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Hunter or the Hunted: Part 2 Chapter 11


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#1 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 20 October 2003 - 05:30 AM

Just a head's up: There's a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, mostly due to the fact that Smitty's doing a lot of the talking in it. Just thought I'd warn you in case your virgin eyes might be offended. :twisted:

Other than that, I'm sorry it took so long to get this written, I've been suffering from a bad case of mid-terms lately. I'm on a regimen of studying, and the teachers promise that it'll be cleared up this week. :wink:

On with the story!
_____________________________________________________________




Chapter 11




In celebration of the success of their first mission, Elliard put on a feast and party the night after they had dropped the slaves off at the Selunite temple. The entire crew jammed down into the ship’s mess after anchoring off the coast, and the noise they made was almost unbearable. They grew louder still when Elliard squeezed in and stood at the middle of the captain’s table and didn’t stop until he had raised his mug of ale for silence.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said in a grand voice, “The Moonmaiden has smiled upon our first venture as pirates…”

A cry of, “Arrr! Pirates!” rose up from the more light-hearted members of the crew, which was practically everyone, and Yoshimo, feeling enthused, joined in.

“Yes, ‘arrr’ indeed,” Elliard agreed when they had quieted again. “So, let us give thanks to our Gods for our luck, ourselves for out skill and the brewers for our ale!” The crew shouted their agreement and clinked their mugs. Elliard waited until the crew was deep into their mug and the noise had died down again to continue. “However this journey has not been entirely without casualties, lads. Many of us were injured while fighting the slavers, and some even killed. Let us drink to the memory of those we lost.”

“Aye!” shouted the crew.

“Let us drink to Haliar Goldenfist, a brave man who was a friend to us all. His music and his laughter will be missed.” The crew responded to this with a surprisingly quiet murmur of assent and downed the remained of their drinks. They filled their mugs again before Elliard continued, “Let us drink to Ellywick Daergal, never a sweeter gnomish lass sailed the seas than she, and never shall one take her place in out hearts!” The crew drank in Ellywick’s honor, and Elliard went on, “Let us drink also to those slaves who died chained in the depths of hell, who died without seeing the light of the sun and Selune again, who died afraid and degraded by their captors. Let us drink to them, and in their memory and the memory of our friends who gave their lives to our united cause, never let such a travesty happen again where we can stop it!”

A thunderous roar accompanied Elliard’s words, and there was a loud rumble of mugs being struck against the tables and feet being stomped on the wooden deck. Elliard waved let them go on for a while before waving them to silence again. “Now then, lads and lasses, as the saying goes, eat, drink and be merry!”

After that the ale was passed around so liberally that Yoshimo began to find things a little hazy. The next morning, when he found himself asleep on the deck, curled up in a coil of rope, he could remember very little of the night before. He distinctly recalled having his bottom pinched by the more lascivious of the crew’s two women sailors, but aside from that small island of clarity, there was a heavy haze of alcohol and a hangover headache that made trying to piece together the evening next to impossible. When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.

“Aye, lads, get up off yer bottoms and get about yer duties,” the dwarf boomed, making Yoshimo’s head pound from all the way across the deck. “We’ll never get anything done if ye sit about and moan all day about yer soft heads and softer bellies.”

“Please… quiet…” pleaded one poor man, rubbing his temples furiously. “Head… hurt…”

“Ye barmy kusotare,” Smitty squawked, “Ye shouldn’t have drunk so much last night if ye didn’t want to have a booze-head in the morning. Baka!”

Yoshimo raised an eyebrow. One more detail of his night was filled in; apparently he had spent some time teaching Smitty to swear in Kozakuran. True to his parrot heritage, Smitty even managed to smother his accent and sound almost like a native speaker, or at least a drunken one.

“And another thing, ye shit-eating little bakemono,” Smitty continued, “The next bastard who yanks my tail feathers while inebriated is going to get their balls bitten off, ye hear me?”
One of them men lurched to his feet, leaned heavily over the rail, and vomited before collapsing back down on the deck and moaning. Yoshimo approached warily, his own stomach threatening revolt as he walked and tapped Blackbeard on the shoulder.

“Eh? What is it lad?”

“Please tell the bird to be quiet,” Yoshimo mumbled, squinting because the
sun at just that moment chose to come out from behind a cloud and assault his suddenly sensitive eyes.

“No one tells me what to do, bakayaro,” Smitty retorted grumpily, “especially not this fat, filthy bastard.”

Blackbeard grinned sympathetically. “Had a few too many pints last night, eh lad?”

“I do not know,” Yoshimo replied scrubbing one hand over his face and resting it over his eyes to protect them from the sun. “I… I cannot remember.”

Blackbeard’s laugh was enough to make Yoshimo want to sit down it made his head hurt so badly. “Aye, a few too many pints it is then. Go find Elliard, and he’ll fix ye up. I think he’s in his cabin.”

“Why’re ye being so nice to him and not to us?” One of the sailor complained.

“Because,” Blackbeard bellowed, turning on the sailor, “he doesn’t know any better and ye do.”

Yoshimo winced and said, “Thank you,” before stumbling off, grateful to be leave as Blackbeard started to round on his men again. He had the vague idea that Blackbeard was enjoying making them suffer for their entertainments the night before. He almost remembered seeing Blackbeard propped haphazardly next to a keg that he had presumably drained himself, but that might well have just been his imagination.

Elliard was in his cabin as Blackbeard had predicted. He was sitting at his desk writing something, pausing occasionally to chew thoughtfully on the feathered end of his quill pen, apparently unaware that Yoshimo had even entered the room. Elliard was unusually untidy, a few strands of black hair escaping from his characteristic, neat ponytail.

“Ah… excuse me…”

After a brief start, Elliard smiled at Yoshimo and said, “By the Moon and Stars, lad, you look like death warmed over.” He stood up and ushered Yoshimo into his chair. “I take it you enjoyed yourself last night?”

