Mountain(s) of Madness

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: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Sareth »

I blinked down the barrel at the troll. Twice. "Um..." The troll simply looked back, and after a moment I realized that his greeting had implied he wasn't planning to eat me. At least, not without a pleasant pre-meal conversation first. That being the case, staring down a rifle at him was probably considered bad form.

Nervously, I lowered the firearm and stepped forward just enough to clear the bushes. "I, ah... Well... I never said thanks... You know... for back there..."

Yeah, way to go Jamie. Demonstrate those superior human communication skills!
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Graybeard »

"You are welcome," Grope nodded. "And I thank you as well. I owe the man Lucas much. I must help him. Others who help him are my friends, as though they are my tribe."

Truthfully, even though the rifle probably wouldn't have done him much harm, it was good that this odd Small One put it down. There was always the chance of a lucky shot, and besides, although the Small One had no way of knowing it, she'd been aiming right at the pocket on the Robe that contained Chippy ... and he wasn't nearly as resistant to gunfire as a troll, Grope was pretty sure.

"I must go. Give Lucas my greetings." And he slipped back into the brush, but not before Jamie got a good look at Chippy emerging from the Robe to sit on his shoulder.
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by AdamZero »

I sat on a tree branch several feet above the troll, but out of sight of Jamie. I'd picked up the feeling of a long life span near by, while searching for animals to catch for breakfast. I was curious about him, and his connection with Lucas. Well... I was curious about a lot of things.

I watched as the Troll with the Coat of Ancestors and Jamie parted ways, wondering who I should follow. The Troll was a very interesting subject. I needed to learn his name soon, it was disrespectful to refer to him as just 'the troll' all the time.

I followed him through the the trees, not making myself readily visible, but not going out of the way to hide myself just yet. I jumped to the lower branches, then the ground, once the trees starting to get a bit too thin to support me without damage to their branches.

I landed on the ground with a soft tap, the trees halting in the wake of a large slab of granite and bedrock, worn away but clearly unearth in a sudden shift of the planet years ago. Nice place to have a picnic.

"Hello there." I waved to the Troll, and the ... squirrel? I sense he'd been altered, probably part of the park's security. It'd be hilarious if the troll was part of their team, hilarious and disastrous...
"Now he's gone too far. NOONE ATTACKS AMERICA'S FOOD COURTS!" -Deadpool.
"Don't be so naive. I've got ulterior motives. MANY. Two, maybe three. Probably Four. I am one BIG ulterior motive." The Great Teacher, Onizuka Eikichi.
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Graybeard »

"Hello there."

The voice was what saved him.

Grope had been aware for a while that he was being followed, and he wasn't sure by what. He was sure, however, that the Many-Fathers-God-Wisdom-Robe was still making his flesh crawl, even as he angled away from the hostile compound. Was the clumsy Small One in the trees from that camp? Or from the strange magical mountain? Had it come out of the mines where the Small Ones' tribes had fought? He didn't know, but it had been following him for too long ...

Grope remembered the magical dagger that he'd stuck in the Robe several days before, back at the house outside the city the Small Ones called Kiyoka. He had a distinct feeling that if he threw it, it would strike its target, somehow. Troll strength would do the rest.

He was just reaching into the Robe when Marcus spoke. I know that voice, he suddenly realized. One of Lucas' ... friends ... at the mines, the one who'd been held captive and whom Lucas had gone to rescue. He'd seen them talking before he took his leave and headed into the mountains. But what was the Small One doing here?

Palming the dagger, he turned to look at Marcus. "Friend of Lucas," he said, "greetings. Next time, be wiser in the ways of the forest. But a friend of Lucas is a friend of mine. Now why do you follow me?"
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Sareth »

"A few days ago, that would have seemed weird," I muttered to myself. Then I shook my head, clearing the image of a troll wandering away with a squirrel riding his shoulder like some sort of distorted parrot. After all, when you had dealt with blue, soft skinned anatomically correct girlygollems (who puts nipples on a gollum anyway?), necromancers who died then came back and shucked their skin, perverse bullet proof elves, death fields, modified skunks of weapon grade stench, Mesuines, magical chemical tracers in your blood, and girls that can pop into and out of reality at the most awkward of moments, a troll with a pet squirrel becomes pretty tame.

I turned around and began heading back to the camp, deciding that breakfast was probably a wash. Fortunately, Luminosita or whoever apparently decided to be nice to me, and shortly before arriving I managed to surprise a particularly large and fat rabbit that zigged when it should have zagged. I wandered into the camp with the bunny swinging at my side to find Lucas stoking the fire and Ayiee sunning herself.

