Volkanenborg

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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Sareth
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Sareth »

Eveidently, sitting and drinking over priced beer was less than decent at digging up secrets of out of ancient dwarven mines and whatever powerful dwarven goodies they may have hidden down there in the depths. It was good for running up a bar tab however.

I paid up said tab, then contemplated my next move. My next move, I figured, consisted of one of three things. First, I could go find a place to unleash the beer I'd just had. Two, I could find some new source of income that may be less then thrilled at the proposed business arrangements, or three, I could find a pair of elves to get into a fight with.

Since # 1 was not a pressing concern, and # 3 seemed pretty unlikely to materialize, I decided on # 2. I waked away from the bar (having settled my tab first), and began scoping out possibilities. I needed someome that looked to be well enough off to count as worth while. My eyes began scoping as I walked along. Bum... Shoot, he'd make money off of being mugged. Three kids skipping down the street together... Their energy level said they'd already spent their money on sugar. Or drugs. Probably sugar, but you never could quiet tell. A guard walked by. Those tended to have a decent chunk of change on them, but it was a bit like eating crawdads. Too much work for too little meat.

What I needed was a tourist of three. Well, a tourist or three other than the ones I was traveling with. That could get a touch awkward.

That's when I spotted the pair of cloaked figures outside the inn. They were nice cloaks. Very nice cloaks. That made me think they had very nice things under those cloakes. I moved myself behind them, waiting for an opportunity, hoping they mightfind themselves a nice quiet place...
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Tiamat
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Tiamat »

Jonathan stood at his window, overlooking the street below. He could tell the pair were elves - He'd only been 6 when the ambassador came to the City, but your first sight of an elf was a sight you tended to remember for the rest of your life.

Occasionally, this was not a long period of time.

Then he saw Jamie sneaking up behind the pair. Only, despite what Jonathan was sure were best efforts, it was rather difficult for anyone dressed like that to sneak anywhere in broad daylight. Especially while weaving.

Winston, who was also watching the scene from the window-sill, asked "Is he about to start a drunken brawl with a pair of elves?" Jonathan watched Jamie further, and responded "I... I think he's going to try and rob them." Winston thought for a second, then said, "Wanna bet which hand they take off first?"

"Left, I think. If they bother with the hands at all, anyway. They may just kill him and be done with it. What I want to know is why one of them is staring so hard at that ridiculous poster of the park's mascot. Oh! I think he's going to make his move. Shame we can't conjure food. Some popcorn would be nice."
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Drannin
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Drannin »

Below the Mountains of Madness, a green blur moved. It was tall. It was irritatingly magnificent. It seemed to be combining skipping, singing, and a dead run into one flawless motion. It was also quite interested in locating a woman. What would happen afterward is a best left to the imagination of an erotica writer. Regardless, Selvay was closing in on a certain amusement park at a startling rate of speed.

Certain lifemages, comtemptuous of the Elven creation myth, have speculated that elves are a super-evolved form of rabbit, due to the agility, long ears, and (supposed) preference for woodland areas. Selvay provided further evidence, as regarded the libido.

Even from a distance, Selvay's eyes had picked out his target. Just within the boundaries of the amusement park stood a small building with two doors. Over one door was written the word 'MEN.' Over the other, 'WOMEN.'

How polite of them to point it out!

Racing in at top speed, an elf decked all in green lowered his head, narrowed his eyes, leapt full over the fence, and shot like a rocket into the ladies' bathroom.

Silence ensued.

"Hello? Any girls here?" Could be heard from inside the door.

"I'm lonely."

I hate false advertising.
AdamZero
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by AdamZero »

I moved quickly, I moved silently, and I moved with a practiced skill.

And yet I still tripped over Jamie's boot when I tried to intercept and prevent a very bad move on J's part. We ended up just in an alley, after I spun us about and Boris swung us behind a stack of crates.

I was against the wall, my legs a bit too far out to give good support, and Jamie was about on top of me.

"How do I get into these jams..." I grumbled. "Jamie... don't screw with those guys." I looked to see if they were persuing.

----

Paukii, smiling a bit, looked to her partner. "They're a bit to funny to be errants."

