Volkanenborg

[Viking-Sensei]

Lucas didn't like to be out of control in situations, especially ones where he was being paid very well to be in control. Volkanenborg was off of his regular route for a multitude of reasons... one is that it was the home-away-from-home of one Saiko Mesuinu, the mother of his former classmate and, for all intent and purpose, his arch-enemy Kureji. He'd known good people who'd chosen to go into seclusion as extremeist Veracian monks rather than dwell within the company or the house of Mesuinu... and he'd taken them there personally. The further one could stay away from that entire family, the better.

The other was the absolute un-nature-y-ness of the place. Further into the mountains, to the east, the landscape and the absolute nature of the place was awe-inspiring. He'd tried cutting across the middle of Farrel once, on the narrow shelf between the Mountains of Madness and the giant crack-like waterway that seperated upper and lower Farrel, in an attempt to avoid the seaborne dangers that occupied the nothern rim of the continent or the constant attacks by bandits and underisables that the more common southern route across country was known for. Instead, he'd nearly frozen to death, got attacked by some sort of giant cross between a bear and a deer, and still didn't make any better time... but, to the eastward pass's credit, at least those would all have been natural horrible deaths.

So... not being a fan of Volkanenborg meant not being up on Volkanenborg, meant having to sneak off and do a little digging. From one of the many shops that leeched their livelyhood off the forsaken-by-even-Luminosita-amusement-park, he managed to obtain a few of the park maps, a book on local history (for some light reading tonight, so he could spout know-it-all facts tomorrow about the town), and a new pair of boots specifically designed for mountains and other rough terrain.

"Magic-sword-inna-rock" Lucas mumbled, flipping through the book as he walked back. "Only chosen one can pull it out. Heh, Jamie will love that one, give... er... Jamie plenty of time to make snide comments about phallic symbols. Geology museum... I'll take Toivo's rock and Ayiee to go see their ancestors... oh, god, they've got one of those Build-A-Familiar stores here, I'll have to warn Johnathan... "

The side effect of reading while walking, especially in a crowded city such as this, was that you couldn't really see where you were going until you were already on it. Ramian, for reasons entirely his own but possibly involving years of boredom while wandering the human world in search of Errants, saw the incoming distracted mark, and gently but firmly shoved Paukii (who was watching for signs of Errantdom in the other direction) into his way, causing the two of them to sort of tumble sideways into a pile on the floor. Not realizing exactly what had just happened and suspecting it was his fault for having his nose in a book, Lucas swung his body around with deft skill, taking the full force of the impact with the ground to prevent the person we'd collided with from being injured.

"Oh, sorry... miss..." he said, winded. "I was... this book here... didn't see you. You alright?"

[Graybeard]

"Oh, sorry... miss..." he said, winded. "I was... this book here... didn't see you. You alright?"

Paukii extracted herself from the tangle of arms and legs, doing her best to keep her hood pulled over her pointed ears and her sword out of sight. "I'm sorry, that was my fault," she said, as Ramian came over to check on her, maintaining a discreet distance from the smelly human. (Human?)

Apologies exchanged, the participants in the collision went on their respective ways, the elves back to their niches near the sporting-goods store and Lucas to wherever he was going. The rangers, however, were telepathically sharing a thought.

Hmmmm ... he's tall, awkward, seems inarticulate, maybe a bit gauche. No pointed ears, true, and not as skinny as most Errants we've dealt with, but still.

The others we've seen here don't really have that Errant look about them, but this one ... maybe we should keep an eye on.

[AdamZero]

I was back to my post in an alley behind a crate. I'd watched Lucas barely avoid a fight with the elves. Shit. If they figured out he had a weird magick field they might think he's an errant... than again... he might be... whatever. Not important. Lucas was Lucas before anything else. The crazy elves didn't care. I glared and thumbed a knot in my staff.

"What should we do?" Boris whispered.

"A fight in a city would have to be kept on the down low... minimal if any magick use. They won't do anything flashy, hopefully." I muttered.

"So we're gonna jump... a pair of elven rangers.... a pair of elven errant genociders... a pair of ancient semi-immortal warriors.... in the middle of broad daylight, in the middle of the mother of all tourist traps?" Boris queried.

I took a moment to consider it, then realized how bad an idea it was, really.

"Yeah, balls to that." I said, turning around and working my way through the alleys till I'd meet up with Lucas. He needed to know there was elves afoot.

[Graybeard]

"What's this about a Green Elf?" Chippy asked Grope.

"One of the many things about the Small Ones that I do not understand," Grope replied, as a memory came rushing back...

Zhbrigeeul had noticed him first.

