The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

OOC:[posting.]

Narp "OK, i got a plan. If one of you can increase the amount of sunlight up on top of the tower. Like a magnifying glass? Make them sweat alot?"

D "Illusion magic deals with light. I can cast such a spell. The heat won't kill them, but in about a half an hour, they will start looking for a drink. You have come up with a way to keep them on the tower?"

Narp "Yeah. Arther, you close and bar the door on the inside and then, Jack, you teleport all the golems to the inside. give them instructions to push against the door until they can fight somone. Maybe add a few every time we get low on golems. In the meantime, maybe we could finish fixing the castle. Not to mention healing the defenders. I should have read that book on architecture." His gaze wander's for a minute.

Which is less than it takes for Arther to close the door, lift the bar onto the brackets to lock it, Jack to modify the instructions on the golems a little then teleport the golems into the room and D to cast a magical magnifying glass over the tower.

OOC:[um, need practice.]

[ October 21, 2003, 07:06: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Jack "Yes, we ought to do something for our allies. Let's see...."

Jack thinks for a minute, and then starts forming a half-dozen more golems, these ones with giant red crosses on their chests and backs.

Jack (to newest batch of golems) "Go heal our allies."

Jack scatters the golems around the battlefield, so that there is no clear origin point for them, and they begin their work. One is in view of the party - it finds a combatent in the Baron's colors on the ground, bends over, raises it's arm, and a beam of green light jumps from the golem's arm to the injured man. A moment later, the golem moves on to another, and repeats the procedure. The man gets up, looking a little confused, and heads back to the manor to report in.

Jack "Those should be good for thirty or forty healings each. As for the castle, it's not too bad - just a minor patch job. I've seen worse."

Jack forms another half-dozen golems, these ones with giant hammers imprinted on their chests and backs.

Jack (to hammer-golems) "Fix the damage to the manor."

As the golems start to move off, Jack teleports them over to the most damaged section of wall, where the golems immediately start replacing fallen stones, and tracing glowing bands of energy on them, which appears to seal them in place. They seem to be working quite quickly.

Jack "I included a memory of how the place used to look; they will keep replacing stones until the manor itself is close to that image again."

Jack "As to the fighting golems - they are partway between a spell and an enchantment. The bandits' defense against magic will be partly effective, and act as a slow drain on the golems' energy. I built them with that in mind, giving them extra energy stores. They should have enough energy to hold out for about an hour once they engage in combat before they start slowing down and weakening."

Up in the tower, the bandits are looking around, wondering where their prey went. One of them stands apart slightly, apparently supervising the rest.

Bandit 1 "Well, they don't appear to be coming back."

Bandit Commander "Let's go loot the place then, and get out of the sun."

The other bandits chime in with a chorus of general consent, and they head over to the door, which is already barred.

Bandit 2 (to his commander) "Umm, the door won't open."

Bandit Commander "Well then, knock it down."

The bandit obligingly hits the door, and it is apparent their alchemical enhancements are still in effect, as the punch pokes a hole in the heavy wooden door.

Bandit 2 "Commander, there is something on the other side!"

[ October 21, 2003, 18:21: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

John is still struggling to remove the inhaled insects from his throat and swatting ineffectively at the remainder of the swarm. Arthur pounds on his back two or three times, dislodging the offending invaders. John then takes a small globe from his robes, suspending it about three feet off the air. The globe begins to glow softly, attracting most of the nearby bugs and shocking them when they attempt to land on its surface. [ooc: Bug zappers--great entertainment! ]

Despite the bandits' illusion of heat and bright sunlight, the sky is cloudy and dusk is near. As the outlaws attempt to break down the tower door, the clouds part momentarily near the horizon, allowing a dull, red light to illuminate the castle. Crushed bodies and broken stone litter the hillside, which is only beginning to dry. Thick mud cakes the courtyard and the walls, showing the inroads made by the attackers. Weapons protrude from the earth at odd angles, flung away by their retreating owners and left to the grasp of the sloppy terrain. The large tree which trampled many of the bandits is still smoldering, a light haze moving skywards and slightly to the northwest. Dazed and injured guards stare numbly at something beyond the ken of this plane, while the few who remain unscathed huddle in a small knot around an attempt at a fire. The air suddenly seems cold, although the light breeze is barely detectable. The golems stealthily and silently go about their work of repairing both buildings and bodies, remaining unrecognized with the aid of illusion and silence spells from D.

The party hears a splintering sound, followed by the surprised pejoratives of the bandits above. Again, the splintering sound, followed by two thuds in rapid succession. A head is briefly seen above the wall; then his lifeless frame sinks out of sight. The shouts grow louder but quickly subside under the verbal bludgeoning of the commander.

John "Well, this battle is as good as over for us. I might as well give you the rest of your ring, Arthur." He digs into his robe for the pouch containing the signet. Pulling it out, he utters a brief spell altering the protection runes to recognize Arthur's ownership. Arthur likewise retrieves his segments of the ring and prepares to receive his long-awaited prize.

[ October 31, 2003, 04:35: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[ok, i said i would post. and i'm going to post. if it's horrible, scream. discriptive text seems good.]

Narp is slumped against the base of an undamaged wall, occasionally cocking his head at the sounds coming from the top of tower, following the progress of the battle.

