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Dear Mom - Mishap Adventures of a Mommy's Elf
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5814564" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The evening was quite fun, and interesting information could be gathered as well. At least, that was what Orlath was telling himself while he had too much to drink and talked to too many people. What was likely important or not somewhat swam all together in his unsober brain, but he would later be able to relay some important details:</p><p></p><p>– how the chamberlain had confessed he had seen a "strange sign" in a book that made someone jump out of a window and had barely managed to leave the room himself without doing the same. </p><p>– that no local artisans were involved in the works on the upper lighthouse levels.</p><p>– the lighthouse used some green metal called "serpent's blood" but what exactly for the merchant he talked to could not say.</p><p>– supposedly, strange lights where seen at night at the lighthouse, and then two dead "creatures" had been found. Sister Gwendolyn was somewhat confusing to talk to as she kept trying to stop him from drinking, so he was a bit unsure about the details. </p><p>– the upper levels of the lighthouse had been closed off for a while now.</p><p>– several magical things – he couldn't remember the details – had been brought from the mainland.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Nev was not that much more lucky. While listening to song and talk, he found the split in the council both fascinating and tiresome. Sister Gwendolyn, who was the aunt of the hero worshiping warrior, filled him in on the happenings of the last few years, but it basically came down to "he said, she said" and Nev was hesitant to believe anything at face value. The sister also mentioned the lighthouse workers being scared, especially at night. Strange noises at night, flashes of light and some strange creatures found dead. From the descriptions, they sounded like owlbears. </p><p></p><p>At some point, he noticed Flip was missing – Uthas was talking battle with some other warriors, as usual – and decided to look for the halfling. Knowing Flip better than his friend knew the rogue, Nev kept both eyes out for a small figure "liberating" items from rich guests. What he saw instead was a young human woman doing just the same thing. He remembered having talked to her before – she seemed shallow and boring at the time. Just a ruse, he now guessed, as he was trailing her process through the room, being more interested in her than finding Flip – or the whole of their mission – now. He didn't care she took things for a sport from people who had too much money to begin with, but she might be worth the pursuit, being human or not. </p><p></p><p>One of the reasons he had gotten into trouble so much back home was his fondness for the other gender. Any interesting woman, sometimes even more than one at a time, would cause him to even forget his magical studies. And he was usually too focused on the females to note if they had any males in their lives or worse, were married. In the last years, he had had to perform quite a few expeditious retreats due to this oversight. He had promised himself not to make the same mistakes outside the Realm, but here he was again, chasing the hem of a dress without taking into account possible retributions. </p><p></p><p>He bumped into the lizard posing as temple elder, Thuron, shortly before he was close enough to probably strike up a conversation again. "Has Drac made any attempt to compromise you yet?" K'Stallo-Thuron asked. "For he will certainly try, I know him that well by now."</p><p></p><p>The elf shook his head and began relaying the bits and pieces of information he had gathered. "Other than that, the two factions of the council each have their replacement candidate for the murdered Verlaine, but that seems to be normal. Drac might not win this time around but from what I heard, he will do anything, including murder if needed, to make his candidate happen."</p><p></p><p>K'Stallo-Thuron nodded. "Yes, and probably try to blame it on you again. Just try to have no opinion on anything, no matter what side tries to lure you in."</p><p></p><p>The elf could easily agree with that. The High Lady had been very specific in that regard once he had written her about her son's rogue decision to go to the ball anyway. Being neutral would be their best option, despite working against this whole unholy Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign stuff. "I'll see what more I can find out," he claimed while making a beeline for the woman he fancied, catching her just after she had liberated a purse from some heavily painted elderly woman. "Hey again," he smiled widely. "Care for a dance? We didn't get the chance earlier."