Waldhaxen Channel

[AdamZero]

Boris grumbled about something and I looked to Lucas, "If anyone has enough rope to get to the bottom of the channel, we could probably have a team rappel down. With sniper cover up here. Then we go in, end them, and regroup. But I think we spent up all our rope crossing the channel the first time.

[Viking-Sensei]

"Jamie and I could probably get down there safely." Lucas said. "You've got two matching guns like I do, right? By my count, that means we both have a pair 'o shoots..."



[OOC - Yes, yes, I know, I'm a horrible person.]

[Sareth]

[OOC}Oh... The pain... The pain! Good one, V-S![/OOC]

"Sounds fun!" I replied. "I'm game!"

"On a broken leg?" Mother arched an eyebrow.

"Once the adrenaline kicks in I'll be fine," I grinned.

"You are out of your skull, girl," Mother replied.

"Like mother like daughter," I quipped. "So now we just... Hey? Where'd the trolls go?"

[Graybeard]

[OOC: And people hassle me over bad puns...]

"<What are the Small Ones up to NOW, my uncle?>" Scrobian asked.

Grope rolled his eyes. "<It sounds like they've changed their minds again. Now they're getting back interested in attacking that under-sea-boat.>" The selfsame vessel continued to drift aimlessly in the Drainpipe, he noted; that explosion that the airship had caused seemed to have done more damage (at least to the soft squishy bodies aboard, if not to the vessel itself) than they'd thought. "<There might even be a chance of success now. What do you think?>"

"<They're a bit ... indecisive, aren't they?>" Harzh'biah piped in.

"<A bit. Just remember: Small Ones' minds are strange. But now they're at least ready to help us. My niece, may I use some of Zhbrigeeul's Wisdom to try to fix up your leg? I know it's weird and uncomfortable, but she told me it was okay.>" Which, at least in the sense that her remnant Wisdom in the Robe had clearly endorsed him using the magic she'd somehow bequeathed him, was true.

The female troll looked dubious at first ... but Zhbrigeeul had been something of a legend in her tribe. "<Well, if you think it's right, my uncle. But let's do this out of sight of the Small Ones. I can only handle just so much weirdness at a time.>" She hobbled over a rise, followed by her brother and uncle, so that the humans wouldn't see a male troll cast a spell.

---------

"Mom, what's the problem? I've never seen you like this before," Layla said as she extricated herself from Faye's hug.

I can't tell her what Peter told me, Faye thought. What can I say? And then an evasion came to mind; it was even almost true. "I ... feared for your life," she said. "The things going on up there turn out to be so dangerous that Peter has forbidden anyone in the Gewehr to have anything to do with them." Actually, he's only forbidden you to have anything to do with them, and what he said he'd have to do if you did ... yeah, that qualifies as "dangerous," all right. "And it would have been all my fault if they'd got you, because I talked you into doing it." I don't know who "they" are, but that statement is close enough to correct. "I'm sorry I put you in such danger..."

"Well, I survived -- we survived," Layla said, patting her mother on the back. "Now make it up to us by spoiling your grandson rotten. And I won't go up north again, I promise." Although I'd sure like to know why Peter considers that batch of buffoons too dangerous to approach. Well, a question for another time...

[AdamZero]

I sighed as Jamie started up, crouching low I grabbed her ankle again, forcing another shot of healing magick and a pain nulling spell, a minor one. "Still, it's the whole, 'Getting-down-there' I mean, Feather fall work, but it only can negate so much downward splat force."

Lucas assured me he had a plan and I palmed my face. "Boris. My sword, and yours." Boris would have blinked if he could have. I looked at him with a flare of impatience and he drew the blades, handing me mine before looking at his. "Weapons free." I said to him with a cool grin. "Let's just get down there...."

I looked to Lucas, waiting for whatever he had in mind, if all else failed, we'd hope that feather fall wouldn't turn into 'Kiss the ground at 200 miles per hour' if we had to cast it.

[Graybeard]

"<It feels ... better,>" Harzh'biah said, an edge of skepticism in her voice; male trolls just weren't supposed to do what Grope had just done.

"<Good,>" Grope nodded. "<Of course I don't have all of the healing powers that the Matriarch had, only what she chose to bestow on me after her death. It should be enough for your body to take over and complete the process, though.>" He noticed that his own broken finger also felt better; an unanticipated side effect? The nicks and scrapes he'd accumulated while falling through the forest canopy were already largely healed, but a few were going to leave visible scars. That was good, and the stories he'd be able to tell about how he got them ...

The Small Ones were definitely moving now to do something against the under-sea-boat. That was good. However, the trolls couldn't tell exactly what they had in mind. How were they to get down to sea level? Then they saw what Lucas and Marcus were doing ...

"<Friends or not, there's no way I'm going to do that along with the Small Ones,>" Scrobian growled, getting a nod from his sister. Even Grope, used as he was to Lucas' weird magical ways, wasn't going to touch that one.

----------

It could be worse, Elke thought as the conference proceeded. Most of the other people were drawing the same conclusion she had: Egbert had been too much of a security risk to be allowed to live. The circumstances of his death sounded peculiar, though. Reports were sketchy (they obviously didn't have anyone reliable on the scene, else they'd have dealt with Egbert long ago), but as far as anyone could tell, the man had simply committed suicide. Actually, that probably wasn't a bad idea from his point of view, when you stop to think about it...

"That leaves us with three issues," the man they didn't name said. "First, there is some good news. Another candidate for the Southern Mage has been identified as a result of the business with Egbert. We'll have to get him back to somewhere where we can have a look at him, but the signs are promising. There's a plan for addressing that. With the Wizard of the West candidate out there too, and now candidates for the Terror of the North and the Beast from the East in Farrel, we're getting close to what we need."