They'd just finished with one of the most pleasurable activities that a mated pair of trolls can engage in: hunting together. This hunt had been particularly rewarding, because it pitted them against one of the few natural (that is, non-magical) beings powerful enough to challenge two trolls: a male cave bear, fresh out of hibernation and looking for trouble, and not quite realizing yet that the troll he was stalking (Zhbrigeeul) was more trouble than he could handle. She called to her mate as she saw it charge, and the battle was on. The beast had fought long, hard and well, but in the end, unsuccessfully; Grope had accorded it the honor of dispatching it with his bare hands, a clawed swipe across the neck to let out its lifeblood before its other wounds proved fatal. They performed the Wisdom Ceremony with all the reverence they could muster before starting to eat. As they ate, Zhbrigeeul worked her incomprehensible (at least at the time) healing magic on a deep cut that Grope had sustained. The resulting scar was just right, the kind of thing that he would remember for the rest of his life as a token of an honorable fight, and his tribe would honor him for carrying ... at least that was the plan before Selvay came along.

Afterward, Grope and Zhbrigeeul were both mystified as to how the elf with the extraordinary green eyes and hair had gotten so close to them, the more so as he appeared to be singing. Perhaps it was the wind; elves didn't have much odor anyway (at least compared to the human Small Ones, with all their body hair and the strange emollients they put on it), and approaching from downwind as he was, the breeze would carry his scent away while the rustle of the aspens, mixed in with the pines, disguised the sound of his approach. Whatever the reason, Zhbrigeeul had just time to notice him, and point him out to her mate, before he was on them like a wraith. They'd never seen an elf before, but there was enough tribal memory in Grope's Many-Fathers-God-Wisdom-Robe that this strange apparition was profoundly frightening; his hand flew to his sword ...

... But then the Green Elf, in his sing-song voice, said in the troll language, "Ah! I can help with that." And without the slightest fear, or the slightest sign of hostility, he murmured something under his breath and cast a healing spell of his own -- and Grope's recently-acquired scar vanished like dew before the sun.

Trolls prize their scars, and even though Grope wasn't unhappy to be rid of the deep-seated muscle ache that had accompanied its creation, the price was too high. The two trolls looked at Selvay first with astonishment, then with horror, as he smiled, a particularly innocent and child-like smile, and said, "There you go! No need to pay me, always glad to help..." And Grope did something he'd never done before: he simply dropped his sword in wonderment, as the strange Small One (actually, he wasn't that much smaller than Zhbrigeeul) danced away, like a leaf on the wind.

[Drannin]

(OOC: Initiating Selvay mode)

It was quite a coincidence that Grope was reminiscing about a certain green elf. Because at that point a certain green elf was reminiscing about a nice troll he had helped out some time ago.

Well, technically. As a matter of fact, said elf's thought patterns were: Boobiesboobiesilike
boobs Hey I remember that time I helped that nice troll boobiesboobies...I missboobies. Nonetheless, the memory of Grope was in there, somewhere, beneath the thoughts of a very different type of grope.

The elf was a little sad, in so far as he was skipping a little less merrily through the forest and waving a little less merrily to the bewildered woodsman who watched the bizarre apparition skip by, clearing about eight feet per hop. As it happened, the woodsman was a lonely sort who would have appreciated the company (on many levels) but that's another story.

You see, it had been precisely two and one-half-hours since Selvay had seen a mammary gland attached to a female humanoid. This was a travesty in his eyes, and nearly grounds for government intervention. But since he couldn't remember who was in control of this area (presumably non-female, and therefore of no interest anyway) he had decided to take matters into his own hands, until he could put something else into his immatulately cared for, highly dextrous hands.

It was at this moment that dazzling green eyes set upon a mountain peak in the near distance, no doubt brightening its day due to the mere fact of elfen regard. The mountain was of little interest, in itself. But carried on the wind, detected by his acute and gorgeous elven nose, was the unmistakable scent of...

"GIRLS!!! WOOHOO!!!"

The words were left behind as a tall, green clad and, yes, absolutely dazzling figure tore towards the Mountains of Madness at top elfy speed. Few things were as fast as a horny elf in search of tail.

[Graybeard]

"A complication has arisen," the man told Elke and Mr. Stagpoole. "Can't go into details, but there is a question that must be resolved before anything moves forward. Would it be possible for you two to go back to Volkanenborg for a bit of surveillance? Consider it mainly a temporizing measure, but we need to sort out just who is who."

Elke and Mr. Stagpoole looked at each other, remembered the night before, shrugged...

---------------

"Weird," Chippy said as Grope finished the tale of the Green Elf. "The few elves that I've seen through here have been just this shadowy presence, passing through as they hunt half elves. Do you know what that's all about?"

"The elves call them Errants," Grope said. "And yes, I have some idea of why the elves are down on them." He started to tell the story of his near-death at the hands of an Errant and rescue by Lucas, but about half way in, stopped and said, "Hm -- that is odd..."

The scar from his Blood-Binding with Lucas was itching -- not badly, not even as obviously as it had been while Lucas was dealing with the lepivores, but still definitely above background.

---------------

"You know, the hardest part of this job is the not knowing," Paukii observed telepathically to Ramian as they lounged against the front of the sporting-good store. "We're not supposed to move against an Errant until we're sure that that's what he is. But are we ever sure?"

"Sometimes, yes," Ramian replied. There certainly hadn't been any doubt about the one in Port Lorrel a couple of years back who'd not only been deaf and speechless (and long-eared), but had had the ability to start fires with a touch. But he knew what his companion was talking about.

