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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Graybeard
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

"Well, if it ain't the Golden Girl herself," Clem said, scorn dripping from his voice. "Jest what brings such a -- favored -- person up to this poor ole hidey-hole?"

Layla was prepared for this; she'd had to face a great deal of jealousy in the Gewehr, and there'd be more yet to come. She still didn't like it, but kept her temper under control -- almost. "Clem, I have a message straight from Peter. It's simple enough that even a dolt like you should be able to get it. Tell you what: I'll only use one word that's got more than one syllable, if that'll help." That probably wasn't the smartest thing to say, but hey... "He says, You are not to hit that stage today, no way, no how. Clear?"

Guffaws from the three men. "And if we do?" the one to the left of the pass said, as scornfully as Clem.

"Then Peter says the Gewehr will hit you. Permanently." Could that be any clearer?

"We'll remember that, missy," Clem sneered. "Now you jest run along to your li'l bastard and leave us alone."

Clem came very close to dying in that moment; Layla felt a twitch in her right arm as it prepared to move, as though autonomously, to the revolvers. However, she couldn't rule out the possibility that one of the other men might be ready to fire -- and no way was she going to leave Zachary an orphan. She settled for a less ... final ... response. "I'll remember that, you asshole. And you remember what I told you, because Peter says this is your only warning."

"Peter says ... Peter says ..." The three men started to laugh mockingly as Layla backed down the road and into cover.

Well, they've been warned, Layla thought. My conscience is clear.
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AdamZero
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by AdamZero »

"Jamie?!" I nearly dropped my guitar. Damnit all! I scowled at Boris and he just laughed that cold as Hel laugh he had. I needed to get him away from Lucas so I could rebind the damn thing. It was going to get really bad really quick if he got any looser.

Don't worry, Boss, you're way too fun for me to kill. Came an echo in my head.

"Aw fuck..." I muttered as I started toward Jamie, handing by guitar back to the thrice damned construct. He 'ate' it, sending it back into the pocket space dimension rooted in his skull.

"The sooner we get the the mountains, the sooner the weird picks up the pace again, right?" I asked Jamie with a smile.
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Sareth
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Sareth »

"Probably," I answered as I watched that odd skeleton thing eat a guitar that should have been entirely too large for it to do so. "I figure if we catch the stage today, we can get to Volkanensburg pretty quick, spend the afternoon kicking around town, get a few supplies, then head to the mountains in the morning. It's that or spend an additional day here, and as scenic as this place is," I patted a tomb stone with one hand as I leaned against it, "there's not a whole lot here aside from this place, the inn, a few houses, and that Ag center Lucas wandered off to with Tovio. Now, as much as I like watching Ayiee sun herself out front of the inn, she doesn't actually do much, and she's about the best entertainment this place has on tap."

Besides, I thought to myself, I just have this feeling that the trip is going to be more fun that it should be... Dunno why, but last time I felt like that was just before I got that job to scare that priest in Saus. Never have I had a more fun time that I actually got paid for. I'm inclined to listen...
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

The catcalls still ringing in her ears, Layla returned to her bike. However, she didn't mount it and ride home, as Clem and his cronies had expected her to. Not at all. Looks like I'm going to have to go with plan B, she thought.

Unlike many Wraiths, Layla derived no particular pleasure from killing for its own sake. She was pretty sure that when she found Arty's killer, she'd have no trouble bringing herself to roast him over a low fire if possible, but that was different: she had a reason for inflicting a slow, painful death on that person, as good a reason as a bereaved widow could ever possibly have. On a job, however, murder was just business, just something that had to be done, as uprooting a fungus-blighted grape vine might be. In an appropriately business-like frame of mind, she set about preparing for the next death that she might have to inflict.

It had been a few years since she'd done any free climbing, but she was still very good at it. She scanned the bumpy crest of the ridge for an outcropping that would shelter her from the view of the three men, yet allow her a clear view of the pass and the route up to it, and ideally, of where the men themselves were hiding. There, that pinnacle up-ridge from the pass should do the trick. Without a sound, she slipped off the road and into the forest, and started first to hike, then to climb.
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Lucas was slowly walking back from the farmer's market... alone. Well, almost alone. He had Domo with him.

Less than three hours before, he and Toivo had been talking happily about the adventures he'd had in other lands. The far away cities, the exotic princesses, and of course, the plants. Toivo had been unhealthily fascinated with the stories about the man-eating pitcher plants of the Anuban Colonies - large man-sized plants in the vague shape of women... as the wind blew through their leaves, they produced an enchanting song (whether or not it actually enchanted or not was highly suspect) and something about the incredibly sticky sap they produced triggered most men's natural hormonal response like a dog in heat attracting all the strays in the neighborhood.

