Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the Law!
Jul. 19th, 2003 01:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Lazar's Friday Shadake game. Amidst final exams and household chores, our heroes struggled to fit in the demands of the thieves' guild they'd joined. And somehow not get killed.
Courrin was happy to rejoin his family after being rescued from the pirates. Luis was not happy, and after being scolded by his mother announced that he WAS going to be a pirate, no matter what anyone said! Fortunately, he wasn't able to find the pirates again, since they'd gone to ground while they looked for another ship.
For Sophie and Tsuru and Keit, it was exam time. The first exam was a grueling test on the ettiquette and laws of various countries, done in the language of each country. No one did well on this test. The teacher announced that next term they'd be attending court for half the day, and writing about it the other half, each class, which the students decided couldn't possibly be worse than his lectures.
Lazarus taunted Sophie about how she'd 'joined the track team', implying that he'd seen her on the run from the law the night before. She feigned confusion, after figuring out what the hell he was talking about.
The second exam was combat -- a ladder tournament, with everyone not fighting in the tournament sparring for grades elsewhere in the room. Sophie was eliminated immediately, as was Tsuru, but Keit came close to winning... the actual winner was Lazarus, unfortunately, despite Sophie's attempts to sabotage him with magic (she was spotted, and the match restarted, althoug the teacher didn't mention who'd cast the spell).
That night Keit informed the others that Glick, their cell-leader, had a job for them, breaking into a merchant's house to steal a few things. They'd speak to him in detail about it later, after his (other) agents had had time to scout the place out properly.
The third exam was magic. The students who were studying magic tested out their best spells on the students who were only studying countering magic. Tsuru didn't counter Sophie's fire rat, having expected a more direct attack, but managed to stomp it without hurting himself much.
They were also told to identify an array of increasingly less common magical items. Tsuru did the best of anyone in the class, although Sophie was able to identify the Artican Feather (which everyone else missed) because she was still hallucinating from the Illiski wine she'd drunk at the celebration, and saw it as the entire bird, which she recognized from her tarot deck. Other enchanted items and spells were also appearing very strange to her, but if it was worrying (would she have these 'flashbacks' forever?) it was also kind of useful.
Afterwards, Sophie asked Tsuru for advice on being a better thief. She wanted to steal a steel-spiked kili-hide collar for Flokin, as a present because he'd been a good kitty and blown up the pirate ship. Steel was very expensive in Midrein, and *probably* fireproof enough to survive Flokin.
After chatting about options and plans, they wandered into a mews to case the joint. But just as Sophie spotted a likely collar, someone blew up the store by sending a magical floating orange leather bomb (with a smiley face on it) into the forge.
Tsuru was only slightly hurt by the wave of flame, and quickly rushed to help put out the fires and save the surviving animals. Sophie was unhurt, having instinctively protected herself from the fire (it was one of her easiest spells). She then stole the collar, since no one was looking, and put out the fires with another spell, demonstrating that she was, in fact, a fire mage.
The owner was suspicious, but since she WAS just a kid, he believed her when she (truthfully) said that she wasn't even CAPABLE of that kind of destruction. 'All I can summon are fire rats.' So, he let them go, and even offered them work, since they'd been helpful saving what they could of his stock. Sophie agreed to try to enchant his forge to not explode again, since she'd been trying to improve her magic all week, and a long-term enchantment was right on the edge of her ability.
And yes, the explosion was Flokin's fault. Apparently he wanted the collar right away.
The fourth exam was history. This was an easy exam, since the class was tested on what they'd actually studied. After Tsuru and Sophie did their time at the mews (Sophie botched the enchatment, placing it on the shopkeeper instead of the forge by mistake) the trio spent the rest of the day hanging around and not getting into TOO much trouble, until it was time to meet with Glick.
Glick told them about the fearsome defenses on their target. They were to steal some magical chalk (the primary target), a 1 lb flawless diamond, and a golden staff. These were all located inside a house guarded well by spirit magic. The walls and windows were warded, and would sound an alarm if disturbed. The front door was guarded by magical centipedes who would animate if anyone tried to enter uninvited. The back door was merely locked, but was guarded by a pair of feriphal-eating (and anyone-else-mauling) Vor hounds. Upstairs, the inner sanctum was guarded by a passphrase that the scouts had been able to overhear, as well as a key. The phrase was 'Zoreb pays the final price', Zoreb being the royal family of Midrein.
Sophie's Tarot reading revealed that this mission was futile, motivated by greed and a lust for power. Sophie and Tsuru and Keit were but pawns in a larger game, between powers all of whom were in the wrong and would reap only destruction. Glick made them go anyway.