The male elf shook his head. "Remember a century back? The guy who turned fish into balloons?"

The female elf sighed and nodded. "He at least had the decency to accept his fate."

"He didn't want to hurt any children."

"Smart."

"Still..."

----

"Those are elves. Ranger Elves. Ranger Kill-you-dead elves. Ranger Kill-you-dead elves who think we might be ERRANTS. elvish-humans. Crazies to the core." I blinked once or twice. "I'm not sure if you get it, but that's a bad thing."
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Graybeard
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

"Enough entertainment," Paukii thought at Ramian. "We have a job to do."

"So we do," the other Peregin thought back. "I'd still like to check out that blue woman."

"I bet you would," Paukii sent. Could a mind smile? Or leer? Hard to say, but it could at least think sarcasm and project it. "You just do that, but I suggest keeping a bit lower profile. Some of these humans are on to us. That's a bad thing, particularly if they're sheltering an Errant."

"Mmmm ... I take your point. Okay, but I still want to be back here by sundown to get a look at this Ravanel guy. If there's an Errant in the crowd, I'm betting he's the one. Until then, I've heard that there's a bar somewhere around here with a show based on 'The Naughty Nunnery of Anilis.' That kind of thing might be an Errant magnet, so I want to find the place and check it out."

A mind couldn't express the rolling of eyes, either, so Paukii had to use the actual facial gesture as she sent, "Oh, sacrilege... All right, I'll meet you there an hour before sundown. Meanwhile, I want to try to find this 'Peaky' that you see advertised all over. I'm getting an idea that I want to look into." The two elves nodded at each other and went their separate ways into the passing crowds.

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

"So what's with the cat?" Faye asked Layla over a bowl of soup.

"I thought you would know," Layla answered. "He's the familiar of one of those characters you sent to tidy things up at the winery."

"He's what?" Faye was puzzled. She didn't know the arson crew personally, and who knows, there might be some value in having a mage involved in the firestarting, but this seemed improbable.

"Like I said, a familiar. The first two to show up were some kind of local talent, a young couple with a knack for magical destruction ... particularly the girl. I bet they trashed the place so thoroughly that the fire was going to start all by itself." This was, in fact, the case. When the arson specialists arrived, they'd found the main farmhouse, where the lower-level Gewehr people had bunked, already in flames -- but Layla didn't know that, had just made a lucky guess. "The boy helped me clear out our house, and it looks like his familiar wound up tagging along for the ride when I packed up."

"Mmmmm. Maybe. I had to do some improvising to get someone out there, just as you say, local talent. Maybe that had 'talent' that I didn't know about. So what do we do with him?" Faye wondered ... as she watched Zachary, in his playpen, following Locke with his eyes, with an even bigger smile on his face than usual ...

Layla got the message. "Locke, do you like kids?"
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Sareth
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Sareth »

"Elves." I shook my head. "You are trying to tell me I tried to snag the goods of a pair of ELVES?"

I rolled off the top of Marcus and sat back into a puddle, feeling it soak my ass and things north of there. "Well, how was I to know they were elves? Hell... How did YOU know they were elves?" Then something caught up with me. "Wait... they think one of our merry band is an errant? Who, and what do we do about it?" I shifted, trying to get less alley water trying to soak it's way up bits of me I didn't want so moistened.
AdamZero
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by AdamZero »

"I know cause well...I can't sense their 'time', I think it is. Everyone else, everyTHING else, has a time to die. Even if nothing gets in its way, even if it finds some fountain of youth. It'll die. It'll just up and die or fate will dish out the final blow. Except elves."

"Elves don't have a 'time. They just fade, fade or drop dead."

I blinked a few times. "Worst part about Necromancy lessons. They pop back up in your head only AFTER you've figured them out on your own." I sighed and cracked my shoulders. "Odds are they'll gun or... bow... for... shit they can probably hear us."

used what Grey I had to deaden the air at the front of the alley, making it seem bleek, and frozen. Any light would be the image of what was there when I cast. There would be no sound.

