The Misadventures of the Missed Adventurers

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp sits down, pulls off his pack and begins rumaging through it. he pulls out a pan, a pot, a few small pieces of firewood he forgot about, an eating dagger and a couple of fighting daggers, some lint, a small firewood ax and a big ball of string. "this should help."

ooc:[does that answer your question? i'm being nagged for the computer so that's all i can post right now, i foolishly squandered my time on simcity2000. then, when i get the money for a brand new microwave power plant, few months later beam wanders and boom. so i decide to build hydro and just forget that the raise lower terain thing is technically cheating. next thing i know, i get an earthquake and most of the city burns down. rebuilding is fun.]

they pass through the doorway and find themselves again facing three doorways. this time though, other than the runes which can be seen periodically decorating the labrynth, the doors are the same. in fact, on each of the walls the only varations are the runes.
miles away, a mage peers at a distorted and staticy three diminsional picture. "they appear resourcefull. most history books put the reign of the three day emporor at three weeks. and 'the many uses of snowballs' took a master wizard to write, yet i do not think he has read it. although, that spell is not a master spell. now, that rune...." the image destabilizes then stabilizes on a rune on one of the walls. "could it be it doesn't hold...NO! IMPOSSIBLE! IT MUST!" the wizard bangs his fist on a nearby table.
back to our heroes:
beyond the right door, the cooridor goes about forty feet, the turns right. beyond the left door, it goes into the darkness a hundred feet, then nothing more can be seen. twenty feet beyond the center door there is a grate and clanging noises can be heard beyond.
narp "whatever is beyond the center door, it was meant to deal with one intruder. chances are, three can deal with it handily. also, it probably is the fastest route, as it is guarded. unless it's meant to be a trick or a trap more dangerous than it seems. but, all these ways could be a trap. i say center."

ooc:[yep, narp's a fighter now.]

back in the lab, the wizard creates another image, this time, again of the wolf. considering, the wizard mused "the presence of an intelligent wolf would improve there chances and may cost me little in comparison to what i will gain. perhaps..." making his voice momentarily audible to the wolf, the wizard says "in return for your assistance to them, would you consider a tracker that would allow you to see where all the animals are in ten miles? or perhaps, with your sense of smell, a suit of mail that changes to match your appearance and is light as a feather? i will understand your reply."

ooc:[no Posts sunday. time for me to sleep.]

[ June 15, 2003, 07:53: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Katchoo]

Outside of the Maze the grey wolf bites down into the warm flesh of a freshly killed rabbit. Abbrubtly though, the voice that came from everywhere came again...

"..in return for your assistance to them, would you consider a tracker that would allow you to see where all the animals are in ten miles? or perhaps, with your sense of smell, a suit of mail that changes to match your appearance and is light as a feather? i will understand your reply."

When the wolf first heard the voice he was mildy fightened, since the voice came from no place that the wolf could taste its scent. Yet the wolf came back to an ease with the understanding that he would be defenseless against an attacker he couldn't scent in advance, so why waste the time fretting?

As before, the wolf understood the meanings from the voice. Magic and man-made skin...

What use are man-made objects to me? Thought the wolf. I was born, I live, and I will die. These are the realities I live with. The other animals in the forest live with this understanding. So do the plants. I live with this certainty and accept it.

But man does not. Man sees these certainties but spends his existance making every attempt he can to alter them. These certainties are what make and hold the Natural World around us. To spend one's life in the persuit of avoiding the inevitable is foolish and wasteful.

Magic is the gravest perVersion of Nature, and hurts her deeply. Man uses magic to bring water from nowhere, to extend his life, and to end the life around him. This is done with no respect to the consequences of Nature. Man simply does not realize the depth of the life around him. What he treats as lifeless or inanimate most assuredly is not. A tree torn apart to make furnishings still exists, knowing what it is, what it was. As long as the smallest part of it exists, then it lives. This is part of the ignorance Man shows to Nature. When magic is used, Nature is forced to change unwillingly, to act unnaturally.

Every part of Nature shares it's existance with the rest, and this sharing also ties us to the pain brought onto her.

I feel the Magic within that cave. I feel the pain of Nature being twisted unnaturally. This is why I did not follow the 3 travellers inside. I could not tolerate the perVersion. The crying of Mother Nature would force me to protect her, and in turn, hurt the travellers.

So I will wait here and see if they return from within. I will see if Mother Nature strikes back and keeps them within forever, or if they begin to understand what truely exists around them.

The wolf snorts out a blow of hot air from his nostrils and turns his attention back to his supper.

If you give these 3 travellers anything, give them understanding.

[Jack Simth]

Jack "The center door works for me. Most defense strategies produce a simple way of finding the thing defended: Follow the path of most resistance. So far, this labrynth has followed that principle, and there is nothing to indicate that it won't continue to do so."

D "Works for me."

With that, the party of intrepid adventurers pass through the center door, towards the grate.

