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"What are polyps doing here?" someone yelled. "I thought that Seldane hid this thing, but aren't polyps creatures of the Undine?"

"Then, it appears that the Undine beat us here," Sideline replied grimly.

"Indeed, I think that the Seldane would have hidden the clues from their fellow elements; thus, it is unlikely that the clue had been found."

"Then, why attack us at all?" someone asked.

"I think they must have gotten overeager and tried to steal the clue. This is their revenge for failing to do so," Sideline answered, as he cut through another polyp.

As they had done on many another battlefield, Selax and Wizard worked together. Selax stayed in front of Wizard, killing polyps and protecting Wizard. Wizard, in turn, used his telekiness and telepathy to attack polyps and to keep Selax from getting overwhelmed.

Despite the large number of polyps, they were up against a group of very formidable adventurers. Between them all, the group was making good progress, and the number of polyps was rapidly decreasing.


The previous evening...
"Wait, what did you say?" Rapierian asked Starfall, sounding surprisingly serious. Nervously, Starfall answered him. Rapierian looked up and sniffed, almost as though he smelled something. (In truth, he "smelled" something magical.)

"Uh oh," he said quietly. "Um, duck everyone."

The rescue party threw themselves to the ground. Only just in time. An uprooted tree flew over them, with sufficient force to have smashed them if it had struck them.

Weapons ready, the adventurers leapt to their feet and froze for a moment.

Directly before them stood the two men who had kidnapped Retsy. Behind them, Retsy was still tied to a tree.

"Foolish mortals," one of them said, shaking his head. "Who are you to contest the power of the Undine?"

This post has been edited by Selax: 14 January 2007 - 12:09 AM

Talryn immediatly begun calling on the elements. He mixed the most powerful Dark art shield spell he knew with the a mixture of fire, water, earth, wind, and ice. The shield barely began to form before the next tree flew at the party. Most instinctively ducked, while Talryn stood knowing that if he were to duck, the possibility of creating another shield would diminish, as it was a suprise.

Indeed it was a suprise, the elements swirled around the focal point and the green part seemed to absorb the parts of the tree that touched it. The parts that touched the respective colors of blue, cyan, red, grey, and black had effects relating to the color. The part of the tree that touched red burst into flames. The destruction of the tree seemed to take at least ten minutes, but really only took a matter of seconds. The Undine begun to plan their barrage of attacks acordingly, while the party recovered.

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 13 January 2007 - 10:43 PM

Retsy watched in frustration as her companions walked blindly into the trap, unable to do more than squeak through the gag in her mouth. She wondered where the big black cat had come from, but could only watch as one man casually muttered something, and the whole group hit the ground just before one of her captors threw a tree at them. The strength of the man frightened her greatly. Rather than crouch down, the cat had bolted away into the jungle. Talryn cast an impressive looking spell, but it didn't seem to do all that much to the attackers.

She was very surprised to feel the ropes holding her to the tree suddenly fall away, cut cleanly through. She leaned over and peered around the tree to see what had happened, and almost knocked heads with Brianna. The elf held a finger to her lips, then beckoned Retsy to follow her into the forest, away from the impending battle.

This post has been edited by cache22: 02 January 2007 - 06:38 AM

From his vantage point, Silverfish dive-bombed the Undine and drove a double bolt of elemental lightning and shrapnel into one of the Undine's head...

This post has been edited by Jehezekel: 10 January 2007 - 12:41 PM

Uzsuy poped up, panting, and asking if he could join.

Wizard and Selax were doing well. What Selax didn't kill, Wizard whacked with his staff or pushed away so that Selax could have another go at it. Then a couple managed to sneak behind both of them...

"Ahh," Wizard yelped in surprise as the two polyps pulled him to the ground. "I hate these treacherous creatures!" he shouted trying to push them off of him. The polyps hit him with their tentacles, bit at him with their small mouths, and wrapped around his limbs to squeeze until his bones broke. Flailing around, Wizard remembered the ability he had used some time ago to kill a rogue mage. It might work here, he thought.

For a moment, he stopped struggling and closed his eyes to help him focus. With his mind, he probed the structure of one of the polyps, and once he had sufficient understanding of its anatomy, he began to pull it apart from the inside. At the same time, he applied telekinetic pressure to crush it. This isn't very easy, he told himself, grunting with effort. After a few seconds, the polyp that was attacking him hardest exploded. The remaining fragments slowly dissipated.

