Tamaranis

Oh noooooo!

No one wants that? Ten geld.

Despite the horrors these people knew they’d be up against there were, if anything, too many willing to take the fight to Gyrfalcon. The people of Tel Reth hardly needed convincing or promise of pay, even if they were too young, too old, or too injured to play any role in battle. Robby had hoped to gain a few extra swords to replace those lost in the attack, instead it seemed like there was an army here, just waiting for someone to give it direction. Convincing people not to join him was a problem. If someone argued that judging by the number of demons that had attacked Tel Reth they’d need every sword they could get, Robby didn’t have an argument that could dissuade them. He could hardly say he could handle the demons himself, considering the shape he was in, but the idea of recruiting every last soul who offered presented him with a nightmare vision of an army of children attacking their own number in bloodthirsty monsters. Already a couple of town guard and another mercenary had joined up with them. There were also three very young men and a young lady who’s opinions as to whether or not they had joined up differed from Robby’s. He was considering throwing a rock at them or something. “Alright, Teq and Wren are probably having just as much success as us,” Robby said, “we’re only going after Gyrfalcon, not his whole army. We’ve already got enough for that.” “But… we could have hundreds, we could kill off all his demons, too.” Llassar was having a somewhat different reaction to the ease of recruitment than Robby. “We can’t feed and arm hundreds,” That wasn’t exactly true, they had the funds to feed and arm thousands, “And we’d take too long to organize. You know what they say about killing the serpent’s head.” “No, what?” “Once, in another land, an empire fought spirits that conjured demons from the earth and air. The empire tried to fight the demons. The imperial armies were immense, and their soldiers unparalleled. For every soldier that died a dozen demons were destroyed, and the empire was nearly lost because they couldn’t strike at the spirits directly… we have to kill Gyrfalcon as quickly as possible.” “I’ve never heard of that story.” their new mercenary commented. “Not a story, just obscure history.” Robby elaborated, “the good guys won, but not by slaughtering monsters. The lesson here is to strike at Gyrfalcon as quickly and directly as possible.” “Okay, okay, I agree with you there,” one of their guards consented, “but how do we kill Gyrfalcon without killing his army first?” “Gyrfalcon’s armies aren’t sitting at home protecting him, they’re out here spreading death and misery. We handle a few of whatever personal guard he’s got, and I can kill a man from very far away” the mercenary indicated the collapsed piece of siege machinery strapped to his back, “no magic involved, mages spend their last few seconds surprised as hell.” “Anyone else just catch a whiff of something weird?” Robby suddenly asked. “Just smoke.” several voices answered. “Huh…” Robby spun to face the young people slightly separated from the rest of the group, “You lot quit following us, or there’ll be trouble soon as my arm heals!” ***** Teq and Wren had already returned to what was left of Teq’s home and were waiting when the others arrived. “We have to get moving right away,” Teq said at the same time Robby warned, “We might have a problem on our hands.” “How did you hurt your arm again?” asked a clearly annoyed voice. Only then did Robby notice that among those Teq and Wren had recruited was the priestess who had tried to heal him earlier. Before he realized what he was doing he’d turned his body to keep it between her and his right arm and retreated several steps. “I absolutely promise I can run faster scared than you can angry,” he said by way of answer, “so I’d appreciate if we could not bother playing it out.” ***** “Keep a low profile, no one do anything amazing.” Teq had warned, mostly for Robby and Licha’s benefit. But that plan was quickly abandoned in getting moving as soon as possible. They purchased food, supplies and a few extra weapons at several times their normal value, although Teq and Robby didn’t let on to just how much money they had. Then they set out in the general direction Ugarte had said Gyrfalcon was in. By the first night they were down to a dozen able fighters and three hangers on. Robby volunteered himself to act as the watch throughout the night, but there was a misunderstanding to the effect of it being unrealistic for an injured man to go without sleeping and remain alert all night. Eventually he gave up and allowed for an order to be set. Not feeling up to physical activity for once, but still as tireless as ever, Robby stayed up throughout the night chatting quietly with whoever had the assigned watch, tending a low fire, or generally keeping busy. When morning came his burns seemed to be unblistering, and the cuts on his torn hand looked a week old. He had normal mobility in the fingers later that day and observed that the arm no longer hurt. The next night they stayed in a small town that had been spared any fighting thus far. With no real need for anyone to keep watch on the party as they slept Robby ensured general security of the town by spending the night running an ever expanding circuit around it. That morning the splint was gone and he’d bought a few horses.

