Small Packages Part 1
Log Info
- Title: Small Packages - Part 1
- Emitter: Whuridred
- Characters: Kaelyn Level 4, Lorik Level 5, Escanor Level 2, Itzpapalotl Level 2
- Place: Ulrick and Son Smithy - RP1
- Time: Jun 9, 2018
- Summary: A local blacksmith hires security for the unveiling of his latest experiment, a tower shield that shrinks without a loss in protection. Gold for an easy day's work.
Prepare for adventure of minuscule proportions!
Five years ago Edrick's father disappeared. Their blacksmithing business had been on the decline ever since. Desperate to do something to bring attention back to his smithy, Edrick has been working on completing his father's greatest idea. A tower shield that can be wielded like a regular shield. It could revolutionize combat as we know it. Or so he told everyone that would listen.
Of course others who had benefited from Edrick's dismal business must exist. Ready for the final touches, he has hired a few goons to protect his invention until its unveiling. The pay isn't great, but the job isn't hard either. Just a small sort of thing.
Edrick waits nervously in his smithy, his hands ringing in front of him as his apprentice stokes the forge, and pumps the billows. It is sweltering hot, and sweat beads on their foreheads. A fat fluffy maine coon relaxes nearby, nursing a small litter of kittens. Its one eye glaring out on the room as if it owned it. Cats always think that of course.
Kaelyn has arrived.
Pay isn't great but the job isn't hard. That is the siren song of the adventurer's Guild. Right after 'High pay and low difficulty' which would be the holy grail of jobs. Sadly enough no one told Lorik about how /warm/ it was going to be here.
He is used to cool stable underground temperatures! This forge room is ridiculous!
The shadow elf though sits in a corner, his crossbow in his lap as he keeps sharp ears out for any problems that might arise. "...is it /normal/ to fear being attacked by the competition around here?" He asks as the nervous smith wrings his hands. "I mean...I'm new to around here so I just like to make notes and all."
Escanor was one of the goons hired to help Edrick. The Aesir brought along his greataxe, shouldering the massive weapon as he yawned just a little bit. It was a boring day, to be certain, especially since well...nothing had happened yet. But who can say? There's likely far more to go along with coming along the way. Though he was told he'd have 'coworkers' so he simply leans against one of the walls, waiting for his allies to arrive.
It's a smithy! A new one! Kae pauses outside, she has her hoverboard next to her, she had been riding it around, at least till she ran out of fuel.. Not that refueling the artificed powered device was that tough. But well, there's a Smithy!!!
She grins broadely and skips on inside and glances around wide eyed and curious... She wonders what nifty tools awaits her perusal here!! NOt that she can't do them, Kae's actually a decent craftsperson!!! "Halloooooooooo!" She calls out.
Edrick was tending to his tools, runecrafted hammers and tongs that he used to make magical items. A pile of melted shields in the corner a testament to how much success he has had lately. New? New!? This smithy has been here for decades. Generations! Poor Edrick. No one knows he even exists. Yet. "I wouldn't normally be worried, but this could revolutionize ground combat. If it works a man with a buckler can fight as if his whole body was protected by a tower shield!"
At the call of a customer the smith looks up nervously, obviously suspecting everyone of sabotage. "Welcome, welcome," the two apprentices call to Kae as she enters. "Master is about to finish his great work, but I am sure he will be happy to help you once it is done. Will you wait for a moment here good customer?"
Edrick pulls a cloth off his anvil, a fine looking shield of the heavy variety sits upon it. A line of runes had been carved into it, but not yet completed. Picking up his hammer and a small chisel, he tacks at the shield tentatively. If possible, even more sweat pours from his brow. An apprentice brings over a cup of liquid metal, held with a pair of heavy tongs. Only moments until it is done.
There is a blink as someone pokes their head into the smithy and the shadow elf flashes a smile. "Kaelyn?" He seems to remember that being her name. The one time they were introduced in passing. "What are you doing here? Were you hired to protect the smithy too?"
