Mountain(s) of Madness

[Graybeard]

As morning broke over the Mountains of Madness, various people contemplated what now lay before them ...

---------

Oh, gods above, I can't be falling in love already, Layla thought as she jogged through the streets of Volkanenborg. Arty isn't even in his grave yet ...

Well, maybe thinking about the next mission would take her mind off her inner upheaval; it had worked before. At least the job didn't look too hazardous. Layla and Faye were to make contact with someone named "Annika" to begin setting up a big conference at the amusement park, to establish "roles and limitations for the various Farrelite players" -- as Peter had none-too-delicately put it after (unknown to Layla) having the situation "explained" to him by Saiko Mesuinu. That shouldn't be a big problem; security at the park was reputed to be good, and it would be bad for business to have too many incidents. (Of course, it only took one, if you were the one it happened to, but some things weren't worth worrying about.) Once negotiations were completed, they could go ahead and enjoy a vacation with Zachary.

But without Ace.

Nope, that didn't work, Layla thought as she turned back for home.

--------

On the other side of town, Ace was having related thoughts as he woke too early from a troubled sleep. The dinner had been great, the wine relaxing ... but the company ... "Great" didn't describe it, exactly. Was there a word that simultaneously combined "great," "hopeful," "heartwrenching" and "nostalgic"? He doubted it.

Lexy, we always agreed that we'd each have to move on if something happened to the other one, he thought, looking at a portrait of his dead wife. Will you forgive me if I actually go ahead and do it?

No, it couldn't be. He must still be hazy from lack of sleep. But somehow it looked as if, for just a moment and in a way no one else could ever see, the portrait had smiled and winked ...

---------

"I should have paid more attention to my friend Lucas," Grope told Chippy over a piece of rabbit meat (normal-sized, not lepivore). Trolls' memory is more experiential in nature than humans', and as a result, they don't necessarily remember things that they are simply told, without incorporating the told thing into their actual life experience, or at least, their Robe. What he was doing when Lucas told him about the dangers in the mountains didn't resonate with Lucas' message at all, so troll-like, he concentrated on what had to be done, not on the words.

Chippy looked up at his improbable companion, cheeks still full of the meat that Grope had given him. "I think he said there were religious crazies in the second valley over. Magical religious crazies. Really don't want to mess with those."

"I think you're right," Grope said. "But let me consult the Many Fathers." He finished the rabbit and prepared to enter the semi-trance.

----------

Elke hadn't slept well, despite the ... sleep-inducing activities ... she'd engaged in with Mr. Stagpoole last night. (She admired the man's capacity for sleep as well as his staying power; he was still snoring peacefully next to her. Of course, he should be.) She was still pondering the news that the Mesuinu craziness had started with a bunch of renegade Eisenfaust people. That was bad, very bad. Heads were going to roll over it; she'd have to move adroitly to make sure that one of those heads wasn't hers. And worse, the Convergence might not like the change in plans, particularly since it meant losing track of Jamie, Lucas and Marcus. That could be very bad.

Stagpoole slept on as though drugged. Elke decided that he wouldn't wake up if she got up and made a quick call to a certain interested party.

[Sareth]

I stretched with a languid grace that only a truly long, good, overfilled belly induced sleep could produce. That had been a good steak. A VERY good steak. And the bed had been truly wonderful as well. Everything I had hoped. The temptation to just stay in the bed and wallow in it till noon was quite high, I confess.

But staying in one place could only lead to trouble. I'm sure enough time has passed for mother to have a well and truly organized effort out and about trying to find me. I'd been in town entirely too long, and spent entirely too much time in public. The chances of someone getting a lead on my whereabouts and reporting back to mother was growing exponentially. And if mother found me, I was in for the scolding of my life.

Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.

Within 20 minutes I was out the door, doing my dead level best to blend in to the morning crowds, and headed for the south road out of town.

****

"Jamie!"

I'd miscalculated, it seemed. See, I had purchased a small rug and wrapped it around the shotgun and rifle. After all, there was no place inside my clothes I could conceal both of those. I don't care WHAT the books claim. Sticking a rifle down a pant leg rendered you unable to walk without looking like you had a case of gout, arthritis, polio, AND something stuck up your arse. That meant trying to hide them in plain sight. I figured if I just rolled a rug around them so that it looked like I was hauling a rug to the farmstead, no one would notice.

Apparently, someone had noticed enough.

"Jamie! Wait up!"

I turned, a fixed smile on my face. "Lexi... Hi..."

Of all the people to run into, it had to be the girl who thought she was my bestest friend for life evar!

"Where have you been, girl! Oh! My! Gawd! It is soooooo good to see you! You've been gone for months! Oh! You have JUST got to hear about Justin and Dora! Did you hear what they did? Right in the watchtower over by the market! It was, like, Oh My Gawd so bad..."