Inside the airship, a marvel of engineering, there was virtually no turbulence with lift off. A slight “thrum” that was felt more than heard, then nothing but the sensation of acceleration. It was like being in a perfectly normal building situated on the ground and not in a hurry to get anywhere. Outside the airship. Grazlt was experiencing something the term “turbulence” didn’t do justice to. Because he could fly, it hadn’t seemed cause for alarm when the ship took off without him. He should have worked harder to catch it before it started building up speed, though. It seemed the airship could fly rather faster than Grazlt could. He was caught in the slipstream now, and pumping his wings as hard as possible to stay there. If he lost it now he’d never catch up with the ship again. They were already going much, much faster than he could ever fly entirely under his own power. The air currents were both powerful and chaotic, more than was appropriate for a slipstream, and it was complicating things. There was really no such thing as really being in control anymore. Instead there were brief moments where he stopped tumbling and could make sure he was still struggling in the direction of the airship. A lesser being would have puked at least twice already. He was getting much closer again, but things were worse when he got very close. The ship was sending gusts backward in an attempt to dislodge pursuit. He was pretty sure he could gauge exactly where things got really messy, though. Cool weakness was spreading through his wings. He couldn’t keep up much longer. One last try. One good lunge. Crystal claws found purchase on the ship’s metal hide. *** “I just saw something on the side of the ship.” Christopher suddenly commented. “What?” Richard doubled checked the instrumentation in the cockpit. Nothing indicating anything had approached the ship in the air. “On the side of the ship, some kind of imp or something.” Suddenly Sweet pointed at the window across the cockpit from the one Christopher was warily staring out of. “A Beastie!” she happily declared. Beasties and imps definitely didn’t come standard with this model of aircraft. Richard would have liked to be able to just believe that Christopher and Sweet had gotten carried away with the experience of travelling via airship and were imagining things, but it was perfectly possible something in this strange place would have the capability to reach them undetected. They’d only just set out, it might be wise to just return to the courtyard and double check that nothing dangerous was afoot. Just then the beastie in question scrambled across the main view port of the cockpit. It started out at the top and almost made it to the bottom before the wind started pulling it back toward the top. It’s claws fruitlessly cut through glass until it reached a halfway point, where it screeched to a stop. It was five feet tall and mostly humanoid, but was crawling on all fours. It’s body was made of mottled white and grey crystalline material. Both its hands and its prehensile feet were clawed and it was desperately hanging on with all four limbs. It also sported a pair of wings and an ugly, elongated head, like various goblins and trolls are often depicted as possessing. It was upside down at the moment, and flashed the occupants of the craft a grin full of tiny, crystal teeth. It began changing its grip and shifting its position, and managed to perform a half turn so that it was now facing the occupants of the airship right side up. Then it released the glass with one hand, waited to make sure it was still secure, and reached into the many-pouched belt it was wearing, and produced a sheet of parchment which was immediately torn free of its grasp by the wind. It said something totally inaudible that Sweet probably shouldn’t have been allowed to hear anyway and made a hopeless grab for the parchment. It lost it’s grip as it did so and went scrambling out of view once more. ((He had one of Richard's posters))

