Short Odds and Ends from Discussion Board Posts

 

 

 

TARES

 

**Twyncles took one side of the street while Ariana took the other. Entering the first cottage, she put her hand over her nose.. the charnel smell was still high in the hamlet. She saw the bodies of two elderly folk slumped over their table. Flies buzzed around, lifting up from their work when her entrance disturbed them.

She noted the old couple appeared to have been at a meal.. the moldy remains of a rind of cheese sat on a small pewter plate. The mugs of what had been ale were dried out, she sniffed them but other than the vineagarie smell, nothing struck her as being of import there.

Leaving the sad little scene, she went outside.. walking around to the back of the cottage to check the well. Droppiing the mossy bucket down into the water, she drew up a slopping sample. It was clear to her eye and had no appearance of cloudiness or other taint.

It smelled fresh enough.. a little earthy but again.. it seemed perfectly potable. She saw Ariana across the way, slipping around to the back of another cottage to make the same investigation, as they had both been of the same mind.. the folk had died of some befouled food or water.

Ariana re-appeared.. spotted her and waved.. shaking her head to signal that she had not found anything significant yet either.

Twyncles returned to the front of the dwelling and made her way to the next one. The sun was bearing down in bright indifference to the tragedy that had befallen this simple hamlet of small cottagers. She turned her head toward the sound of an approaching cart.

She smiled and stepped out into the street, recognising the bright golden pony pulling the trap and the driver. Nimity reined Willem in by the other two horses and got out of the cart, his usual serenity and gentle smile diminished to an expression of grave concern, as he took in the silent hamlet.

Twyncles called to Ariana.. to let her know Nimity had joined them in the investigation. **

**Returning the next day, the party once again began to search through the silent village for some clue to the death of it's inhabitants.

Using scarves soaked in wintergreen oil to ease the terrible charnel house smell of the unburied bodies they went from dwelling to dwelling, some were empty.. and the disarray of the furnishings gave some credence to the idea that not all had perished.. some had fled to safety.

Twyncles was minded to see if she could get someone in to give the bodies a decent burial at least. She rejoined Nimity and Ariana in the center of the deserted street. The fact that there were  no dead animals lying about indicated that the one thing all the inhabitants shared, the water, was probably not the source of the tragedy that had befallen the hapless cotters.

She and Ariana decided to take one more look at the first cottage Twyncles had investigated. Entering the dim single room, they could see that nothing had changed. The old couple still slumped upon the table. The remnants of their simple supper lay moldering and fly ridden on the table.

Nimity quietly went to one of the bodies and picked it up, carrying it outside and finding a shovel.. he chose a spot in a small field nearby and began to dig the graves that would hold the poor remains in some dignity.

Ariana and Twyncles  carefully re-examined the food preparing area of the cottage.. Twyncles had a thought, of hearing once about mold on rye bread, was known to drive entire regions insane. But the bits of bread still recognisable on the pewter plates had already gone to mold  and she also thought the bread had been wheaten.

Opening the few crocks and sniffing the contents determined that whatever they had held was of no import.  Some jam in a small clay pot looked alright.. even though it also sported a mighty crop of mold. Glancing over at Ariana. Twyncles felt a deep concern..the sensitive young elven woman was quite pale and her eyes had a haunted look as she gazed at a tattered homemade cloth dolly. She murmured in a heart broken voice how the old couple must have had a granddaughter to visit them.

Twyncles took one last look around,  the light had moved while they had been inside.. a straying beam  lay across one corner of the room.. a sack on a small shelf spilled a handful of something on the floor. Curious, Twyncles went over to examine it.. she realised at once, it was a small millers sack which had held the  ration of wheat from which the old woman made the couple's daily bread. Taking up the sack she poured a bit of the contents into her hand.  Her eyes widened. .small black specks mingled in the golden flour.. she called Ariana over with some excitement.. "Ariana.. I think I have it.. look..no wait. let us go outside first, the light is better. "

Once outside she held out her palm. "Look Ariana. . these small black specks are the seed heads of Tares..yes!.. I am sure of it.. " Ariana peered at her palm and nodded...but quirked a brow in mystification.."Yes?.. but what does that mean?" she asked, her puzzlement plain.