As they approach the grate, a figure can be seen on the other side. It is a very large, heavily muscled creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. It wields a very large two-headed, two-handed steel axe in its hands. It snorts as it sees the party and says:

"It hath been a very long time since I Last tasted meat. Thine will do quite nicely. The lever to thy left shall open the gates and let thee in. The Sphere Room lies just beyond the door behind me. Come and pit thyselves against my axe, if thou doth wish to gain entry."

ooc:[So, should we: 1) open the gate and fight it, 2) try shooting it through the gate, 3) open the gate and try to talk a way past it, 4) try to talk it into a better mood with the gate closed, 5) wait till it falls asleep and sneak past, 6) wait till it falls asleep and kill it in its sleep, 7) try magic, or 8) something else?]

ooc:[Actually, the secret I was referring to is much simpler - just put your hand on a wall and walk forward, keeping your hand on the wall. Unless the maze changes, you can only pass a given way a limited number of times, some passageways can only be traversed one direction, you can't backtrack, the mage isn't edge-entry and edge-exit, or the maze is arranged in more than two dimensions, you will eventually solve the maze.]

ooc:[The in-game terrain shaping in Sim City 2000 isn't cheating, as it costs money to do, and can be done in real life - it is mostly a matter of bringing lots of dirt in or shipping it out.]

[ June 15, 2003, 09:52: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[no, it's not really cheating, but one of the challenges is dealing with the terrian you have. yep, the minataur now has pants.]

narp "if you want food, my companions are capable of creating it. now, how old are you? do you know anything about the reign of stoder the able? theirs very little in the history books, you know. or how about anywil of anble? or..." narp starts to ramble on and on and on...

D. wispering to jack "the minatuar may not be a minion of evil, i say that we should engage him in conversation and only attepmt to subdue him if nessesary"

ooc:[not going to update much now. tired.]

deep in the cave, the mage's eyes light up.
"so, it is your contention, then, wolf, that wolves and other beings do not struggle against death? the very roots beneath your feet say otherwise, as even they struggle against each other, to kill or be killed. that is all they can do, it is their nature. it is the nature of intelligence to seek more. your own curiosity bears this out."

ooc:[i'm not sure wether the wizards going to be evil/power hungry or power hungry/foolish/good side which he doesn't pay enough attention to. jack, getting tired of the maze?]

[ June 19, 2003, 21:03: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[I'm getting tired of the trap-untrap cycle with no real plot-decision points, anyway. Ultimately, this is a form of storytelling, and repeated variations on the same thing get dull after a short time. We've dealt with three so far - the time-freeze, the stone dragon heads, and the riddle box (four if you include the minotaur). I could use a break from the cycle for a while - reaching the sphere room and deciding what to do with the spheres, then dealing with the mage in the cave should provide that.]

Jack, whispering to D "I suppose that should work"

[b]Listening to Narp, the minatuar's eyes soon go glassy, and then he falls asleep on his feet, and begins to snore softly.[b]
ooc:[You did specifically say Narp was rambling on and on and on - falling asleep seemed a natural response, as he is stuck behind some bars for the moment]

Jack, whispering to D "Do you think he's faking it?"

D, whispering to Jack "No, I don't think so. Do you think pulling the lever would wake him up?"

[ June 16, 2003, 10:47: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ooc:[didn't we decide it was an unstable sphere of change that the labrynth was keeping stable?]

D "as long as narp keeps talking, i think it'll keep sleeping."
narp "...and then there's the lost king of kentovia and the ancient scrolls of encilada and have you heard of the enchanted axe of entilda? the old kingdom of hincidia is particularly interesting to and..."
D "lets wait a bit more."
after a few more minutes, loud snores can be heard coming from the minotaur.
D "i think it's safe." pulls the lever. the grate moves up, with much creaking and groaning. the minotaur is so dazed he doesn't even twitch. narp notices though.
narp "hey, when did we decide to open the grate?"
the minotaur's eyelids twitch and he stops in mid-snort.
D "what was that about the search for the hyncida?"
narp is off again. the minotaur subsides.

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[We did decide that was it, yes - however, we haven't decided what we will DO about it when we get there - destroy the spheres, repair the unstable sphere of alteration, fix a problem with the stabilization that is possibly causing the shifts in the region, et cetera. If we leave things there, then we also need to decide if we are going to reset the different traps on the way out, make new ones, or leave everything open - such decisions probably need to be taken care of with in character conversation and a little narration. If we choose to destroy the spheres, we could even tie in Katchoo's character's reason for not following the party, with a small amount of creativity (source of the instability, perhaps - perhaps the spheres were built using energy harvested from a few continents, and the energy fought back, damaging the enchantment for the sphere of change, causing the instability in the first place).]

The party quietly walks past the minotaur (dragging Narp, who is still talking), and reach the door with no apparent difficulty.

Back in the mage's cave, the mage's viewing spell finally fizzles out completely.

Mage "Hmm, it seems there is nothing that can be done until they return this way."

Back in the Labyrinth

D "Now that is proof positive that no learning is ever wasted."