Robby and Ming both held perfectly still, struggling to tell between signs of where their enemy was and phantoms conjured up by the fear of it. Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. Without a mage to cut through its power of illusion, they could do nothing but wait for the cat to strike. Minutes passed with no sign of the thing. “It’s just an animal, and I cuffed it pretty good…” Robby reasoned, “Maybe it ran off to find easier prey?” A few more seconds dragged on before he added, “No, I don‘t believe it and you can‘t understand me to start with” Then the storm that had seemed distant minutes ago struck. The sudden, heavy rain briefly outlined the shape of a predator only a few feet in front of Ming. The illusion adapted quickly, and the rain seemed to close like a curtain, leaving no trace that anything had ever been amiss. But even as it did Ming loosed an arrow. It stopped mid-way to the earth, apparently hanging in midair before it made a slight bobbing motion and disappeared. By instinct or a lucky guess Ming twisted out of the way of the cat’s lunge. Armed with a bow and a knife against an invisible cat that was already only a few feet away she would have been at a distinct disadvantage, but Robby demanded its attention by colliding with it. He’d actually meant to deliver a running kick, but he had no way to accurately gauge its position, and instead he hit it with his knees and lost his balance. As he fell claws struck the back of his knee and rebounded, leaving odd, short cuts. As he hit the ground he made a grab for the offending paw and felt his fingertips brush against fur in a near miss. Another arrow missed its mark but kept the beast weary enough for Robby to regain his feet. The cat waited, not immediately making another move. Another long, tense period of silence drew out, this time with a chilling rain pouring down. Then a slight distortion appeared in the air, dropping toward Robby. He drove his fists into it and struck only air, nearly managing to catch an arrow through his hand. Two more vaguely cat-shaped distortions appeared, and leaped at each of them. Ming moved to evade the one leaping toward her, Robby put himself off balance to kick at the same one. Once again, both were only air and illusion. Finally, Dana arrived. “Dana! Invisible monster cat!” Robby warned Too late. She cried out in alarm and fell forward, the cat appearing as it bore her to the ground. Robby and Ming both rushed toward her. The cat’s jaws closed around her neck. A shell of light appeared around Dana and held against the jaws. The cat’s claws raked against the shell and it flickered. A weight struck Robby in the back, pulling him to the ground. He rolled, easily escaping out from under it, and saw the cat writhing on the ground beside him. In confusion Robby looked back to where the cat had attacked Dana and saw nothing at all. The real thing, lying beside him, had an arrow through its throat. Another one appeared behind its shoulder as it rose. Images of the surrounding plants and grasses danced madly across its body as it struggled away, letting out several sharp yowls as it went. When it fell again it did not rise. Robby looked back toward where the false attack on Dana had occurred, to Ming, to where the cat had fallen, and back to Ming. “…I hope those things are solitary.”

I've been thinking, to avoid the possibility of death by a lucky shot from someone he didn't see right away, Magneto should invest in some serious armour. No matter how much metal the guy wears it's not going to slow him down. He ought to be wearing a couple thousand pounds of steel. It'd be like some huge power armour, except there's no machinery involved, he just uses his power to control it as intuitively as he would his own body. It wouldn't be very hard for him to make it either, and he could probably do something to the metal at the atomic level to make it able to stand up to more punishment than normal. Or he could just gut a sentinel and wear that, all vaguely creepy-like.

Okay, so... Megaman Rock Opera. You can actually get the first song on their CD at www.protomen.com and they've got the next four with lyrics (mostly) at www.myspace.com/theprotomen. Didn't like the first one so much, but the next four are awesome, and since there's a story being told and such... It's free to check out and awesome.

Also: Sin City also has a lot of nudity. You shouldn't mind nudity either, if you're going to see it.

On one hand... Doctor McNinja but on the other hand Morty Plus At least half of McNinja's awesomeness comes from also being a doctor, and some from being Irish as well... Anyway... Pirate.

I'm eagerly awaiting the day they stop making movies where a virus just magically gives people super powers. I had this false hope going on when Doom of all movies, rose above this, but it looks like that was a false alarm. Really, if a wizard did it just say a wizard did it.