“I am not sure.”

“Things are a bit hazy, eh?”

“Ah… yes.”

Elliard chuckled. “Do you feel as awful as you look?”

Yoshimo nodded.

“Well then, let me see what I can do for you.” Elliard said. He went over to his desk and picked up a canteen. “First things first,” he went on, handing Yoshimo the canteen, and then taking it back and opening it for him when Yoshimo’s fumbling fingers weren’t capable of opening it, “drink lots of water. The reason why you feel so terrible is that your body wants water to get rid of the poison in you.”

Yoshimo, who had already started to chug thirstily from the canteen nearly choked. “Poison?” he asked after a brief coughing fit, fearing the worst.

“Well, not poison per se, but do you really think you would feel so terrible if drink didn’t contain components that are hazardous to the body? Why do you suppose people drink themselves to death? Now, drink up and try not to spatter water all over my cabin.”

“Why is Blackbeard not sick?”

“Reaver?” Elliard asked, looking in one of his desk drawers for a moment. “The dwarven body is much better suited to removing toxins from the bloodstream than the human body. I think it has something to do with living underground and not always having access to pure sources of food and water, and perhaps also their intimate connection to the earth. Also, he’s a druid, and as such, his body is even better and cleaning the blood than that of an average dwarf. It is quite impossible to get him drunk on less than a full keg of ale, and he can hardly drink that much in one go anyway, much to his eternal dismay.”

Yoshimo laughed and then immediately wished that he hadn’t. His head was not yet capable of managing laughter and the like. He groaned and took another drink of water, draining the canteen.

Finally having found what he wanted, a small paper packet of some sort, Elliard closed his desk drawer. He took the empty canteen from Yoshimo and refilled it from the water cask by the desk and handed it back. Then he filled a mug with water and set about heating with a little magic. He poured the contents of the paper packet in to the mug and swirled them around before handing the cup to Yoshimo.

“Drink this too,” he said, “it will settle your stomach and ease the ache in your head somewhat. The only real solution to a hangover is to sleep until it’s gone, but I’m afraid that since the rest of the crew can’t do that, neither can you. I only hope that this has taught you not to overdo it next time you decide to imbibe.”

Yoshimo cupped the mug between his two palms and sipped at the tea. It was quite good, though he didn’t recognize the flavor and bits of leaf and such stuck to his teeth as he drank. “Thank you,” he said.

“Think nothing of it,” Elliard demurred. “I do this sort of thing all the time. I remember once when Mae…” he stopped and turned away, presumably to gather his thoughts. “Well, suffice it to say I do this all the time.” He cleared his throat. “You may keep the mug and the canteen with you, so long as you think you won’t lose them overboard or some such thing, or you can stay here until you’ve finished your tea. Whatever your choice, I have business to attend to. I’m sure Reaver is causing all sorts of trouble for the crew.” With that, Elliard made a hasty retreat, leaving Yoshimo alone with his tea and his headache, and when the tea was gone there was only the headache left.

Elliard, Yoshimo decided, was a bit unsettled. Not just because he had just reminded himself of his dead lover, but in general he possessed a very unstable personality behind his dry, relaxed exterior. Somewhere down there, he hypothesized, was a man about to boil over in all directions if the right heart-strings were pulled hard enough, and he had a vague notion that he probably didn’t want to be too close by when that happened.

He took a long sip of his tea, noticing that the closer he got to the bottom of the cup, the stronger the taste got, so that by the time it was almost gone it was very bitter and left a foul aftertaste on his tongue. He washed the taste away with a long swig of water, and belched loudly. His head was already starting to hurt a little less, but his belly was beginning to start up a new round of protests, no doubt due the sudden, recent influx of liquid. The rocking of the boat as the waves rode under it into the shore didn’t help much either, nor did the fact that the aftertaste of the tea on his tongue was something akin to the bitter, foul taste of bile. He quickly pushed that particular thought out of his head. There was no sense in making himself feel worse.

“Burn those filthy buggers! I hope their balls rot off!”

Yoshimo turned his head just in time to see Smitty climb into the cabin through the porthole, his wide scarlet wings flapping against the inside of the hull briefly as he dangled from the edge of the porthole by his beak before he dropped off, landing on the deck with a thump. He ruffled his feathers and preened his tail before turning about and waddling over to Yoshimo.

“Give me a lift, lad,” the parrot instructed.
Yoshimo bent down, his head and stomach protesting, and Smitty perched on his arm. Sitting back up again, Yoshimo asked, “Why are you here?”
“Reaver sent me to check on ye, the smarmy little bald-headed bastard.”

“Why?”

“How the bloody hell do I know that? I don’t read minds, ye dumb shit,” the parrot snapped, nipping Yoshimo’s arm lightly. “Nay, I’m not privy to the thoughts of that dirt-loving old salty dog. Not that I’d want to be, mind ye. Sixteen years I’ve followed that bearded bastard around, and all the time I’ve known him my opinion of him has only fallen, like a wing-clipped turkey.”

Yoshimo grinned, but not at the parrot’s foul diatribe, at the sudden realization that Smitty had been around for Blackbeard’s adventures with Elliard and Maeiir. “You met Elliard when Blackbeard did?” he asked, asking what he already knew in order to start the conversation on the right track.

“Aye, I did,” Smitty replied grudgingly. “Why?”

“I was ah… er…”

“Curious?”

“Yes, curious. I was… curious,” Yoshimo said. “I wanted to know about the things they did.”

Smitty let out a mischievous peel of laughter, much louder and deeper that Yoshimo thought he could have managed. “There are a few things I think ye don’t want to know about.”

Yoshimo chuckled. “True,” he said. “What was… were they like?”