The other polyp pushed its attack more, and pinned the old mage, drained from his effort, to the wall. "Selax, Sideline, ahh!" he shouted. He batted at it with his staff but to no avail. Then Sideline appeared from nowhere, tearing the polyp to shreds.

"Thank you," Wizard gasped as Sideline helped him stand.

In front of them, there were still many polyps yet to fight.

The Undine that Silverfish had attacked reeled for a moment but recovered almost instantly. It snarled, reached out, and batted Silverfish somewhere before he could quite get away.

In that moment, he caught a glimpse of Brianna and Retsy disappearing into the forest. The elemental roared in fury and threw a wave power into the trees that obliterated everything in its path. None of the group saw whether the two had escaped or not.


The other Undine was momentarily distracted by Uzsuy's sudden arrival and puzzling request.

"Why would you want to join us?" he asked Uzsuy.

"I think that he means that he'd like to join us," Rapierian clarified.

"Oh, that makes more sense."

The Undine shrugged and unleashed a blast of power that threw Uzsuy into the midst of the group.

"There you go," he said and laughed. "Now, it's time to wash the rest of you away."

He lifted his hands, preparing his next devastating attack.

Rapierian did the first thing that occurred to him and cast one of the spells that Tavara had shone him.

Suddenly, shadows appeared and began to gather around Undine. The Undine snarled and attempted to bat them away. He screamed in rage as his hand burned when it touched them. Muttering to himself, he cast a shield that held them out. The shadows, unable to batter through the shield, nevertheless were setting fire to the grass around him.

Rapierian watched, surprised by the effectiveness of his spell. Then, he slapped himself on the forehead.

"Of course, it's fire. They don't like fire. Everyone cast whatever flame spells you have!"

Rapierian hoped that everyone else had some good spells; he'd caught the Undine off guard and doubted that he'd be able to do so again.


Selax and Sideline finished off the last of the polyps. Having made sure that everyone was all right, the group proceeded cautiously into the darkness, searching for the next clue.

This post has been edited by Selax: 15 January 2007 - 03:23 AM

While the battle had been raging, Cat and Starfall had been sneaking around behind the Undine for a surprise attack, hidden under Cat's cloak. Just after Rapierian cast a peculiar spell that set fire to the grass, they leapt up, shouting a war-cry, in the hope that the Undine would be surprised. It worked, although not exactly how they wanted. One of the Undine spun round, then let loose a burst of cold designed to freeze them solid. Since he was surrounded by flames, it turned into a cold puff of air with enough force to blow them backwards.
Assuming they were dead, he turned back to the fight, just too late to stop a burst of flame hitting him in the chest.

Back under the cloak, the two friends crept closer to the battle. With no warning, Cat jumped on top of the other Undine, as Starfall swept his legs out from under him with her staff. The Undine toppled like a tree, and Cat tried to pin him to the ground.
"Help, Starfall! I'm not heavy enough!" Cat shouted, as he struggled to get up, almost throwing her off. The copper elf jumped up too, and whacked the Undine with her staff. The two inch thick piece of wood did nothing to impede him, and Cat decided to use her claws. Starfall grabbed a piece of copper from her pocket, and whispered something to it, then put it on the Undine's head, holding it down. Rivulets of melted copper ran down his head and into the ground. Starfall did the same to his arms and legs, and said, "We can get off and help the others. That should hold for a few minutes."

This post has been edited by CrazyChick: 15 January 2007 - 04:14 PM

Alice tread carefully through the darkness, trying to avoid walking into a wall or tripping on anything. Although feeling somewhat safer now that he had his sword back (having been reunited with his ghost at the cave entrance before travelling to LKH, and re-equipping his gear), the dark still made him uneasy. Felt too much like that graveyard... Alice shuddered and forced himself not to think about it, though that was made annoyingly difficult by the ghost still treading a couple metres behind him.

"Does anyone have a torch?" Sideline's voice asked out of the gloom. "We're never going to find this clue if we can't see."

Wizard responded by lighting up the orb on his staff, illuminating the group and casting everything into deep shadow. "I can't make it too bright," he cautioned. "We don't want to alert anything to our presence if we can avoid it."

They peered ahead of them, trying to see what sort of an area they were in. The ceiling appeared to be high above them, but stalactites came down so far they had to duck in places, and stalagmites impeded their path slightly. The faint sound of dripping could be heard. "This cave could be huge," Selax said grimly. "It's obviously been here for awhile."