Knowing that he couldn’t trust his eyes to pick out the subtle signs a well-chosen ambush point would leave, Robby closed them, took a deep breath to help focus his mind, and listened very carefully. Nothing. No magic strong enough to sense it, no sound loud enough he could hear. After opening his eyes again he quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to move as quietly as either of his companions. Going with them would only give away their position if a fight broke out, but he didn’t want to just abandon them in a potentially dangerous situation. Instead he decided to move into the forest quite separately from them and try to find the source of this sound on his own. If it was something that meant to hunt them it would most definitely perceive him, and with its attention thus diverted, the two women could easily take it by surprise. Of course, if they could hear whatever made the sound, it could likely hear them, so Robby wouldn’t be able to articulate his clever plan without giving it away. He settled for waving to Ming and Dana, hoping they would understand his intent, and wishing he knew that hand-talk. Then he moved off on his own. Robby made a deliberate effort to be quiet, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough to prevent an even remotely alert being from hearing his approach. And if it was going to hear him coming, sounding like a decoy wouldn’t do him any good. He worked his way out away from where Dana and Ming had gone for a few minutes before moving toward where Dana had indicated she heard a noise. Then fear hit him with almost physical force. Robby immediately dropped to the ground for fear of being seen. It took several seconds of trying to figure out just what had frightened him for Robby to realize it was nothing. He hadn’t heard anything, seen anything, or otherwise perceived anything that should have alarmed him. All the same, he felt incredibly exposed just where he was and he crawled as quietly as possible into some low bush for added cover. This didn’t help his feelings of unease any, though. He was harder to see now, but he also couldn’t see anything around him either. Someone could approach silently and he would never know it. A full fledged war golem, he would hear of course, but some of the regular soldier class golems were very stealthy and… And they were all at least a thousand miles away. Robby spent a few seconds reminding himself there were no golems hunting him. He’d escaped the Empire’s golems and he would not succumb to fear of them now. This situation was very similar to his last encounter with them, but he had to leave that behind. He stood back up. No golems. Just a forest with an unknown creature in it probably stalking him. A very bad time to be paralyzed by irrational fear, really. It would simply be too ironic to escape the empire only to be eaten by some random monster waiting for him in a forest, and besides he wasn’t the only person potentially in danger here. Then he heard what it must have been that tipped Dana off. He must have been close now, because it was definitely a cry of pain, but it was quiet. Still wary that whatever caused the trouble in the first place might still be around, Robby moved quickly toward the source of the noise. The assumption that someone had been in trouble was correct, apparently. There was a shallow pit, about twenty feet across, decorated with skulls and other gruesome bits of bone. It was also ringed with runes etched into the dirt around it, and a woman was tied to a stake at the centre, a ksol by the look of her. There was a lot of blood on her clothing and on the ground, and she looked far gone. This was exactly the sort of place that any number of unsavoury characters would hang around, but Robby couldn’t see any of them, and lacking evidence of immediate danger, the woman obviously needed help. Nothing appeared to attack him as he approached, even when he stumbled slightly stepping into the pit. He reached her without incident but the whole illusion began fading the second he touched it. Robby immediately went into a state of highest alertness possible, and so when something hit him in the back, he rolled forward and escaped most of the impact. He immediately rolled away from where he had landed, escaping a second pounce by some great cat. It charged toward him and caught his foot in its head as he sat up. The cat had probably been expecting him dead by now, hadn’t appreciated the kick to the head, and was re-evaluating its decision to kill him. Robby wasn’t familiar with exactly what sort of cat it was, and wouldn’t have been able to say for certain the difference between a leopard and a panther under the best of conditions, but he was fairly certain neither typically conjured up hallucinatory damsels in distress so as to lure in victims. “A little help here…” He called up not too loudly, hoping not to provoke the cat into a new attack. It faked a lunge and he stood while stumbling backward. The cat then decided on an actual pounce. This time Robby caught the cat’s outstretched claws on his forearms and thrust his closed fists toward its head. The cat’s claws cut flesh but Robby offered far more resistance than anticipated and despite having the advantage of the momentum of its pounce and being the heavier of the two the cat staggered back from the collision. It’s spots turned to stripes or it’s stripes turned to spots… which did it have in the first place anway? The cat displayed impressive fangs as it roared then faded from view altogether. “Ah… Dana?” Robby called.