“Pretty much the same as now, though Pointy-Ears wasn’t such a sack of tears and melancholy. The dumb bastard never stopped smiling when Maeiir was around. I kept thinking what a sad state of affairs it would be if his ugly mug got stuck that way. Not that he’s a prettier sight smiling upside down.”

“I see,” Yoshimo said, hiding his eagerness to get the things he wanted to ask about. “He is very sad now, yes?”

“Eh,” the parrot replied, shrugging his wings, “he was worse right after Maeiir died; he kept weeping all over the place. I thought his pillow’d float away, or that he’d drown or something stupid like that.”

Yoshimo nodded. “That is very sad,” he said, trying to sound genuine.

“Oh, stuff it, ye barmy bastard, ye just want to know all the gory details. If ye want to know what happened I’ll tell ye, but keep the bloody theatrics to a bare minimum.”

“I understand,” Yoshimo said, nodding politely to acknowledge his misstep.

Smitty eyed him, cocking his feathered head to one side and looking up into his face. “Aye, well then, let me get started.” He climbed up onto the table and paced about for a moment, probably thinking about what he was going to say. “Aye well then, this is how it happened, boy; but listens close, I’m only telling ye once. We’d been harassing the Sharrans for about a year then, putting a real bug up their collective ass with our attacks, and we were about to finish them off in a few days time.

“We were camped out in the woods, not far from one of those shit-hole, half-built trading posts up in Amn. Reaver was being a loony bastard and wanted to get in touch with nature afore we got into the thick of things, and the elves, tree-loving, pointy-eared idiots that they are, didn’t object. Not that being in the town would have helped us, mind, but it would’ve been nice to have a few walls between my ass and the things that were crawling around out there. See, turns out it was a new moon that night…”

“'New moon?'” Yoshimo asked, aware of what those words meant individually, but not sure that, in conjunction, they were meant to be taken literally.

“Aye, Selune was hiding her pretty face that night, and there wasn’t a speck of moonlight to be seen. Bloody Sharrans love it when it’s like that. It gets their knickers all worked up. The four of us should’ve been expecting some sort of attack, but since we didn’t figure the Sharrans would come after us in the open, we weren’t too careful enough, and in the dead-bloody-middle of the night, they came at us. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but Maeiir ended up leading them off while the rest of us, who’d gotten into a real bind in the meantime, ran like little girls so that we could regroup and come back at them. Well, when we got out shit together again, we couldn’t find hide nor hair of either the Sharrans or Maeiir, and Pointy-Ears was getting crazy with worry. But there wasn’t crap we could do about it, since they’d just up and vanished, so we decided to go onto the Sharran temple.

“It took six hours, but when we got there, the Sharrans had gone, leaving us a message. They didn’t have time to get really vicious, but they’d tortured Maeiir, killed him, and spiked him to a tree out in front of the temple, before they cleared out. Needless to say, Elliard lost it, and that temple isn’t standing anymore.”

“Why would they do that?” Yoshimo asked, a little confused. “It was not wise.”

“To screw with us,” Smitty said. “Some big shot knew that we
were just little shits, and that if they wanted to they could kill us at any time. They had to leave there anyway, we’d told the town that they had a Sharran temple in their woods, and that if we didn’t come back to contact the temple of Selune with a magic item we’d left with them. There was no reason to stay and lose people in a fight that, even if they would win, would still result in loses on their side. Then they sashayed back to their dark little hidey-holes to lick their wounds and rebuild.”

Yoshimo sat back, “And now Elliard is getting his revenge.”

“Aye,” Smitty said, unusually grave, “and Tymora bless us all who’re along for the ride.”

#2 Guest_Oryx_*

Posted 20 October 2003 - 10:56 AM

Just a head's up: There's a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, mostly due to the fact that Smitty's doing a lot of the talking in it. Just thought I'd warn you in case your virgin eyes might be offended. :)


:?

Yay Smitty!

Other than that, I'm sorry it took so long to get this written, I've been suffering from a bad case of mid-terms lately. I'm on a regimen of studying, and the teachers promise that it'll be cleared up this week. :P


:)

On with the story!
_____________________________________________________________


:D





A cry of, “Arrr! Pirates!” rose up from the more light-hearted members of the crew, which was practically everyone, and Yoshimo, feeling enthused, joined in.


Arrrrrrr!

“Let us drink to Haliar Goldenfist, a brave man who was a friend to us all. His music and his laughter will be missed.” The crew responded to this with a surprisingly quiet murmur of assent and downed the remained of their drinks. They filled their mugs again before Elliard continued, “Let us drink to Ellywick Daergal, never a sweeter gnomish lass sailed the seas than she, and never shall one take her place in out hearts!” The crew drank in Ellywick’s honor, and Elliard went on, “Let us drink also to those slaves who died chained in the depths of hell, who died without seeing the light of the sun and Selune again, who died afraid and degraded by their captors. Let us drink to them, and in their memory and the memory of our friends who gave their lives to our united cause, never let such a travesty happen again where we can stop it!”


Hear hear!

So Selune is the name of Toril's moon itself? Or at least among Selunites?

A thunderous roar accompanied Elliard’s words, and there was a loud rumble of mugs being struck against the tables and feet being stomped on the wooden deck. Elliard waved let them go on for a while before waving them to silence again. “Now then, lads and lasses, as the saying goes, eat, drink and be merry!”


After that the ale was passed around so liberally that Yoshimo began to find things a little hazy. The next morning, when he found himself asleep on the deck, curled up in a coil of rope, he could remember very little of the night before. He distinctly recalled having his bottom pinched by the more lascivious of the crew’s two women sailors, but aside from that small island of clarity, there was a heavy haze of alcohol and a hangover headache that made trying to piece together the evening next to impossible. When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Ha! That's dwarves for ye.

island of clarity! lol...approrpiate pirty metaphor...combines islands + booze.