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Orlath was about done with having no opinion. He stifled a yawn after his 50th or so dance with one not-so-young woman of standing or the other, all the time wondering how Nev got all the younger ones. Of course, he knew it was because he was the prince – the younger women didn't want to seem imposing by coming to him for dances and he could not impose on them without making it look like they had a chance of some sort. But Nev was of high enough standing to face similar problems, yet he never really seemed to have them. </p><p></p><p>The hour was getting late, and food, wine and too much dancing must have done a number on his mind, because for a moment, he thought he saw Flip among the servants. He looked again, but couldn't see any halfling in the mingle anymore. It must have been because he was so used to seeing Flip as a servant, which he after all was supposed to be, the elf convinced himself. Drawing the moonsilver pocket watch from his robe, he checked on the time. It was early morning already. If Drac would have planned to do something to them, he would have by now. They would be able to excuse themselves anytime soon. </p><p></p><p>Talking of Drac – the Sea Lord looked decidedly distressed, running through the guests as if he was looking for someone important who had gone missing. Orlath put on his best I'm-politely-concerned face and interrupted the man. "Is everything alright, Lord Drac?" he asked with all the sympathy he could muster. </p><p></p><p>"What? Oh, yeah yeah." Drac looked non too happy about being stopped by anyone. "You have not, by any chance, seen councilor captain Wallace recently, have you?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm afraid not. Last I saw of him, he was wanting to get some air." Orlath totally made that up, but he secretly enjoyed giving the evil lord false leads. "He seemed to have been a little annoyed about one of the other councilor's comments." He left that vague on purpose, sure Drac would fill in what he thought was the truth. </p><p></p><p>Drac grunted. Then he suddenly smiled in an attempt to be charming. "How are you enjoying the evening?" </p><p></p><p>"Quite spectacular," Orlath lied with long years of practice in such talks. "I hope you do not only hold parties when a lighthouse is completed, because that would be a waste of your talents."</p><p></p><p>Drac looked slightly pleased, but before he could answer, there was a sudden disturbance on the the dance floor. The music came to a sudden halt as a man wearing a long, brown robe tied by a dirty rope-belt shuffled into the room. He was unshaven, with long hair and a beard. How he was able to get by the guards was a mystery. </p><p></p><p>People moved aside as the intruder reached the center of the room. In a raspy voice, he spoke. "Heed me well! The words of an old man should not be ignored. In the ancient scriptures of Yig, it is written: </p><p></p><p>"The Yellowed Sign once again shall appear. </p><p>Then the time for Yig’s revenge will be near. </p><p>As the finger of evil rises toward heaven, </p><p>One must pay heed to the calling of his brethren. </p><p>Search below the waves for that which was unmade, </p><p>And return with the Serpent carved of Jade. </p><p>When the madness is unleashed upon the land, </p><p>The icon of jade alone shall stand. </p><p>The end of the creature from outside </p><p>Contained within the Serpent deep inside. </p><p></p><p>Remember these verses well, citizens of Freeport. The prophecies of Yig do not lie.“ </p><p></p><p>The old man then transformed into a small snake. A guard stepped forward and stabbed the serpent with a spear. It vanished in a puff of smoke. This all happened so fast that Nev, standing close by with the girl, didn't even have the time to try and detect for magic. </p><p></p><p>"What nonsense is that? Guards! How did he get in? Band, keep the music playing, no guests of mine will be bothered by such tricks." Drac, having lost all his good humor by now, basically hissed. </p><p></p><p>Orlath faked total disinterest. "I'm sure just a cheap magic tricks of your political opponents. Happens in the Realm all the time." </p><p></p><p>As soon as Drac was out of earshot, K'Stallo-Thuron came over, looking concerned. "I think this prophecy or whatever it was is of great importance. Please meet me tomorrow morning at the temple. Well, or whenever you wake up."