Zepher

One of my ideas for a 2nd PC (which I am hoping we get to use soon... Sandy! ) will use exclusively throwing weapons as well. It seems dope. But you should test the waters for me first, Lind.

Sorry all, work has been intensive this weekend, updates will roll in this evening!

102's cast continues to blossom outwards and upwards. Hopefully it's not too confusing. So many characters. I should have thought this out more. I hope I don't get lost.

"Name's Midge," says the Halfling solemnly. "It's like midget. That was my parent's sense of humor." "Midge and I were just discussing getting another round of something. What do you say, Matthias? Or is your purse still a little tight?" XX looks at Justin suspiciously. "How do you suppose he beat us here?" "Alexis!" cries Samantha. "So good to see you again! I thought you had left yesterday afternoon for Bric'Lin. Have you not been able to go yet? Treacherous roads, or did your job get put off?" She scowls flippantly, "mine did. Can't seem to get their ducks in a row - I only just got the... 'package'... this morning." She watches as Purpearl greets Keith. "Oh, look, you're a friend of a friend's friend. Who'd have thunk!" "Hey, Purpearl," says the man jovially - apparently when not being assaulted by rats, he's even-tempered and happy. "Good to see you! Did you ever happen to find Everyman? Is he here? Or have you already parted ways? He always seems to do that, doesn't he, Sam." "He's a very busy job. He finds you a job, and when you look back, he's gone!" She laughs. "Apologies, Alexis, this is my friend and business partner, Keith." "Oh, and my apologies..." gushes Keith, not be be out done in politeness, "this is my business partner, Samantha." "How do you do? What did you say her name was, Keith?" "I... I don't believe I ever got her name. I'm sorry, Miss Elf..." "Well, anyway, this is Alexis. See, I got my new friend's name." "Yes, yes," says Keith dismissively before turning to Alexis and beaming. "It is a genuine pleasure to meet such a lovely lady and loyal friend, Alexis." "Tra-Serral..." Samuel repeats gravely. "Thank you. I don't wish to make you relive unpleasant memories. I just wish to understand what happened. Raguel told me that if you did right, Ennoc would watch over you. But you say that he gave his life for peace, and still Ennoc abandoned him. My dreams horrify me not because of his death - that is something I saw and knew in the waking world - but because of the shadows that extinguish the light. I just wish to understand, Lady Calmcacil, how light can be swallowed by the darkness. What is the darkness? How can we possibly hope to fight it if it swallows the light of even Ennoc's most just servants? I am prepared to fight, but I don't know who to turn my sword on, and I don't know how to learn that, and worst of all, I don't know if it would do any good anyway."

I will pay good money for the Crimson Haze, someone. I want to be able to deal lots of lingering damage. It was Boomingham's only "thing", than it became common place, so he has to be good at it too now.

"Certainly," says Samuel, following them to the Winking Gargoyle Inn. Outside the Inn are a series of scaffolds. It appears that the Inn is under construction, but the way in is left open, so the heroes step inside and glance around. They are greeted by a myriad of familiar faces. They spy at a table XX caught in conversation with a Halfling. He waves to them cheerily. At the bar are two faces that two of the heroes recognize. And behind the bar is a face that the heroes saw earlier that very same day: "Oh no," cries Justin. "I knew my day had come. You've tracked me down again! Are you here to cause more trouble? Please don't *sniffle* hurt me."

Could you speak up, I can't hear you.

The man looks offended at her curt manner. "I come for answers, I don't bear any ill will. I believe." The man licks his lips. "That seal you carry," he says, indicating Nerwen's Seal of the Warrior Priestess, "tells me that we are of the same order. I am Samuel the Doubly Blessed Warrior Priest. I believe you knew my deceased mentor, Raguel. His body and head were sent back here not too long ago, with a curt note from King Speros of the Four Boulder Kingdom telling us that Raguel served his duty to the end of his life. It did not elaborate, except to say that we are not welcome back in his Kingdom. I do not think he is a friend to the Paladin Order. All Warrior Priests are prepared to lay down their lives... but I still wish closure. I do not know for what grand purpose Raguel died, and I know too that Ennoc would not allow one of his greatest servants to die for nothing. In my dreams I continue to see you, surrounded by Orcs, a daughter of light. I see a figure, beautiful but deadly, glowing green eyes shrouded in a cloak of shadow, descending on Raguel and freeing his spirit from his body. What do these dreams mean, Lady Calmcacil? What happened to my teacher?"