Yoshimo raised an eyebrow. One more detail of his night was filled in; apparently he had spent some time teaching Smitty to swear in Kozakuran. True to his parrot heritage, Smitty even managed to smother his accent and sound almost like a native speaker, or at least a drunken one.


LOLOLOLOL!!!!

“And another thing, ye shit-eating little bakemono,” Smitty continued, “The next bastard who yanks my tail feathers while inebriated is going to get their balls bitten off, ye hear me?”
One of them men lurched to his feet, leaned heavily over the rail, and vomited before collapsing back down on the deck and moaning. Yoshimo approached warily, his own stomach threatening revolt as he walked and tapped Blackbeard on the shoulder.


lol


Yoshimo winced and said, “Thank you,” before stumbling off, grateful to be leave as Blackbeard started to round on his men again. He had the vague idea that Blackbeard was enjoying making them suffer for their entertainments the night before. He almost remembered seeing Blackbeard propped haphazardly next to a keg that he had presumably drained himself, but that might well have just been his imagination.


ROFL!

Elliard was in his cabin as Blackbeard had predicted. He was sitting at his desk writing something, pausing occasionally to chew thoughtfully on the feathered end of his quill pen, apparently unaware that Yoshimo had even entered the room. Elliard was unusually untidy, a few strands of black hair escaping from his characteristic, neat ponytail.


You have a thing for ponytailed (and scarred) manlings, don't yooooou... :D

After a brief start, Elliard smiled at Yoshimo and said, “By the Moon and Stars, lad, you look like death warmed over.” He stood up and ushered Yoshimo into his chair. “I take it you enjoyed yourself last night?”


“I am not sure.”


ROFLMAO!!!!!

Delicious. I've had cause to EXACTLY that before!!

You do....I don't know what to call it...the humor of Yoshi's earnest, simply honesty so well.


“Reaver?” Elliard asked, looking in one of his desk drawers for a moment. “The dwarven body is much better suited to removing toxins from the bloodstream than the human body. I think it has something to do with living underground and not always having access to pure sources of food and water, and perhaps also their intimate connection to the earth. Also, he’s a druid, and as such, his body is even better and cleaning the blood than that of an average dwarf. It is quite impossible to get him drunk on less than a full keg of ale, and he can hardly drink that much in one go anyway, much to his eternal dismay.”


Ah yes...druid poison immunity...

“Think nothing of it,” Elliard demurred. “I do this sort of thing all the time. I remember once when Mae…” he stopped and turned away, presumably to gather his thoughts. “Well, suffice it to say I do this all the time.” He cleared his throat. “You may keep the mug and the canteen with you, so long as you think you won’t lose them overboard or some such thing, or you can stay here until you’ve finished your tea. Whatever your choice, I have business to attend to. I’m sure Reaver is causing all sorts of trouble for the crew.” With that, Elliard made a hasty retreat, leaving Yoshimo alone with his tea and his headache, and when the tea was gone there was only the headache left.


LOL...nice phrasiology.

“We were camped out in the woods, not far from one of those shit-hole, half-built trading posts up in Amn. Reaver was being a loony bastard and wanted to get in touch with nature afore we got into the thick of things, and the elves, tree-loving, pointy-eared idiots that they are, didn’t object. Not that being in the town would have helped us, mind, but it would’ve been nice to have a few walls between my ass and the things that were crawling around out there. See, turns out it was a new moon that night…”


uhoh...that'd be the peak of Sharran power and trough of Selunite, I'd guess....

(sort like those 3 moons in Krynn!)

“It took six hours, but when we got there, the Sharrans had gone, leaving us a message. They didn’t have time to get really vicious, but they’d tortured Maeiir, killed him, and spiked him to a tree out in front of the temple, before they cleared out. Needless to say, Elliard lost it, and that temple isn’t standing anymore.”


:D :D :cry: :cry:

Okay, I hate to ask the obvious question, but why not a Resurrection? (are you making the rules harder? a lot of people do, and I don't blame them)

“Aye,” Smitty said, unusually grave, “and Tymora bless us all who’re along for the ride.”


:twisted: I am!

#3 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 20 October 2003 - 07:43 PM

Just a head's up: There's a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, mostly due to the fact that Smitty's doing a lot of the talking in it. Just thought I'd warn you in case your virgin eyes might be offended. :)


:?


Yes, I know, I'm shocked too. I'm such a wellspring of propriety.

Yay Smitty!


Yaaaar!


A cry of, “Arrr! Pirates!” rose up from the more light-hearted members of the crew, which was practically everyone, and Yoshimo, feeling enthused, joined in.


Arrrrrrr!


Arrrrr!



“Let us drink to them, and in their memory and the memory of our friends who gave their lives to our united cause, never let such a travesty happen again where we can stop it!”


Hear hear!


So Selune is the name of Toril's moon itself? Or at least among Selunites?


Yep, Selune is the name of the moon, as well as being the name of the goddess of the moon, much as the moon in ancient Greece and Rome was sometimes called Artemis or Diana in honor of the Goddess of the same names.


When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Ha! That's dwarves for ye.


Blackbeard's a real ham, isn't he?

island of clarity! lol...approrpiate pirty metaphor...combines islands + booze.


Heehee... That's sort of what I was going for.


Yoshimo raised an eyebrow. One more detail of his night was filled in; apparently he had spent some time teaching Smitty to swear in Kozakuran. True to his parrot heritage, Smitty even managed to smother his accent and sound almost like a native speaker, or at least a drunken one.


LOLOLOLOL!!!!


Now Smitty swears fluently in one more language. Besides, I know so much dirty Japanese, but I never get to use it, so this was a chance for me to let out my inner Yakuza.


