[ We find Most of Our Heroes still gathered together in the strategery room in the stout dwarven citadel. ] [ At some point, Kenji and Alci slipped away with the dwarven captain. Surely, they're up to no good. ] [ But the rest of you are still here, and might be inclined to discuss strategy. So, let's see what happens! ] [ Session Start! ] * Tia is splayed out on the floor, snoring loudly. So... have we decided if we're going in via teleportation, or walking all the way? That is a fairly important variable. Neither is likely to be more of a surprise, either. We are not teleporting in. * Max nods, pushing up his glasses. "Okay. Then we need to determine how we -are- getting in." * Istvan is sitting on a rather low, but still sturdy stool, trying to put his rather limited tactical mind to use. "We're not?" I thought we already went over why teleporting in is a horrible idea. * WillS is off to the side listening to the discussion. Planning is really not his forte. We'd established it was questionable in regards to the chamber itself; discussion then turned to the possibility of utilizing some little-used portion of the city as arrival-point. * Tia 's paws pedal lazily in the air, as if driving a bicycle. There are reasons why that is less than desireable, as well. It is not worth arguing over; we will find a more suitable means. That was what I'd been arguing for. Seems like it'd be easier to teleport into the city and then sneak into the citidel than to have to sneak into both with our... less than stealthy group here. * Patrick nods. "Okay, that may work better. I thought you were regarding teleporting IN to the cathedral." I do wish I had more illusion spells. There is an ideal travel one I've run across several times in my research. No, no. We've been over that already. No cathedral ingress via teleportation. Utilizing one to get out might be feasible, however. Almost certainly, once the room has been subjected to Disjunction. No, nononono. I'm dense sometimes, but I've gotten the hint that that would be a BAD idea. * Istvan turns to Max. "A disjunction can take out anything they've put in there, magic-wise?" Can and will. The risk is, of course, the Pick itself. I will attempt to exclude it, if at all possible. Destroying the pick would be acceptable if it was the only way to keep the weapon away from the Drow. *cough* I would truly rather not, though you are correct. * Istvan tilts his head. "I thought I remembered reading somewhere that magical stuff that powerful couldn't be destroyed by anything short of divine intervention." And Patrick's right. What little I've read of successful uses of Disjunction on tools of the Pick's calibur make me...leery...of drawing the attentions such actions always do. In other words, be *really* careful. A disjunction that does that will get the attention of at least one deity. * Max says this next bit quietly. "Nothing is strictly 'divine', Istvan. Divinity is just more power than non-." And Disjunction -can- destroy it. It's...uncertain. * Tia mumbles about cheese pizza in her sleep and smacks her lips. Okay. But the point is that we teleport into the city, sneak or bash our way into the citidel, get rid of the magic, grab the pick, and get the hell outta there via teleport. * WillS frowns at Max's opinion of divinity. That sounds like a plan, yes. I would prefer a greater level of protection and stealth. Can you keep us in the ethereal plane, Will? * Istvan pauses. "Or Max teleports out of there with the pick, and the rest of us ignore Kenji and go make sure they get out okay." I will not let them die, Istvan. Once we are out, I will retrieve them. Or Will can. Very simple, but we'll need a distractionary force to draw the guards away from the temple. This is Kenji and Alcinoe's jobs, as Kenji can get away easily and I'm confident Alcinoe is the most durable of all of us when she starts casting spells. I believe so Max. But I won't be able to do much else. We would only need it long enough to get into the temple. Not even to get out. Assuming we're not dimensionally locked in there. The disjunction will take care of that. Will, in the case Max is incapacitated, I want you to be able to recall us out of the city. * Max nods. "Wise." * WillS nods. "I'll try my best!" Also, it's imparitave that you bring the strongest forces you can to bear in this. No 'I don't have that spell', we won't have time. And a botch here means everything above ground is pretty much screwed over. Meanwhile, Tia'n I will be hitting anything that moves, right? If all else fails, I will go in and Disjoin both the Pick and the Onyx, after making a Wish. If that fails, I will try a retributive strike. A whowha? Staff of power go boom. Ah. *pauses* That sounds bad. If I am extremely lucky, that will cast me and the item to a far away plane. If I'm lucky, but not extremely, it will at least destroy the pick. * Patrick nods. "Mom talked about some stupid mage that did it on accident. They couldn't find the pieces