"Then, it was just a matter of time before the men they summoned with their 1-2 punch of singing and pheromones were... um... well... let's just say 'entangled' to their ultimate eventual doom." Lucas said, making a couple of borderline-obscene thrusting gestures. "Not that most of them mind. I stumbled across a guy who was... er... ensnared... by one of these things, and literally got in a fight with him trying to set him free."

Toivo was vigorously jotting down notes. "And did you see any reproductive mechanisms?"

Lucas borderline blushed. "Er... well, I didn't get that close of a look at the guy... oh, you mean the plants, don't you?"

"I'm just curious about how they germinate."

"Uh huh." Lucas said with a deadpan. "Well, we're headed there eventually... maybe you'll get to see first-handed. We'll just make sure there's a rope tied around you first, lest you get carried away by the experience."

Toivo dropped a couple steps back, thinking, then caught up again. "Actually, Lucas, I needed to talk to you about that. See, I did some research last night before I slept, talked to a couple of the local farmers that came through on the late stage... and I don't think I'm coming with you the rest of the way. It turns out that the locals have picked up a particularly rare and vital form of a once-confined-to-tsuiraku parasite... the Laird Naughtius Molestarius, a nasty little tentacled mite that eats the cores out of trees. If they go undetected, they can grow up to several stories tall, however there's only been one or two reported incidents of that ever happening."

Toivo went over to a tree, knocked on it's trunk two or three times before finding a hollow spot, and then blasted that spot with a low-level force bolt. The bark caved in, and a small pink pulsating... thing fell out, screeled a few times, and died. Toivo held his hands up to the wounded tree, and the giant cavity slowly started to fill back in, healthy new wood taking over the damaged spots caused by the parasite.

"Ick." Lucas said, looking at the writhing mass on the ground. "That's sort of... creepy. And I knew someone who had a micro-tentacle monster."

"Detection isn't an issue, but healing the damaged trees afterwards is. The entire southern side of the Mountains of Madness is losing soil at an incredible rate due to the erosion from losing so many trees so fast. I can teach the magically enabled here how to perform geomancy and to heal the trees so that this doesn't spread any further than it has to. But... I have to stay."

Lucas sighed. "This happens every now and then. Don't feel bad. People fall in love, people find their callings, people get eaten by plants... it happens. I sort of figured you and Johnathan would both either bail or demand we ditch the gunslingers back in Lorrel... I'm a little surprised you made it this far. Hang on, let me get you the remainder of your money back..."

"No, keep it." Toivo said reaching into his pocket. "You're still going on the world tour... you're just taking HIM along with you." At this point, he pulled out Domo, the Rock.

Domo looked at Lucas. Lucas looked back at Domo.

"I'm taking... your rock."

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So... back in the now, Lucas and Domo were walking along the stage path back towards the inn - and the stage was thundering the other way, finally having arrived and then departed again.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

Layla was enjoying herself as she climbed, almost to the point of forgetting what she was climbing the pinnacle to do.

She'd been climbing since she was a small child, was an expert free climber, and knew it. This wasn't much of an ascent compared to some of the crazy stuff she'd done as a teenager, but then again, she was a mother now, and she'd never again take some of the chances she'd taken back then; it wouldn't be fair to her son. It was enough to get her blood pumping, however, and she savored the experience as she ascended. The feel of the rock under her fingers and toes (she'd removed her shoes for better purchase) was simultaneously comforting and invigorating; a chimney move here, a layback there... No workout in the house in Kiyoka could possibly compare to this.

It still wasn't nearly as enjoyable as a morning spent playing with Zachary.

She reached the top and paused to take a quiet deep breath or two. The tactical layout was even better than she'd dared to hope for. The very top of the rock was a knife blade too narrow to support a human's weight, let alone to balance atop, but about three feet below it, on the side away from the pass, was a wide shelf that looked tailor-made for sitting on. The effect was that the knifeblade amounted to a shield, behind which she could lurk unseen by the men below, until it was time for her to do what she had to do. The view was perfect, too; when she peeked around the shield, she could clearly see Clem in his "hiding place" on the opposite side of the pass (how had such a klutz lasted so long in the Gewehr?), and the other man on his side was also visible as plain as day. There was no way a marksman of her ability could miss, if push came to shove. The third man was at the bottom of the pinnacle itself, maybe 150 feet below her; hitting him would be a tougher shot, but surprise would be on her side, and he'd have no idea where the bullets were coming from.