"But we don't know if anyone else has been down here recently, either," Alice added. "The polyps had to get in somehow, unless they've been living in here a long time."

They walked in silence for some time, peering around themselves cautiously, looking for anything out of the ordinary. So far they had been in a sort of narrow tunnel, the walls illuminated by Wizard's light, but finally a large section of pitch black implied that the cave split off in another direction. Alice stopped in his tracks and pointed. "Look, there's- aaaargh!"

He spasmed and fell to the ground, cut off in mid-sentence. As soon as he had stopped walking, the ghost following him had walked straight through him. Everyone else winced, trying not to think of what it would feel like to have a ghost walk through you. Alice groaned and lay still, waiting for the highly uncomfortable feeling to pass, and also for his limbs to stop aching from falling on solid rock.

"What now?" Wizard wondered aloud. "Keep going straight, or check this one? Or split up?"

"Not split up," Selax voiced instantly. "We might never find each other again, if this is a cave network. I think we should take whichever path looks bigger, because it's probably the main one. And we should find some way to mark which way we go..."

As Selax spoke, Alice was staring at something from where he lay on the ground. "No need for that," he said in a muffled voice. "I think we might have something right here." He stood up and dusted his cloak off, then unsheathed his sword and suddenly drove it straight into the ground. Pulling it up again, the others watched in surprise as a wood panel came up with it, impaled on the sword.

"It looks like a cache," Sideline said, bending over and peering into the blackness. "Wizard, lend a hand?" He waited until Wizard had lowered his glowing staff to just above the hole, then laid himself flat on the ground and reached down inside, pulling out a small metal box. The lock had long rusted away, and the lid flipped open easily. "I'm surprised it's not trapped," he said suspiciously. "Doesn't this seem too easy?"

"That depends on what's inside," Alice pointed out. "Maybe it is a trap and we just don't know it yet..."

Sideline raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything; instead reaching inside and pulling out a small compass. It didn't seem to be an ordinary compass, however- the directions were all marked in an old, flowing script, but there was no needle.

"That would be why," said Selax with a sigh. "I think this clue is going to be difficult enough to solve without a trap to contend with."

Silverfish went spinning trough the air, and thudded against a tree at the edge of the clearing. He fell to the ground, and jumped back up immediately, but it took him several seconds to regain his equilibrium. Then he heard Rapierian call out, "Everyone cast whatever flame spells you have!" So, lacking spells, he insulated himself and quickly coated himself with pine tar. A small spark lit the sap, and he dived back into the fray.

Silverfish caught an Undine's ankle from behind, and clung to it like grim death. The pine tar burned, and the Undine could not shake him off.

"Are you alright?" Brianna asked Retsy, a ways into the forest.
"I'm, um. . ." Retsy replied, looking around her and wondering what was going on. "Umm. . ."
"Are you hurt?" Brianna asked.
At the second question, Retsy snapped back to the present and tried to format an answer. "They- they magic'd me!"
"They did what?"
"Magic'd me! They didn't believe me before, they wanted me to tell them about clues and the sword. . . Then they did something - I don't know what! And then they believed me. They magic'd me, I'm sure of it!"
"Well, they are Undine, they can do stuff like that," Brianna replied.
"What's an Undine?" Retsy asked.
"Undine are. . ." Brianna tried to think of a way to answer, but was becoming a bit frustrated with Retsy's ignorance. "Oh honestly!"
Temporarily giving up on an answer to that, Retsy continued, "The others. . . My brother, is he okay?"
"Oh. . . He's probably getting killed by the Undine right now."

Toreon, meanwhile, had taken to setting sticks on fire and throwing them at the Undine; which was effective mainly only in annoying the beings. But hey, it's still better than doing nothing.

Rapierian was having a troublesome time. The "Shadows" was a spell taught him by Tavara. Rapierian had cast it because he knew of Tavara's hatred for the Undine. He had hoped that whatever spells the old lich knew would be affected by that hatred and that hope in this case had paid off.

In its most basic form, "Shadows" was intended to incinerate an enemy; more proficient casters could more easily control the shadows and could use them to greater extent. However, this was the first time that Rapierian had cast this spell, and it had been cast on a most formidable subject.

