[ Another beautiful day in Brighthome. We find our heros gathering in the common room of the Flying Couches home. It's the afternoon, after the last of the classes are over, and you're gathering because that's what you do. ] [ What careful planning or zany hijinx will Our Heros engage in? Let's find out! ] [ Session Start! ] * Seylin practically runs through the door into the common room. "Yes! Midterms are done! It's over!" * Tia is sitting on her usual pile of cushions, reading a picture book aloud to her extra-large bear, Mr. Wuffiekins Teddy. * Ariake is actually sitting at the table, for once! Antoine is lurking in the corner, thanks to a carefully tuned Subtle Menace Module that she declines to reveal the workings of. * Seylin, in an uncharacteristic gesture that maybe shows she's been sprending too much time around Patrick, pumps one fist into the air triumphantly. * Patrick pumps a fist back! "How do ya think you did?" ^_^ I think I aced 'em all this time! * HKenji is, strangely, not present as of yet. * Will is nodding off over a book in his hand. Studying isn't going so well it seems. * Alcinoe comes walking down the stairs. She grins. "Howdy Seylin. Tests done?" * Ariake grins. "Congrats!" * Tia looks up from her reading and waves to everyone. "Hiya, guys!" Good to hear! You know how I think I did, right? ~_^ Yeah! We've still got finals in a bit, but it's good to have these done. * Seylin grins at Patrick. "Same as always?" * Istvan walks in through the front door, covered completely from head to toe in thick soot. He looks... displeased. * Ariake blinks. "You okay, Istvan?" * Seylin looks at Istvan. "Istvan? What happened to you?" Forging midterm. Guy next to me decides to get cute, use some magic powder to make his fire burn hotter, so he can work faster. Makes his fire burn hotter, all right... and go boom. * Tia blinks and looks over at Istvan. "Heya, Isty! Um, what happened?" Thus, we have Istvan the Soot Monster. * Tia blinks again, then giggles. * Seylin can't help but laugh a little. "Not such a good idea." * Patrick chuckles. "What's his name again?" Professor cancelled the midterm, and dragged the kids ass off for some discipline. Meanwhile... I need a shower. Badly. Oh, man... * Alcinoe snickers. * Istvan wanders off towards his room, and then to the showers. * Alcinoe gets out of Istvan's way, since she was just coming from that direction. She wanders over and has a seat on the couch. * HKenji steps inside, looking none the worse for wear. In fact, he looks a little pleased. * Ariake waves to Kenji. Good morning. Hey Kenji, what's up? ^^ * Tia waves to Kenji too. "Hiya, Kenji." * Seylin waves. "Hi, Kenji!" * Seylin flops onto one of the couches. Currently, it's not flying. * Will rubs his eyes as he wakes up from all the commotion going on. "Oh, hi guys." Hiya, Will! * Alcinoe ruffles Will's hair, as she's seated next to him. "Afternoon." I've just had word back from my father. Welcome b - ah...? * Alcinoe looks over to Kenji. * Seylin sits back up. "Oh?" He's called in a few favors from the Crab, and we've a team of Kaiu engineers coming to aid in the building of the castle. We've also the promise of Lion troops to aid when the invasion does come. Well, that's handy. Quite. * Alcinoe nods. Oh, and of course, I found your mid-term exams far too easy. Why don't your teachers challenge you? Excellent! * Will nods. "Any news from our Dwarven friends?" That's good to hear. And shouldn't you be used to this by now, Kenji? It's not the first time we've had tests. I keep hoping that they will get more difficult as we progress. * Patrick yawns. "'cuz they don't want to put any effort into them." * Istvan wanders out of the shower in his towel, holding his soot- covered clothes at arms length as he heads back into his room. * Tia waves at Istvan as he passes by, then turns back to the conversation. "What do you mean? I think there were lots of challenging exams!" Mine were so-so. Not a piece of cake, but I'm fairly sure I aced them. I'm not exactly looking forward to finals, though. * Tia nods emphatically. "Me too! I drew pretty pictures for Maps. The professor smiled when I gave him my test!" You'll do fine Seylin. Probably, but that still doesn't mean they'll be enjoyable. Then again, does *anyone* like taking exams? * Istvan wanders back, now cleanish and dressed in a tank top and shorts. He's beefy, yup he is. * Tia raises her hand. "I do!" * Patrick grins. "Not if I *make* them enjoyable." * Tia waves at Istvan again. * Will makes a face. "Not really." * Seylin giggles at Tia, and then looks at Patrick. "Oh?" Oh, my. Ah, that's better. Felt like I was walking around in a cave- in. What's a cave-in? * Patrick waves his hand dismissively. "Buuut, you don't want to hear about it, I'm sure." Why wouldn't I? When a cave collapses, Tia. Oh, okay. How do you walk around in a cave-in? Ya... 