No rifle for Ethan, it would be a waste of a shock trooper's strength to give him something so light with such a low cyclic rate of fire. Short and thick with arms that didn't have any trouble controlling long bursts from a machine gun with a 600 round ammo box on it, he was in his element here. Whatever this was, exactly. Another bug, the size of a horse, but with considerably less charisma gave no warning as it fell through the ceiling and onto a soldier, impaling him half a dozen times before it reached the ground. Two seconds and twenty rounds later it was dead. "Come on! Kill 'em. Kill 'em all!" The cry was full of infectious bloodlust. Ethan screamed wordless rage and another bug died. He waded forward-the bugs just kept coming and their shredded dead had started to become an obstruction-to get closer to the carnage, to have fewer allies blocking his line of fire. A trio of smaller, faster bugs darted between the legs of their slow and heavily armoured bretheren. They attacked before the closest man could respond to the new threat. One leapt and stuck all of its many sword-like legs through the torso of a marine. It might have had trouble disentangling itself if Ethan's next burst hadn't put a hole through both the man and the bug. Another died almost immediately after. The last nearly reached Ethan and its leap was just taking it off the ground when a third burst tore it to pieces and slammed it back down. The burning in his arms from continually swinging the weapon to new targets only made him feel stronger. The ground at Ethan's feet began to give way and he swung the weapon down, firing at something he couldn't see. Chips of stone flew in every direction, peppering his calves and shins with shallow cuts as his weapon chewed through earth just as easily as carapace. The next thing he knew he was falling. The bid dead bug he landed on didn't provide any cusioning, armoured in an exoskeleton as it was. Well, nothing was broken. Or if something was broken it didn't hurt so bad he couldn't move.

And then he justifies it.

I seem to be missing forums on the main list here... I'm logged in and all that jazz. This is board-wide problem I'm just unaware because I never know what's going on around me? Or have I commited some sort of terrible crime against The Pen, then forgotten about it?

Oh yeah, and... For shame! For shame!

It was Like... TAMARANIS: So uh... merry Valentines day. KATZANIEL: Uh... I... I can't really come up with a snappy response. Joyful Valentines day? TAMARANIS: You should have gone with "frabjous." And that's what we did today!

So are you like, semi-back now, or what?

...and not one cataclysm.

I think it's not disabled on Argent Dawn... Friend of mine joined that server about a week ago.

Robby watched intently, not saying anything as Ming drew her bark sketches. He watched even more intently, trying to lock everything she did into memory, when she attempted to explain their meaning in hand-talk. There just wasn’t enough to go on to understand her. He was fairly certain he picked up the gesture for “boat,” and there was a gesture she used in reference to herself twice, but whether it referred to her personally, her people, or it described some quality she possessed… he didn’t even recognize the alphabet she’d to write her name. Well, he could make out easily enough that she’d sailed across an ocean to get here. Then Dana offered them a drink. “Well, I don’t really drink,” Robby answered, “but it beats standing around in the middle of nowhere waiting for nothing.” “C’mon, I’m sure I can find someone to translate for us at the Keep.” Dana gestured for Ming to follow and started walking away. “Mind if I hang on to these?” Robby picked up the two pieces of tree bark Ming had given him before following Dana, hoping he might learn some greater detail from them. Ming hesitated. Robby and Dana were walking in the open, no cover, nowhere to hide if an enemy appeared. They seemed friendly enough, but she didn’t understand a single word either of them had said, she had no basis to trust them. But she would have to take a chance sometime, she couldn’t live as a wild hunter forever, and she would never just happen upon anyone she shared a language with in this land. She followed a few steps and stopped again, not knowing what to do. She felt the loss of her tongue very keenly for a moment. The young man seemed to have been some sort of linguist, maybe she could have effectively communicated with him if only she could speak. That would make everything so much easier. …but it wouldn’t really have made her any safer, it just would have provided a sense of security. Instinct said not to walk so boldly, the arrogance that made people move about without any sort of protection killed them. Every sense was on full alert, surveying the surroundings with nearly the same precision Dana could manage. She spotted a possible hiding place for enemies every second, but Ming slowly walked toward Robby and Dana, fell into step with them, and began travelling with them. “I wonder why I’m not as jumpy as she is.” Robby mused out loud, “I guess talking helps…” *** Robby made as much conversation as he could as the three of them walked, focussing on musings on the things around them and picking out images in the clouds. He tried to involve Ming in this as much as possible, and endeavoured to make note of whatever hand gestures she made. Eventually enough mutual exposure to each other’s languages would surely allow some sort of communication. Further, he was hoping to put Ming more at ease. “…of course back home we don’t have a lot of trees like that because, well, it’s complicated. I think you two wouldn‘t believe me.”