Yeah, I was about to say the same thing - he bought time, didn't spend it.

The sun is setting by the time the heroes arrive in Eubric. Pigley munches on a carrot. "Doesn't make me more of less sure if we did good or bad," orates the pig between chomps, "but you take what pleasures you can get. Thank you, Lady Nerwen." "Thank you, Matthias! We do what we can!" The heroes pass through the Northern Gate and enter the city. Their companions turn to them. "Lady Nerwen, yesterday I promised you a Phoenix Essence. If you will excuse me, I will be on my way to the Marketplace to find just that for you." The crab and Pig begin to trot off, but XX calls out to them before they go - it appears he has picked up that while he can't understand them, they can understand him just fine. "Hold on, little fellows." The two stop. "I've got an errand to run as well, and it would be best if we had a meeting place. I suggest the Winking Gargoyle Inn - it's got rooms for the night, and we can't keep traveling after a full day of it. Let's all reconvene there." The animals nod, and then they're off. XX too says a quick farewell to the heroes. "Got to go find a little gun for the little fellow," he says with a nod and smile to Matthias. He too walks down an alley way. The heroes make their way towards the Winking Gargoyle, but before they get too far they are stopped by a strange and sudden call. "Nerwen Calmcacil!" cries out a voice foreign to all of them. The accompanying figure, lurching forward, does little to clarify how they might know their new friend or foe. He is youthful, but wears heavy armor. He looks prepared for battle, but carries no weapon on him. "I have been dreaming of you," is all he says to clarify. What will the heroes, more specifically Nerwen, say? OoC: Picture forthcoming, sorry.

If Boomingham ever leaves Strivvi and gets a chance to be Maurauder (which I'd love) he'd pay good money for that cape.

Boomingham looks up in the sky. Far away, just a distant speck, he spies a bird floating around easily on the breeze. It dips and circles, but its track seems set, and it occupies always the same space of sky. Every once in a while it flies in the path of the sun, and the intense light forces Boomingham to shelter his eyes, and he loses track of it for a short while, but it is never difficult to find it again as it soars around in that same patch of sky. It swoops once, an enormously fast and powerful feat, but it seems to be only for play - it is not hunting yet (it is too early in the day, Boomingham assumes). Boomingham notes idly that the bird rarely flaps its wings to stay afloat. Most of the work is done by gliding, by feeling the air currents and then riding them. It is still able to get where it wants to go (not that it seems to be "going anywhere" but its moving, and it's clearly in control) but it can do so just by seeing what nature is doing around it, and riding what's coming. When a current ends, so does that flight, and the bird hangs motionless for a few moments, flapping its wings finally to maintain status of some sort - and then, just as suddenly, it catches a new air flow and is gliding easily again. He finds his hand inching towards his Tome of Affluence to jot down some inkling of a thought, something big, he feels, something cosmic, but for whatever reason he stays his hand and decides instead to watch the bird, blind for the moment to his companions and the ridiculous fight of honor his fellow Paladin has gotten himself into with the boy Atramor. It is folly, and it will be over soon, and then he and Nyx and Ellaria and the Ogre will be on to the next folly, on to the next "thing to do". But not now. Now he watches the bird, and though only a minute passes at most Boomingham feels like a week has gone by - and then when he returns to the moment he all but forgets about it.