At various places around the walls, soldier's and servants stir, suddenly finding themselves no longer dying. Some dance, some sing, some hold themselves and rock horribly and some just weep. Here and there, a few are holding bodies to far gone to heal, with sections simply missing.

ooc:[i think i borrowed from David Drake. now, the problem is i can't say i like this addition - but it is nessesary.]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Agreed, it was necessary.]

Jack "Narp, I'm curious, how are you feeling?"

Narp "Oddly, not too bad. I've got a slight headache, but nothing even resembling the Last time."

Jack "That's about what I thought. The bandits' defenses ate my spell. You were only fully under it for about half a second."

Arthur "Didn't you say it rode adreniline?"

Jack "Yes, but it is still a spell. It mostly just enhances the effects of adreniline, and terminates itself when the supply drops past a certain level. The bandits' alchemy effectively terminated it, much as I would if I had a need to cancel it."

Back up on the tower, the bandit commander pulls a small hourglass out of a pocket. It is clear it is enchanted, as it is keeping perfect time despite the fact that the commander is holding it upside down. There's not much time left in it.

The commander views the ongoing battle. Half of his men were out of the fight, either dead or too wounded to stand, and his men had only managed to take down half of the golems. At this rate, it was likely to be a matter of mutual annhiliation.

However, this rate couldn't be kept up for much longer; the alchemist had told him with much certainty that those potions would stop working when the sand ran out, and it was almost gone. He'd always said it and he'd always been right.

The commander made a decision.

Commander "SWORDS DOWN!"

Bandit "But sir!"

Commander "YOU HEARD ME! SWORDS DOWN!"

The bandit who had spoken up reluctantly drops his weapon, and the golem he had been fighting ceases to attack him, instead turning towards a bandit still fighting. Seeing this, the other bandits can't drop their weapons fast enough. The golems then back into the stairwell, and take on a ready position, neither dropping their gaurd nor taking the offensive.

Another bandit speaks up.

Bandit "What now?"

The commander is silent a moment as he watches the Last of the sand drain out of hourglass. A moment later he clutches his head, as does the rest of the force.

Commander "Ugh, now we wait and see. Hopefully, someone we can negotiate with will arrive. Meanwhile, let's start patching people up."

[ November 02, 2003, 05:03: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Krsqk]

[ooc: post in Progresso ]

The golems, having worked quickly, are nearly finished with their work. All who are saveable have been healed, while only twenty yards of the wall remains unrepaired. People mutter and shake their heads at the sudden attack and the strange turns of events. A few babble incoherently about flying men and trees, but no one takes them seriously.

The party gathers near the base of the wizard's tower and prepares to ascend.

Arthur "The Baron should be back any minute now. He must have covered the distance from my mountain by now, even with the messed up weather."

John "I'm more worried about what he'll find when he gets here. I'm not sure I have an explanation that he'll like. And we still have a slew of bandits up there to negotiate a surrender with."

D "Not to mention that we left the psi and her...her...that creature back in the mage cave. There probably are a few loose ends for us to wrap up there."

Jack "The golems seem to be guarding the rest of the bandits now. The activity from their control runes has died down quite a bit. Probably the bandits have stopped fighting."

While the party wearily climbs the steep, winding staircase, a distant trumpet sounds simultaneously with a watchman's cry announcing the sighting of the baron and his soldiers. John briefly glances out a slit toward the gate and pauses, then continues up while muttering under his breath about damping flour and his workroom.

[ooc: Done, but not great. It seems like a FF scene before a major battle where every character feels obligated to say something before they go fight. ]

[ November 08, 2003, 04:03: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

OOC:[well, here goes nothing...]

Narp "shouldn't one of us greet the baron? someone he already knows, perferably? someone he's more likely to react to with happiness?"

Narp looks at John. Everybody looks at John. John glares at everbody and mutter's something about his workroom. Then he mutter's something else. Finally, he says "ok, ok, i'll meet him. And explain the lot of you. somehow." Narp and Arther are certain that his gaze linger's on them a moment longer than nessasary. Jack is oblivious.

so, it is that when the Baron strides into his great hall, he is greeted by his old friend and an explanation that has the double virtues of being true and more comprehensible than anything he has heard so far.

ooc:[i guess i came up with how to do that. sorta.]

[Jack Simth]

At Last, the party comes to the top of the tower, where the golems are blocking the doorway.

Jack (to golems) "Line up against the wall."

The golems just stand there, facing the door, swords at the ready. After a minute, Jack pokes one. It collapses in a pile of dust; the sword it was holding clatters loudly to the floor.

D "So much for them Lasting an hour."

Jack "Of course - there was more than one bandit in range at any given time, and they all drew power from the golems. I forgot to account for that. It's a good thing the bandits stopped when they did. Hmm, is the damping field still active?"

Jack forms a small glowing globe between his hands, which slowly shrinks to nothing.

Jack "Yep, it is; pretty strong too, as we are pretty far from the center of the effect. Perhaps it sustains itself on the energy it drains. If so, we may not have as much of an edge as we thought."

D "How much indication do you think the bandits have of our lack of immediate backup?"

Jack "I suppose they don't have any, do they?"

Narp "That sword was a little loud."

Jack "Okay, so they do have a clue."

ooc:[so, should we try to bluff the bandits down, wait for the baron's men so it isn't a bluff, be open with the bandits and alert them to both circumstances, or something else?]