His attention strayed back to Ayiee sunning herself. "You're giving me an idea, though," he told Paukii. "Let me try to force things a bit. Stay here and cover me." He quietly got up and started ambling slowly toward the golem.

[AdamZero]

And I was lost, well, I'd gotten turned around a bit. I'd tried to follow Lucas, but I'd been side tracked helping a very old lady avoid certain death, by having a pleasant conversation while the son she'd given up for adoption decades ago walked past, and she recognized him by his rather patch of dark skin just under his left ear. He didn't know this, hell I didn't know this really, but that's just how things were. See she mentioned her son during the conversation, it was a long one, and hte birth mark.

That's how I put two and two together. As for why I stopped to chat her up? I sensed a premature death, and I moved to intervene, by chatting, since that's the best way to start with these things.

Well a few minutes of trying to regain my bearings I was standing in front of the inn, where Lucas's blue golem was still naked and happy with her spot in the sun.

Then the elf startered to approach, male, maybe I didn't care. Not because of my particular romantic agenda, but because errant-hunters were about as dangerous regardless of gender, from what I'd gathered.

"I'm totally human, I swear to um... whoever." Was what I said as soon as he got into earshot. Smart move, DENY THE 'CRIME' BEFORE YOU'RE ACCUSED.
-----

Ramian stopped in his tracks, just at the edge of the sidewalk. He blinked once at they boy's statement. He was young, even by human standards, not even a teenager by the elves, good to nip them young if he was an errant. And he pretty much declared himself NOT an errant.

"Oh, really?" He asked, not buying it. This might be done quicker than he thought. "So you just carry around a skeleton because you fancy it?"

----

I laughed. "First off, he, Boris is male, as his pelvis will declare."

"It's true." Boris said from his spot hanging from my back.

"Second, I'm a necromancer. So yeah, skeletons, death magick, all that good stuff, or... bleak stuff." I amended.

[Graybeard]

Ramian was about to approach the golem -- "proposition" wouldn't have been far from the truth -- when the odd little man got to him first. "Second, I'm a necromancer. So yeah, skeletons, death magick, all that good stuff, or... bleak stuff."

Well, that might explain a few things, although he'd never run into a deathmage before who actually advertised the fact. At face value, it certainly established this guy as human. He paused to ask himself, is there anything in my orders that requires me to deal with a human who acts like an Errant? and decided there wasn't.

So time for a different approach. "Tell me about the leader of your expedition," he commanded. "How long have you known him? What do you know of his background?" In the background, Paukii was stirring as Ramian sent the telepathic message, Crisis point looming here. Be ready in case I need you.

[AdamZero]

DON'T MENTIONED THE MAGIC VORTEX.
"Nice guy, level head, he's done his best to keep the tour group in line, keep us out of the more world-ending trouble, since we manage to find other kinds of trouble despite his efforts. That's what our group is, just a bunch of sill folks trying to get to other parts of the world, and looking for a group to tag along with, and a guide to make sure we get there. That's what our boss is doing, he's got maps and stuff, a very organized chap if I do say so, bit sad sometimes. I think the amount of chaos me and Jamie, that's the lovely gun-slinger you may have seen eariler, bit of a prankster, I think, joker too. well I think Jamie and I have been getting into a bit too much trouble for Lucas, so he's been taking rests more often. I'm surprsed he hasn't yelled our ears off yet. Though there was that incident with that one ghost back in Port Lorel, though he didn't see that, no there was just a lot of not-innkeepers and a lot of not-cops dying. Damn not's. See there were some people suspicious of us in town, like we were something bad or something. BAH! I'm just a guy, trying to make a living, and keep the dead rightly dead. I don't have time for ruckus. My life IS ruckus. You know how hard it is to get from the Northern Confed to a place like this carrying a skeleton on your back? Well... I got through Tsuiraku saying I was a wandering anatomy mage, but they be crazy up on that damn pizza."

I finished up that wall of speech and Boris's head was spinning. If the elf got anything from that, he's crazier than me, and quite possibly an errant himself.

[Graybeard]

"Ahhh ... thank you," the elf said, more or less politely, as his head spun. He ambled back to where Paukii was standing, and another telepathic conference started.

"Well?"

"I didn't detect any signs of evasion. Whatever he told you, it looked like he basically meant it. Doesn't necessarily mean it's correct, of course."

"Of course not." Ramian looked around warily before continuing. "I got the distinct impression that he knows exactly what we are. That's not so good. We may need to discontinue here and conduct our surveillance with more of a low profile."

"That'll be difficult," Paukii said. "We can't help being what we are. I could go for a sex-changing illusion, like Sarna uses over in Veracia, but I don't think that's a good idea. There are too many magically adept people around here."

"I agree, but how else to keep looking? I'm still not convinced these people are in the clear, and besides, there's definitely been an Errant around here somewhere ... Hmmm." He stopped sending for a moment and looked at the store window, where a poster for Mountain of Madness was prominently displayed, featuring "Peaky."

"That poster is giving me an idea..."