"Lucas, his field is madness incarnate... but...wait..." I looked at Jamie. "What if he IS..." I stopped the thought. "Whatever, he's our guide and these places turn bad to worse right quick without guides. GOOD guides. ...Good hearted guides." I trailed off.

"So..." I tilted my eyes down, as the spell faded and time returned to the wall of air. I was feeling a might peckish. "Wanna get something to eat?"
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Sareth
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Sareth »

"Well, you do owe me a steak..." I commented, eying the two would-have-been victims. "They split up. Want to follow one, see where it ends up and if there's any good food there? Or call it a lost cause. I mean, you seem to think Lucas is being followed by these things, though I fail to understand why."
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Viking-Sensei »

The entire line of flying talking cats that Locke came from was known to be plauged with multiple problems. Severe personality disorders, odd mood swings, unstable magical structures, and generally being considered unpleasant and unlikeable by a majority of those around them. Locke's brother-cousin cat, Ellis, was a perfect example of the sort of problems they had... especially once they started talking... but unlike Ellis, most of the familiars were not lucky enough to fall into a the lap of a cranky, occasionally psychotic loner mage girl looking for a witty sidekick.

Locke was fortunate in that he did not inherit most of the common flaws found in his otherwise notorious lineage. Other than occasional bouts of normal-for-a-regular-cat nap addiction and a vague and haunting sense of overwhelming paranoia, he had actually come out fairly well balanced and good natured. Still, facing a lifetime of living in the shadow of his foul-dispositioned fellow felines, Locke had learned the fine art of keeping his mouth shut.

So, when he heard the ladies discussing Rokku and Kureji's 'Investigation' of the farmhouse and discussing their collected merrits as destroyers of evidence, he neglected to inform them of the true facts in the case, no matter how humerous the story might have been if taken in the correct light.

He also chose not to mention to them that he didn't actually have a great deal of experience with children, but figured that a nigh-indestructable flying familiar's chances with a small and excitable child were significantly better than they were against two armed-to-the-teeth ladies of impending doom.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Graybeard
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

"I was about to ask the same question. I was just thinking that your borrowed cat might fit in well at the town day-care center," Faye said. "Zachary seems to get a kick out of him, anyway."

"Mom, Zachary gets a kick out of everything," Layla demurred. "After thinking about it for a minute, I don't think that would work well. Better we keep him here with us until we can get him and Rocky back together."

"A Wraith with a familiar?" Faye was amused. "I suppose it could be done. But don't you think he'd be happier palling around with fifteen or twenty excited three-year-olds who think he's fascinating and want to play with him?" She broke off, noting the expression on Locke's face...

... Wow. Before meeting Locke, she didn't even know that cats had "faces" that could be curled up into expressions of sheer horror.

"Or not."

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

Paukii slipped into the sporting-goods store and found someone who looked like he worked there. "Sir?"

"GAAA!" the man said; having a 6'3" woman sneak up on him soundlessly, particularly one who was quite obviously carrying a sword, didn't happen every day. It only took a moment for him to recover his composure, though. "My apologies. How may I help you?"

"Maybe you could give me a bit of information. My son really wants to meet 'Peaky' but we have to go back home before his next appearance here. Do you know of any way to arrange a visit from him? We'd pay well for the inconvenience." She fingered a coin purse, keeping the flap open so that the clerk could see something glinting inside.

"Hmmmm," the man said. "I see your point ... Let me see what I can find out."

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

Meanwhile, Ramian began a round of quiet bar-hopping. It didn't take him long to locate the one he'd heard about with the sort-of-blasphemous Anilis theme, not that he minded a little bit of blasphemy; Anilis hadn't been around for a long time, after all. The place bore the appalling name "Rocky Rinkai's" after the equally appalling clown figure in the nunnery novel, but that didn't seem to hurt its popularity; already this early in the day, it was doing plenty of business. (None of the clientele looked like potential Errants, though.) Hmph ... humans have no taste, he thought as he moved on to check out the next one, "High Society," with a sign above the door featuring a deranged-looking cartoon prospector smiling atop an improbably pointed mountain peak, and an even more improbably pointed female elf draped all over him. No taste at all...
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