I began contemplating how long it would take to get the shotgun out of the rug.

****

"And then, like, I told her that it wasn't all that great. I mean, it was like so small and he had no idea what to do with it? And she was like Oh My Gawd! you wouldn't believe what she said. She told me..."

"LEX!" I could feel my head pounding.

Lex stopped her vacuous stream of consciousness ramblings about Todd Snoots attempt to win the science fair with a prize winning potato. She turned and gave me a cow eyed look. "What?"

"You realize we left town a mile ago, right?"

Lex looked about herself blinking. "Oh! My! Gawd! You're right! I don't believe it! How did that happen."

My throbbing head exploded into a full on headache. "You followed me."

"Well, I was just so excited to see you again, and I had so much to tell you! I just..."

"Lex..."

"Oh My Gawd! I am so totally going to be late! I'm supposed to be shopping with Annie! I need to go! It was good talking with you! Don't be a stranger!"

And with that Lex, the worst walking, talking teen girl stereotype I had ever had the displeasure to meet began running back down the road towards town, a sweet, sweet, blessed relief.

"I cannot believe I slept with her in 9th grade."

I continued on my way to the Mountain of Madness.

****

"Oh, hello, Lex." Jasmine Carter smiled at the hurrying girl as she rounded the corner on her way to the fifth place her network of friends (consisting, by and large, of mothers who had created the gossip and child tracking network from hell) had reported seeing Jamie, a steak house that charged a great deal of money, but which served food worth the price.

"Miss Carter! Oh My Gawd! It's so good to see you!" Lex smiled with a slightly vacant look. Jasmine nodded patiently, while quietly preparing to tune Lex out. Lex' father, the poor man, had always wondered if Lex had been the result of someone else slipping in the back door. The man was an apothecary for god's sakes. Lex was... Well... Just a little touched. When Jasmine had heard a rumor that her Jamie had actually had a tryst with the girl, she wasn't sure whether to be more horrified that Jamie had done something with another girl, or that she'd done something with a girl that addle minded. She'd almost been relieved to find out about that evening with Tom a few months later. Handsome boy, that Tom. Would make good babies.

She caught her cheeks warming as the thought of making babies reminded her of what she'd spent the night doing. Elves really did live up to their reputation.

"You would not believe who I ran into, Miss Carter!"

"That's nice, Lex, I..."

"Jamie!"

Jasmine's efforts to disentangle herself from Lex' verbal bearhug derailed thoroughly.

"What was that?"

"Oh My Gawd! You mean you didn't know she was in town? I saw her just an hour ago, on the road to the Mountain of Madness! I was all, like, heading to go shopping with..."

"That's nice dear. But if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do."

[AdamZero]

I'd been shadowing Jamie since she bolted out of the inn, intent to see how long I could do so while remaining 'hidden' or 'unnoticed' just as a test to see if I could still keep myself discrete. Apparently the Gods awful, but good natured, female adolescent from Jamie's past generated a field much like Lucas.. except instead of misaligning magick, it drew in females of similar mental levels. Or at least they acted like it.

Also, apparently, thin tired looking guys who look 'older' than they are are in. Because the looks I was getting... too easy. Just. Too... I pushed those thoughts aside to make sure I was still tailing Jamie. The edge of town spread out before me, and I shifted hard to the side, as Jamie turned her head away from 'Lex'. I paralleled the main path, maybe trying to hard. The moment before I was going to step out the woods and ask what part of Jamie's past she fell into, but then Jamie chose to vocalize her thoughts, and I tripped over a root.

It's not fun to introduce your face to the ground from a 90 degree turn.

I raised a hand as I tilted my face to speak.

"Okay, that was lame, the falling... but who was that?"

[Sareth]

Well, this was inconvenient, awkward, and unexpected. Just how much had he heard?

"Just an old classmate of mine." I shrugged it off. "I was hoping to sneak out of town quietly, but it looks like I failed pretty spectacularly." I turned to look at Marcus as I unrolled the carpet and tossed it to the side, settling the rifle and shotgun on my shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?"

[AdamZero]

I dragged myself up and brushed the dirt off my face and shoulders.

"Well, following you. I figure as crazy as things are getting now adays... being around someone whose good in a fight" reworked observation. Jamie was good in a shootout, I don't recall seeing her bust out any sort of hand to hand ass-whopping, though my memory was fuzzy around those thoughts, for some reason. "well it's just smart." I shrugged.

"Plus I still owe you a couple dinners, and leaving an honorable debt unpaid." I shook my finger. "Not my style."

Boris chose this time to chime in.

"And he's still making a play for the contents of your pants." I smacked him with a back hand, and he chose to add. "and I don't mean the six shooter you got stuffed back there." I snatched his head off his body, stashed under my cloak as usual. "What?" he asked. I just smiled. I smiled, wide.