That's almost scary, Elke thought, but she remained silent while the man continued. "The other parts aren't in as good shape. With Egbert gone, we have to dispose of Hamael, if he's still alive. You have something on that, Gryffyd?"

"We think so," the new Seeadler man said, in a strange accent that almost sounded like he was speaking underwater. "A balloon was spotted coming from the Malletarian compound after the volcanic eruption. It had one occupant, a man who matched Hamael's description."

"Half good, half bad," the unnameable man said. "I guess it's good on balance; at least we know he's alive, and what has to be done."

"We're on it," Elke, Peter and Gryffyd said simultaneously. The other man chuckled -- a frightening sound, that -- and replied, "Very well. You can all three have at it. There'll be a certain small bonus later for whoever actually gets him. Keep it quiet, of course. And now, on to the third thing -- replacing Egbert. I am happy to report that there is a possibility there ..."

[AdamZero]

"If only I had an proper plant affinity." I grumbled. "I could weave ropes from the grass....." I cast a look back at the sinker ship. It was still on the surface, and four individuals were moving atop it's deck, assessing damages, throwing the bodies overboard, and general fretting. The Prinnies weren't in sight, but the churning surface gave no illusions of departure.

"Okay." I held up my hands in fists. "We've got two of those giant bird monsters, but if my monocular isn't blurring my sight too bad; they're the same ones that got away last time. They look patched up, not magickly, which makes me think that they don't know how to heal them with magic or this sub doesn't have a healer. There are four men-sized people down there, might be something else, wouldn't be surprising. So....how the hell do we get down there..." My train of thought hit the same wall, Lucas opened his mouth. "And I don't think magick'ing our way down is the smartest idea." I could almost feel a sensation of agreement from where the trolls were. "We don't have rope... I can't make rope... Chain maybe?" I looked to Boris. He placed two fingers in his mouth, and touched the ring of the pocket dimension.

"Not enough to get all the way down, if we spot weld the boar chains together. 3/4 at most." I looked over the edge and guessed the distance. "That enough for the trolls to survive the rest?" I looked over to Grope, where he was partly hidden by a line of trees, and waved for him. "Okay, if the chain thing works, it'll prolly only work long enough for Grope, maybe his nephew to down. The rest of us will, in that case, float down while they handle the Prinnies. We get across....SH*T!" I swore. "Bloody logistics!"

[Sareth]

"We wait too long, there won't be a boat to take," I pointed out as I belly crawled to the edge of the cliff. I slid out to a good spot, looking down, then lined up the sights on my rifle.

One of the keys to shooting downward is that the drop is very different. The bullet is already angled downward, so it doesn't "drop" as much in relation to the front sights as you are used to when shooting on the level. This tends to throw people off, and even the best of shots tends to forget at times. Few people bother practicing for it.

Fortunately, I was keeping this in mind as I lined up the shot. My finger tightened on the trigger, and I muttered, "Say the word..."

[Graybeard]

Grope rolled his eyes. "<Excuse me,>" he told his niece and nephew. "<I'd better go see what insane idea they have this time.>"

Actually, this idea didn't look as crazy as some once Marcus explained it, at least relatively speaking. "I can use this," he rumbled at Marcus and his long chain. "There is a thing called -- I don't know the word in your language -- a dulfersitz." In the troll language, it came across as a kind of verbal flatulence. "I think in your language, it means 'go down with rope across your ass.' I will have interesting scars from it ... but that is a good thing." He shouted back to the other trolls. "<SCROBIAN! Get over here! You wouldn't believe what these crazy midgets are coming up with...>"

--------

"Tell us more about this replacement for Egbert," Mr. Stagpoole said, speaking the thought that everyone on the conference had on their minds. He sounds normal enough, Elke thought. And he didn't react badly to me being in on the little "contest" to off Hamael. Maybe that means he's not getting cold feet, as I feared he would be. I can hope...

"We don't know much," the unmentionable man said. "Apparently it's some other guy who was in the Veracian military with him and Hamael. Unlike the other two, he stayed with the Orthodox church there, and he just got promoted into some position of power. He's not fully in on the Convergence yet, of course, but given the way he's moved up in that church while keeping his trap shut about Kankaniel and Hamael, we think he's trustworthy enough."

"Who's 'we'?" Gryffyd asked, as the rest of the conference went silent. Elke cringed inwardly; there were certain questions you simply did not ask. Well, they might let him live anyway...

[AdamZero]

"Think you can take em all out before they get down into... oh that's perfect." I took another look at through the monocular and assessed the deck of the ship. "There's only one way into it I can see... and the way the people are moving... two are arguing, one is watching them near the hatch into it, the other is far off, toward the tail end of it. I think the whole crew is either dead or on deck, and even if it's not I figure they cant pilot that thing with a handful they might have inside.... so..."

I looked to Jamie, who was already glowing, in my eyes, with the Grey intent to inflict death upon another living thing. "Go for the guy at the hatch, then see if you can two for one the arguing guys, shouldn't be impossible the way they're standing. She blinked, her breathing steady.

"When you're ready. After they're dead, Grope and um... Scorbiantan?" His translation of Scrobian's name close, but not quite, "You two will go down First, and if the Birds attack, Jamie will give cover while Lucas and I get down... our way." I avoided bringing up magick. "Then we take our time and cross the channel.... somehow... but-"

KRA-POW!
-ca-clack-
KRA-POW!
-ca-clack
...
KRA-POW!