'at's a good question. How do ya walk around inna cave in? You can do it while the cave-in is still happening. I imagine it would be quite dusty. And the chance of having something dropped on your head would be considerable. I meant it felt like I was walking around after having a cave collapse on my head. What with being covered head-to-toe in soot. * Patrick walks over to Seylin and whispers something to her. * Tia grins. "Oh, okay." * Tia hugs her bear. * Ariake nods. Oh, and as long as we're all here... question. Why are we getting personally involved in defending this particular Underworld opening, as opposed to any other? I am getting involved because it is on my fiancee's lands. It's also a new opening isn't it? No defenses there right now, right? * Tia contents herself with shrugging and wagging her tail. Yup. It's completly unguarded, and therefore the most likely point of a strike from our enemies. ... okay, reasonable enough. * Ariake nods. Yeah. Second question: How can someone not notice an underworld entrance on their lands? I thought she knew about it? Won't notice it if it's not there yet. ... okay, I'm confused now. If she knew about it, how can it be new and unguarded? It's not there yet? It seemed to me like she might have known about it, but then again, I could just be misinterpreting something she said. * Ariake hmms. * Will shrugs and leans back on the couch. "No clue. Maybe only the loremaster knows about it?" My fiancee did not know about the entrance. Okay. Why not? Since it is now known, it must now be fortified. * Patrick nods. Because it was, and is, a small portal. It is, however, easily enlargeable. * Tia nods. "I said I would help!" If I had lands, gods forbid, the first thing I'd do would be to check for places hordes of orcs and trolls and drow and lawyers could come crawling out of. Mmm, you forgot Illithid. Gesundheit. * Ariake grins. * Patrick smirks. "Funny." * Seylin laughs quietly. * Istvan grins. "Anyway. s'an answer, though it don't speak to well of your fiancee's people that they missed it." * HKenji frowns. I mean, from what I know about your people, Kenji, if they're anything they're really freakin' thorough. 'specially on military stuff. I would not propose to hold any of the people of this land to the standards of my home. Hmm... hey, Ariake? Eh... 'find all of the Underworld entrances on your land' isn't much of a high standard. But that's just me. * Ariake nods. "Yes?" We know all our Underworld entrances, don't we? You said you were gonna work on traps and such for the fortifications, right? Think I could help you out? Unless someone's been holdin' out on us. ~_^ Ah, absolutely! The more ideas, the better. 'round here? Most likely, yeah. Great! * Patrick grins. "Ya know, drow aren't immune to their own sleep poison." * Ariake blinks, and then beams. "Excellent." ...no. No poison. No? It's just like a sleeping powder, though, right? Why not? It just puts them to sleep. You are correct, Seylin. ... poison sucks. Immaterial. Poison is illegal, the tool of Scorpions. I will not condone its use. Traps are bad enough, necessary though they be. Illegal? What's wrong with traps? * Ariake shrugs. "Very well..." You're the one organizing this. Poison may be illegal where *you* come from. * Alcinoe shakes her head. "If ya can take care of 'em without the poison, Ah don't think ya should use it." Poison's just... eh. Too drowlike. Yeah, but we should respect Kenji's wishes. Um, okay! I can do that. * Will nods. "The fortress is going to be on Kenji's lands too. So it shall obey the laws of that land." * Ariake nods reluctantly. * Patrick