Myrddyn

"I am not actually going against the quest. The quest was to find the children. They have been found. Nothing was said about becoming a vigilante who murders people after they have seen the error of their ways and promised not to repeat them. This magic mansion appeared overnight; therefore, it can disappear overnight. And now those items have been destroyed, there is no way into this room, so the Maginastra is certainly safe from retribution from the parents of the children. In fact, in the opinions of the children, the Maginastra is a nice person who made some nice guardians for them to play with. As for we can't possibly win, those guardians weren't easy to beat, were they? This guy MADE the guardians, so it stands to reason that he is at least as good in a fight as one of them. Now if you guys chose to fight, you will be up against someone as powerful (at least) as a guardian, plus me and Mizuki, with two less people on your side. YOU are the ones who will be at a disadvantage. Tell you what, if you guys agree to not attack the Maginastra, I will step down and not defend him. You guys can go and tell everyone you scared me out of a fight, and then we can leave and the Maginastra can go back to where he came from and you can say that you would have beaten him, but the coward used his magic to flee. You guys are insisting on a fight, I'm just saying if there is a fight, I want to be on this guys team."

"Well, silly humans goes without saying. And thats just the clever ones."

"Hey, its not quite half!" "Mizuki, it's good to have you fighting with me." "Silly undead...."

"Yeah? and you always spell my name wrong! It's Erik with a 'K'! (OOC: ) Much as I'd like to be friends with you after this is over, if you are going to attack this man, who has done everything he's done for the good of the children, you and your god will never be able to strike me down!"

"Maginastra, what kind of life would the children have, to live all the time sheltered from the world? While the children would be protected from the outside, they would not be able to interact with the earth, and other people. What point would they have to their existence? It is only by working to improve the world, that the world is made worth living in. Look at me, for instance. I used to just wander around, crawling from pub to pub, working in odd jobs, even taking work I knew to be nothing more than banditry. I didn't even enjoy drinking - I didn't enjoy anything, until I found this Heroica organisation. The beer was free, so I joined up. I figured since I didn't need to earn money to pay for my drinking, I could take jobs that helped those in need of assistance. since then, I've become a better person than I ever could have become sitting around all day, being surrounded by nice stuff, yet knowing I was of no use to anyone. Sure, sometimes the world is a dangerous place, and if you protect these children in your magical mansion, sure, they'll be safe from bad things in life, but they also won't be able to participate in the good things. How long do you think it will take before the time comes for them to reforge the world? Better to have them in the world, brought up to be as good people as they can, and living properly, and trying to prevent the chaos from outside." "Hlin, I understand your anger at this man, but he did everything he did for what he thought were good reasons. He has even said that he will leave this place and not try to take the children again." "Nagure, I was so impressed by your diplomacy, up to the point where you said 'Fight, fight, fight, fight. Lets kill him!'..." Erik walks over to stand between the Maginastra and the heroes. "As much as I'd like a good fight, I will not be a part of the murder of this man, for doing things he thought were for the good of the children. Surely you see that he has seen the error of his ways, and will not do the same thing again? You can always trust a man with a big beard. But if you still want to fight him, you will have to fight me too." OOC: can I do that? fight with the Maginastra, against the heroes? If I can't, I will just not fight him.

"I say we can trust him, at least until something occurs to make me think otherwise. You can always trust a man with a big beard." "Nice staff. I hope you don't mind us sort-of breaking in and clobbering your guardians. I think I heard something about the Ji Pei having blue skin. You aren't from a similar area to them, are you, by any chance? And of course, what my friend here said, why did you take the children?" Erik does not try and loot anything.

"Good point. I still want to talk to him first, though. He didn't harm the children, so he probably had a good reason, or at least one he thought was good." Erik goes further into the room and looks around for more things to loot.

"The skull would have told him we are coming in, as it opened the door for us. That implies we have permission to enter, and I don't see how sneaking around is going to provoke him more than politely knocking and announcing our presence." "Oh, and looting the room. That's hardly going to please him, is it?"

Erik knocks on the wall loudly and calls out "Mr Maginastra, can we speak to you?"

"But Mr Talking Skull never said anything about seasons. You just assumed that the items had something to do with seasons. If you can figure out which item should go in first and a reason for it, I may agree with you. However, while your idea about the items each representing a different season seems good, it gives us no clue as to which item goes first." EDIT: "Maybe you are right, Syntax, and the items do match seasons, but perhaps the order has something to do with the clothes of the children. - I believe the first child we met was dressed for winter, although the place he was in certainly didn't warrant that sort of clothing. The second was dressed either for autumn or spring, with the next child dressed for either spring or autumn. And the last child was dressed for summer, despite being in the snow, I think." "Ah, perhaps the overalls of the third child imply harvesting, which would be done in spring." "So, if my newest theory is correct, then the order is: Sled, leaf/lamb, lamb/leaf, parasol."

