Being grounded is no fun.
Aug. 2nd, 2003 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Lazar's Friday Shadake game, in which not much happened because all the characters were grounded. Lazar was basically totally scatterbrained and had lost most of his notes, and we frustrated him by refusing to take the initiative to solve our own problems. Or at least, that's how it looked to me.
So the class was on the boat. Tsuru told Sophie and Kiet about another 'sure thing' coming up at the race track that Sunday, and then Sophie, Tsuru, and Kiet watched Lazarus dragged off by some guards. "What's up with that?" they asked, and someone who'd been near said that he was being taken to The Wizard whatsisname, pretty much the head wizard in the entire city, for questioning. This was odd, and in retrospect should have been worrying, as the trio was also arrested as soon as they stepped off the boat.
"What's this about?" Sophie asked. When told they were wanted for questioning, she immediately bolted, back onto the boat, off the other side, and into the water. She snuck into the sewers and ran around for a while, but could tell she was being followed, and so didn't dare actually run to any of the safehouses or people who might help her, as leading a pack of guards to one of the Organization's strongholds would be Very Bad.
Eventually, she was captured, and dragged back to the palace where Tsuru and Kiet had been waiting quietly and not making themselves look guilty.
It was quickly obvious that the party wasn't in for what they'd actually done. Instead, they were implicated in a murder that had been performed by their 'doubles', the three lower-class members of the organization who superficially resembled them, and had been picked up because they were a much higher profile group of troublemakers. They insisted they were innocent, and Felix, their religion instructor, was summoned to cast a truth spell.
"We didn't do anything!" Sophie told him, as he walked in.
"I *do* have a truth spell up, young lady."
"Well, we didn't *kill* anyone."
"That's better."
Satisfied that Sophie, at least, was not one of the murderers, Felix read an aura off the murder weapon, and revealed that the 'true' murderer was an old priest who'd owned this knife for years, and (according to the knife's aura) had never let it out of his possession until after the murder. As the party had stolen the knife from him a few days before this, they knew that this was incorrect, but did not volunteer that information.
The party was also told that their magic instructor knew they'd broken into his house, but wasn't going to press charges as long as they returned or paid to replace the Grrlock hearts. *Wince*.
So, they were released, but several hours late. Sophie was grounded more, and sentenced to physical labor helping to rebuild the wing of the house Flokin had burned down, and Tsuru's family had up and left him behind, leaving him to fend for himself until they got back.
The next day was Saturday, and Sophie was put to work hauling timber and running on a hamster wheel to drive a large saw, until she offered to fireproof the wood the carpenters were using as an excuse to rest her tired feet. The fireproofing wasn't terribly powerful -- only about 12%, since the boards were so large -- but it was enough that the builders had her spend the rest of the day enchanting more of their wood.
Tsuru and Kiet were kept busy with their families, entertaining guests for the most part, although Tsuru spent quite a bit of time chatting with Kiet. That evening, Sophie sent Tsuru a smoke bird telling him to come visit her so that she could give him the money to bet on the cat races. It took a long time before he got home, but Sophie managed to stay awake, maintaining the spell, until the smoke bird reported back that Tsuru would contact her the next morning.
In their dreams, the trio were contacted by Glick's superior, who told them that Glick had vanished, and that if they saw him they were to report immediately, through their familiars. He also instructed Tsuru to retrieve the cashbox from the White Fence and bet it on the cat race along with the bank note he'd already received at some point, and told all three of them that Monday morning, when they were supposed to be at class, they'd be smuggling some 'defectors' from Razia across Midrein to steal some Shaoli vessels.
In the morning, Tsuru did as instructed, also collecting bets from Sophie and Kiet, although neither of them could come with him as they were both otherwise engaged hauling lumber or juggling diplomats respectively. So he went to the track alone, his backpack full to bursting with about 260 million qz worth of assorted hard currency, and of course his billion qz bank note. He bet it all on the cat, and the cat won, and he collected his 5 to one odds -- filling his backpack back up, but this time with the highest denomination available.
This attracted a lot of attention, and he was forced to detail just who he was betting on behalf of. He also hired a bodyguard to escort him to the dropoff point, as he was quite the target for some enterprising thief...