</p><p></p><p>Orlath nodded. It was time for them to take their leave. He waved to Nev and Uthas – the latter looking rather drunk by now, the way he was singing with some of the other warriors - but he could still not make out Flip. Where did that little no-good halfling hide out? It would not do to leave without his servant. </p><p></p><p>As if he had read the elf's thoughts, Flip appeared through one of the ballroom doors, looking like he had been in and out of his clothes. A female, maybe? Orlath doubted it; Flip had never shown any romantic interest that he knew of. Or maybe he had gotten into a shuffle. Orlath waved to him, indicating they would be leaving. Flip nodded and followed them without a word. With a chuckle, Nev commented on Flip looking as if he had eaten a whole ox and drank the wine for it, too. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Flip watched as a disheveled looking Flip-Spider left with the others. Which meant it was time for him to make a run for it as well. As he knew all he could probably find out by now – and had a few "liberated" items in his pockets as well – the halfling was fine with that. Just when he tried to retreat to the kitchen and take the back exit as it was fit for a servant, a large toad jumped right into the dessert he was handing over to one of the ladies. With a screech, the older woman fell of her chair fainting. A small gnome, probably not even a teenager yet, came jumping after it in a panic. Flip recognized the boy as the apprentice of the High Wizard Tarmon. With his usual quick thinking, he grabbed the toad. "Your master's familiar?" he asked as he steered boy and toad away from the commotion around the lady. He could not afford to be noticed. </p><p></p><p>The boy nodded. "Very sorry, it won't happen again. Burkhart is old and senile, you know, but he can still be quite useful at times. "</p><p></p><p>"No worries," Flip chuckled. "It was kind of fun. Say, would you be able to introduce me to your master? Not now but maybe tomorrow? I'm not who I look to be," he assured the worried looking gnome. "I'm one of the heroes of the evening, but I am also a servant and had to take on a role to serve my prince." He hoped the rather obvious lie, as he was in Drac's uniform, was lost on the young boy, and that the apprentice had not seen the other Flip leaving. </p><p></p><p>"Eh, sure, I guess. In what matters though?" The gnome looked to where his master was making ready to leave. </p><p></p><p>"In matters of an evil we need the help of an experienced wizard." Flip put all the weight on "experienced" as, despite Tarmon likely being aware of the relative high rank the two nobles he had to watch over had in the wizard world of the Realm, he could not have failed to notice the lack of any hands-on experience. Indeed, Realm wizards, especially of the noble kind, we known to be rather theoretical or driven by fancy. </p><p></p><p>"Will do," the boy nodded. "Master Termon likes to help out the younger mages." With that, he smiled and made for his waving master. </p><p></p><p>"No doubt," Flip chuckled again. A senile toad. Wizards....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5814564, member: 53286"] The evening was quite fun, and interesting information could be gathered as well. At least, that was what Orlath was telling himself while he had too much to drink and talked to too many people. What was likely important or not somewhat swam all together in his unsober brain, but he would later be able to relay some important details: – how the chamberlain had confessed he had seen a "strange sign" in a book that made someone jump out of a window and had barely managed to leave the room himself without doing the same. – that no local artisans were involved in the works on the upper lighthouse levels. – the lighthouse used some green metal called "serpent's blood" but what exactly for the merchant he talked to could not say. – supposedly, strange lights where seen at night at the lighthouse, and then two dead "creatures" had been found. Sister Gwendolyn was somewhat confusing to talk to as she kept trying to stop him from drinking, so he was a bit unsure about the details. – the upper levels of the lighthouse had been closed off for a while now. – several magical things – he couldn't remember the details – had been brought from the mainland. Nev was not that much more lucky. While listening to song and talk, he found the split in the council both fascinating and tiresome. Sister Gwendolyn, who was the aunt of the hero worshiping warrior, filled him in on the happenings of the last few years, but it basically came down to "he said, she said" and Nev was hesitant to believe anything at face value. The sister also mentioned the lighthouse workers being scared, especially at night. Strange noises at night, flashes of light and some strange creatures found dead. From the descriptions, they sounded like owlbears. At some point, he noticed Flip was missing – Uthas was talking battle with some other warriors, as usual – and decided to look for the halfling. Knowing Flip better than his friend knew the rogue, Nev kept both eyes out for