With a snarl, the Undine at last succeeded in eradicating the shadows but not before a burst of flame struck him. In addition, at that moment, Silverfish jumped on the Undine's ankle and his partner was ambushed and pinned by Cat and Starfall. The two elves got up and started to advance on the last Undine.

Unfortunately, the Undine were shapeshifters.

Behind Cat and Starfall, the Undine pinned by the copper suddenly seemed to lose solid form, appearing to become a mass of water. He began to ooze upward out of the copper. Cat heard him and turned around. Her eyes widened, and she grabbed Starfall, pushing and pulling her into the woods before the Undine could quite get free.

The Undine held by Silverfish attempted to shapeshift out of his grasp, but somehow Silverfish kept his hold. At last, the Undine doused Silverfish's fire with a jet of water that shot out of the ground—the Undine being after all a water elemental. The second Undine then knocked Silverfish off, but Silverfish disappeared into the trees before either of the water elementals could attack him.

"This is not going as planned," one hissed to the other. "We should have been able to destroy them more easily! Perhaps, we should withdraw and regroup. We have what we need for now!"

"But they are divided now! They won't be so for long! Besides, it's not like they can seriously hurt us! We are Undine! All we need do now is to hit them with all of our powers! No more games and no more tricks. They haven't the power to stop us!"

"Killing them isn't important: we only need to find the sword! Say what you will, I'm leaving!"

With that, the second Undine vanished. The sole remaining Undine turned to face the group with a look of black fury.

"That idiot! We could've destroyed you by simply unleashing our raw power on you: you don't have the power to repel it!" he stepped forward dangerously. "This isn't over. That young and inexperienced idiot may have lost us this fight, but mark my words. I'll be back with more able help." Suddenly, he smiled and pulled out a sword of all things. "Ask Selax if he was able to kill all of his old students. He'll know what I mean. Until later..."

Then, he too was gone, leaving the group to regroup and head north to meet with the other part of the party.


Sideline showed the compass to Wizard and Selax.

"Can either of you read this?" he asked, remembering that Wizard had been able to read the Seldane scroll back at the Tavern.

"No," Wizard said, seemingly irked. "No doubt, it's not written in any of the elemental's languages to make it harder to decipher."

"We best exit this cavern and go to meet up with the others," Selax stated finally. "Perhaps, one of them can read this or figure out the puzzle."

This post has been edited by Selax: 14 January 2007 - 12:09 AM

Talryn lost the feeling in the lower half of one of his legs, causing him to fall to one knee. While the Undine weren't constantly attacking the shield that protected most of the party, it needed to be maintained for the duration of the fight so that the shield could be reinforced to withstand the attacks.

Talryn slowly fell to his other knee by the time the second Undine left. Talryn waited a few moments afterward before aiming the shield into the sky and releasing it. He was too exhausted to safely dispell it. Without the general order to keep a specfic shape, the combined powers discharged freely into the sky and disapated rather quickly. Had he not been under so much stress, it could've turned out to be awe inspiring.

"I think... I'll just, lay down... for a bit..." Talryn said as he lost his balance and he passed out. He awoke about ten minutes later when the rescue party had made sure everyone was alright and ready to meet up with Selax and the others. After requiring some aid to sit up, Talryn quitely ate the rest of his bread and cheese. His eye's briefly changed color, then reverted back to normal. He stood up walked over to where the shield touched the ground and picked up the charred earth. Talryn let the dying down wind blow it out of his hand and form into a golem.

Talryn and golem walked next to Rapierian again once the group begun to walk. "So, what did you think of that shield?"

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 13 January 2007 - 10:44 PM

"My brother's being killed?" Retsy squeaked, near to panic.

"Well, on second thoughts, probably not," Brianna replied. "Undine are - well, think of them as sentient water, able to control all water and related fluids around them. Cut one in half, and he'd just flow together again. You could freeze one, and he'd be right back after you the moment he thawed. Boil one to steam, and he'd just coalesce again when he cooled down enough. You can't cage them, because they can flow between the bars. You never know what one really looks like, because they can change their shape and appearance at will. Electricity passes right through them, light and shade as well. There's no-one in our group - no-one - who has the power to do them any permanent harm at all, as far as I know."

"If you're trying to cheer me up, it's not working. If they're so powerful, why isn't my brother being killed?"

"Because, if they really wanted us dead, they'd have drowned us in our tracks before we even knew they were there. They're just playing with us, and that really frustrates me! If one of the Ronin were here, maybe they'd know what to do - but I don't think even any of them have mastered anywhere near enough of the elemental powers to stop a true elemental."