Lorik blinks once again as he catches sight of the other figure outside and stands slowly, shifting the complicated contraption of the rune carved repeating crossbow to his back. "Er..." He wasn't told other names. Just that there was other people hired too. "...and...you sir with the axe...I take it you're another guard too?"
A pause though as he glances back to Edrick, watching him work but trying not to intrupt. After all that wouldn't be rude. I mean it /would/ help this smithy corner the market on a new technology. /His/ people would kill for that, but he thought it was different up on the surface...
The Aesir warrior turns his head to Kaelyn as she arrives as loud as she does. "Lo there." he says with a small smile, but his eyes finally fall on Lorik. "Yes, elf, I am also a guard that was hired to help Mr. Edrick. Truthfully, he didn't understand the normality of any of this either but...eh. "My name is Escanor. What is yours? Strangers whom I don't know?" he asks Kaelyn and Lorik.
Kae blinks a few times, while looking at her hoverboard... She then shrugs slowly "I just found this place! SO wandered on inside!" She says cheerfully, and then glances around now, before looking at the Aesir and beaming "Halloo!!!" She says and her hands flail happily in what must be some kind of wave.
As the metal fills the small cavities carved for it, a soft hiss rises as heat releases steam from an otherwise cool surface. The steam is thick and seems to glow with a faint greenish tint. More and more rises as Edrick fills each rune. He seems happy with his work until on the final letter the hiss rises in tone, and the steam takes a reddish hue. Introductions temporarily delayed as the steam turns to mist, and starts billowing forth with astounding speed. Within seconds the room is filled with the red mist, the fire of the forge causing it to flicker and dance in vision. "No, no, Nooooo!" Edrick yells as he bolts, grabbing his apprentices as they duck into a closet that seems built for just such a situation. Of course it is only big enough for three.
The mist thickens until it blocks all vision, and strange rushing feeling covers those left in the room. The sickening feeling of wind moving the wrong way, and the heavy impact of hitting the ground after an unexpected dip as one walks. All is red...
Light slowly returns, the burning red of the sun low to one side. The mist settles across a plain of dirt and soot, black dunes visible as far as the eyes can see. Odd mountains and massive trees stand sporadically in the distance, their fullness blurring behind the crimson fog. This is a desolate land. Boiling hot with the sun so close. Where in Ea could this place be?
"Ah! Sorry. I'm Lori'thalik. But call me Lorik, its much less of a mouth full!" The shadow elf calls towards the Aesir with a flash of a smile. "Its good to have company at times like this..."
And then Kaelyn starts to wave.
Wait! Hold on! He's seen the proper response to this before! And starts to try to flail back in also what seems to be some kind of wave.
He remembers this from where there was the story of her escaping slavers! He thought they were sick but its just a greeting! Surface people are so odd!
As he waves though Edrick pours and at the shift in that his his arms slowly still as he turns to look. "Master Edrick is that..." Master Edrick is running. And hiding. In a panic room. "...oh that isn't good..." Then the mist is filling the whole room. "...defiantly not good...anyone see anything but red?!"
And the mist clears.
As he looks out at the blasted landscape with wide eyes he blinks, then blinks again. "...er....I think I preferred just seeing all the red..." He tilts his head up to squint at the sun. "...a hat. I always need to bring a hat..."
GAME: Escanor rolls perception: (4)+7: 11
GAME: Kaelyn rolls perception: (7)+10: 17
GAME: Lorik rolls perception: (2)+11: 13
GAME: Kaelyn rolls knowledge/arcana: (15)+10: 25
GAME: Lorik rolls knowledge/arcana: (19)+6: 25
Someone else is flail waving at her and it isn't the normal folk! She beams and hops up and down while clapping. Then there's the mist and then well they're on a wierd plane... She glances around curiously "Well I wanted a good place to try out my board but not like this!!!"