a small figure "liberating" items from rich guests. What he saw instead was a young human woman doing just the same thing. He remembered having talked to her before – she seemed shallow and boring at the time. Just a ruse, he now guessed, as he was trailing her process through the room, being more interested in her than finding Flip – or the whole of their mission – now. He didn't care she took things for a sport from people who had too much money to begin with, but she might be worth the pursuit, being human or not. One of the reasons he had gotten into trouble so much back home was his fondness for the other gender. Any interesting woman, sometimes even more than one at a time, would cause him to even forget his magical studies. And he was usually too focused on the females to note if they had any males in their lives or worse, were married. In the last years, he had had to perform quite a few expeditious retreats due to this oversight. He had promised himself not to make the same mistakes outside the Realm, but here he was again, chasing the hem of a dress without taking into account possible retributions. He bumped into the lizard posing as temple elder, Thuron, shortly before he was close enough to probably strike up a conversation again. "Has Drac made any attempt to compromise you yet?" K'Stallo-Thuron asked. "For he will certainly try, I know him that well by now." The elf shook his head and began relaying the bits and pieces of information he had gathered. "Other than that, the two factions of the council each have their replacement candidate for the murdered Verlaine, but that seems to be normal. Drac might not win this time around but from what I heard, he will do anything, including murder if needed, to make his candidate happen." K'Stallo-Thuron nodded. "Yes, and probably try to blame it on you again. Just try to have no opinion on anything, no matter what side tries to lure you in." The elf could easily agree with that. The High Lady had been very specific in that regard once he had written her about her son's rogue decision to go to the ball anyway. Being neutral would be their best option, despite working against this whole unholy Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign stuff. "I'll see what more I can find out," he claimed while making a beeline for the woman he fancied, catching her just after she had liberated a purse from some heavily painted elderly woman. "Hey again," he smiled widely. "Care for a dance? We didn't get the chance earlier." Orlath was about done with having no opinion. He stifled a yawn after his 50th or so dance with one not-so-young woman of standing or the other, all the time wondering how Nev got all the younger ones. Of course, he knew it was because he was the prince – the younger women didn't want to seem imposing by coming to him for dances and he could not impose on them without making it look like they had a chance of some sort. But Nev was of high enough standing to face similar problems, yet he never really seemed to have them. The hour was getting late, and food, wine and too much dancing must have done a number on his mind, because for a moment, he thought he saw Flip among the servants. He looked again, but couldn't see any halfling in the mingle anymore. It must have been because he was so used to seeing Flip as a servant, which he after all was supposed to be, the elf convinced himself. Drawing the moonsilver pocket watch from his robe, he checked on the time. It was early morning already. If Drac would have planned to do something to them, he would have by now. They would be able to excuse themselves anytime soon. Talking of Drac – the Sea Lord looked decidedly distressed, running through the guests as if he was looking for someone important who had gone missing. Orlath put on his best I'm-politely-concerned face and interrupted the man. "Is everything alright, Lord Drac?" he asked with all the sympathy he could muster. "What? Oh, yeah yeah." Drac looked non too happy about being stopped by anyone. "You have not, by any chance, seen councilor captain Wallace recently, have you?" "I'm afraid not. Last I saw of him, he was wanting to get some air." Orlath totally made that up, but he secretly enjoyed giving the evil lord false leads. "He seemed to have been a little annoyed about one of the other councilor's comments." He left that vague on purpose, sure Drac would fill in what he thought was the truth. Drac grunted. Then he suddenly smiled in an attempt to be charming. "How are you enjoying the evening?" "Quite spectacular," Orlath lied with long years of practice in such talks. "I hope you do not only hold parties when a lighthouse is completed, because that would be a waste of your talents." Drac looked slightly pleased, but before he could answer, there was a sudden disturbance