“And another thing, ye shit-eating little bakemono,” Smitty continued, “The next bastard who yanks my tail feathers while inebriated is going to get their balls bitten off, ye hear me?”
One of them men lurched to his feet, leaned heavily over the rail, and vomited before collapsing back down on the deck and moaning. Yoshimo approached warily, his own stomach threatening revolt as he walked and tapped Blackbeard on the shoulder.


lol


The Revenge ain't going nowhere today, no sirree!


He almost remembered seeing Blackbeard propped haphazardly next to a keg that he had presumably drained himself, but that might well have just been his imagination.


ROFL!


Just between us: He wasn't imagining it.


Elliard was in his cabin as Blackbeard had predicted. He was sitting at his desk writing something, pausing occasionally to chew thoughtfully on the feathered end of his quill pen, apparently unaware that Yoshimo had even entered the room. Elliard was unusually untidy, a few strands of black hair escaping from his characteristic, neat ponytail.


You have a thing for ponytailed (and scarred) manlings, don't yooooou... :D


Well, yes, but that's beside the point. I think Elliard uses the ponytail for convinience's sake. And aside from that, scars, tattoo (pretty ones) and that unshaven, sort of manliness is incredibly sexeh.


“I am not sure.”


ROFLMAO!!!!!


Delicious. I've had cause to EXACTLY that before!!


You do....I don't know what to call it...the humor of Yoshi's earnest, simply honesty so well.


He gets a little more sophisticated once he's mastered the language, but right now, yeah, that about describes it.


“It is quite impossible to get him drunk on less than a full keg of ale, and he can hardly drink that much in one go anyway, much to his eternal dismay.”


Ah yes...druid poison immunity...


One of the many hints I give to allow the reader to judge just how powerful some of these people are.


With that, Elliard made a hasty retreat, leaving Yoshimo alone with his tea and his headache, and when the tea was gone there was only the headache left.


LOL...nice phrasiology.


Yoshimo (singing off key): Me and my heaaadache!


“See, turns out it was a new moon that night…”


uhoh...that'd be the peak of Sharran power and trough of Selunite, I'd guess....


Yup.

(sort like those 3 moons in Krynn!)


Sort of, though I'm not too familiar with the specifics, I'm vaguely aware of Krynn's interesting cosmology.


“It took six hours, but when we got there, the Sharrans had gone, leaving us a message. They didn’t have time to get really vicious, but they’d tortured Maeiir, killed him, and spiked him to a tree out in front of the temple, before they cleared out. Needless to say, Elliard lost it, and that temple isn’t standing anymore.”


:D :D :cry: :cry:


Okay, I hate to ask the obvious question, but why not a Resurrection? (are you making the rules harder? a lot of people do, and I don't blame them)


As a storyteller I dislike the idea of dropping by your local temple of Ilmater, shelling out some gold, and getting your pal back from the dead. It sort of takes the dramatics out of a character's own death, or the death of a character's loved one.

That aside, there are several very good reasons why Maeiir was not raised. The first being, they were too far from a temple with a cleric who could cast a high enough level spell and Elliard wasn't powerful enough yet himself. It takes a 9th level cleric to cast a Raise Dead, and 5th level spell, and the nearest 9th level cleric was more than nine days away (Raise Dead revives one person who died 1 day ago/level.

Reason number two if a lack of sufficient funds. While, a temple of Selune would certainly be willing to Raise a person, especially a priest of their same Goddess, who died in the pursuit of Selunite goals, there is still a significant cost involved in bringing someone back to life. With Raise Dead out of the question, as explained in reason number one, you have to move on to even more powerful spells, like Ressurection, True Ressurection. Ressurection requires a material component of diamonds totaling 10,000 gp, which means that is the very least it would cost to cast the spell. True Ressurection, which would be a bit of an overkill, so to speak, requires 25,000 gp in diamonds. Simply put, they didn't have sufficient funds at the time.

Reason number three is that in order to be Raised, Ressurrected or what have you, the subject has to *want* to come back. Maeiir didn't. It's no real spoiler I suppose to say that, when Elliard got the funds together and the power to pull of a Ressurection, Maeiir politely refused. Not that you can blame him, since he'd been chilling in the afterlife for a while, kicking back and trying to let his mind recover from being tortured and then killed by Sharran priestesses, who, though they lacked a great deal of time, they used it well.

I hope that makes sense.

End rant


“Aye,” Smitty said, unusually grave, “and Tymora bless us all who’re along for the ride.”


:twisted: I am!


Thanks for reading and commenting,
- Blue

#4 Guest_Oryx_*

Posted 21 October 2003 - 02:31 AM


Okay, I hate to ask the obvious question, but why not a Resurrection? (are you making the rules harder? a lot of people do, and I don't blame them)


As a storyteller I dislike the idea of dropping by your local temple of Ilmater, shelling out some gold, and getting your pal back from the dead. It sort of takes the dramatics out of a character's own death, or the death of a character's loved one.


That aside, there are several very good reasons why Maeiir was not raised. The first being, they were too far from a temple with a cleric who could cast a high enough level spell and Elliard wasn't powerful enough yet himself. It takes a 9th level cleric to cast a Raise Dead, and 5th level spell, and the nearest 9th level cleric was more than nine days away (Raise Dead revives one person who died 1 day ago/level.


Reason number two if a lack of sufficient funds. While, a temple of Selune would certainly be willing to Raise a person, especially a priest of their same Goddess, who died in the pursuit of Selunite goals, there is still a significant cost involved in bringing someone back to life. With Raise Dead out of the question, as explained in reason number one, you have to move on to even more powerful spells, like Ressurection, True Ressurection. Ressurection requires a material component of diamonds totaling 10,000 gp, which means that is the very least it would cost to cast the spell. True Ressurection, which would be a bit of an overkill, so to speak, requires 25,000 gp in diamonds. Simply put, they didn't have sufficient funds at the time.