So! Escanor made an elf-friend. Who'd have thought? a friend to giants and elves. Though as Kaelyn starts to wave, he tilts his head and gives a -far- less enthusiastic wave back, as if confused by this particular type of greeting. He's not familiar with greeting by flailing arms about. But as the mist settles in? He immediately enters a defensive position and keeps his eyes peeled....then they are in what is clearly perhaps another dimension entirely?
Of course, Escanor is a bit dumb to know this, or at least the fact doesn't settle in immediately. <Where are we?> He utters in the Jotun language.
"...I wasn't expecting this either..." Lorik replies as he takes a step closer to the other two. Reaching up he pulls his crossbow from his back, squinting against the sun. "...where /are/ we..." He echos Escanor's words in the trade tongue before pausing with a frown. "...still on Ea I think...those runes didn't have the power to teleport us to a different plane...but...it might as well be judging from the look of things." A pause. "Edrick /entirely/ messed that rune up." A longer pause. "...so...um...am I the only one that hears something...from the south? At least I think that's south... I'm possibly the worst with maps."
Kae has one thing that helps. She tugs a compass out of her pocket and peers at the thing curiously... She then motions to what she thinks is the south "Big kitteh that way I think..." She then motions up. "We have crying in the air..." Then she motions east after looking at her compass... "Biiiig thingie moving over there." She puts on goggles and looks at the sun... "Ooh and the sun's weird shaped!!!"
She then glances over to Lorik "Noo we're somewhere in Ea...." She adds and rubs at the back of her neck as she tries to think if she's been to a place like this before, having been an airship pirate for a number of years, Kae's been a lot of places...
The fog hangs about, never fully dissipating. The ground and dunes seem to be made of dirt, and ash. Something terrible happened here. What is readily apparent though is the horrible sobbing coming from the sky, and the deep purring thrum from the south. The sound pulls at the lizard brain at the base of your skull. There is certainly a predatory vibe to it. The soft scratching of movement shifts earth as two furry points rise over the horizon. As it approaches from the south, the points appear to be attached to the massive furry face of some giant predatory feline. At that size it must be well over 5000 pounds of death. More of it just seems to come. Bigger and bigger. If one held Escanor up next to this thing, he'd probably fit in its mouth. Prudence says run.
GAME: Kaelyn rolls profession/airman: (17)+6: 23
GAME: Kaelyn rolls craft/artifice: (7)+11: 18
The purring gets louder. And louder. And louder. Until the tips of the ears catch Lorik's attention. He looks up. And up. And upppppppp. At the huge furry creature above them.
Slowly he puts away his crossbow. He thinks it would only annoy it.
"...I don't suppose anyone can /talk/ to a giant cat can they?" A longer pause. "...or distract it. Or hide. I'm pretty sure running is a bad idea. I've heard bad things about felines and running..."
Lorik isn't the only one who can hear that sound to the south. With a deep breath, Escanor turns his head towards him. "No, you are not." He gives his axe a twirl as he watches the beast approach. "...that is a beast of death. Out in the open, we don't have any advantages. We need to find a place where we can trap it and kill it. Run!" He starts to walk backwards, though still ready for combat.
He seems about ready to literally slice this creature to death, but he has people with him, people he is willing to die to protect.
Nope, Kae's peering at the oncoming cat, the woman hopping on her hoverboard and beginning to move with the thing as the engines whirr to life. Slowly moving away from the cat... But then Kae suddenly stops as she's sitting crosslegged on the hoverboard, and now is holding up a tube. It's about 9 inches or so long, cylindrical, with a glowy couple of fine stones in the hilt, and a bigger stone at the opposite end from her hand. Suddenly she hits a stone and well it projects a dot about the size of a baseball away from her. This dot, really doesn't get any bigger and she begins waving it around in the cat's path... Soon darting it left then right and so on.
Just what in the world is the crazy curvy redhead elf thinking!?! Still though she's grinning a bit as she continues to wave the dot around.