to put him back together." * Max nods. "I've heard similar stories. I believe they're apocryphal, though; I do not believe it can be done on accident." Does the fact that the citidel is a temple to Lloth add any complications, other'n there probably being more that a few angry clerics around? Unless they have managed to call forth one of Lloth's Handmaidens, no. I'm betting on one guarding the Pick itself. I'm hoping it's summoned, and not gated in. And the inhabitants are pretty much evil. * Tia kicks a bit more rigorously in the air. Right. So once we get into the temple, if it's moving, we stop it from moving. * Patrick nods. Exactly. I can do that. * Istvan eyes Tia. "We're gonna hafta explain all this to Tia. Slowly and patiently." * Seylin nods. I will take care of it. * WillS looks at Tia and nods also. She's really quite capable, if you explain things properly. I know. She's a good kid. * Tia kicks some more. Cheese-zzzzZzzz..... * Max chuckles. Now, we do need to decide on a point of entry. ...and I'm going to need to make a scroll. * Istvan looks at the assembled maps, and goes a bit cross-eyed? "Any ideas, Patrick? Or anyone else." I've been working through the maps for a while, trying to figure out where the best point of entry was and to help Kenji and Alci on where to go. * Max peers at the map through his spectacles, looking for what might be low-traffic areas. "Hm? Have you had any luck?" * Tia snores. "PizzZzzZzzzzza....." Not much, I'll have something by the time we get close enough to put our plans in action, though. * Seylin has been peering over maps as well. She seems fairly preoccupied by it. Anything I should do to prepare, other'n get myself nice and angry? Try to make it so that Alci and Kenji isn't too far from us so we can all get out together. Hm. Well. I'm going to need 3-4 days to make a scroll to get us all in; I will not rely on Greater Teleport for all of us. Leaving Kenji and Alcinoe behind, since they will not be in convenient proximity, I think I can get us all out with it. But it will take a Teleportation Circle to go in. Will, I am afraid that they will have to be seperated from us when it's over. Ideally, they will have most of the city chasing them, leaving the vault largely unguarded. Save, except, for the nastiest traps and guardians they can place on it. * WillS nods reluctantly. "I just wish there's something we can do to make sure they'll survive." Between you and I, Will, there is. One of us just has to get out alive. Preferably both; it increases the odds of success to 100% within statistical variance. * WillS tilts his head. "So we get out while Kenji and Alci are both still in the city?" Yes. Ideally, everyone but those two do. Then, you and I Wish for a Miracle. I'm more concerned about getting into the Cathedral. Etherealness has such a limited durration; we do not want to use it too soon, nor do we want to wait until too late. Are there plans for the Temple itself here? And get them all back! Great! * Patrick nods. I will be certain to prepare several means of impeding and misleading pursuit. * Tia abruptly sits up with a yawn, Wuffiekins squashed within her large arms. "Whaa?" Hey Tia. * Tia waves sleepily. "Heya, Isty." She smiles vaguely. What are we doin'? We're going to play hide-and-seek with some drow. Not only are they 'it', but we get to smash them if they find us. Ooh, I'm pretty good at smashing bad men. * Tia hesitates. "But why are we playing with them?" * Istvan let's Max do the 'splainin'. Because they insist on a game of capture-the-flag. So we're going to make them play it our way. Will and I are going to use magic to get us very close, and then you and Patrick and Istvan will make sure that anyone between us and the Pick - that's what they're using as the flag - isn't going to stay there. My job will be to keep pursuit from making any progress, if we can't get to the flag-room with Will's and my magics. Oh, when you see the big shiny wall with lots of colors, whatever you do, DO NOT TOUCH IT. It'd be worse than what Sherincal did to you, the first time you fought her. But if you just leave it alone, it'll only hurt the bad guys. Am I forgetting anything important? *counts on his fingers* Don't run ahead, listen to the others so we all stay together.... only the basic stuff we always do is left, right? Make sure nobody that sees us can get away or alert our presence until we're gone. Right. But only if we can take them. We don't have time to slow down; it may come down to a race. [ The dwarven captain comes walking in, rubbing his face. "Oi." ] * Patrick waves at the dwarf. "Yo." Hello, sir. Is everything well? [ "Nae. Yer friends were involved in a bar brawl, and they're both sodden drunk. Ye need tae come bail 'em out." ] * Tia blinks a bit. "The Pick is a flag...?" What? * WillS blinks. "Alci's in a brawl?" * Max looks a bit surprised, too. Or maybe it's just how his eyes look behind his glasses. "Oh." Um... if you all go get them, I will stay