"Well.. tares are a highly poisonous weed that  grow rampantly in with the wheat crop. If care isn't taking after the threshing to remove the tares.. then the bread that is eaten from the tainted flour will kill folks. And that I think is just what happened to these benighted souls.. nothing else would fit the facts. It is as you saw rather dark in the cottages and likely a few at a time would be missed ..but over time.. well.. the toxicity built up.. and since it seems to have happened to all of the folks we have seen here. I would guess they all used the same milling source. "

Twyncles looked around to tell Nimity, but realised he had been missing for some time. She walked down the street . then saw him in a field... leaning on a shovel and looking at the small bare earth mounds with profound sorrow. "Oh.. Nimity. we would have helped had you asked. Such a sad task to perform alone, but what kindness also in the performance."

A sound of voices came to her ear and she turned to see Ariana and Sir Draconus, who had come to help if he could. The sight of the graves and especially the tinier ones brought them all to a reverent moment.  Elven.. draconic and general blessing was said over the folk to  give them peace wherever their unhoused spirits did roam.**

Kikuko’s Notebook

Magical Airs-Spring

Entry:

Nothing really to report. All my effort to watch the tower and catch the person or persons or whatever is up there messing around with lights have gone in vain..they go on and off so fast I haven't been able to get up there and catch them at it. *sigh*

The expedition is a bit stalled for the moment but we are all ready to go the instant we manage to get together at the same time.

Twyncles has delegated Deyko as the one who watches over both Mr Weeds and I and I am to protect Mr Weeds in case anything threatens us.

I have been getting used to the kitsune..now that I have no choice..heh.. well.. he did set me off by asking me to fight him the first time we met..like.. yeah.. oh for sure..sorry but dead is not a good look for me.  All of that got straightened out though and I was wrong in my instant assessment that he was still the famous Deyko the Slayer. Wish someone would tell me just once in awhile what is going on before I make a complete fool of myself. Just once..that's all I ask.

Twyncles and Mr Weeds have been trying to trap the famous blue cat and her companion that they think are lurking around with different traps they think the blue cat will not be able to resist. They aren't totally sure it is her yet.. as whoever it is that is pilfering the food in the pantries has not fallen for their gambits. I hope it turns out to be her.. would really like to meet her and the siameser shifter Zatsit..bet she has some good ideas for going on adventures. <sigh>

Other than that.. its hurry up and wait and get into trouble with my friends I guess. Riou is sooo mad at me right now..well I spoke my mind..how can that be wrong?

Rikimaru turned up in 'Airs too.. oh be still my heart..heh..yah..right.. when will he give up this relentless pursuit.. he so brings out the worst in me.. just provokes me past all decency..made me bite him on the ear I was so angry with his refusal to face the facts.. I am not his love muffin..never was ..never will be.. wish he would take a rest or take his overwhelming affections to Sakura.. let her entertain herself for awhile since Kenji is pretty cool toward that mess in his life.

Blah.. the only fun I have had lately was teaching the kitsune to ride a hoverbike..picked it up pretty good too, little wobbly over the lake last night but set us down nicely at the end.~

Magical Airs-Spring

Entry:

*Looks around.. Mr Weeds is sleeping and Deyko is on watch again. Nothing had changed in the room since they had run in to escape the hazard rolling inexhorably toward them in the dungeon corridor. She sighs and sits up..bleh.. the locked room..now how were they to get out. Opening her notebook she thinks a moment then begins to write*

-Finally started the expedition.. all went smoothly enough at the start. We got to the stairway leading down to the ancient city. 

-Nearly to the bottom with the door to the city in view we were suddenly over run by a tide of ..*shudder* rats.. there was no way to go but forward as fast as possible, unfortunately for us, one of us (probably me) stepped on a trigger and the steps collapsed, sending all three of us on a fast slide down to what appears to be some old dungeon place.

-We hardly got oriented, when going south along a corridor we were menaced by a spector..Mr Weeds had the solution though and sent it packing with the information that French people don't even believe in ghosts..also a ringing rendition of Allons l'enfants had a salubrious effect also..it vaporised ..think it was very embarrassed..<giggles>

-Then the whole place began to shake and rumble..this huge ball shaped thing came rolling toward us.. there was no place to go except back the way we came..so we kited back up the corridor with the ball thing on our heels.. Deyko managed to slow it down just long enough to give us a chance to smash through a door into this room..but he lost his sword in the process.. used it to block the ball's way and it worked but the sword shattered from the strain.