Itzpapalotl is creeping nearby. It's hard to suggest the artificer is particularly stealthy but she is quite good at staying still and keeping low. With the current terrain that's enough that she isn't the immediate target of the cat. The lizard has been here the whole time, looming. Like being still she quite good at looming, giving a foreboding presence while doing nothing at all. Of course, being seven foot tall, covered in patch work powered armour, and probably being able to breathe fire are all good reasons for people to be wary of you. For now yellow, unblinking eyes watch the cat with quiet interest.
GAME: Escanor rolls Perception: (3)+7: 10
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls perception: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Lorik rolls perception: (12)+11: 23
GAME: Kaelyn rolls perception: (8)+10: 18
The massive creature pauses in its march. Its single eye follows the path of the red dot, even if almost lost in the red of the mist. It does not give chase, a new noise can be heard. Thump. Thump! THUMP! A smaller copy of the great beast bounds across the black plain to pounce the red light. Dirt and soot kicks up as it spins and flips in a frenzied attempt to catch the light.
After a minute of allowing the ruckus, the larger creature steps up and bats the smaller one away, herding it towards the south. Its giant tail flicking in irritation.
Most miss it, preoccupied with the 5000 pound cat, but Lorik and Kaelyn notice a shadow. As soon as the cat turns, a hunched figure darts from behind a massive tree and makes its way north. It definitely seems to have a purpose, or at least knows where it is going. It must be wearing a long rope belt, as a piece of it flaps in the air behind it as it runs.
The lizard's gaze follows the dot as well but she stops shy of actually chasing it. Instead, she watches both cat and bait disappear into the distance, completely unaware of anything else that might be present. Her own tail trashes slightly as the cat's does, mimicking it in a ponderously deliberate way.
"Very well done..." Lorik breathes as both massive felines leap towards the red light. There is a grin on his face as he angles a glance towards Kaelyn. "Quick thinking too. You'll have to show me that trick later!" He says as he starts to move away from the pair of dangerous kaiju cats.
"Wherever we are, I've never seen felines that size before!" He exclaims, trying to keep his voice just above a whisper to keep from attracting them again. However something besides the cats catches his attention. His eyes sharpen. "There!" He adds, pointing towards the figure that makes a dash towards the north. "There looks to be someone there! And they might know where they are going!" He adds as he starts to pad along after him. "Come on, lets follow. They might at least now where shelter is...or even where this place is!"
Kae shrugs "I think we could be in one of the blasted lands... I can't tell you exactly which one, as the weird sunlight and the overcast makes it very very tough... Oh and last time I was over or near one of these it was well above things..." She says and glances around now curiously... "Anyhow, we should move off I think, following mebbe that.. yaaah..." She says and holds up a small remote looking thing with a cable that connects to the board.... She grins as she rides it forward now...
Escanor watches as Kaelyn sciences the literal hell out of dealing with that massive feline. "Woah. Okay...not bad at all." he says with a smile, though he does put away his greataxe, eyes looking forward as he looks to his comrades. "So then...let's try and get out of-" oh! a person! "There, let's follow him and see what he knows." he nods and already starts to run after this mysterious figure!
As the group follows the mysterious figure, what can only be described as a wall looms in the distance. The march is long, and passes several of the odd giant trees. They lack bark but are smooth with their grain clearly visible. Almost shiny in appearance if not for wear and tear. As the gargantuan wall come into full vision it seems to disappear into the sky. But down at eye level the figure heads towards a hole. It is rough hewn, and seems to have no guards, but a small flicker of light can be seen inside. Voices can be heard, and the clanging of steel. "Pull that line! More air, don't let the fire go out! Squeek, squeek. I don't care if your arm hurts. Squeek squeeker squeekin. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Escanor says, "....that Emperors New Groove reference though..."
"It's as large as some of the creatures in Am'shere," Itzpa murmurs, the artificer finally breaking her silence. She moves rather nimbly for such a large creature though her steps clang loudly thanks to the army draped across her form. Welded plates and spikes. A junkyard titan. She seems content to watch for now. Again, the lizard goes still. She can stare for hours and it is a talent she clearly practices. "...Squeak?"