here and finish explaining the plan to Tia? * Seylin stands up. "Yes." ... that was unexpected. Uh, brawl? Who's in a brawl? * Patrick nods. "Let's go knock some sense into them." and grins. Apparently, Kenji and Alcinoe got into one. * Tia blinks. "With each other?" Prolly not. I doubt it. Probably with drunk dwarves. I would have expected better behavior of them, though. ...Oh. They have all the fun without us! Let's go. * WillS nods. Lead on. * Patrick waves to Seylin to follow. "You guys wanna stay and think up a few other things in cas we need them?" You be sure to scold them for it when they get back, Tia. ^_^ Am I going? Nah, we can handle them. ~_^ * Istvan nods. "Hope they didn't beat up anyone I know. And I should come, given that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one around here who speaks Dwarven." * Istvan motions for the dwarven captain to lead the way. "Let's go bail them out." * Patrick nods. [ The captain nods, and leads the lot of you out, save Max and Tia, who stay behind. "For what it's worth, it doesn't seem they started it. From what we can sort out, anywhoo." ] * Tia waves to the rest. "Bye, guys! Have fun!" * Seylin sighs. "This should be interesting..." Anyone hurt seriously? [ "Nothin' serious. No broken bones, or nothin'. Jus' a few blackened eyes and whatnot." ] * WillS looks relieved. "That's good to hear." Yes. At least we don't have to play cleanup. Not a fantastic start to the mission. Hey, they didn't start the mess, it's not their fault. [ The captain leads you out of the citadel, and into a large satellite facility. He says something in terse dwarven to one of the guards on duty, who leads them into one of several long hallways lined with iron-barred cells. In the second on the right are Kenji and Alcinoe. ] * HKenji is there, arm in arm with Alcinoe and a dwarf, singing loudly. o/~ ...how they showed their respect for Patty Murphy! o/~ ...like I said, interesting. * Alcinoe also sings, loudly and happily and just as off key. "That's how they showed their honor and their pride!" * Istvan blinks, then adopts a somber look as he approaches the cell. "You've gotten yourself into quite the mess here, guys." o/~ They said it was a sinnin' shame and they winked at one another! o/~ * Patrick laughs. An' every drink in the place was full the night Pat Murphy died! Do you two know the penalty if an outsider causes a dwarf to spill a pint of dwarven ale in a dwarven city? * HKenji trails off as he sees Patrick. "As Missus Murphy sat in th'... * WillS looks sadly at Alci and Kenji. "Why did they get so drunk?" Hi, Pat! I thought you wash ded! If you were going on a suicide mission, wouldn't you?? Rumors of my death have been greatly exadgerated. His last name isn't Murphy, for starters. * Istvan pauses. "Damn, they're too drunk to fall for this." *sighs* "Man, talk about not being able to hold your liquor." Not gonna sucide. Kenji pinky sweared! Hey, I kin hold my likker jus fine! Hey, Will, you got some poison removal stuff, right? How many pints did you have, Kenji? It's not really poison. Of what? * HKenji blinkblinks. Of whatever you were drinking. Ale, I'd assume. We wash drinkin liquid enlightenment! Um... made from honey. We had a story about that. Alshi and me made it up! It'sh the greatest story *ever*. About an old guy an' his shtudents! Oh really? Yesh! Shee, there wash this old enlightened mashter. An' he was honey! A BUCKET 'a honey. Yesh. He wash honey. Yesh * WillS sighs. "I think it's better to let them be for a bit." He was... right. and hish studentsh, they made mead outta him. And they drank up, and they found ENLIGHTENMENT! Maybe we should just let them sleep it off. They'll have one heck of a hangover in the morning, maybe. An' then Kenji found enlightenment! An' Ah found enlightenment! * Alcinoe makes a grand gesture to make her point, falling over in the process. ... dwarven mead. No wonder they're piss drunk. [ Alci makes a loud clangor when she falls over. ] Hey! WE only had... um... one... two... five... whole lotta mugs. * WillS rushes over and helps Alci back up. "Alci..." * Istvan facepalms. "Like I said. Can't hold their liquor." *pauses* "At least you two are funny drunks." YOU TAKE THAT BACK, MISTER. I AM NOT DRUNK! * HKenji shakes his head, trying to clear it. * Seylin puts her face in her hands. Her shoulders are shaking with laughter. * Alcinoe giggles up at Will. "Hi!" Kenji said Ah was purty! * Istvan grins at Kenji. "Okay, you're piss drunk. Better?" * WillS nods silently while trying to get Alci to sit up straight. * HKenji catches sight of Seylin as his eyes get just a little clarity. For a moment, everything seems to make perfect sense. He stumbles over and grabs ahold of Seylin's hand. "Pretty birdy, pretty bird, I caught you!" Ack! * Seylin flinches slightly out of reflex. * HKenji wraps Seylin's hand around a small block of wood, then holds it up in the air and says drunkenly, "Pretty birdy pretty birdy, fly to my true love!" * Alcinoe