Remembering that one of the items they'd had to identify had been a Grrlock heart, which suppressed magic in a 3ft radius, Tsuru expressed the opinion that the easiest way into the house would be to first break into their teacher's house and steal the heart. Since as students, all of them had to enter the teacher's house on a regular basis, they were known as 'friendlies' to the house's magical defenses, making the break-in a matter of sneaking past the guards. Which Tsuru did with ease, although there was a little excitement on the way out. He got away clean, however, with the hearts -- there turned out to be two of the horrible things in the storage chamber.
With the hearts, entering the target's house was simple -- the antimagic aura prevented the centipedes from animating, and the lock was not beyond Tsuru's prowess. A pet hawk was sleeping on the stairwell, but the trio snuck silently past... even Sophie was silent, for once. After reaching the safety of the kitchen, Tsuru broke into a locked laboratory and stole the magic chalk. Primary mission accomplished.
But there were two more things to steal, so the party headed up the back stairs, the ones not watched by a hawk. The back stairs led to the main hall of the second floor, though, which was guarded by a bomb. A leather bomb, with a smiley face. Only this one was blue.
Taking the antimagic hearts, Tsuru approached the bomb, while Sophie stood ready to try to contain the explosion should it detonate. Holding the hearts up to the bomb made if vanish, but it looked like it had been exploding when it was suppressed, and Sophie warned Tsuru that it might explode after all if he moved the hearts, so told him to hold them there while she and Keit passed by.
Sophie passed by first, and ducked into the hallway to the password-guarded library, which clicked as she approached. She spoke the password, and the door opened...
Keit was spooked, and hid in the servant's quarters. This proved to be wise. Sophie was unwise, and looked through the library door, and was instantly hypnotized by the demon within, who drew her to the edge of the fiery septogram in which he was imprisoned and, after taunting her a bit, branded his mark onto her palm.
Just as the pain broke her out of her mesmerized daze, Tsuru decided he was sick of holding the hearts up where the bomb had been, and lowered the bag... setting off the explosion, waking up the servants who'd been sleeping near Keit and the master of the house, obviously a powerful mage, who advanced on the hapless Feriphal...
last week next week
Just what I need -- enslaved by a SECOND demon!
Lazar was very amused by my mid-game Tarot reading, because once again it was fairly accurate to what he had planned, even though it was randomly generated from a Tarot deck I made up for this game. Indeed, it was accurate for *nearly* any plot a DM could be reasonably expected to come up with, which is why I interpreted the cards that appeared in that fashion.
Courrin was happy to rejoin his family after being rescued from the pirates. Luis was not happy, and after being scolded by his mother announced that he WAS going to be a pirate, no matter what anyone said! Fortunately, he wasn't able to find the pirates again, since they'd gone to ground while they looked for another ship.
For Sophie and Tsuru and Keit, it was exam time. The first exam was a grueling test on the ettiquette and laws of various countries, done in the language of each country. No one did well on this test. The teacher announced that next term they'd be attending court for half the day, and writing about it the other half, each class, which the students decided couldn't possibly be worse than his lectures.
Lazarus taunted Sophie about how she'd 'joined the track team', implying that he'd seen her on the run from the law the night before. She feigned confusion, after figuring out what the hell he was talking about.
The second exam was combat -- a ladder tournament, with everyone not fighting in the tournament sparring for grades elsewhere in the room. Sophie was eliminated immediately, as was Tsuru, but Keit came close to winning... the actual winner was Lazarus, unfortunately, despite Sophie's attempts to sabotage him with magic (she was spotted, and the match restarted, althoug the teacher didn't mention who'd cast the spell).
That night Keit informed the others that Glick, their cell-leader, had a job for them, breaking into a merchant's house to steal a few things. They'd speak to him in detail about it later, after his (other) agents had had time to scout the place out properly.
The third exam was magic. The students who were studying magic tested out their best spells on the students who were only studying countering magic. Tsuru didn't counter Sophie's fire rat, having expected a more direct attack, but managed to stomp it without hurting himself much.
They were also told to identify an array of increasingly less common magical items. Tsuru did the best of anyone in the class, although Sophie was able to identify the Artican Feather (which everyone else missed) because she was still hallucinating from the Illiski wine she'd drunk at the celebration, and saw it as the entire bird, which she recognized from her tarot deck. Other enchanted items and spells were also appearing very strange to her, but if it was worrying (would she have these 'flashbacks' forever?) it was also kind of useful.
Afterwards, Sophie asked Tsuru for advice on being a better thief. She wanted to steal a steel-spiked kili-hide collar for Flokin, as a present because he'd been a good kitty and blown up the pirate ship. Steel was very expensive in Midrein, and *probably* fireproof enough to survive Flokin.