They sat in wet, miserable silence for a few minutes, before Retsy spoke again.

"Shouldn't we be trying to go back and help?"

"Believe me, I'd like to," Brianna sighed, "but I can't think of a thing we could do. Can you?" Retsy just shook her head. "Then it's probably best that we wait right here, and hope the right people find us."

This post has been edited by cache22: 15 January 2007 - 01:34 PM

"I bring not the light but a sword, to strike down all those unrighteous enough to cross my path, the thunder growls, and who shall be able to stand?
I am your right arm, lay me to meet the sinners, with furious vengance shall i delive thie blow. What does ye want with the darkness of these caves.
do you wish to wallow in it? to find evil in your hearts what is your reason?"

Sideline jumped as the Reverend walked calmly out of the shadows.
"AH! what the!"
Selax and the Wizard turned in surprise at the newcommer.

"Shall i strike you down with the flat of the sword so you may fight another day or shall i strike with the edge to cut through your soul and body? For you have no right to
traverse on this hallowed ground."

Silverfish sat beside a mud puddle, the remains of the water gush that extinguished his fire, and used it to quickly recharge.
There is something odd about those Undine, -a familiar sensation.
He frowned, and went to retrieve the copper for Starfall.
Hmm, if I filter out the chaotic overtones, what's left?
He formed the copper into little discuses, and laid them out for Starfall, who, with Cat, was just emerging from the forest.
"Salt water! That's what the Undine are! Next time, they won't be quite so comfortable with me..."

Uzsuy sat, confused at everything happening so fast. Though when he thought about it, something triggered his memory. Seldane had blue skin, and now I know the Undine are shapeshifters. A clue? He had been saying this out loud without realising it, and hoped no one had heard him.

"Phew! That was creepy!" said Starfall, adressing Cat. "I got his memories, and boy, are they weird! Should I tell someone, do you think?"
Cat thought for a little. "If there's anything concerning our quest, tell Talryn. He appears to be mildly sane." Starfall was about to say she thought Talryn was definitely sane, when she realised Cat had been joking.
"Oh. Ummm...." There was a short pause. "Yes, there is something there. I'll go tell him." She ran over to Talryn, who was deep in conversation with Rapierian.

Cat remembered seeing Retsy and Brianna running off in the middle of the fight, and decided to check on them. That blast of... whatever it was... didn't look too good. I hope they got out all right. she thought as she headed over.

This post has been edited by CrazyChick: 15 January 2007 - 04:15 PM

“What What?” Wizard asked, still shocked to see a man before him with a sword in one hand and a book in the other. “Hallowed ground. Ha! Surely this is a joke.”

The Reverend took a step nearer. “This is no joke. Thou hast no right to be here. Now, answer my question: how shall I deal with ye!”

Wizard in turn stepped forward, “You may ‘deal’ with us by letting us pass.”

“Not a step closer, fat one,” the Reverend smiled at Wizard’s indignation, “Or I will surely smite thee with my sword.”

Wizard ignored the threat, “Fat one! He called me fat one! Did you hear that. Why I’ll --” Selax pulled the old man back from whatever he was about to do.

Alice piped up, “Sir, we didn’t know this place was consecrated, but if you let us go, we won’t violate it again.”

“I know,” the Reverend sighed, “But I’m not letting you go so easily. Not without first teaching ye a lesson to remember me by.”

“I suppose he’s with you?” Selax gestured toward a burly figure emerging from the shadows.

“With me? Who--” the Reverend turned just in time to be pushed into the group by rough hands.

“In with the rest of them!” shouted a gruff voice. “Now, we know you found something down here, and Master want it real bad. Give it to me!” As the man was speaking, more descended the stairway, cluttering the small cavern.

“Are you all then just simple ruffians and no more?” Wizard asked, almost regretfully. “Who is your master, if I may ask?”

“That’s not important!” another ruffian shouted, “Just give us whatever you found down here!”

“Oh,” Wizard’s face lit up. “They want the clue.”

“I’ll give you a clue,” Sideline muttered as he stealthily unsheathed one of his numerous daggers and let it fly. It lodged perfectly in the largest ruffian’s throat. Everyone moved at once.

The battle continued for several minutes with the ruffians clearly losing. Wizard was fighting to the right of everybody else; he found himself separated by a wall of ruffians. Selax was cutting them down very quickly, but not fast enough.

