Previously...
Bujilli faces a small pack of Blemmyes who are attacking Idvard's Keep by way of an unshuttered mirror and he sees an opportunity for something other than just more mindless violence...
Slash! A tall, burly Blemmyes huffed and wheezed through a mass of little pits in his bulging belly as he hacked at Bujilli with his massive flamberge.
Hack! Bujilli struck the Blemmyes alongside its left arm with his hand-axe. A good, solid hit. The creature wavered, almost lost it's grip on the heavy weapon.
Swish! It was faking. The wavy-bladed sword nearly gutted Bujilli. He backed off a bit. This opponent was fairly skilled with his blade. Thankfully Leeja had immobilized two of its fellows with her Web spell. that got him to thinking about his own repertoire of spells. Those little pits spread across the creature's belly seemed a lot like the breathing-holes in the beetle-thing he'd taken down using Gestural Globs. Maybe that spell would work on these Blemmyes? Maybe...but it might work better if it was modified to really infiltrate those little pits, and not just coat them so it could be blown-off like so much snot.
Whoosh! The flamberge swung high, it was aiming for his head. Bujilli ducked low and lunged at the Blemmyes, driving his hand-axe into the things belly. He missed. The Blemmyes hip-checked him into the great table.
Chock! Wood splinters sprayed upwards from where the flamberge sank deep into the once elegant table. Bujilli kicked the flat of the blade as hard as he could while it was stuck in the furniture. The warrior kept his grip, but the weapon was bound more tightly in the wood.
Two strikes by his hand-axe and the Blemmyes lost its right-hand and relinquished the flamberge. Another hit to it's sternum and the thing fell dribbling blood from all the little orifices along its belly.
Leeja grinned up at him as she withdrew her own sword from the still-gurgling guts of her opponent.
He turned to the other two Blemmyes and came to a decision...
Meanwhile...
Cosgrove sipped his coffee--no--it wasn't coffee; we haven't had real coffee in this place since the last of the airships tried to anchor at the Dry Pier and their crew was overwhelmed by a mob. This stuff was made from the bean-like bud-pods of the Red Weeds, soaked in lime-water then slow roasted and ground into a gritty powder that the brewers blended with chicory or dandelion roots. It had a nutty aroma, but a metallic after-taste, but you could get used to it. Especially if you dosed it with some basement-distillery schnapps. The more schnapps the better it got.
He stopped in mid-pour. The sirens blared. Fog was rolling in...
Cosgrove sipped his coffee--no--it wasn't coffee; we haven't had real coffee in this place since the last of the airships tried to anchor at the Dry Pier and their crew was overwhelmed by a mob. This stuff was made from the bean-like bud-pods of the Red Weeds, soaked in lime-water then slow roasted and ground into a gritty powder that the brewers blended with chicory or dandelion roots. It had a nutty aroma, but a metallic after-taste, but you could get used to it. Especially if you dosed it with some basement-distillery schnapps. The more schnapps the better it got.
He stopped in mid-pour. The sirens blared. Fog was rolling in...
"Boy! End this quickly! We have..."
"My uncle used to call me 'boy.' He's dead. Call me that one more time and we won't be friends any longer. Do I Make Myself Clear?"
Hedrard glared at him, but eventually nodded in assent. Her eyes narrowed in thought as she began to reconsider this strange little creature who had stirred-up so much chaos and turmoil in his brief time at the Academy in Wermspittle. He had come there to learn, but had not made it to a single class and now his mentor was off-campus on a wild goose chase and everything was in flux. This one outsider, a half-breed from some barely-known Adjacent World had saved her from abductors, given her Bloodthreads from his own wounds, given her Lemuel to heal and to mold as her servant and most of all he was directly or indirectly responsible for her recent run of good fortune. She owed a lot to this boy...this young man. She had gained too much to alienate him over some triviality...and she began to realize for the first time that she would rather not find out just what he could do to her as an enemy...
"I apologize. At my age it becomes much too easy to slip into bad habits."
"Just so we understand one another. I came here seeking knowledge. I wanted to learn things that I needed to know. To be a better sorcerer. I thought that meant accumulating more spells, or acquiring objects of power or something like that, maybe puzzling-out some weird old secrets or reading ancient tomes and grimoires. I've done a good bit of that. Made some mistakes and enemies along the way, made some friends...and I've learned a lot about myself and about magic and sorcery. I want to thank you for having been a good friend and for all you've done for me, taught me, given me...but now it's time for me to leave."
Bujilli looked over at Leeja. An unspoken question on his lips, just one breath away from taking flight; but then he saw the look in her eyes and he knew the answer without asking.
Laughing hand-in-hand Bujilli and Leeja leaped through the unshuttered mirror and were gone.
After she dispelled the Web and immobilized the two remaining Blemmyes--they would make good specimens for her experiments later--Hedrard closed the heavy shutters one at a time, then locked them into place and renewed the wards and seals. so no more unwelcome intruders would make use of the mirror to invade Idvard's Keep.
"You let them both go?" Idvard wobbled slightly as he floated free of the healer working on his regenerated new eye.
"Do you imagine that either of us could have stopped them?"
"No." Idvard chuckled.
"They'll return when they're ready, at least that's what they both are planning. We'll see how that turns out. Now, about my offer..."
Misty, murky, and dim; it was like drifting through a smooth, flowing non-landscape of liquid quarts or moonstone. Shapes rose from the foggy surroundings only to recede or to morph into other things. The rectangular mirror-shape behind them went black then the edges took on a malefic red glow. No going back that way.