Alright folks, I'm back! A big thanks to Kintober for helping out with the experiment! "Oh, that's fine," says XX as he watches the gold be passed out. "I didn't really help anyway, I guess. And Matthias, that weapon back, please." "A true hero helps even if he doesn't get gold," says Russel as they set out of the Inn and continue on the road. "Of course, not getting any gold, we're forced to wonder if we really did help, and are we true heroes," intones Pigley in his macabre timbre. The heroes watch as the sun arches through the sky as they continue their walk. They will, they are sure, going to reach Eubric by night time. This gives them time to think, talk, discuss what they know so far, make jokes about people who deal arms (weapons? body parts? who is to say!), discuss Olegia and mortality, whatever they feel like.

I wanted to steal Brickdoctor's name and sow confusion, so I don't really have to explain myself.

"Yeah, so he's bad at his job," XX shrugs. "Its not like if we asked him politely to leave he'd leave, so I don't know why he expects any different from us. You don't stab someone in the gut and then say oops, didn't mean to do that, might as well leave you alive now. When you set out to kill someone, you either kill them, or you fail. No half way on that."

I didn't know Khrone and I were working together to torment someone, but I'm sure we're doing a good job of it if we are.

"Agreed. We've got things to get to, and all this gibbering and gabbering isn't gonna help squat. You don't start killing someone and then stop killing them. I'm sure an assassin understands that."

It's always been funny to me that morality and mortality are such similar words because our mortality is exactly what makes morality so challenging.

Psh, no moral body can hold a demon! Just have it rip through anyway.

Russel looks back and forth between Nerwen and Matthias, and Purpearl and Matthias, and the Assassin and himself. He charges into combat regardless of whatever his little crab brain might be thinking. XX just grins at the whole situation, continuing his attack.

I would consider that a nuke more than a curveball. That's exactly what I'm saying - it would require the trust in us to not do that. It boils down to the chief rule of improv really (good for RP too): you want to make the other person of stage look like the best person on stage. What it means is that everything you do should help the person, never hurt them, and ripping the rug out from under them would hurt them. It is absolutely an unique position you're in, too! If I had a beloved NPC and someone contacted me with an idea to murder them, I'd sure have reservations. So it's just something to chew on as opposed to something to implement in full.

I know! I'm again not leveling it as a attack against you in any way what-so-ever, I think you do a wonderful job of managing the game! I don't think, either, that you're TRYING to uphold the Status Quo, and I furthermore don't think that it should have changed before now! I'm suggesting that NOW would be the time to start thinking about it - and it appears you are! And I know you don't want to be surprised - that's why I'm suggesting that maybe you should be. It will force creativity you didn't even know you had, because now you don't get your first choice as an option (necessity is the mother of invention and all that) - it's a question of trusting the other QMs to not drop nukes on the game, just throw you, as I said, a curve ball. But again, I don't think you're doing anything wrong even a little. I was just throwing out ideas for the future, not critiquing the past.

I'm not saying a radical change, though. See, this would still have about 80% of the old Eubric, there'd just be a little twist, and quests elsewhere would only be marginally affected. It's just like adding a new shade we haven't seen before, but the story continues! We still have Heroica and the Wolfgang to fight, and the Shadeaux and Hinckwells are still at it, and the Watch is still around, but everyone has something new to deal with, so how does that change things, and how do things stay, at the same time, very much recognizable. It's mostly about making us the players/QMs think in a new world where we can still tell any and every story from the old.

For the time being, I serve only as another player - it would be too much to have two QMs right now, I think. I would have accepted it as an action, so I didn't say anything! But to each their own! On the same note, Kinto, is there a reason that XX is damaged? I can't find it. Is it because he doesn't have a bedroll? I would have totally still healed him, that's a nice call! XX continues his attack without a word, but Russel turns to Matthias. "Innocent lives are at stake? Does he mean other than the hostage's? Are we fighting to protect someone who fights innocent lives?" The crab is clearly lost in the complexity of morality again.

Love it. I have yet do receive any real reward in this game save for fun and thrill. Sandy has told me after my fifteenth time hosting I will start to see monetary rewards in the real world. So excited!