decks below, and the sleek speed of the Narwahl would, probably, ensure a safe negotiation through the growing storm.

A lightning bolt streaked the air on the horizon, the thunderclap hit them a few seconds later.

"You picked a fine day to travel!" The Captain yelled at the grey-faced Khoo.

[Alberich]

"We'll need this......could use it to track down Aleron, and the bad blonde... err... Eli, I mean...and if I can figure out how to use this, we'd have a strong weapon against the soldier men too... s'dangerous though..."

Using wax and string, Udo made doubly sure that any and all magic commo rocks stayed covered by Angrist's magic-suppressing amulets (as they already had been since before the meeting began). "This way, he can't use 'em to track down us!"

He was glad Tamina had kept a staff. "Using those is easy!" he said. "Gimme some time with you when we're on land and I can show you." He pictured himself instructing her in the use of a mage staff by carefully holding her arms and body in position while she channeled her power...well, no, probably there'd be no excuse for going that far. Maybe Khoo already knew and would be the better staff-man anyway...speaking of which, was that a cry of agony from Khoo himself?

"Just a moment," he said -- and a few moments later he was back with a green-looking Khoo, having first given him a dab of hygiene spell.

[Graybeard]

"A magical staff?" Khoo said, now that his head was only spinning in one direction at once. "Not my style. Many Sashi Mu students who are looking to go on to the battlemage corps learn how to use a staff on the way up. That wasn't for me. To the extent I ever use a gadget for focusing magic, it's just a wand. Can't help you there..." But as his voice trailed off, an inspiration came to him.

"... But there's somebody meeting me in Port Lorrel who's pretty good with a magical staff. Alarmingly good with one. In fact, we'll probably be able to track her down by the trail of fireballs and smoking craters."

And I'll be running in the opposite direction as you do, he thought but did not say.

[Alberich]

Udo looked thoughtful. "Hmmm, she wouldn't have a last name of 'Porter' by any chance..?"

Then he turned to another topic. "You weren't here but we've been talking about getting into town - like not just sailing in on this ship where Aleron's spies will see us all. I figure once we get a little nearer to land we can use your flying and Drusia's teleporting to get us all over to some terra firma, then make it in over the hills. Probably better for your belly than this thing anyway," he stamped on the rolling cabin floor.

"If we could do it while it's still squalling, that'd cut visibility from port, make us harder to spot. Also I'm planning to go into town after that to try to look up some allies before we make our attack - you want to come along or have me look your friend up?"

[Jack Rothwell]

"Don't like fire." Tamina added vaguely to Khoo mention of his friend, remembering her last encounter with a fireball throwing mage which had left her with blackened fur that had only grown back in the last few days.

"The staff has a bound spell, makes the user... like ether... immune to physical attack, seen one of the Ralkin, Arcelius, use it, he breathed poison with it..." She winced, remembering another unpleasant memory, one that was almost a relief given her recent loss. "He killed my friend Tallah with it, Alleece told me he just choked and died."

She bared her teeth. "Be a pleasure to use it on them."

[Alberich]

"As long as it's not that Ralkin magic," said Udo, "the kind that tries to take your mind over, the way you said before." His own magical senses were not subtle enough to tell the difference, not yet, anyway, but he knew Tamina knew Ralkin magic by taste.

[Drusia]

"I figure once we get a little nearer to land we can use your flying and Drusia's teleporting to get us all over to some terra firma, then make it in over the hills."

"I wouldn't count on that," I say absently. "I can teleport myself and one other person short distances - to places I can see, by preference. To teleport farther, I'd either need to go alone, or I'd need to prepare a rune at the landing spot first. Which I haven't done." Obviously, since I haven't been here before. Or, not to the town anyway.

-- Drusia

[Jack Rothwell]

"As long as it's not that Ralkin magic... the kind that tries to take your mind over, the way you said before."

"It's fine." Tamina said, a touch sharply at Udo's statement. "Ralkin magic, artifacts, might make a bad person worse... but the... seed? has to be there first. Never heard of a kobold mage ever going bad." That declaration, of course, didn't mean that such a thing was impossible, but Tamina had no plans to touch Aleron's trinkets unless absolutely necessary.

"I wouldn't count on that. I can teleport myself and one other person short distances - to places I can see, by preference. To teleport farther, I'd either need to go alone, or I'd need to prepare a rune at the landing spot first. Which I haven't done."

"You... shouldn't go off alone." Tamina said. "It would be dangerous with everyone looking for you." A blush was rising to her cheeks, but despite her attraction to the pretty elf a strange feeling had come over the southern continent native in the last several minutes. Maybe it was the clarity of her objective, or just grief, which had pushed away her scatterbrained tendencies and held then at bay, but the approaching confrontation had given a clearness to her thoughts she was unused to.

She wondered if Leli had felt the same way.

The kobold mage, somehow, broke eye-contact with Drusia and strode over to the still-suffering Khoo. She put a hand on his arm. "I know something that can help." She said. "Trust me, m' a healer."

A swift incantation and a glowing hand pressed against the waiter's stomach removed the man's nausea, although the kobold watched intently for a moment after the spell to see if any side-effects occured (curing ailments did lead to some spectacular backfires on occasion). Satisfied her work was successful, Tamina turned to the group to continue their discussion.

Her next sentence was interrupted by a blinding flash of light and a thunderclap that followed immediately like a celestial drumbeat. The kobold winced and pressed her hands to her large, cat-like ears.

"The sooner we get there, the better." She muttered.

[Alberich]

"Right!" said Udo. "The storm's between us and them, which is how I like it. So why don't we get it going right now? Drusia, how 'bout if you prep one of your runes on this ship, then Khoo flies you over to the shore, and you lay down another rune there? Then you can teleport the rest of us one at a time between your runes, zoop, zoop, zoop, and boom! We're on land."

He smiled at the thought of how Khoo's body (or his own) would react to having a strong, shapely elf clinging to it for a flight through wet weather. (Well, he'd had an experience like that once and had liked it just fine. After it was over.)