After a quick check for traps, the party opens the door, steps into the room beyond, and blocks the door behind them.

The Sphere Room is suprisingly plain - the room itself is shaped as a pentagon, there is a large pentagram inscribed in the floor. At each vertice of the pentagon formed by the pentagram rests a stand, four of which have silver spheres on them, the fifth of which has fallen over, with the matching silver sphere resting in a corner of the room.

In the exact center of the room, there is an identical pedastal, only this one is supporting a black sphere that shimmers very slowly.

Jack "This entire room seems to be a focusing lens, pushing the effect of the silver spheres on the black one. Come to think of it, the entire labryinth was arranged in a pentagon as well. The entire complex seems to be focused on keeping that one black sphere under the influence of the silvers. As the silver spheres aren't changing any, and there is more than one of them, I would suppose that they are the Spheres of Stability the mage was referring to."

D chuckles
D "Most likely - but think for a minute: what do you suppose could still shimmer at the center of all that?"

Jack "Well, the pentagram is incomplete at the moment, but is still rather functional, so it would just about need to be a Sphere of Change. Even at that though ... it has to be unstable. There's scarecly any other way. Four focused Spheres of Stability and it's still shimmering. It's unstable."

D "That is my conclusion as well. So, what are we going to do about it?"

[ June 16, 2003, 11:25: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[David E. Gervais]

Hi people,

Just wanted to let you know that 'time' is at a premium right now so don't expect me to contribute to this RP thread. I will however look in from time to time to follow the story.

Cheers!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

narp "and then the king of...huh, what? we're in the sphere room? when did that happen? where did the minotaur go? you know, he was a good listener. is that an unstable sphere of change? maybe we should put the tripod back up."
going around the room to the fallen tripod, narp puts the protection gloves on, then picks up the sphere, pulls the tripod up, and puts the sphere on it. unfortunatly, his hasty action damages some of the protections.

in the mage's lab, the image clears for a second. the mages eyes widen. "FINALLY!" he says "the sphere of change will be MINE!"

he dismisses the image and quickly begins casting the spell to take him to the entrance to the maze.

as a few of the runes in the room develop cracks, narp says "oops"

ooc:[i think we could have him arrive in the sphere room just in time to barely contain the bLast using all the protection spells in the labrynth, which comes after some tense moments as we run around trying to fix the protections, jack teleports us out, for the purpose of wolf continuity, we could have jack's teleport spell latch onto the remnants of the teleport spell that got us here, then we watch wherever the labrynth is under go up in smoke because it doesn't have to be that far, giving the mage a fate unkown. what do you think, jack? i see some cliches. or we could have the mage teleport the sphere to a wasteland area, maybe in another dimension, which creates the bLast.]

[ June 16, 2003, 23:16: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

ooc:[Actually, with the protections damaged, it makes sense that the teleport block might be sorely weakened. I was thinking more along the lines of we pump all the energy back out of the spheres - remember how way back I said it was life energy that stabalizes things? Suppose it wasn't simulated life energy, but the real thing; harvested from the area permanently taking energy that is supposed to cycle forever (it would explain Katchoo's wolf's strong aVersion to magic, and the flaw in the sphere of change - the life energy objected to being used so) we let the energy back out (the energy itself will aid us in this - it wants to get back out) which will probably cause a very dense jungle to form above our heads as the local flora and fauna feeds on the superabundance of life energy - still a bit cliche, but slightly less so. Besides, if we clear the spheres safely, we get to face off against the mage.]

Jack quicly tosses some glowing green bands at the spheres, and they are momentarily bottled up
Jack "That should hold things for a moment, but they won't hold out long."

Jack looks at the spheres and blinks
Jack "Whoever built these was a total idiot. That isn't clean energy. Every bit of energy used in making those things was drained from the environment; you're not supposed to do that. At that level of drain, it not only kills most of the local life and render the area barren for centuries, but you can't control it well; the energy objects and can't be forced into the tight energy bands needed for good runes. That seems to be what caused the instability in the first place. However, I think we can fix this. Retarde Le Charme"

Jack quickly produces six of the same glowing half-spheres he caught D's dispel with at the dragon-head room

Jack "D - dispel these. I can then use your dispels to break the spheres in a controlled fashion, releasing the energy back to where it belongs. Had those spheres been made right, that wouldn't work; however, the energy will be our ally in this."

D quicly casts dispel at each of Jack's half-spheres, and each time the dispel is caught. Jack quicly runs around and places the glowing orbs near the spheres - one each for the stability spheres, and one for the sphere of change - and then backs away.

Jack "D�gagement"

With that, the six glowing spheres dissappear, and the dispels hit the five silver spheres and the black sphere. Immediately, thick bright green bands of energy start rushing out of the spheres and going through the cieling. Everywhere they touch, green plants spring up.

Jack "It's time we leave."

D "Agreed."

The mage chooses this exact moment to enter the sphere room...

Mage "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!"