-Nothing in the room though.. except three empty barrels and a warp point..Deyko tested it with a bit of blue fur I found clinging to the inside of one of the empty barrels. It had strange properties.. and it didn't warp out immediately either..though eventually.. it vanished.  I found a clue maybe though no idea what it means right now if anything.. a piece of dried up old waffle for lack of any better description with a number scratched into it..according to the tats and Twyncles we are in room #3 and the number on the scrap of "waffle" is a 4.. I think if this is some kind of a riddle I am going to really hate this part of the expedition.. Riddles make my head ache at the very thought.~

Magical Airs-Spring

Entry:

*Sits up in her blankets and scratches at the Poison Rock Spider bite on her neck.  "Eck! *shudders reflexively* "Loathesome things. " Waking more fully she looked around the dimly lit room they had been forced to make camp in. The monstrous troll baby was gone but the place still was sticky with the residue of its bawling tears. Deyko has whizzed the giant bat through the warp point just before they had settled down for the night. She looked up at the shadowy corners in the ceiling suspicously but nothing seemed out of place. Sighing and more awake than she wished to be, she pulled her notebook out of her pack and opened it to a new page. Chewing the end of her pen.. she thought gloomily about the events so far..shaking her head she began to write.*

We used the warp point to get out of the first room we were locked into.  Hopes were dashed for an easy exit from this benighted place when we were dropped into even worse peril.

We were trapped in a room with a raging flame that fairly cooked us like three trussed fowls before Deyko was able to find its source and stuff his fire proof shirt down into it..unfortunately that just made the floor begin to heat up.. so our last hope was to drop a fire bomb down the hole and maybe blow the thing out beneath us.that was our best hope.. anyway.

Glad to say it worked.

There was a stairway leading upward in that room that gladdened our hearts with hope but that was dashed.. for some reason the stairs collapsed when we tried to climb them. A few attempts proved that was no way out for us. I tried the door but the heat from the flames had fused the mechanism to useless slag.

There was yet another warp point in the room and at first it didn't look like it was working either, another desperate search of the room turned up nothing more than another one of the weird petrified bits of waffle with a number on it.. ?..Deyko had thrown a rock at the warp before all this and it had been hanging there not going anywhere..then it just disappeared.. we were right behind it..heh..anywhere looked good at that point.

So we thought.. but when we arrived at the end of that little trip we were unpleasantly greeted by a horde of rock spiderlings...one dropped on my neck and bit me.. that was about it for my input for awhile.. am just like my dad..can't handle poison at all. Mr Weeds..lit a couple of torches and started firing the webs.. Deyko swiped the spiderlings out of the way and for a minute it looked like everything was going to be alright..just a pest problem..and they were on the run...then.....bleh.. mommy showed up..about the size of a pony and real testy about the treatment of her children.

Deyko had taken a draft of Twyncle's Cloud Mountain potion for some bad burns he had gotten in the fire room.. stuff really perked him up for awhile.. he got a lot of his strength back and literally manhandled momma into a big crack in the floor then dragged a huge treasure chest over the top of it to keep her under wraps until we got done checking the room out.

Well until they did.. I was really feeling punky..kind of shocky and I lost the feeling in my extremities.. Mr Weeds. got the Cloud Mountain potion into me though and it worked fast.and glad I was of that.. dead is just not a good look for me!

Deyko had a mambo bite on his hand from the spider too and for lack of any other better idea I poured a drop of the potion on the wound.. between what he drank before and then the application externally.. it healed that bite in a heartbeat.

That treasure chest was absolutely crammed with gold..probably long forgotten but anyone who tried to bogart it out of there would have had quite a time of it with momma and her children on guard. We wondered on seeing it, if that didn't have a lot to do with our difficulties getting out of the dungeon. Deyko did 'something' .. and all the gold turned to common rocks. He seemed rather amused but didn't explain it.

We saw there was a warp point in this room too but tried the door anyway..just for luck.. no joy there..door would  not open outward. Mr Weeds seemed a little dazed and shocky.. but said he was okay.. needed to rest a bit..so Deyko and I quartered the room looking for another of the waffle bits.. seemed like the warps wouldn't work for us until we found one. Sure enough.. there was one laying on the floor..Mr Weeds found he had been bitten on the arm.as well. hadn't noticed in the stress of the moment..I poured the potion right on his bite and it healed as neatly as Deyko's had.

We were more than ready to depart that miserable place and did so when we saw a test chunk of rock disappear instantly when it was tossed at the shining center of the warp.