"Where is Am'shere?" Asks Lorik of Itzpa. "So I can remind myself to never go there..." The shadow elf adds with a grin. "...and these trees. All wrong. Its like worked wood...not natural wood. And this wall is too massive to be a natural construction. It's like a mountain!" He adds as he looks up at the wall ahead. But the sounds coming from the next room shake him out of his thoughts.
"...squeak?" He echos Itzpa as he glances towards the rest of them. "...welll it seems they can speak. Whoever they are. So lets go introduce ourselves!" He adds as he starts to move forwards, towards the hole there. He seems perfectly willing to knock.
"Hello? We come in peace!"
The hole leads down a short tunnel and into a vertical city. Two cliff faces that never seem to end rise up, and within it a myriad of nests, hovels, and huts span as far as the eye can see in the dim light. Torches cast light on myriad of gaunt rodent faces. A colony of mice-like people with big round ears and long skinny tails stare back at the adventurers. On the ground floor, a human man works a forge, stamping out swords and shields. Piles and piles of armor surround his forge, though all seem to be made to suit the rodent frame. "Ho there! The man yells, his grey hair matted with sweat. A burly mouse in an apron works as his assistant. "Squeek?" It asks. "I don't know who they are you dinglebrain. I've been here for five years. You see me talking to any other furless people?" The smith looks to the group. "I'm Ulrick, late owner of Ulrick and Son Smithy. Saw the wild magic. Mah boy playing with my old plans again, eh? Well, you are just in time! Got to stop him before everyone is the size of a mouse. Course we got to get past the Beast first."
Kae wanders up with Lorik, glances at Itpa curiously, then looks to the fellow speeking woodland rodent... "Hallooo!!! Or is that Squeeky Squeekers McSqueekums or something like that?!?" She says cheerfully, no she has no clue what they're talking about, but the whole squeek thing was funny to her and well she likes funny. Also being in one of her more hyper moods well, she can't resist it... "Huh? Size ofa mouse, what?" She asks curiously. Then blinks at all the mouse folks "Oooh I so hope I didn't say anything bad!!"
Escanor just walks up to them, tilting his head. "The beast?" Hey! he did this for a living! He does cross his arms though, his narrowed eyes silently demanding answers perhaps in the form of intimidation! "...you're telling me that we shrunk?" Escanor does not seem amused! He would like answers....NOW. but apparently a colony of mice creatures was the next thing they apparently 'needed'.
""Far on the other side of Char. The easiest way is through the portal in Alexandria." Itzpapalotl replies to Lorik in her soft, hissing voice .It carries easily despite her volume, matching the lizard's taciturn nature. Or is she, really? Being a lizard it is actually rather hard for mammals to tell what she is thinking at all. Then her gaze snaps back to the man. "...Stop him?"
She eyes the mouse. "You were not this size before?"
"Aye, the Beast. Giant thing. Huge nuisance. Rend a mouse in a mere second. Dem thing cannot tell that I am no mouse, but its master," the smith shakes his head. "Wife named it Fluffy." Ulrick looked to the lizard woman, his head tilting to the side. "Of course not. You weren't either. We've been shrunk. Stupid enchantment is flawed." He waves a hand to the mice. Some with obvious maiming. Others wearing artifice limb replacements. "But we've been making weapons. And my war rig. If we can get to the kitchen, I hid my best enchantments under the counter, and we can fix all this. What do you say? Will you help?"
"Wait wait...you...shrank..." A longer pause from Lorik. "...that makes so much sense now! So this is a normal door! And those trees are chairs!" A longer pause. "And the cat was the...cat!" He sounds so excited. "So that means we're tiny!" Now /he/ is the one flailing. "This is facinating!"
But then this Ulrick has a /plan/.
"Well...if that'll get us back to normal...I'm perfectly willing to help!" He says. "After all, going out in the city at this size would be troublesome. And my sister would try to lock me in a cage I bet..."
He wouldn't like that.
"Also can you teach how to speak mouse? That is pretty amazing."
End of Log----------------------------------