Suddenly a cloaked figure leapt on Wizard. “I want that clue,” it shouted in a familiar voice. It began searching the old mage’s pockets, much to Wizard’s irritation. “You want it. Take it! But get off of me!” He handed the figure the object then kicked it away. Outraged, he flicked his hand and sent the figure flying out of the cavern, up the stairs, to land somewhere on the ground above them. “Selax, it’s time to leave.”

“Agreed,” Selax said, finally reaching Wizard.

The ruffians all began to flee from the cavern. The man in the cloak came into view again, standing at the top of the stairway, ruffians flooding past him. “I’m disappointed that you would give up just like that. Oh well, goodbye.” With that, he turned to walk away.

“Let’s go,” Sideline shouted to the group, nearing the foot of the steps. The Reverend had already sneaked ahead of them, mixed in with the ruffians, and vanished from sight.

As the last ruffian ran out, the man walking away made a gesture over his shoulder. Instantly, some sort of magic blast from the sky, whether fire, lightning, or what they couldn’t tell, struck the mouth of the opening. It began to collapse, the winding stair with it.

“Quickly, take cover in the tunnel!” Wizard ran to the back of the cavern to the tunnel system they had found earlier. “We can’t climb those steps fast enough.”

As the last person reached safety in the tunnel, everyone heard an enormous noise as the ceiling in the front cavern gave way, and the whole room collapsed. After the thick cloud of dust had begun to clear, they stepped out to examine the ruins. They were blocked. “Looks as though the stones from the building above all came crashing down here too, along with everything else,” Wizard remarked, examining the solid wall of dirt and rock before them.

“Can you push it away?” Alice asked.

“I could try, but I don’t think I have enough energy.” Wizard held his hand out and his orb glowed more intensely than before. A rumbling was heard and some dust fell from above them, but nothing moved. “No. I can’t do it. I might be able to move just the stones, but I think that there’s some kind of magical barrier holding it shut. No doubt from the cloaked figure who collapsed it in the first place.”

“Who was that?” Sideline wondered. “I couldn’t see his face.”

“I don’t know, but that voice,” Wizard seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “I know I’ve heard that voice...”

Selax turned to face his old friend, “Did I see correctly, Wizard, when I witnessed you give him something?”

“Yes, you did.”

Alice expressed his own concern: “You gave him the compass! I worked so hard to find that too...”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t give him the clue. I gave him the old box that had contained the clue. Whoever he is, he’s going to be furious when he opens that box.” Wizard chuckled, pleased with his own deceit.

“Well, right now, that won’t help us. Now, we need to reach the surface.” Selax glanced at the tunnels behind them. “Which one shall we try? Keep in mind: the wrong one could easily be long enough that most of you could die down here.”

“Thank you for the encouragement, Selax,” Wizard said sarcastically. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I vote for the smallest one here.” He pointed to the right. “From what I can tell, it should be the shortest and hopefully will lead to the surface the fastest without taking us through some endless labyrinth. And if I’m wrong, we can always come back and try another. I hope.”

Sideline glanced down the tunnel before following the others into the dark, “I hate this.”

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 13 January 2007 - 10:15 PM

Selax and the others moved forward through the tunnel cautiously. The faint glow given off by Wizard's staff revealed nothing but more cave. Quite suddenly, they came into a cavern filled with sunlight. Looking up, they saw that the light was coming through a hole in the ceiling. Selax took a rope that one of the other adventurers was carrying and, flying through the hole, tied it to a nearby tree. In minutes, all of the others had climbed out. After retrieving the rope, they set out to find the others.


Meanwhile, Retsy and Brianna emerged from the forest with Cat, and the rest of the rescue party surrounded them. They agreed to set out to meet up with the others as soon as Retsy told her story.