on the the dance floor. The music came to a sudden halt as a man wearing a long, brown robe tied by a dirty rope-belt shuffled into the room. He was unshaven, with long hair and a beard. How he was able to get by the guards was a mystery. People moved aside as the intruder reached the center of the room. In a raspy voice, he spoke. "Heed me well! The words of an old man should not be ignored. In the ancient scriptures of Yig, it is written: "The Yellowed Sign once again shall appear. Then the time for Yig’s revenge will be near. As the finger of evil rises toward heaven, One must pay heed to the calling of his brethren. Search below the waves for that which was unmade, And return with the Serpent carved of Jade. When the madness is unleashed upon the land, The icon of jade alone shall stand. The end of the creature from outside Contained within the Serpent deep inside. Remember these verses well, citizens of Freeport. The prophecies of Yig do not lie.“ The old man then transformed into a small snake. A guard stepped forward and stabbed the serpent with a spear. It vanished in a puff of smoke. This all happened so fast that Nev, standing close by with the girl, didn't even have the time to try and detect for magic. "What nonsense is that? Guards! How did he get in? Band, keep the music playing, no guests of mine will be bothered by such tricks." Drac, having lost all his good humor by now, basically hissed. Orlath faked total disinterest. "I'm sure just a cheap magic tricks of your political opponents. Happens in the Realm all the time." As soon as Drac was out of earshot, K'Stallo-Thuron came over, looking concerned. "I think this prophecy or whatever it was is of great importance. Please meet me tomorrow morning at the temple. Well, or whenever you wake up." Orlath nodded. It was time for them to take their leave. He waved to Nev and Uthas – the latter looking rather drunk by now, the way he was singing with some of the other warriors - but he could still not make out Flip. Where did that little no-good halfling hide out? It would not do to leave without his servant. As if he had read the elf's thoughts, Flip appeared through one of the ballroom doors, looking like he had been in and out of his clothes. A female, maybe? Orlath doubted it; Flip had never shown any romantic interest that he knew of. Or maybe he had gotten into a shuffle. Orlath waved to him, indicating they would be leaving. Flip nodded and followed them without a word. With a chuckle, Nev commented on Flip looking as if he had eaten a whole ox and drank the wine for it, too. Flip watched as a disheveled looking Flip-Spider left with the others. Which meant it was time for him to make a run for it as well. As he knew all he could probably find out by now – and had a few "liberated" items in his pockets as well – the halfling was fine with that. Just when he tried to retreat to the kitchen and take the back exit as it was fit for a servant, a large toad jumped right into the dessert he was handing over to one of the ladies. With a screech, the older woman fell of her chair fainting. A small gnome, probably not even a teenager yet, came jumping after it in a panic. Flip recognized the boy as the apprentice of the High Wizard Tarmon. With his usual quick thinking, he grabbed the toad. "Your master's familiar?" he asked as he steered boy and toad away from the commotion around the lady. He could not afford to be noticed. The boy nodded. "Very sorry, it won't happen again. Burkhart is old and senile, you know, but he can still be quite useful at times. " "No worries," Flip chuckled. "It was kind of fun. Say, would you be able to introduce me to your master? Not now but maybe tomorrow? I'm not who I look to be," he assured the worried looking gnome. "I'm one of the heroes of the evening, but I am also a servant and had to take on a role to serve my prince." He hoped the rather obvious lie, as he was in Drac's uniform, was lost on the young boy, and that the apprentice had not seen the other Flip leaving. "Eh, sure, I guess. In what matters though?" The gnome looked to where his master was making ready to leave. "In matters of an evil we need the help of an experienced wizard." Flip put all the weight on "experienced" as, despite Tarmon likely being aware of the relative high rank the two nobles he had to watch over had in the wizard world of the Realm, he could not have failed to notice the lack of any hands-on experience. Indeed, Realm wizards, especially of the noble kind, we known to be rather theoretical or driven by fancy. "Will do," the boy nodded. "Master Termon likes to help out the younger mages." With that, he smiled and made for his waving master. "No doubt," Flip chuckled again. A senile toad. Wizards.... [/QUOTE]
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