shrugs. So we can think of ways to do this that don't involve sleeping powder. I believe the only problem he had was the poison itself, was it not? * Tia watches butterflies flitting about outside the window. Eh, there're all sortsa defenses that can be set up without resortin' to poisons. * HKenji smiles wanly as his underlings go to work. * Ariake nods. * Patrick grins. "Don't forget to have ample use of Projection spells. * Tia is gradually edging toward the window, Mr. Teddy still clutched in her arms. Butterflies! Oooh yes. Butterflies? Dwarves do good defenses. If the Beardaxes are sending help, you'll have good defenses. * Seylin flops back onto the couch and idly plays with a few strands of hair. * HKenji moves to stare out another window. "Yes. Dwarves and Crabs." So when are we starting? * Patrick hmmms... "Should we place railcannons on the walls?" * Tia turns around and nods cheerfully. "Butterflies!" After finals? There's always room for railcannons. * Tia pauses and nods. "Mr. Axe said Beardaxes always do good." And, of course, what happens if the tunnel collapses as they're coming up? ~_^ Not an option, Patrick. And why not? It would be too difficult to excavate afterwards, and we want that passage open for trade or a counterattack. * HKenji states the two mutually exclusive alternatives as if they're equally possible. Would make for a good last-resort plan, though. It's still a good la- exactly. Just in case the entrance is being overwhelmed. THe castle itself is unlikely to be placed at the entrance itself. A half-mile or so away is more likely. I know, I know. Not saying it's a good idea. Just that, if things got awful at the entrance, it might pay to have to option to collapse the tunnel. However, that would give them the opportunity to adjust outdoors. In addition, they would be able to flank the castle, not the patrol flank them. * Alcinoe nods at Istvan. "But ya can't make it too easy." Well, yeah. But they're doin' amazing thing with explosives nowadays, or so I hear. A half mile is not enough space for the creatures to suddenly develop a tolerance for sunlight. * Ariake nods. "Good point." Further, placing the castle closer would allow quick strikes in darkness. You're right about placing the fort away from the entrance, I think. Mmm, perhaps. But... eh. s'your fiancee's lands. You've heard my take. A half mile of distance, or perhaps a mile, will still guard the entrance quite well. An army cannot afford to leave a well defended castle at its back, especially not with Brighthome City less than a week's march away. ... week's march from Brighthome can be an awful long time... * Istvan sags in his seat a bit. Something wrong, Istvan? * Seylin sits up a little and looks in Istvan's direction. "Hmm?" * Ariake blinks. * Istvan grunts. "Personal stuff. " Ahh. * Tia is about to open her mouth, but then she remembers that she promised not to ask, and she returns to staring at the butterflies. * Istvan shakes his head a bit. "Point is, though, a week's march can be a helleva long time to wait." * Seylin sits up all the way. "Hey, Tia?" * Alcinoe furrows her brow a little and gets a good look at Istvan, then shrugs to herself. * Tia turns and looks over at Seylin. "Yeah?" You wanna go for a walk or something? Get some fresh air, chat a little, stuff like that. [ Remember also that you guys made the ride on horseback in more like a day, although you almost killed your horses doing it. Calvary would be in easier reach. ] Ooh! Can we go watch the butterflies? There's lots out today! * Seylin laughs. "Sure!" * Seylin gets up from the couch. "We'll see you all later. Keep planning!" * Tia claps and nods enthusiastically. "Okay! Can Mr. Teddy come too?" Why not? Yay! * Ariake waves. "Have fun!" * Seylin waves to the group and heads for the door. "Thanks! Good luck!" * Tia springs for the door and waves at everyone. "'Bye!" ... though, on horseback, we made the trip in a day or so. And if things got *really* bad, I'm sure Brighthome could browbeat a few powerful mages into doing one hell of a teleport. * Will waves goodbye to Tia and Sey. "Have fun!" * Patrick nods. Mass teleportations are possible. [ And so they may or may not have planned long into the evening. Session End! ]