Away from the mirror everything shimmered and swirled with the hint of some sort of forest off to the right, a fluctuating series of dunes or waves slowly undulated away into obscurity to the left, perhaps some sort of desert? Ahead of them there appeared to be some sort of obelisk or raised stone-like object of immense size and seeming solidity. Behind them extended a sort of marsh or bog like region of increasingly dense shadows and slippery things that slithered along oblivious to their observation...
What should they do next? Which way should they go?
You Decide!
Away from the mirror everything shimmered and swirled with the hint of some sort of forest off to the right, a fluctuating series of dunes or waves slowly undulated away into obscurity to the left, perhaps some sort of desert? Ahead of them there appeared to be some sort of obelisk or raised stone-like object of immense size and seeming solidity. Behind them extended a sort of marsh or bog like region of increasingly dense shadows and slippery things that slithered along oblivious to their observation...
What should they do next? Which way should they go?
You Decide!
Synchronocitor Status: Fully Recharged.
Roll for Initiative!
Someone please roll 1d6 for 1) Bujilli, 2) Leeja, 3) Any other interested parties.More Blemmyes?
We also need to roll 1d100/d% to determine if there are any more Blemmyes on this side of the mirror. Let's say there is a 30% chance that there are 1d4 more of the things in the immediate area. So any roll of 30 or under means we have an encounter in-progress when we pick up things next episode.
Roll for Random Encounter.
The opening and closing of the mirror, as well as Hedrard's wards all stir up things enough to provoke a roll for a possible random encounter in addition to the chance that there are any Blemmyes lingering or loitering on the scene. We'll use one d6 roll, with a result of '1' meaning they spot some sort of sign or spoor and a result of '6' meaning there is a more substantial encounter. Another roll of 2d6X10 will tell us how far away any such encounter might be in yards. And another 2d6 roll will tell us give us the encountered creature's reaction as per the table on p. 52 of the Labyrinth Lord book.
Spot Mirror Roll. (1d30)
We'll also need a d30 roll to determine if Bujilli or Leeja spot another mirror in the distance. A result of 10 means maybe/it isn't clear, a result of 20 means that there seems to be a mirror in a random direction, but it looks closed/shuttered; and a result of 30 means that they spot a mirror in the distance that might be open and accessible...or at least whatever they are seeing appears that way from a distance. A result of 1 means something else mirror-related happens--I'm working on a special table just for that sort of thing and will post it in time for use for the next episode if we need it.
Which Way To Go?
so...should they go right into the forest, Left to the gray desert-like dune-sea, back towards the swampy-place, or forward to the obelisk-object? If you prefer, they can spend some time looking for an alternative route(s), if they linger here long enough, they might spot another option in terms of a direction to travel, but doing so provokes another Random Encounter Roll...
So what do you think Bujilli & Leeja ought to do next? Which way should they go?
You Decide!
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This looks interesting...
ReplyDeleteHere are the initiative rolls:
Bujilli - 3
Leeja - 6
Any other interested parties - 5
I made the roll for the Blemmyes too and got a 97, which probably suits Bujilli and Leeja just fine. The roll for the encounter and the mirror I'll leave for someone else for now.
Picking a direction in such a strange new space might be best done with the help of Counsel, and I'd imagine Counsel could say some very interesting things about it. Maybe they can get a quick report and still move off while it's quiet.
If there's no data and no sign of a mirror, or there's a need to hurry, the direction with the dunes or waves seems moderately more attractive, for the prospect of somewhere potentially more arid or awash, and even clean, a change from the grime of the city. Even if the effect is just a feature of the space, a regular undulation might be helpful, even possible to ride, or climb for a farther line of sight if such things apply over longer distances.
This is an opportunity to step away from the semi-known and to go out into the wildly unknown regions beyond what we've already established or examined. It might also appeal to new readers as it just dropped a ton of backstory and baggage in one fell swoop.
DeleteThanks for the Initiative Rolls. We'll have to determine who those "interested parties" are pretty soon.
No more Blemmyes in the immediate vicinity gives Bujilli & Leeja a little breathing room, at least for now.
As for Counsel, it is registering a great deal of 'indeterminancy' in the immediate area. Nothing seems entirely solid in the usual sense of the word, and there is a sort of malleability to everything. Not gooey plasticity, but a slow-motion drift or flow along multiple overlapping axes that seem to move or change course/position. The matter in this place is somewhat permeable and more easily disrupted, though it has a tendency to flow back into an approximation of its original configuration, unless acted upon by extreme violence or energy. Counsel offers the conjecture that this is a transitional space or liminal zone in-between more 'normal' seeming spaces.
No other mirrors are immediately detectable.
To learn more about the surroundings will require moving in a particular direction. Passive viewing from a distance is prone to blurriness, indistinct haze, and a sluggish sort of morphing that makes things difficult to differentiate reliably.
Your impression of the undulating region is interesting and might possibly provide a good platform for either mobility or observation. Things seem to change as one moves. The prevailing conditions appear to be slightly different over there...
So many cool choices! I agree with Porky, head for the dunes and see what they can see and what changes as they move. I would also ask Counsel to keep on an "active monitor" status and to notify Bujilli if a location becomes identifiable and what information Counsel can provide.
ReplyDeleteFor the random encounter rolls on 1d6 I rolled a 3, for distance (2d6x10) I rolled a 2 and a 3 so 50, and for reaction I got 6 (5 and 1).
For spot mirror I rolled 5 on a d30.
I also rolled 5d20 and got 19, 13, 10, 20, and and 13 in case they're helpful.