"Have you ever noticed her aureole are a darker shade of blue than the rest of her?" I blurted out. Lucas simply gave me a long suffering look. Sighing, I sat down next to the fire and began skinning the rabbit. "My life used to be normal..."
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Viking-Sensei »

"I think it's part of her recharge mechanism." Lucas said with a sigh. "She's got these tiny blue crystals all over imbedded in her "skin"... I think she can absorb sunlight through them. That's why she keeps taking her clothes off whenever she has a chance... she's powering up. Plus, I think she likes the effect it has on others."

In the distance, Ayiee snickered, barely audibly.

"I've tried studying her from the technical side, but she's out of my field. It was only luck that I got as much of her assembled and working correctly as I did. Found her in a pile of badly damaged whatever-she-is-ises... she was the least damaged one. Spent a couple days looking for parts that fit.... but once she had a head, an arm, and most of a torso, she did the rest of the assembly on her own. Now *that* was creepy. There was a golem expert who named Gears in Kiyoka who was supposed to take a look at her, but he never showed up for his appointment, and I had to leave town before I had a chance to track him down... "
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Sareth »

The chuckle that came from Ayiee at Lucas' comment was a surprise. The more I interacted with her, the less I had figured out. She was... amused? I thought you had to be intelligent to be amused. But she complained about snoring. She laughed. She apparently had some sense of self will, even, apparently, an ability to mess with people's head.

"Well, between the two of you, you managed to find some quality parts." I gave Ayiee a frank visual inspection I'd normally feel rather embarassed to conduct. "I'd kill for boobs like hers. Well, not blue, but..."

Ayiee cracked a smile and turned in what could only be a deliberate move that enhanced her endowment. I found myself heating in the cheeks at the provocation and turned away. Maybe I needed to go find Marcus and work off a few hormones...

"Lucas, have you ever figured out if she's alive?" I shook my head. "I mean, the things she does and the way she reacts to us... I mean, gollums are just animated dolls, right? But sometimes, if I ignore that she's blue, she seems so..." I shrugged helplessly, then realized maybe I was asking the wrong person. "Ayiee..." I turned to the gollum. "Are you alive? A real person?"
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Graybeard »

I suppose there'll have to be a funeral, Layla thought, staring numbly at the coffin containing the body of her husband.

Faye was thinking the same thing. "Honey, let me take care of this," she said. "You go back home and cuddle up with Zachary, and I'll make the arrangements. I've had to do it often enough." Still numb, Layla nodded and did as she was told.

Which left Faye alone (except, of course, for the late Arty) in the mortuary to do some thinking. The Tsuirakuans, she knew, usually investigated violent death quite closely, but for unknown reasons (she didn't know about the arrangements Layla had with Sergeant Ohta), they hadn't done anything in this case. There wasn't even a basic death certificate. That was very odd. Somehow (she didn't want to think how), Layla had learned that Arty's death had been violent -- well, no big surprise there, Faye thought; healthy 28-year-olds didn't just drop dead on the street. But officially, his death seemingly just hadn't happened.

Time to call in a favor, Faye decided. The Eisenfaust weren't the only outfit with a thaumatopathologist on their payroll; they were just a bit more public about it than some others -- for example, the Gewehr. The "arrangements" needed to include an inspection by their own pet viewer of the dead. She didn't think he'd get much; Arty had been gone for quite a long time, after all. But anything that helped Layla move on (in other words, get the revenge that she craved) would be a good thing. She caused a message to be sent to an address on the outskirts of town, then busied herself with setting up a small memorial service.
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Ayiee tilted her head as if she was considering the question. After a moment, "Query... how do you define term 'is alive'? Unit Ayiee is sure it is real. Sensory information registers tactile responses, auditory and olfactory receptors register the world around unit. But alive... System check confirms unit Ayiee is fully functional... but does not cover status of alive/not alive. Please clarify."
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Re: Mountain(s) of Madness

Post by Sareth »

"Is she messing with me?" I glanced over at Lucas. "I think she's messing with me. Maybe?"

I propped the now skinned rabbit up over the fire on a couple of sharpened sticks to roast then padded over to Ayiee. "Real... Well, obviously you're real." I poked her shoulder gently. "I mean, I can touch you, right? But... Alive is... Uh..."

Unknowingly, I had managed to run into the philosophical quandary of the ages, one that scientists, mages, and theologians had debated for centuries without answer. Just how do you define life? Ayiee seemed more lively than a tree, and yet trees were clearly alive while Ayiee was... debatable.

Hmm...

"Ayiee, is there anything you like to do? For yourself, I mean, not because you've been instructed to do."
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