Reason number three is that in order to be Raised, Ressurrected or what have you, the subject has to *want* to come back. Maeiir didn't. It's no real spoiler I suppose to say that, when Elliard got the funds together and the power to pull of a Ressurection, Maeiir politely refused. Not that you can blame him, since he'd been chilling in the afterlife for a while, kicking back and trying to let his mind recover from being tortured and then killed by Sharran priestesses, who, though they lacked a great deal of time, they used it well.


I hope that makes sense.


End rant


Oh yes, perfect sense...really puts anew meaning to 'diamonds are forever'. By the by, I think 3.5e is a 500 GP diamond for Raise Dead, Resurrection, and a 5000 GP for True Res.

#5 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 21 October 2003 - 03:31 AM

Oh yes, perfect sense...really puts anew meaning to 'diamonds are forever'. By the by, I think 3.5e is a 500 GP diamond for Raise Dead, Resurrection, and a 5000 GP for True Res.


3.5... some good things, some bad things, some silly things (Gnome: favored multiclass = bard? Zuuuh?) Still, I wonder how much more difficult is it to acquire 1 500 GP diamond than many smaller, less costly ones that, in total are worth more. Let alone a 5000 GP gem. The cost may be lower, but the trouble in making the acquisition is greater, making such endevours those of the stupidly rich.

-Blue

#6 Guest_Helseth_*

Posted 21 October 2003 - 11:41 PM

“Yes, ‘arrr’ indeed,” Elliard agreed when they had quieted again.


I'm still trying to imagine how his "arrr" sounded. :shock:

After that the ale was passed around so liberally that Yoshimo began to find things a little hazy. The next morning, when he found himself asleep on the deck, curled up in a coil of rope, he could remember very little of the night before. He distinctly recalled having his bottom pinched by the more lascivious of the crew’s two women sailors, but aside from that small island of clarity, there was a heavy haze of alcohol and a hangover headache that made trying to piece together the evening next to impossible. When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Druidish immunity? :wink:

“Please… quiet…” pleaded one poor man, rubbing his temples furiously. “Head… hurt…”


Ouch...

“Ye barmy kusotare,” Smitty squawked, “Ye shouldn’t have drunk so much last night if ye didn’t want to have a booze-head in the morning. Baka!”


Wow! He swears in Japa... Kozakuran! He's lucky if they won't understand him :twisted:

Blackbeard’s laugh was enough to make Yoshimo want to sit down it made his head hurt so badly. “Aye, a few too many pints it is then. Go find Elliard, and he’ll fix ye up. I think he’s in his cabin.”


Hey, he is a druid! Why cannot he heal Yoshi himself? Druids have a way with poisons, neh? :o

Finally having found what he wanted, a small paper packet of some sort, Elliard closed his desk drawer. He took the empty canteen from Yoshimo and refilled it from the water cask by the desk and handed it back. Then he filled a mug with water and set about heating with a little magic. He poured the contents of the paper packet in to the mug and swirled them around before handing the cup to Yoshimo.

“Drink this too,” he said, “it will settle your stomach and ease the ache in your head somewhat. The only real solution to a hangover is to sleep until it’s gone, but I’m afraid that since the rest of the crew can’t do that, neither can you. I only hope that this has taught you not to overdo it next time you decide to imbibe.”


I like how the healing magic doen't just "makes it happen", but (probably) speeds the natural processes. And needs lots of healer-equipment props. :P

Elliard, Yoshimo decided, was a bit unsettled. Not just because he had just reminded himself of his dead lover, but in general he possessed a very unstable personality behind his dry, relaxed exterior. Somewhere down there, he hypothesized, was a man about to boil over in all directions if the right heart-strings were pulled hard enough, and he had a vague notion that he probably didn’t want to be too close by when that happened.


:P "Dry"? I've somehow never imagined Elliard to be dry. Quite the opposite -- for me he came through as a gentle-mannered, caring person. Like in his speech in this chapter, for example.

“Yes, curious. I was… curious,” Yoshimo said. “I wanted to know about the things they did.”

Smitty let out a mischievous peel of laughter, much louder and deeper that Yoshimo thought he could have managed. “There are a few things I think ye don’t want to know about.”


I wouldn't be so sure... :twisted:

Yoshimo nodded. “That is very sad,” he said, trying to sound genuine.


"Sound genuine" -- is it right? Maybe "sincere"?

“Oh, stuff it, ye barmy bastard, ye just want to know all the gory details. If ye want to know what happened I’ll tell ye, but keep the bloody theatrics to a bare minimum.”


Heh. He's rather perceptive for a parrot :D


Nice chapter! Rather relaxing (despite the hangover :shock: ) after all the previous excitement. :D

#7 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 23 October 2003 - 05:50 AM

“Yes, ‘arrr’ indeed,” Elliard agreed when they had quieted again.


I'm still trying to imagine how his "arrr" sounded. :wink:


I am too. Probably very upper-class British, since I imagine him with the slightest British-type accent.


When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Druidish immunity? :)


Yep, at a certain level, druids gain immunity to natural poisons, a category in which I include alcohol.

“Ye barmy kusotare,” Smitty squawked, “Ye shouldn’t have drunk so much last night if ye didn’t want to have a booze-head in the morning. Baka!”


Wow! He swears in Japa... Kozakuran! He's lucky if they won't understand him ;)


:) Yeah, but then again, these sailors have become used to Smitty's abuse. They know he means it with affection.

Blackbeard’s laugh was enough to make Yoshimo want to sit down it made his head hurt so badly. “Aye, a few too many pints it is then. Go find Elliard, and he’ll fix ye up. I think he’s in his cabin.”


Hey, he is a druid! Why cannot he heal Yoshi himself? Druids have a way with poisons, neh? :)


He might not have the particular spell handy, or he might not care to expend the effort. Besides, Blackbeard is busy and Elliard isn't so much.