Seeing the bodyguard, his contact remarked that he'd attracted too much attention, and sent him back with 150 million qz to lose on a random horse, so as not to be *quite* so obviously cheating.
All in all, Tsuru made about 12000 qz profit, out of which he owed 6000 to the organization and gave 4000 to his family, so that they'd 'accept his gambling habit'. It mostly worked, since the family really needed the money, although his father was furious. Sophie made about 20 million qz profit, betting half the diamond that had fallen into her lap a few nights before, and Kiet about 400000 qz. [A qz here is a 'quartz', approximately equal to a dollar in buying power.]
The next day they were met by their duplicates, who altered their appearance slightly so as to look exactly like the party, whose place they'd be taking in class. Thus freed up for their own task, the party met the 'defectors' in the abandoned warehouse... wait a second, it was the pirate crew that had kidnapped them earlier!
Well, the party was in disguise, and weren't recognized, but the pirates weren't happy that their 'expert help' was three kids and some pets. The party, who really didn't have anything resembling a plan, informed the pirates that they'd be taking them through the sewers. "But what about the patrols?" the pirates asked, a question that came as quite the surprise to the three, who had just a week before run around through the sewers without seeing signs of any such thing.
They decided to use Tsuru's flitter to scout, with Sophie summoning a smoke bird as backup. Somehow, she flubbed the spell, however, and instead of a smoke bird got the head of a miniature giant sea serpent larva, poking up from the sewer, looking at her adoringly. Taking it in stride, she ordered it into the sewers to 'clear out the patrols'.
And into the sewers they went. The only patrol they ran into was dead, killed by the sea serpent, which itself lay dead nearby. One of the guards was still alive, and Sophie insisted that Kiet heal him *just* enough so that he'd wake up before bleeding to death, giving him the chance to save himself by summoning help, or using his own magic, since he looked to be a mage.
Soon they were at the harbor, where the ships to be stolen sat, complete but without crews, inhabited only by a few workmen. While the party tried to come up with a suitable cover or diversion to prevent the Shaoli ships from launching a pursuit if their new boats up and left, the entire Shaoli fleet was blown up by bombs in the water. Quite the distraction indeed!
last week next week
So the class was on the boat. Tsuru told Sophie and Kiet about another 'sure thing' coming up at the race track that Sunday, and then Sophie, Tsuru, and Kiet watched Lazarus dragged off by some guards. "What's up with that?" they asked, and someone who'd been near said that he was being taken to The Wizard whatsisname, pretty much the head wizard in the entire city, for questioning. This was odd, and in retrospect should have been worrying, as the trio was also arrested as soon as they stepped off the boat.
"What's this about?" Sophie asked. When told they were wanted for questioning, she immediately bolted, back onto the boat, off the other side, and into the water. She snuck into the sewers and ran around for a while, but could tell she was being followed, and so didn't dare actually run to any of the safehouses or people who might help her, as leading a pack of guards to one of the Organization's strongholds would be Very Bad.
Eventually, she was captured, and dragged back to the palace where Tsuru and Kiet had been waiting quietly and not making themselves look guilty.
It was quickly obvious that the party wasn't in for what they'd actually done. Instead, they were implicated in a murder that had been performed by their 'doubles', the three lower-class members of the organization who superficially resembled them, and had been picked up because they were a much higher profile group of troublemakers. They insisted they were innocent, and Felix, their religion instructor, was summoned to cast a truth spell.
"We didn't do anything!" Sophie told him, as he walked in.
"I *do* have a truth spell up, young lady."
"Well, we didn't *kill* anyone."
"That's better."
Satisfied that Sophie, at least, was not one of the murderers, Felix read an aura off the murder weapon, and revealed that the 'true' murderer was an old priest who'd owned this knife for years, and (according to the knife's aura) had never let it out of his possession until after the murder. As the party had stolen the knife from him a few days before this, they knew that this was incorrect, but did not volunteer that information.
The party was also told that their magic instructor knew they'd broken into his house, but wasn't going to press charges as long as they returned or paid to replace the Grrlock hearts. *Wince*.
