Academy of Drell, Part 7

[GnomeWorks]

Charlotte does her best to keep up with Keith.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Lyrique's mind was racing. "What could do this" he thought. "some sort of catipult? but the distance. No it has to be magic. that or.... Great Goddess. Could that thing have been thrown by a Giant!" He says aloud.

"Mortimer what do you think? Could that come from a giant and then enchanted while in flight?"

 

[Zhure]

Sildarin detects only a faint residue of fast fading evocation magics, but no other active psionics or magics.

* * * * *

As everyone else makes the long climb, they can see the entire town has been alerted by the noise. It seems every villa and cottage as well as the campus, has a multitude of open doors and bright lights, even a few everburning torches are bobbing around on the dark grounds far below.

* * * * *

Lyrique pauses for a moment during his climb and notices a faint whiff of sulphur and bat guano - obviously this was done by a fireball of some sort.

 

[Jarval]

"Who knows?" Mortimer replies to Lyrique, at least as puzzled as his friend.

"Although if a giant had thrown it, it would have had to have travelled quite some distance. Other than the ones we encountered on the orc's isle, I know of no other giants in this region. Of course, I didn't know about them until very recently, so..." He tails off, walking around the edge of the blasted area.

"How about you, Sildarin?" He calls over to the elf. "Found anything?"

 

[evileeyore]

Kith turns to Rallyn as they ascend.

"Thinking about this, its something I would do. Divert attantion. Throw a stone or something small one way down the hall to get the Hall Monitors to go and check it out. Then scurry the opposite way."

Kith pauses. "So what the hell are they diverting attention from? You all didn't bring back any artifacts someone else wants did you?"

 

[Jeremy]

Rallyn rolls his eyes. "Of course we did," he drawls sarcastically. "The heroes of Drell know best."

But I saw Keith and Charlotte coming down from the Academy, did they just leave Lyrique and Travellios with the book?

Rallyn shakes his head, "Remember the book? Yeah, Yodwin's book. Like I told you, we brought that back with us and all the trouble that follows it. Last I saw it people were discussing how to keep it away from the Empire. That's when I headed out."

 

[evileeyore]

Kith stops.

"So who had it last? They are probably in danger if those two clowns Emair and Glukma have shown up. Them and Palasant, gah what trio that would be." Kith wheeves in a laughing-play-up-being old manner.

 

[Dalamar]

"It seems... It seems the boulder... is natural... belongs here... And then there's... marks of magic... Evocation, I believe... the discipline is called..." He looks questioningly at Lyrique on the last sentence.

Could you take a look to see where the Guards are?
I could, but do I want to?
Probably not. But you are still doing it.
You're kidding me, right? You wouldn't make me go alone into that dark, dready-looking forest, would you?
Yes, I would.
Slave master...

Sildarin sets Slith down on the ground, and the psicrystal scampers off to the direction where Sildarin last saw one of the Crimsons.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Lyrique looks at the boulder and says "Yes. It's Evocation magic. This is far more than coincidence. We have to be on guard."

 

[Zhure]

Sildarin sees a few Crimson Guards (the same troops sent by Palasant to investigate) only a few dozen yards further down the slope. They seem to be approaching with an element of caution, pausing to gaze out toward the lower reaches of the hills, as if they suspect this site will be targeted with another blast.

Mortimer circles around the site and realizes the burns are very regular and neat. It's unlikely a hurled object filled with some alchemical substance would've burned quite so neatly.

Lyrique's observation seems to confirm it was magic of some sort.