But we got the parasol first. And inside this mansion, we may not even be in Eubric."

"Ah, yes, I did, but I'm not sure why you think Autumn would go first."

"Ah, I see what you mean Sorrow, but there must be a trick to it other than guessing which goes in first. If my memory is correct, we got the parasol from Peggy, then the fallen leaf from Sandy, the toy lamb from Buzzy, and the sled from Snowy. If the doors only let you into each realm once, then perhaps they make you go into each realm in order? That would imply that the order is: parasol, leaf, lamb, sled. And if that is correct, we don't need to worry about which one goes in first." "Or, when the armour first spoke to us, it said 'leave now.' Maybe the leaf goes first? " Erik turn to the skull and says: "I don't suppose you can give us any more hints?"

"Well, I guess that's a no, Drake. I will continue to hold the torch."

"I don't suppose you want to carry the torch, Drake? If not, I will continue to hold it."

"Woah! Shouldn't we grab that torch and check the dark room with some light before we go upstairs? At the very least there will be nothing in there and we can go up to the first floor, but there might be something in there that will aid us in determining what to do with the maginastra, or help us execute him. Those guardians weren't easy, and it stands to reason that the maginastra will be even harder to fight!" "If we are going to check that dark room, and no-one else wants to grab the torch, (Yeah I'm looking at you, Drake. Your shield is not affected by the strength of your weapon, whereas me and Nagure will do less damage if we go into a frenzy and are only carrying the torch, and our (Critical) hits are stronger than yours, while Syntax and Mizuki will not be able to mug their opponents as easily with a torch.) then I will hold onto it while we check the dark room. EDIT: "Actually, so we don't spend ages arguing over who should hold the torch again, I will grab the torch, and go into the dark room. I hope you guys follow me."

"Hey Drake or Nagure, you guys don't seem to have many potions, so if one of you want, I would be willing to trade 2 potions for that shovel, Drake, or 2 potions and 10 gold for that pickaxe, Nagure?"

"Thank Heavens! Not a Trap! Its a key. Well, now I suppose lets try and find that door out of here! Then I will try this key in that chest's lock. Sorry about that, Syntax." Erik whispers, as he goes back to the rest of the party and helps find the door. EDIT: Advanced class idea!

"Alright. Seeing as you are a corpse, you probably have more chance of surviving than me if I slip. You (Sorrow/Syntax) can hold the pointy end."

"Of course, since it's my idea and I will be pulling away from you guys, I will hold the pointy end of the spear. But of course I will hold it just above the point, rather than embed it in my hand. I just hope I don't slip..." "Who wants to hold the blunt end?"

"ITS A TRAP!" Whispers Erik, as his eyes try and adjust to the darkness. "I will give a party member one end of my spear, and still hold onto the other. I will then go and try and find this metal thing, while the rest of you link hands and try and find that @#$%! door. One of you can borrow my axe, and hold onto one end as well, so we don't get separated, but we can still wander off a fair distance to increase our chances of finding our way to wherever, without having to call to each other, and possibly alert enemies to our location. Unless, of course, they can see in the dark, which they probably can, seeing as they appear to live in a dark room." I knew I should have made Erik's axe one of these: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101201165040/lego/images/7/7f/Halberd.jpg Can I do this? I assumed as the spear is a bit longer than Erik, and assuming he is average height, say 5 foot 10, plus arms, that gives him maybe almost 7 feet reach (being perhaps somewhat optimistic, but at least 6). That is probably enough to reach something "several" feet away?

As they go through the door, Erik says "Well this Maginastra guy hasn't harmed the children or anything, so I think we should at least hear his side of the story first. In fact, the children seemed pretty happy playing with the guardians, so if someone asked them whether the maginastra or us were bad guys, they would probably say us." "Thanks for the money, by the way, Syntax. Seeing as you are in a dead body anyway, maybe you could get a mage or someone to put you or Sorrow in an empty dead body, so you don't have to share all the time."

"I believe that Vell is one of these children. I could be wrong though, and anyway, I would like to talk* to this Maginastra guy. Of course, I think we should wait 'till Hlin gets these children outside, and Mizuki rests for a bit, and all that." Hlins daughter was Vell, right? *the extra XP would be nice too.

"Good work, guys! I suppose we will go through the last door, but maybe we should give Mizuki a chance to rest first." "Oh, and wheres Hlin got to? One of these children should be his daughter."

"Eh, if he's targeting Snowy anyway, just throw him in first on the battle order."