So, they were released, but several hours late. Sophie was grounded more, and sentenced to physical labor helping to rebuild the wing of the house Flokin had burned down, and Tsuru's family had up and left him behind, leaving him to fend for himself until they got back.
The next day was Saturday, and Sophie was put to work hauling timber and running on a hamster wheel to drive a large saw, until she offered to fireproof the wood the carpenters were using as an excuse to rest her tired feet. The fireproofing wasn't terribly powerful -- only about 12%, since the boards were so large -- but it was enough that the builders had her spend the rest of the day enchanting more of their wood.
Tsuru and Kiet were kept busy with their families, entertaining guests for the most part, although Tsuru spent quite a bit of time chatting with Kiet. That evening, Sophie sent Tsuru a smoke bird telling him to come visit her so that she could give him the money to bet on the cat races. It took a long time before he got home, but Sophie managed to stay awake, maintaining the spell, until the smoke bird reported back that Tsuru would contact her the next morning.
In their dreams, the trio were contacted by Glick's superior, who told them that Glick had vanished, and that if they saw him they were to report immediately, through their familiars. He also instructed Tsuru to retrieve the cashbox from the White Fence and bet it on the cat race along with the bank note he'd already received at some point, and told all three of them that Monday morning, when they were supposed to be at class, they'd be smuggling some 'defectors' from Razia across Midrein to steal some Shaoli vessels.
In the morning, Tsuru did as instructed, also collecting bets from Sophie and Kiet, although neither of them could come with him as they were both otherwise engaged hauling lumber or juggling diplomats respectively. So he went to the track alone, his backpack full to bursting with about 260 million qz worth of assorted hard currency, and of course his billion qz bank note. He bet it all on the cat, and the cat won, and he collected his 5 to one odds -- filling his backpack back up, but this time with the highest denomination available.
This attracted a lot of attention, and he was forced to detail just who he was betting on behalf of. He also hired a bodyguard to escort him to the dropoff point, as he was quite the target for some enterprising thief...
Seeing the bodyguard, his contact remarked that he'd attracted too much attention, and sent him back with 150 million qz to lose on a random horse, so as not to be *quite* so obviously cheating.
All in all, Tsuru made about 12000 qz profit, out of which he owed 6000 to the organization and gave 4000 to his family, so that they'd 'accept his gambling habit'. It mostly worked, since the family really needed the money, although his father was furious. Sophie made about 20 million qz profit, betting half the diamond that had fallen into her lap a few nights before, and Kiet about 400000 qz. [A qz here is a 'quartz', approximately equal to a dollar in buying power.]
The next day they were met by their duplicates, who altered their appearance slightly so as to look exactly like the party, whose place they'd be taking in class. Thus freed up for their own task, the party met the 'defectors' in the abandoned warehouse... wait a second, it was the pirate crew that had kidnapped them earlier!
Well, the party was in disguise, and weren't recognized, but the pirates weren't happy that their 'expert help' was three kids and some pets. The party, who really didn't have anything resembling a plan, informed the pirates that they'd be taking them through the sewers. "But what about the patrols?" the pirates asked, a question that came as quite the surprise to the three, who had just a week before run around through the sewers without seeing signs of any such thing.
They decided to use Tsuru's flitter to scout, with Sophie summoning a smoke bird as backup. Somehow, she flubbed the spell, however, and instead of a smoke bird got the head of a miniature giant sea serpent larva, poking up from the sewer, looking at her adoringly. Taking it in stride, she ordered it into the sewers to 'clear out the patrols'.
And into the sewers they went. The only patrol they ran into was dead, killed by the sea serpent, which itself lay dead nearby. One of the guards was still alive, and Sophie insisted that Kiet heal him *just* enough so that he'd wake up before bleeding to death, giving him the chance to save himself by summoning help, or using his own magic, since he looked to be a mage.
Soon they were at the harbor, where the ships to be stolen sat, complete but without crews, inhabited only by a few workmen. While the party tried to come up with a suitable cover or diversion to prevent the Shaoli ships from launching a pursuit if their new boats up and left, the entire Shaoli fleet was blown up by bombs in the water. Quite the distraction indeed!
last week next week