Something seemed to circle the work area. Just far enough away that the remaining branches prevented it from being properly seen. It must have been very well camouflaged, or perhaps even invisible… it was easy to see the creature was man-shaped, but the way it pushed foliage out of its way was much more visible than the creature itself. Wyvern’s eyes narrowed at the sight of his arch-nemesis. One of many, anyway. “Get out of here! I acquired this land through perfectly legitimate blackmail” Wyvern hurried toward the shape, “I’m just a business man, this mall will be a boon to the local economy, who are you to judge me anyway?, Almost Dragoni industries produces many fine products that every day people like you use every day… get off my worksite! Ferrang! Gurpu! Get this…” Wyvern stopped, slightly confused. His hands had been practically on the guy. He should have been holding a reporter in his claws, but instead he just had air and a few stray leaves. Wyvern dusted his claws off, satisfied with a job well done, and made toward the dead dear he’d been resting on. Then the reporter walked through the woods right in front of his snout and disappeared into the forest proper too fast for Wyvern to bother following. A few minutes later he showed up again, still circling just too far away to make him out. Wyvern’s workers tried to chase him off, and he disappeared as soon as they got near him. The process was repeated several times before the workers became nervous. This didn’t seem like any reporter any of them had ever seen before, and there were rumours involving Wyvern and mafia debt. Several hours after the shadowy figure’s first appearance he finally made his move. When the lizard men moved toward him, a little nervously now, the limbs of the trees and shrubs around it exploded into movement, obliterating his outline. Every branch swayed frantically at the limits of the movement it could undergo without being damaged. There was no cohesion or collective direction to the movement, and it was completely independent of any sort of wind. The “storm” as it were, advanced upon and engulfed one of the lizard men, who collapsed and began to thrash as frantically as the forest about him. Then it all stopped as suddenly as it had started. There was no sign of the shadowy man. The afflicted lizard man stood up uneasily, as if he couldn’t quite control his limbs. “Back to work all of you! I’m not paying you to stand around listening to weird noises in the woods.” Wyvern hollered at them, “You too, Shakey.” The lizard man who had previously fallen fell down again. Then slowly got back up. A little steadier this time. Then it began staggering directly toward Wyvern, who was mentally rehearsing several ways to deny a request for a sick day. It stopped when it was only a few feet from Wyvern, made a choking noise, and giggled a bit. It seemed to regain its composure before addressing Wyvern with a single, slowly pronounced word, “Defiler.” “Yeah. What are you doing, Murg?” “Hosting a bodiless forest spirit.” Murg answered. “Well quit it, I’m not paying you to play host to forest spirits either.” Wyvern snapped. Murg seemed to notice the sun, and stared directly at it for fifteen seconds or so, “It’s bad for eyes.” he observed.

Maybe they were anti-conservative, and felt that a conservative government forming was worthy of flying a flag at half mast... No one is apathetic about that party, they either love them or hate them. I get more and more jaded about this kind of thing every time we have an election. I've come to the conlcusion that all politicians are liars, because politicians have realized that despite what everyone says, all they really want are some nice, comfortable lies.

You know what we should do, is work out a prophecy. There could be all sorts of portents and stuff, signs indicating the return of Salinye is upon us. And we can make all sorts of vaguely worded predictions that imply she'll either lift us up into an age of enlightenment or destroy us all.

Just tell them, "Thursday."

Well, I've tried to take Wyvern's advice, literally, and show a celebration. Now for some reason, I feel a need to share my thought process and defend the post here. One thing I tried to show is that the elves are not in perfect harmony with nature, sure they live in a happy communist paradise, but they invested a great deal of magic and effort in refuting it. Also, I didn't completely escape the context of violence. But in the defence of a "sword dance," from the viewpoints of the characters it was just a matter of playing with swords, and had nothing to do with fighting. I also mention that Meeri's "fire dance" might have been adapted from something originally intended for less peaceful purposes. But she's a slightly darker character. And Almok could have been wrong about that anyway. Other than that... It might have been too early to include this event. There haven't been many characters introduced so far, and nothing really dark has happened for this brighter scene to be contrasted against. But at the same time, I didn't think I could really just pop this celebration out of nowhere at a later point. It would beg the question "Why haven't we seen this before now?" if I did.