sits up, sees Kenji do that, and bursts out laughing again. Hahahaha I caught a purty birdy! [ The dwarven captain stands there looking nonplussed. ] * Seylin eyes Kenji briefly, but then giggles a little. Wow, they are REALLY smashed. Yep! * Seylin moves over to have a better look at Alcinoe. ... it's times like these that I really wish I owned some sort of device that could record events. * HKenji pulls a small pouch out of his sleeve and holds it out to the dwarven captain. " Ohhh, I think they'll remember this pretty well. Theresh finesh, roit? Thatsh how you dwarfs do things? * Alcinoe beams at Seylin. "Howdy! Kenji said Ah'm pretty, and we're not gonna die!" That's good! Uh huh! [ The guard nods. "Fifty gold a head, aye." ] Thatsh two hunner goldd, yesh? Here you goes! * Istvan facepalms. "Well, I always said Kenji had a big head. Now I know it's three heads big." * Seylin bends down and speaks softly. "A present for you, I think." She slips the object Kenji gave her to Alcinoe while the guard is distracted. [ The dwarven guard looks like he's about to object, but then shrugs and wanders off. "This way, then." ] * Alcinoe takes it and looks at the thing. You definetly will. * Istvan drags Kenji in the proper direction. * HKenji jerks his hand limply out of Isty's grip. * Alcinoe oooohs. She clutches it for a moment, then she squeals and now *she's* hugging Seylin. Hey! BAD ISTVAN. Wah! * Seylin hugs Alcinoe back. * Patrick cracks up. * Seylin can't help but giggle a little. It's silly. [ Just a note, to the spectators; the world is in the hands of these people. ] (( We're doomed.)) (Yeah, isn't it GREAT?!) * Alcinoe smells like alkyhol. "Thanksh, Seylin!" * Istvan stops, eyes Kenji, picks him up under one arm, and carries him after the dwarven captain. You're welcome. Let's get going, shall we? * HKenji slips drunkenly out of Istvan's grip, using secret anti-Tia grappling techniques. I can walk alone, mishter! Okay! * Istvan shrugs. "If you say so. C'mon." * HKenji stumbles up the wall and grabs onto Alcinoe for support. * Alcinoe is grabbed onto and she just barely manages to support Kenji. [ The dwarven guard and the dwarven captain begin to lead out of the building. ] Why hello thar! Please t'meetcha! * Seylin makes sure they aren't going to fall over. At least not in a way that would hurt them too much. * Alcinoe clanks along, supporting Kenji as she goes and laughing. * Istvan shakes his head. "If I did something like this when Kenji brought us to Rokugan, he'd try to kill me. Again." Nonshense! That'd be shilly. We ignore drunksh in Rokugan! It'd be shitty too. ish not polite to notice! * Alcinoe nods, then blinks. "Oh, Kenji!" Huh? * Alcinoe holds out what Seylin gave her: his personal seal. "This's yers, right?" * HKenji blinkblinks. Wheredja get that? Seylin gave it to me. * HKenji blinkblinks. * Alcinoe blinks back. * HKenji gets a stupidly happy look on his face. "Wow, my true love looks like alshi after all!" * Alcinoe laughs. * HKenji 's eyes roll up in his head as he falls over, unconscious. [ The world is so doomed. ] * Alcinoe then stumbles as Kenji falls, and she falls over, too. * Seylin moves to catch them. * WillS moves to catch them too. ... like I said. Can't hold his liquor. * Alcinoe is caught, probably by Will, and she hiccups. She looks a bit sleepy. * Istvan grabs Kenji and hauls him over one shoulder, then pauses, puts him down, reaches into his haversack, pulls out a sharpie-like pen, and writes something in dwarven on Kenji's forehead before picking him back up. [ The dwarven captain sees it and snickers. ] * Alcinoe has no idea what it is. She looks about ready to doze off. * WillS steadies Alci. "We should take them back to their rooms now." Yes. * Seylin helps Will with Alcinoe, since she's pretty heavy in all that armor. Though at least it's not two inches thick. [ The captain nods. "Aye. I'll set aside some guest quarters for the lot o' ye." ] Thank you. We're very sorry about this. [ The captain shrugs. "Happens." ] * Alcinoe goes along and singsongs quietly to herself, "Seylin's a birdy. o/~" * Seylin lightly wingtaps Alcinoe. Yes, Seylin is a very pretty birdy. ^^ * Alcinoe giggles. "Pretty birdy." (( No! I'M the Pretty Birdy!)) * Seylin giggles back. * Istvan mutters. "I swear to god, if he yaks on my brand new armor, I'm gonna use him for a forge anvil." What, it's not like a little magic can't take it out. * Istvan looks at Patrick like he's grown a fifth arm. "It's the principle of the thing! You don't yak on a man's armor!" So make sure he's facing the other way. * Seylin moves so that *she's* not in the wrong path. ;p Or get'em a bucket. * Patrick moves out of the way too. * Alcinoe just giggles. * Istvan sets Kenji down, and starts dragging him by the legs. "Problem solved." * Seylin winces. "That's gonna leave a mark." Ouch, yeah. [ And so they went and slept it off. Mysteriously, when morning came, everybody had hangovers, even the sober ones. ] [ Session end! ]