So, things are falling into place. Thuun is serving as my storytelling mouthpiece, which is mighty obliging of him - so nice I decided to let him live through the dream. Thankfully this dream sequence only lasts the one turn, eh?
- Turn 42: What is Life? -
The afternoon of your second day in the city is passing. Money is yours and with it comes both great opportunity and great danger…Day 2: Afternoon
With his new understanding, Thuun is more then ready to risk his own death. He has seen that Life begets Death and Death begets Life, and if he must die so that others may live, that is what he must do.
Thuun first examines the orb.Thuun gets weirded out by the priest’s glowing eyeThuun fixes the cracked orb and spirals into unconsciousness."Hello again, young Healer. To stay is to learn the truth, but as you know you may well die. Are you ready this time?" Sariel’s voice rings through your mind as you eye the frozen figures of the Elves all around you.
You nod.
”Yes, I'm ready now.” You can’t see her, but you know that the angel is smiling.
"Very well, young Healer. Watch and learn.”With that, time resumes. It appears to be moving faster than normal, as though you’re skipping ahead to the pertinent part. The sun quickly climbs to its peak far above your head and then, all of a sudden, everything’s back to normal speed. You look up at the sun and see the Orb of Solvarion curiously overlayed with the sun itself. Perhaps a remnant of your recent magical working? Or perhaps you needed to fix the Orb to truly understand.
Suddenly, to one side of the sun a spot of red appears.
”What is that?” you ask. There’s no answer and you feel quite alone in this strange time, alone and unprotected. The spot extends into a ruby line, a brilliant scarlet gash perpendicular to the sun. It reaches down and touches the surface and the sun flashes, all of the colours of magic as Solvarion fights back. But the attack came on too suddenly for the half-asleep God and within a minute the ruby gash covers half of the sun’s surface.
Solvarion fights back incessantly, forcing scarlet shards to fall away from the line. Soon the sky is spattered with red, yet the sun is inexorably being cut still. Within another minute, the grisly murder of Solvarion is complete. You watch, aghast. The Orb overlays the picture for an instant and you see that the two colours of the orb, black and white, no longer swirl together. The sun is split into a black and a white half, a miniscule chunk of the white attached to the black all that remains of their join.
The white half slowly turns pink then red and you understand. The being that did this didn’t just kill Solvarion, he stole the God’s power over Life itself. And then…
And then the shockwave hits. The physical force of the furious battle high above you has only just reached your location. In an instant, the fury of the conflict flattens and burns the entire nation of Elves. Thousands die in the blink of an eye and then cease to exist at all. Trees wither and turn to ash; plants crumple and then crumble.
And you are left standing in a graveyard the size of a nation, even as the red light overhead fades and you are left in pitch blackness, one by one the stars appearing overhead as your eyes adjust, once more revealing the piles of ashes that used to be an entire people.
"The truth, young Healer. And those red droplets have since fallen to Maska. On the fifth day of the Ten Day Night, they landed across Maska and congealed into the curse that you have faced, powered by my father’s divine gift of Life.”You’re dumbfounded. This is so far beyond anything you could have imagined.
”Wait, I thought I had to go to a city on the coast to learn all of this?”The presence of Sariel is pensive. Finally she appears beside you, gazing somberly up at the spot of inky blackness wrapping around a tiny core of white, the only remains of her father.
"Not from me. My siblings and I know no more than this. But you humans, ever clever and eternally inquisitive, have stumbled across something, in Shas Tule. A seer there, one who knew the truth of things, has taken great care to hide what he learned from all divine creatures so that the being above could not find it. Subsequently, neither can I learn it - all that I know is that it exists.” She shrugs.
"I pity you, young Healer. Yet you and your companions are the only ones in the position to save your world. We cannot interfere more than we have - all of our powers are bent to trying to heal my mother, who somehow yet lives - so it falls to you to destroy this curse as best you are able. Now… sleep, and heal. I pray you don’t lose heart from this sight, for to do so is to die...”Her voice fades and you slip into the blackness of a dreamless sleep.
…
…
…
You awaken in a simple bed, your wounds sewn shut. The seer is sitting at your bedside. Curiously, his bookshelf has been pushed across the bedroom door. You see out the window that the moon has risen, her three pieces glowing a muted grey. But is it just you, or are they drifting inexorably closer?
Go to the shooting range and practice shooting 2-3 arrows in rapid succession. Then try and see if I can use telekinesis to shoot an arrow and make it go where I want it to go. Return to the Inn with the rest of the crew before it gets too late
You wander out into the afternoon sun, your bow and quiver over your shoulder. Maybe you’ll go burn off some excess energy at the range. Yeah, that sounds nice. Now that your eyes no longer glow like bog-lights, you can probably walk down the street unhassled!
You find your way to an archery range and pay a few coins to enter. You set ten arrows point down into the dirt at your feet, focus your mind on the target and practice a few shots, limbering the bow up. Finally you decide to see how many arrows you can have in the air at once.