Our eyes were greeted by the sight of a huge.(aren't they all..heh) troll baby just a bawling its head off in the next room we were dumped into.  Its tears turned to bubbles ..and floated around the room.. they were sticky and nasty when they touched us.. and a really huge one seemed intent on absorbing me inside of it.

Mr Weeds..played his magical tiny trumpet..and a particularly sharp note made the bubbles burst..and spray all over the place. Now that was nasty! We got slimed pretty good.. Troll baby picked Deyko right up off the ground..thought he was a 'dolly' or something.. he also kept yawping for his 'binky'.. Deyko noticed a bat flying around up on the ceiling and made a good guess that the  missing "binky" had been stolen by the bat.  He had Mr Weeds and I tie our two ropes together to make a lasso..then we whizzed it up to him.. 'baby' was kind of hopeful about the proceedings and didn't get too rambunctious with Deyko gripped in his fist. Anyway.. Deyko got a loop around the bat and Mr Weeds and I pulled it to the ground.. then I whupped it one across the back of the head and it spat out the stolen binky.. 'Baby" dropped Deyko in favor of the binky..then crawled out through a hole in the wall and disappeared, for good I hope.. Also hope his mommy bites him when he gets back to the kennel . the wight.. bleh.. still icky from his blubbering tears.

We were all just downright done in by now.. we decided to make camp for the night. Deyko found a waffle piece stuck to the back of my shirt.. so we didn't have to stir through the mess on the floor looking for it.  W00t.. for that piece of luck.

Maybe tomorrow we will finally get out of this place.. am going blind for lack of sun I am.. and a hot bath would be nice too.~

Magical Airs-Spring

Entry:

-Finally.. got through that miserable dungeon. Not without more trouble though. The next room we got dumped into had a carrion worm on duty. Oh those things are nasty. Nine feet long and with 8 truly disgusting tentacles hanging from its mouth.  It must have known we were coming because it was right in our faces the minute our feet hit the floor on the other side of the warp.

-We were busy for a hot second just backing it off with our staffs. Mr Weeds had it pretty well distracted and Deyko mangled it some. We tried using a sleep gas bomb on it. Which worked enough to stun it, but somehow it sucked Deyko right into its maw.

-Mr Weeds, had to distract it again, wedge its jaws open, while I hauled Deyko out. Then we got a tangler around its legs and Mr Weeds and I pushed it into a hole in the floor which went down forever cause we never heard it hit bottom. heh..<grins>

-The room was the smallest of all the ones we had been dumped into and there was nothing in it except the crawler. We found the last clue and then the door smashed open. The random rolling ball found us.. and was pounding at the door to get at us. Or so we thought.. it was making the oddest sounds.. snickering.. and it sneezed too.

-Mr Weeds, who had his suspicions tried a couple of catcalls..and the jig was up. The famous blue shifter and her siameser pal were inside the ball which.. was actually a huge dirty mess of string. Used to be the 'Giggling Carpet" and had rolled through a rogue portal on the surface and disappeared before anyone had been able to capture and identify it.

-Whatties and Zatsit told us to grab one of the trailing bits of string and they would port out of it..the ball would chase them and unravel..  there was a devious and ulterior reason for that on the shifter's part ..but we were just glad to get out of the room .. we put our heads together.. checked the clues and decided our course of action involved using the clues to key the warps in sequence. We wound up back in the fire room.. Deyko tried the stairs again and this time they did not collapse but led up to the Ancient City proper.

-We didn't have too much time to look around.. whatties and Zats appeared.. kind of did not explain anything about their activities and Deyko gave whatcat some "look" as he apparently knew more than he had been saying all along..cat better be keeping a low profile for awhile.. since Twyncles and Mr Weeds are going to want a more full explanation.

-Any way.. the city is beautiful.. it has some kind of golden light all over and it is very warm.. whatcat said that it was safe enough to explore and all the traps had been sprung so could use the Tower access.. but she . and again.. that cat is not nice because she is.. she is after all feline by preference and inclined to self-interest first..but we were all so slimed and filthy that we were mainly interested in hot water and lots of soap... so whatties ported us back to the inn by way of the pickle barrel.. **

*Looking around her .. she sighed.. bleh.. well. if she survived this situation .. she hoped she would see more of the ancient city after all of the effort to get to it.....leaning on the crumbling casement of a window in the ruined old castle the dude had penned her into .. she scanned the sky for signs of the Dragon Wing and her dad... "and.. dang it all.. I never even got to finish my sammwich before he 'napped me at gunpoint" she muttered aloud to a disinterested spider in the corner of the window.-

-Not Magical Airs.. been 'napped...