"I'm just glad to see Neverinal didn't twist that 'humor' of yours out."

His eye socket's narrowed for a moment, then wided. "don't kick the skull."

"Kick the skull."

"Don't kick the skull!"

I looked to Jamie with a grin. "Kick the skull?" I offered it up if she was so inclined.

[Sareth]

I walked over with a smile on my face. I looked down, contemplating Boris' bare of flesh skull as Marcus held it.

"Awwww. Why would I do that?" I winked. "He's an excellent stool pigeon into what's going on in your head!" I leaned down enough to plant a kiss on the top of the skull. Then I turned away and began walking down the road again, adding a little extra waggle into my steps. "Come on, supersneak. We got a long walk to get to the mountain, now that something knocked out the bridge and we have to take the long way around."

Behind me I could hear an inarticulate sound from Marcus, and the sound of Boris giggling. "Pwnt," the skull said.

[AdamZero]

"Wait what?" I managed at the last words Jamie got out, overlooking, for a moment the fact she'd just kissed Boris. Boris was smirking till he realized what she'd said.

"Oi! I'm not a snitch! I'm just stating the obvious!" I stuffed him under the clock, a snap coming from when the neck reattached to the skull's base.

"So wait, we're treking all the away through the woods, down and around and up the ravine the bridge was supposed to help us avoid?"

I inquire with a little skepticism. "Who'd blow up a bridge anyway? Doesn't seem...well... okay I guess I can't call anyone out on practicality." I laughed, thinking on a few jobs. They'd been... odd, but I'd survived, if only barely.

[Graybeard]

Dressing for the part had long been something of an obsession with Layla, whether the part was assassin, winemaker, young mother, or successful young businesswoman, all of which she was. This wasn't a matter of ego, and certainly not of extravagance; it was purely practical. When you're about to go shoot someone, does it really make sense to wear a nursing bra? And how much business would the winery have had (and it needed business to be a successful cover operation) if she'd met customers or investors while wearing her Gewehr getup?

But what to wear when you're going off to arrange a peace conference among hostile sort-of-military mercenary groups, presided over by a representative of a bizarre but obviously powerful family of mages? Layla pondered for a bit and decided on a tidy but casual jumpsuit that conveyed the notion of informal seriousness and willingness to get her hands slightly dirty, while still keeping as much decorum as she thought she'd need. (After all, Faye was going to do most of the talking.) It also provided concealment (in conjunction with certain bits of Zachary's supplies) for one of her more specialized weapons, one that she knew from experience that she could get through security ...

"Okay, Mom, let's head for the airship terminal," she called as she scooped up her son and deposited him in her "special" backpack.

[Sareth]

"Beats me," I replied. "I mean, I could be wrong about that. It's always possible that it simply fell down because of the weather or something, though it was always pretty sturdy so far as I could tell. But it couldn't have been down before yesterday's little fracas or we'd have heard about it in town." I shrugged. "All I know is it is down, and the timing is very inconvenient."

I pulled out my little map device I'd been given as part of my payment for yesterday's job for Else. She still owed me the remainder on that payment, but I figured that, after she slipped bugs in my blood supply, she deserved to have to chase me a little to pay me. And I would be payed, she and I both knew that. Spiteful? Yes. But I figured I was allowed a little spite.

I shook the thought of and oriented the map. "There's a trail off the main road that crosses the ravine the hard way. It's that, or we take a half day to get to the next regular crossing, then spend a half day coming back." I smiled as I looked at the contour lines on the map. "Hope you don't mind heights."

[AdamZero]

I shrugged. I knew basic spells that would keep me from splattering against the jagged rocks below. But casting them while falling would be a tricky deal. "Lead on. Wait. Do we have a time limit or something? I mean, we're meeting Lucas around there, I figure, right? Or are we leaving him in the dust?" It was a valid question. I was still debating the worth of examining Lucas's aura, but at this point, I was playing dice with every form of magickal observation around his field. Trying to look INTO it with magick. I thought for a moment at how many ways it could go wrong.

I might miscry and look into the center of the universe... not a good idea. And since things only got worse from there, I ended that train of thought and chose to follow Jamie, my eyes wandering, and taking in the view.


"The mountains are a lot less menacing when you weren't under them, being tortured by evil necromancer elves." I decided to say aloud.

A thundercrack rolled out from behind the mountains as a storm, thankfully trapped by the peaks, let loose its wrath on the other side of the peaks.

"I take that back, they're just as horrible." I pulled up my hood, even if the weather wasn't going to turn worse on this side of the mountains, there was no stopping the ugly chill I felt.

I like rain. Gentle spring rain. Storms? No, I don't like storms.