(4) You fire off an arrow and before its barely halfway to the mark your second arrow is already strung, drawn and fired. Both arrows thud into the target, but alarmingly off-centre. It would appear that you can fire two arrows in rapid succesion, but you can’t quite focus enough to keep them dead on target.
Skill: Doubleshot. You can fire twice in one turn, but each arrow takes a -1 to hit.You’re about to walk down the archery range to retrieve your arrows, but you stop and reach out one hand instead.
”Return” you order them. (4) One by one, your ten arrows wriggle loose of the haybale target and slowly tumble through the air. You catch them one at a time and slip them each into your quiver. Finally you decide to see how well your newfound psychic abilities mesh with your archery!
(3) Your first try is to nudge the arrow mid-flight, but that fails miserably. You can’t quite keep your mind to pacing the arrow, falling behind and only tapping the feathers.
Next you decide to draw a mental line, a spring by which to pull the arrow in. (1) The haybale comes rocketing down the range towards you instead, pulled forwards by the mental spring! A lucky roll is all that saves you from being buried in hay. Luckily, nobody saw the antics - or is too scared to say anything - so you rapidly re-stuff the target bale and drag it all the way down the range to its place.
Finally, you decide to mimic a lodestone, keeping in mind that you don’t want to launch the haybale at your face again. (5) The process works remarkably well! Your arrows curve in mid-flight, unerringly hitting the bulls eye. You find that it can’t save you from a terrible shot, but it’s still a lovely help.
Psychic Skill: Guided Shot. By focusing your mind on the target, you can gain a dynamic bonus to your shot. The extreme focus results in a -1 to dodge and you can only fire one arrow at a time.Mentally exhausted, you retrieve your arrows and wander back towards the inn, aiming for the taproom where the five of you shall surely be meeting once more.
Upon your arrival, you see three of the others, but no Thuun. He must still be at the temple. Curious…
Hurry on back to our room at the inn. Stay away from any people until this point!
You run back towards the inn, the thousands of gold in the sack over your shoulder calling to you like a siren to sailors. (5) You manage to make it all the way back to the inn without seeing anybody! You hurry up to the room, startling Ekoka from his reading, and stuff the sack as far under your bed as possible. You resolve to discuss it over dinner with your companions… Perhaps they don’t need to know exactly how much was awarded?
With that settled, you settle into a seat and pull a random book off of the room’s shelf and open it, whiling away the hours until dinner time...
Baldur goes and purchases a sturdier wagon and a couple of horses to pull it for when the party leaves the town. Assuming that we have the money to, obviously.
”I’ll get you the money tomorrow!” you growl at the merchant.
”I only want to order one.”The merchant shrugs. “I don’t take orders. If I did, I wouldn’t have enough hours in the day to work, let alone sleep! Come back tomorrow and you’ll have your horse and wagon. It’s normally fifteen hundred , but if your wagon’s in good nick I’ll trade it to you for a thousand.”
You mutter darkly and leave without another word for the wagon merchant. You can’t do much bargaining just yet, since you have no collateral to back it up with, but tomorrow you’ll probably be able to take that thousand gold down a notch or two. Hopefully Lyu was successful in getting the money from the duke, or else you’ll all be stuck in the tiny carriage with the rickety wheels all the way to the city on the coast.
You kill some more time in the markets, perusing goods and the odd services,until the sun begins to set. Finally you head towards the inn so as to meet your companions for dinner.
Read the fire book.
The book describes some truly arcane uses of Fire magic, such as the best temperature to remove only a certain amount of skin from a person. It waxes lyrical on how to adjust and maintain temperatures, even varying them across a single spell. It also describes the various ways Fire magic interacts with other elements and after reading. Fire and Wind create lightning? That sound pretty sweet. And quite handy to somebody of your skills.
You marvel at the knowledge you’ve gained. You feel properly in command of fire magic now, able to create jets of flame to scorch your foes! No more dropping houses on priests, now you can just burn everything.
Awesome.
Welcome to Rank 1 in Fire magic! You can create jets of flame of up to twenty feet and can put out fires with your will.As the sun goes down, you nudge Lyu and head for the taproom to meet your companions…
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Hiding the goods.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves10,000 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Earth Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Head, Chest, Left Arm] [Obdurate] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Not quite getting a wagon.
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Booze
Bear fur cloak262 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [Momentum] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Dreaming.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Lucidity Spell Tome
Wounds/Status: [Woozy from blood loss]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Fire Spell: Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Psychically Firing
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Twelve Arrows
Three High Quality Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Light Magic Book
Warrior’s Broadsword
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set63 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Doubleshot]Psychic Abilities (Level 1):
[Comprehension] [Lesser Telepathy] [Lesser Telekinesis] [Focused Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Studying like a good boy.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Stone Book
Force Magic Book
Water Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity] [Earth Spell: Clayform]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 1] [Li: 1] [Fo: 1] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0] 
Author
Topic: Roll to Go Mad: Turn 44 - The Markets (Read 132678 times)