After chatting about options and plans, they wandered into a mews to case the joint. But just as Sophie spotted a likely collar, someone blew up the store by sending a magical floating orange leather bomb (with a smiley face on it) into the forge.
Tsuru was only slightly hurt by the wave of flame, and quickly rushed to help put out the fires and save the surviving animals. Sophie was unhurt, having instinctively protected herself from the fire (it was one of her easiest spells). She then stole the collar, since no one was looking, and put out the fires with another spell, demonstrating that she was, in fact, a fire mage.
The owner was suspicious, but since she WAS just a kid, he believed her when she (truthfully) said that she wasn't even CAPABLE of that kind of destruction. 'All I can summon are fire rats.' So, he let them go, and even offered them work, since they'd been helpful saving what they could of his stock. Sophie agreed to try to enchant his forge to not explode again, since she'd been trying to improve her magic all week, and a long-term enchantment was right on the edge of her ability.
And yes, the explosion was Flokin's fault. Apparently he wanted the collar right away.
The fourth exam was history. This was an easy exam, since the class was tested on what they'd actually studied. After Tsuru and Sophie did their time at the mews (Sophie botched the enchatment, placing it on the shopkeeper instead of the forge by mistake) the trio spent the rest of the day hanging around and not getting into TOO much trouble, until it was time to meet with Glick.
Glick told them about the fearsome defenses on their target. They were to steal some magical chalk (the primary target), a 1 lb flawless diamond, and a golden staff. These were all located inside a house guarded well by spirit magic. The walls and windows were warded, and would sound an alarm if disturbed. The front door was guarded by magical centipedes who would animate if anyone tried to enter uninvited. The back door was merely locked, but was guarded by a pair of feriphal-eating (and anyone-else-mauling) Vor hounds. Upstairs, the inner sanctum was guarded by a passphrase that the scouts had been able to overhear, as well as a key. The phrase was 'Zoreb pays the final price', Zoreb being the royal family of Midrein.
Sophie's Tarot reading revealed that this mission was futile, motivated by greed and a lust for power. Sophie and Tsuru and Keit were but pawns in a larger game, between powers all of whom were in the wrong and would reap only destruction. Glick made them go anyway.
Remembering that one of the items they'd had to identify had been a Grrlock heart, which suppressed magic in a 3ft radius, Tsuru expressed the opinion that the easiest way into the house would be to first break into their teacher's house and steal the heart. Since as students, all of them had to enter the teacher's house on a regular basis, they were known as 'friendlies' to the house's magical defenses, making the break-in a matter of sneaking past the guards. Which Tsuru did with ease, although there was a little excitement on the way out. He got away clean, however, with the hearts -- there turned out to be two of the horrible things in the storage chamber.
With the hearts, entering the target's house was simple -- the antimagic aura prevented the centipedes from animating, and the lock was not beyond Tsuru's prowess. A pet hawk was sleeping on the stairwell, but the trio snuck silently past... even Sophie was silent, for once. After reaching the safety of the kitchen, Tsuru broke into a locked laboratory and stole the magic chalk. Primary mission accomplished.
But there were two more things to steal, so the party headed up the back stairs, the ones not watched by a hawk. The back stairs led to the main hall of the second floor, though, which was guarded by a bomb. A leather bomb, with a smiley face. Only this one was blue.
Taking the antimagic hearts, Tsuru approached the bomb, while Sophie stood ready to try to contain the explosion should it detonate. Holding the hearts up to the bomb made if vanish, but it looked like it had been exploding when it was suppressed, and Sophie warned Tsuru that it might explode after all if he moved the hearts, so told him to hold them there while she and Keit passed by.
Sophie passed by first, and ducked into the hallway to the password-guarded library, which clicked as she approached. She spoke the password, and the door opened...
Keit was spooked, and hid in the servant's quarters. This proved to be wise. Sophie was unwise, and looked through the library door, and was instantly hypnotized by the demon within, who drew her to the edge of the fiery septogram in which he was imprisoned and, after taunting her a bit, branded his mark onto her palm.
Just as the pain broke her out of her mesmerized daze, Tsuru decided he was sick of holding the hearts up where the bomb had been, and lowered the bag... setting off the explosion, waking up the servants who'd been sleeping near Keit and the master of the house, obviously a powerful mage, who advanced on the hapless Feriphal...
last week next week
Just what I need -- enslaved by a SECOND demon!
Lazar was very amused by my mid-game Tarot reading, because once again it was fairly accurate to what he had planned, even though it was randomly generated from a Tarot deck I made up for this game. Indeed, it was accurate for *nearly* any plot a DM could be reasonably expected to come up with, which is why I interpreted the cards that appeared in that fashion.