Best of all, the lofty perch commanded a fine view of the valley, so that she could see the stage coming. And there it was, raising a cloud of dust on the distant horizon, still several miles away. She calculated that it'd arrive at the pass in half an hour, maybe a bit less if the horses were fresh, which gave her plenty of time to prepare. She checked her guns, took an experimental sighting on Clem, pronounced it good, and settled in to do what an assassin spends most of his or her time doing: wait.
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Lucas watched the stage trundle along in the distance... looks like he'd missed all the fun in Volkanenborg proper whilest on his side quest, as it looked like the stage had already gone to Volkanenborg and was on it's evening return trip back to the inn, then probably on to Port Lorrel the next day. He cursed the old man and his "an hour's walk" directions to the farmer's market under his breath... try two to three hours... each way... The side rode he was coming up put him on a parallel track to the coach, so he could see it coming... and a little quick mental calculation said that if he hurried, he might be able to catch up to them before the crossroads, so he didn't have to walk the rest of the way back.
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Sareth »

The stage jounced under my derriere in a fashion that was less painful than I would have expected. Certainly the padded seats were a part of that, but it was far from sufficient to explain it. I'd asked the coach driver about it on the trip in to Volkanenborg that morning, and he'd said something about some dwarven innovation they'd found in a ruin. Called it a "shock absorber." I had no idea what he was getting on about. Senile old coot. He had to have been at least thirty.

Volkanenborg had been amusing. After my little chat with Marcus, who had elected to stay in the cemetery for the day, I had elected to catch the stage and check out Volkanenborg. After all, the little nameless collection of hovels surrounding the inn had, at its claim to fame, the possession of an ag center and a tombstone that read "I bet you don't think she was worth it now!" Booooooooring. Volkanenborg, on the other hand, had been rather a good time.

Oh, I had been doing something practical. I had been checking around the area, trying to find out if there were any Gewehr, Ensigerium, or Eisenfaust in the area, and pick up any rumors about dwarven mines. In so doing, I had discovered something, a vital and important piece of information. I sucked at collecting information. But the lunch meal had made the trip rather worth it. I'd managed to find a theme restaurant based around the popular novel "The Naughty Nunnery of Annilis." I have no idea what I'd eaten, but the floor show had been more than worth the price of admission.

A casual glance out the window confirmed that, much like I expected, I was getting close. The rock formation that I'd seen on the way out was coming into view, indicating I should be back to the inn within a half an hour. That'd be nice. I was getting a touch hungry again, and a nice bed for the night would be good...
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by AdamZero »

I always preferred to get places by foot, and traveling the grey paths never failed to provide me with a swift road to places I'd be getting normally. Its hard to really explain, but grey roads are like little wrinkles that ghosts use to get around places where natural forces would suck them into the after-worlds. Old tomes said that the elven necromancers kept an active record of the grey paths, but since the death-god of elven religion didn't get much hype, apparently, they fell into obscurity.

History repeats itself; as per the rules.

I walked out of rock face, obscured on the Volkanenborg side by a jutting rock, and looked around. I saw a stage coach coming my way and started walking in pace, my hood down and my face grinning. I wonder if Jamie'd be surprised to see me. I figure I had enough tricks to keep the odd cutie boggled for a bit, though my bones felt a little stiff...

I slammed my foot down in a tight looking spot of land, sending some of the grey I had in my body down into it. Years later the ground would decay and reveal its more fruitful potential, if progress allowed it.

That's when I heard a shot.
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Re: Volkanenborg

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: I'm feeling a need here to pause for a minute and figure out where people are, because this starting to get kinda pear-shaped. I'm completely confused about the whereabouts of some of the characters. Can we each say where we think we are?

The geographic lay of the land as I understand it is as follows: There is a road coming up from Lorrel toward Volkanenborg, which runs over a pass somewhere not too far from Volkanenborg. There is a small village somewhere south (i.e., on the Lorrel side) of the pass, where Jamie, Lucas, etc., spent the night. Meanwhile, a different road runs through the sinister town of Kugelheim, also somewhere south of the pass but not on the same road from Lorrel. The two roads nominally join somewhere south of the pass. Volkanenborg is north of the pass, on the way to the Mountain of Madness amusement park; the "real" Mountains of Madness are somewhere to the east, and it's a ridge coming off of them that has this pass on it. We really need a map ...

Layla, at this freeze-frame moment, is at the pass itself, watching the three hoods. She came up by way of the road from Kugelheim. She has not been to Volkanenborg, and has not passed through the small town with the inn (and ag center). Grope is somewhere to the east of all this, ascending the foothills leading into the Mountains of Madness; whether he has already bypassed the amusement park has yet to be determined, but almost doesn't matter, the point being that he's not anywhere close to where the current action is about to break out. He has never been into or close to the small town with the inn (it really needs a name -- "Mittelberg"?) or Kugelheim.

As for the NPCs, Clem and the other two yahoos are on the pass, waiting to pounce on a stage coming up on the road. Note that the narrative has left it ambiguous as to which direction the stage is coming from. We can treat the stage's location as negotiable once we figure out where all the players are, who all is on it, and so on. "Faye," of (current) interest only to Layla, is at Kugelheim and completely out of the play, except for providing background information.
Can we get all the actors positioned and then start the play again? Thanks.
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