“Drink this too,” he said, “it will settle your stomach and ease the ache in your head somewhat. The only real solution to a hangover is to sleep until it’s gone, but I’m afraid that since the rest of the crew can’t do that, neither can you. I only hope that this has taught you not to overdo it next time you decide to imbibe.”


I like how the healing magic doen't just "makes it happen", but (probably) speeds the natural processes. And needs lots of healer-equipment props. :)


Actually, Elliard didn't use any magic, just some herbal medicine, like willow bark, or something similar. There's no need to waste spells when simple medicine will suffice.

Elliard, Yoshimo decided, was a bit unsettled. Not just because he had just reminded himself of his dead lover, but in general he possessed a very unstable personality behind his dry, relaxed exterior. Somewhere down there, he hypothesized, was a man about to boil over in all directions if the right heart-strings were pulled hard enough, and he had a vague notion that he probably didn’t want to be too close by when that happened.


:) "Dry"? I've somehow never imagined Elliard to be dry. Quite the opposite -- for me he came through as a gentle-mannered, caring person. Like in his speech in this chapter, for example.


Eh, dry may be the wrong word. He's affectionate and caring in his own way, and as you said, gentle-mannered, but he's also reserved and not a mushy sort of fellow. For example, he might be moved by a sad story, but he's not going to have to pull out his hanky, nor will he let the depth of his emotion show in his voice or manner.


Smitty let out a mischievous peel of laughter, much louder and deeper that Yoshimo thought he could have managed. “There are a few things I think ye don’t want to know about.”


I wouldn't be so sure... :)


Well, let's just say there are some *ahem* personal details that he probably wouldn't be so interested in.

Yoshimo nodded. “That is very sad,” he said, trying to sound genuine.


"Sound genuine" -- is it right? Maybe "sincere"?


sincere and genuine are interchangeable in most cases, all though I'll take your recommendation under consideration.

“Oh, stuff it, ye barmy bastard, ye just want to know all the gory details. If ye want to know what happened I’ll tell ye, but keep the bloody theatrics to a bare minimum.”


Heh. He's rather perceptive for a parrot :)


He's actually smarter than Blackbeard, but the dwarf will deny it to his dying breath.

Nice chapter! Rather relaxing (despite the hangover :) ) after all the previous excitement. :)


Thank you for reading and commenting,
-Blue

#8 Guest_Domi_*

Posted 24 October 2003 - 04:18 AM

Just a head's up: There's a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, mostly due to the fact that Smitty's doing a lot of the talking in it. Just thought I'd warn you in case your virgin eyes might be offended. :)


Ah, but my eyes has been assulted by the worst book I have ever read since Salvatore's Siege of Darkness...as long as nobody tags on her braid, I can take it :shock:

Other than that, I'm sorry it took so long to get this written, I've been suffering from a bad case of mid-terms lately. I'm on a regimen of studying, and the teachers promise that it'll be cleared up this week. :)


I am catching up...so I do not mind, but I might be the only one.

A cry of, “Arrr! Pirates!” rose up from the more light-hearted members of the crew, which was practically everyone, and Yoshimo, feeling enthused, joined in.


I bet!

A thunderous roar accompanied Elliard’s words, and there was a loud rumble of mugs being struck against the tables and feet being stomped on the wooden deck. Elliard waved let them go on for a while before waving them to silence again. “Now then, lads and lasses, as the saying goes, eat, drink and be merry!”


:D

After that the ale was passed around so liberally that Yoshimo began to find things a little hazy. The next morning, when he found himself asleep on the deck, curled up in a coil of rope, he could remember very little of the night before. He distinctly recalled having his bottom pinched by the more lascivious of the crew’s two women sailors, but aside from that small island of clarity, there was a heavy haze of alcohol and a hangover headache that made trying to piece together the evening next to impossible. When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Oh, I really liked the image of the improvised nest with Yoshimo curled up in it.

Yoshimo raised an eyebrow. One more detail of his night was filled in; apparently he had spent some time teaching Smitty to swear in Kozakuran. True to his parrot heritage, Smitty even managed to smother his accent and sound almost like a native speaker, or at least a drunken one.


Mine, that is excellent!


“Because,” Blackbeard bellowed, turning on the sailor, “he doesn’t know any better and ye do.”


Reasoin enough.

Yoshimo, who had already started to chug thirstily from the canteen nearly choked. “Poison?” he asked after a brief coughing fit, fearing the worst.


Education, education. Poor Yoshimo.

“Reaver?” Elliard asked, looking in one of his desk drawers for a moment. “The dwarven body is much better suited to removing toxins from the bloodstream than the human body. I think it has something to do with living underground and not always having access to pure sources of food and water, and perhaps also their intimate connection to the earth. Also, he’s a druid, and as such, his body is even better and cleaning the blood than that of an average dwarf. It is quite impossible to get him drunk on less than a full keg of ale, and he can hardly drink that much in one go anyway, much to his eternal dismay.”


Hmm...tiny neat-pick: "toxins" sounded as a bit of anachronism to me...I liked how you did the previous speach, which was both accurate and in-period so to speak.

Elliard, Yoshimo decided, was a bit unsettled. Not just because he had just reminded himself of his dead lover, but in general he possessed a very unstable personality behind his dry, relaxed exterior. Somewhere down there, he hypothesized, was a man about to boil over in all directions if the right heart-strings were pulled hard enough, and he had a vague notion that he probably didn’t want to be too close by when that happened.


That is very observant, and a perfect description of the character


“How the bloody hell do I know that? I don’t read minds, ye dumb shit,” the parrot snapped, nipping Yoshimo’s arm lightly. “Nay, I’m not privy to the thoughts of that dirt-loving old salty dog. Not that I’d want to be, mind ye. Sixteen years I’ve followed that bearded bastard around, and all the time I’ve known him my opinion of him has only fallen, like a wing-clipped turkey.”


I like this swearing sequence, and feels "birdy"


“I understand,” Yoshimo said, nodding politely to acknowledge his misstep.