This post has been edited by Selax: 14 January 2007 - 12:09 AM

Once Brianna and Cat brought Retsy back to the rest of her rescue party, she noticed her brother and tackle-hugged him. "Nalkii!"
"Welcome back, Retsy. What happened to you?" Toreon asked.
"I think we'd all like to know that," Rapierian agreed in a tone of annoyance.
"I was magic'd," Retsy replied solemnly, looking close to tears.
"Apparently the Undine cast some spell to see if she was telling the truth," Brianna explained.
"That sounds dreadfully simple and completely harmless," said Rapierian.
"Yes, you should be fine, Retsy," Cat assured her. "Nothing hurts, right?"
"Nothing hurts," Retsy agreed.
Toreon clarified, "so you're okay?"
"But I was magic'd. . ." Retsy pouted.
"What else happened?" Talryn asked her.
"They came to the caves while I was napping," Retsy explained, "and they asked me what I was doing there; so I told them. Then they said they'd kidnap me, and I began to suspect that they were bad guys! They made me come back with them, they bound me to a tree, and they magic'd me. Then they finally believed that I didn't know anything about the clues or the weird sword. But they still wanted me to be bait. They set traps for you guys. . . Not everyone is here," she realized suddenly.
"They went to get the second clue," Toreon told her.
"Oh, good!" Retsy smiled.
"Is that everything that happened?" Cat asked Retsy.
"Yes."

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 12 January 2007 - 08:26 PM

Cat sauntered over to Starfall. "So, how did you like your first fight in Cythera? Have you got your copper back?"
Starfall looked around, then spotted the copper discs Silverfish had helpfully remelted and set out. She went over to retrieve them, then said, "I loved it, but is everything that powerful? Otherwise..."
"Wish I could tell you, but I really have no idea. Apart from Rapierian's golem, they're all I've fought here."
Starfall felt angry, remembering the memories she'd gotten from Cat. "How could he do that? And why do you tolerate him?"
"He hasn't done anything in a couple of days. I'll jump on him if he starts again."
The copper elf snorted. "Two days must be a world record for him! I wish I knew why..."

This post has been edited by CrazyChick: 15 January 2007 - 04:15 PM

After some more discussion with Rapierian, Talryn turned to the group and let them know that he was going to fly ahead to see find the party and help the two meet up again. He ran and jumped into the air, transforming into a Storm Crow again and flew upwards.

After a while in the air, Talryn caught scent of a spell, and using his imrpoved vision saw the blast errupt in the forest far ahead. Talryn summoned most of his strength to boost his telepathy towards the explosion. A few moments later after calling to Wizard, he heard a response and circle down to the emerging group. As they all made it out, Talryn retransformed and landed with a thud. Ow, next time, I need to get closer to the ground.

Talryn waited as the last person climbed up and sat down, he told this party of the Undine and the showdown then drink a sip of water and jumped back into the sky. Talryn kept flying between the two groups, making sure they kept going the right direction so that they could catch up faster. As time passed, the gap between the groups steadily decreased to almost within sight of each other. Then Talryn landed between the two and waited for them to meet, breathing heavily and drinking a lot of water.

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 13 January 2007 - 10:44 PM

Silverfish reverted to his normal form and spoke gently to Retsy, "Please excuse us for not being sympathetic. Most of us have been magic'd with worse spells than Acertainment. I myself was magic'd with Terrorisation when I first arrived in Cademia."

This post has been edited by Jehezekel: 10 January 2007 - 12:44 PM

Wizard was pondering the mystery of the strange language when a thought suddenly struck him.

"Maybe it's a code and not a language at all," he said aloud.

Selax and Sideline both stopped and looked at him.

"If it is a code, there must be a key, and, since the map and crystal shards are all else we have so far," Sideline said, "the key would have to be contained in them. Wizard, the map and crystal fragments please."

Wizard handed them to Sideline, and Sideline slowly moved the crystal fragments over the map, until at the top of the map a series of letters and symbols appeared. It was the key to the code on the compass. Quickly, they deciphered the code and found which directions on the compass were North, South, East, and West.

"There's still no needle," someone pointed out, giving Selax an idea. Taking one of the smallest crystal fragments about the size of a needle, he placed it on top of the compass. There was a bright flash that briefly forced everyone to look away. When they looked back, the crystal fragment had somehow melted into the compass, becoming its needle.

The compass, which no doubt pointed to the next clue, pointed in a slightly southeast direction, toward Odemia.

Having figured out the clue, they doubled their pace to more quickly meet up with the others and go seeking the next clue.


Well, at least, she didn't know anything, thought Rapierian to himself. Wait a minute, why'd we rescue her anyway? Oh well, I suppose she'll provide some amusement at least. Then, seeing Starfall talking to Cat, he thought, If one of those elves tries to do something to me, I shall get most upset.

Then, aloud, he laughed and said, "Come all! We must be on our way."

This post has been edited by Selax: 14 January 2007 - 12:09 AM