Retzu: *MSG* ACTION smoking a cigarette .. and waiting in the forest .. in the midst of the pathway between Kieron and the Inn
Kikuko: *JOIN* Entered room.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION steps out of the bath. towels off and pulls on a clean set of jeans and a tunic.. leaves her room and starts back downstairs..totally famished
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION lights a cigarette .. leaning his back on the tree as he adjust his famous ocean blue spectacles.
Twyncles: *MSG* ACTION sees the party have scattered for bathing and goes outside to check on the new plants in the Medieval Garden...then flashes out to go to Cloud Mountain to see Sh'ard
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION goes into the kitchen.. makes a huge sandwich and gets a mug of juice.. sees the sun is shining on the terrace.. goes through the french doors to sit at a table and enjoy the warmth
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION warps to the roof of the Inn. He rolls onto a balconey and smoothly flips off, gliding forward. After a while his movements which were so smooth they terrified people. *He uses warping, time adjusting, and skilled speed to move so gracefully and deadly*
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION aims a gun to the back of her neck .. a click heard as cold steel is pressed snug to the back of her neck.  
Retzu: *MSG* Kikuko Senzuken. We meet at last.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION sighs happily.. it had been fun.. and she thought she had done pretty well on her own for the first time.."ACK!! who are you and where did you come from.. what do you mean?..meet at last..! *leaps to her feet.. in alarm*
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION moves the gun once, trained on her forehead.  
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION speaks aloud in a cold voice, as he spat the cigarette out, making it warp elsewhere. He had vicious amber eyes and hair of the darkest brown spilled over one eye.  
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION crosses her eyes to look at the barrel of the gun pointing at her
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION "If you even flinch. You will die. Trust me, I have 'all the time in the world.' Let's go."
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION nods his head over to a hover bike, ten times more advanced then the one from her homeworld.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION thought rapidly.. this was not a good thing.. show no fear though.. be cool she counseled herself.. "um.. yeah.. anything you say dude.."
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION rose slowly. not wanting to give him anything to get nervous about.. sidled toward the waiting hoverbike..
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION nods his head down. "Get on." His voice was surprisingly calm. He was obviously a professional.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION slid her leg over the saddle of the hoverbike.. absently checking it out. it was nothing like she had ever seen before...
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION got on behind her, and oddly enough theirs could be controlled by your voice. "Light speed warp, take us to the land I showed you before."
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION tucked an arm around her stomach so she didn't get any funny ideas as the craft vanished without so much as a squeak.
Retzu: *MSG* (( ACK! DUN DUN DUNNN ~ ! ))
Retzu: *MSG* (( Lol. ))
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION thought with some astonishment. 'I am being kidnapped.. whatever for?' "Hey.. you sure you got the right person here dude.. I mean I am nobody.. "
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION looked over to her from the ancient and vacant castle, on some old planet time itself forgot. He dumped her down, re-adjusting his glasses.
Retzu: *MSG* I'm positive, Senzuken.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION 's voice seemed to vanish then the rest of the sentence caught up to their ears..
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION spun his guns and tucked them away.  
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION smiles. "Get cozy. Only this bike can warp in and out of this land." He took the only piece that could make it run .. and put it in his pocket.
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION felt his eyes narrow. "Your father will know who did this soon enough."
Kikuko: *MSG* yeah?..*she replied noncommittally...* so whats the deal.. my folks aren't rich. we have no political connections.. what else would make it worth my dad cleaning your clock for you permanently" she added cooly*
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION gave a bone chilling smile. "If you think your father will .. as you say, clean my clock. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?"
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION walked to the door of the room. "As for why?"
Kikuko: *MSG* heh.. yeah. guess we will.. so. nice dump. hope you don't over pay on the rent..*looks around with sneering disdain for the quarters*
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION stood with his back facing her. "Your father .. is a menace. Inside him, is a force not even you realize unless you saw the eyes of the destroyer."  
Retzu: *MSG* ACTION stepped out without a further word, the door giving a hefty slam.
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION arched a brow at the dude's back.."Big talk there. . heh.."
Kikuko: *MSG* ACTION walks around the ruined room. saw dusty, time-rotted furnishing. ..kicks at a table and jumps back when it collapses on splintered legs...