Very wise...

“Aye, Selune was hiding her pretty face that night, and there wasn’t a speck of moonlight to be seen. Bloody Sharrans love it when it’s like that. It gets their knickers all worked up. The four of us should’ve been expecting some sort of attack, but since we didn’t figure the Sharrans would come after us in the open, we weren’t too careful enough, and in the dead-bloody-middle of the night, they came at us. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but Maeiir ended up leading them off while the rest of us, who’d gotten into a real bind in the meantime, ran like little girls so that we could regroup and come back at them. Well, when we got out shit together again, we couldn’t find hide nor hair of either the Sharrans or Maeiir, and Pointy-Ears was getting crazy with worry. But there wasn’t crap we could do about it, since they’d just up and vanished, so we decided to go onto the Sharran temple.


I loved that combination of romantic and swearing...great job!

“Aye,” Smitty said, unusually grave, “and Tymora bless us all who’re along for the ride.”


Oh, yes.

Great chapter, Blue...and now back in time for me :D

#9 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 24 October 2003 - 05:26 PM

Just a head's up: There's a tad bit of swearing in this chapter, mostly due to the fact that Smitty's doing a lot of the talking in it. Just thought I'd warn you in case your virgin eyes might be offended. :o


Ah, but my eyes has been assulted by the worst book I have ever read since Salvatore's Siege of Darkness...as long as nobody tags on her braid, I can take it :shock:


Hm? What book was this that so tortured you? I'll smite it if you like.


Other than that, I'm sorry it took so long to get this written, I've been suffering from a bad case of mid-terms lately. I'm on a regimen of studying, and the teachers promise that it'll be cleared up this week. :)


I am catching up...so I do not mind, but I might be the only one.


I'm finally done now. My Japanese midterm was okay, but my Music History midterm kicked my ass.


A cry of, “Arrr! Pirates!” rose up from the more light-hearted members of the crew, which was practically everyone, and Yoshimo, feeling enthused, joined in.


I bet!


:P I love writing about pirates. They're so piratey and delicious.


After that the ale was passed around so liberally that Yoshimo began to find things a little hazy. The next morning, when he found himself asleep on the deck, curled up in a coil of rope, he could remember very little of the night before. He distinctly recalled having his bottom pinched by the more lascivious of the crew’s two women sailors, but aside from that small island of clarity, there was a heavy haze of alcohol and a hangover headache that made trying to piece together the evening next to impossible. When at last he managed to drag himself out of his impromptu nest he found that the rest of the crew was in little better shape than he, with the exception of Blackbeard, who trundled around the ship, scoffing loudly at the very idea that such a thing as hangover even existed, and generally making the crew miserable.


Oh, I really liked the image of the improvised nest with Yoshimo curled up in it.


Thanks! I like to imagine that, in his drunken state, he tripped over the coil of rope, passed out, and just sort of curled up there and slept like a booze sodden little baby. Awww... how cute.


Yoshimo raised an eyebrow. One more detail of his night was filled in; apparently he had spent some time teaching Smitty to swear in Kozakuran. True to his parrot heritage, Smitty even managed to smother his accent and sound almost like a native speaker, or at least a drunken one.


Mine, that is excellent!


Smitty's a salty parrot, ain't he?


“Because,” Blackbeard bellowed, turning on the sailor, “he doesn’t know any better and ye do.”


Reasoin enough.


Also, he's a good five or ten years younger than most of the rest of the crew, so he's got a little leeway.


Yoshimo, who had already started to chug thirstily from the canteen nearly choked. “Poison?” he asked after a brief coughing fit, fearing the worst.


Education, education. Poor Yoshimo.


:) He's really getting his fill of interesting new experiences, isn't he?


“Reaver?” Elliard asked, looking in one of his desk drawers for a moment. “The dwarven body is much better suited to removing toxins from the bloodstream than the human body. I think it has something to do with living underground and not always having access to pure sources of food and water, and perhaps also their intimate connection to the earth. Also, he’s a druid, and as such, his body is even better and cleaning the blood than that of an average dwarf. It is quite impossible to get him drunk on less than a full keg of ale, and he can hardly drink that much in one go anyway, much to his eternal dismay.”


Hmm...tiny neat-pick: "toxins" sounded as a bit of anachronism to me...I liked how you did the previous speach, which was both accurate and in-period so to speak.


Mmm... good point. I'll take that under consideration.


Elliard, Yoshimo decided, was a bit unsettled. Not just because he had just reminded himself of his dead lover, but in general he possessed a very unstable personality behind his dry, relaxed exterior. Somewhere down there, he hypothesized, was a man about to boil over in all directions if the right heart-strings were pulled hard enough, and he had a vague notion that he probably didn’t want to be too close by when that happened.


That is very observant, and a perfect description of the character


Yeah, Elliard's like a dormant volcano. He hasn't been set off yet, but that doesn't mean he won't or can't lose it.


“How the bloody hell do I know that? I don’t read minds, ye dumb shit,” the parrot snapped, nipping Yoshimo’s arm lightly. “Nay, I’m not privy to the thoughts of that dirt-loving old salty dog. Not that I’d want to be, mind ye. Sixteen years I’ve followed that bearded bastard around, and all the time I’ve known him my opinion of him has only fallen, like a wing-clipped turkey.”


I like this swearing sequence, and feels "birdy"


I really want a parrot like Smitty, even if he does have a foul mouth.


But there wasn’t crap we could do about it, since they’d just up and vanished, so we decided to go onto the Sharran temple.


I loved that combination of romantic and swearing...great job!


Thanks!


“Aye,” Smitty said, unusually grave, “and Tymora bless us all who’re along for the ride.”


Oh, yes.


:lol:

Great chapter, Blue...and now back in time for me :o


Thanks again for reading and commenting,
-Blue




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