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Dear Mom - Mishap Adventures of a Mommy's Elf
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5937312" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The tower's interior looked worse than the outside, and the first door Orlath found and tried to rush through with a new found energy was stuck and bounced him back. With a curse, he rubbed his shoulder, glad that his friend had not seen him. Then he pushed the door again, but to no avail. In all the years, the wood had gotten wet so often that it was now completely stuck, molded to the frame, too. But that also meant the human could not have come through here. </p><p></p><p>Looking around, the prince finally spotted a small set of stairs behind a half crumbled statue. Just when Nev reached him, he charged on, his former lack of breath seemingly forgotten. Nev couldn't call out anymore. He leaned against a wall and huffed for air, wondering how his cousin did it. That lead him to remember a cantrip he had learned a child for just such an occasion. With some difficulty, he managed the words and blew into his palms, and immediately, air came back into his lungs and he felt a lot better. It would not last long, but it should enable him to keep up with Orlath. </p><p></p><p>Orlath reached a wide corridor with a lot of broken or rotten decoration. Somewhere across the hallway, he could hear a clanking noise. Grinning, he adopted a regal pose, with one hand on his sword and the other on his component pouch. He would show this swindler not to ridicule the gods or to steal from villagers. </p><p></p><p>Following the sounds to the source, he arrived at huge double doors. They were slightly ajar. In the last moment, he had the good sense not to rush in but to peak around the doors first. He saw a large room spanning half of the tower, from the layout, it once had been a ballroom of sorts. The sounds came from the left corner in the back. In the dim light his elven senses were a great help. But he still wished he had not seen what he just saw. Carefully, he retreated. </p><p></p><p>A ballroom, alright., There was still dancing going on. In fact, the room was just filling up with the participants of this danse macabre. Skeletons, mummies and from what he could make out, a few zombies as well. If they were not careful, they would stumble over their own entrails. While Orlath was not particularly scared of the undead anymore, he would not take on this set alone. He would need Nev – but first, they had to find the con man. </p><p></p><p>A moment later, he could make out fresh dirt on the ground – footsteps obviously from the human he was in pursuit of. Throwing a last look at the ballroom door, he followed them to what once had been a great library. Now, there were not even rotten books, the crumbling shelves were just empty. On some of the shelves, though, were stacks of newer items which appeared to have been stolen from the village, including a large silver chalice looking like it would belong in the temple. Something was moving in the back of the room, so Orlath, sword drawn by now, moved forward. </p><p></p><p>"There you are," a voice came from behind, and the prince jumped. It was Nev, of course, now out of breath again. "Did you notice the undead celebration in the ballroom?" </p><p></p><p>"Yeah, we can take care of them later, for now, I think we found our conniving friend." </p><p></p><p>"Take care of them later? But..." Nev sighed once more as he saw Orlath had stopped listening. At this moment, he was sure glad his friend wasn't the crown prince. </p><p></p><p>Nev had his eyes on the ground to watch where the footprints were going, so it took him a moment to notice Orlath had left the trail. As he looked up, he saw the other elf approach a set of tables. From his point of view, several meters ahead of where Orlath had swayed right, Nev could see dark forms sitting at the table, hoods drawn into their faces. They were sitting at what would have been copying tables once, where the lower ranked scribes copied everyday stuff like news and announcements to hang in villages or even books and pamphlets which were borrowed out a lot. So this must have been a somewhat public library once. However, it was logical to assume that those scribes still sitting there, moving their hands as if still writing, were not part of the living. There were at least a dozen, and his friend was headed right towards them. "Orlath!" he called out. </p><p></p><p>Suddenly, semi-transparent ghostly shapes appeared all around them. "Ssshhhhh..." they made, putting their ghostly fingers in front of their lips. One who looked like a female dwarf of all things looked at him very disapprovingly. "This is a library, you know," she hissed, her voice sounding like turning pages in a book. </p><p></p><p>"Ah, no, hate to disappoint," Nev said, deciding on the blunt approach. "This was a library once, a long long time ago, but now it is but a ruin and you are all ghosts stuck in this cursed building. Now, if you'd let me pass..."</p><p></p><p>He had no idea what made him say that, but it seemed to work. The look of confusion on the faces of the ghosts was both priceless and pitiful. When he was back in Freeport, he would see to it that someone would finally take the curse of this building, Nev told himself. </p><p></p><p>Orlath was not looking back, he just rounded the next shelf and almost bumped into the copying tables. For a moment, Nev hoped that the undead scribes, too, would just tell him to be quiet so they could turn back. But there was no such luck. A dozen mummies threw back their robes and stared at them with strange green eyes. Nev caught up to Orlath, sword also drawn. "You need," he gasped as his spell was starting to wear off, "to be more careful. You can't charge into a cursed building like that!"</p><p></p><p>"You have a point," the prince admitted while retreating a few steps. "But we have faced undead before, even back home. Remember the mine graveyard with all the weird zombies?"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah but you are forgetting something." Nev pulled his friend back to the library exit while the mummies started grunting and picking up speed. </p><p></p><p>"What?"</p><p></p><p>"We had your sister with us. This time, there is no one to turn undead for us. Unless you have suddenly picked p a few skills in necromancy."</p><p></p><p>"Uh... we have our weapons..." Orlath picked up retreating speed, knowing what Nev would say. </p><p></p><p>"You certainly remember what happened the last few times we seriously wanted to use our swords. Uthas has a name for our fighting style, remember?" </p><p></p><p>"I get it, I get it... so, what now?" </p><p></p><p>Renewing his second wind spell, Nev felt impatient with Orlath. "Well, there is but one thing to do – run!" </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Lhess stopped to consider the trampled over sign on the grass. 3 sets of footprints probably meant that the two elves the lizard had been talking about when he came with the orc slave into the village center were still following the false priest. It also meant someone, possibly not the runner, had paid more attention to what was ahead than his surroundings. The paladin reached out to straighten out the sign when she heard gasping and moaning coming from the tower. In a quick move, she slipped behind a willow tree and drew her sword. </p><p></p><p>A moment later, someone fell over the sign again and loudly cursed in elvish. She knew that voice and choice of bad words all too well. With a smirk, she stepped out from her cover, just to be bumped in by someone else, who also cursed loudly while rubbing his elbow which had made unpleasant contact with the paladin's armor. </p><p></p><p>"Hi Nev," Lhess smiled brightly at her cousin. "And hello, brother. As I see, your tendency not to watch where you are going hasn't changed a bit."</p><p></p><p>Orlath gathered himself up from the ground, by now looking rather tattered. "Lhess?" His eyes grew wide like the moon. "What are you doing here?"</p><p></p><p>"Saving your behinds, it seems." The woman pointed towards the tower. "At least if this collection of various undead is any indication."</p><p></p><p>The space between them and the tower was crawling with zombies, skeletons, mummies, ghasts and some other variations. Gasping for air again, Nev could neither say something nor go any further. He grabbed Orlath for support and tried to hide behind Lhess. Orlath fought the burning in his lungs to make a useful reply, but all that came out was "It's not what you think."</p><p></p><p>"What do I think?" Lhess got into position and lifted her silver gleaming holy sword to the dark sky. Then she shouted out the ancient words of the elven gods to destroy undead abominations. A wave of light spread out from her weapon, hitting the front line of the approaching horde. One by one, they crumbled, falling to the ground in piles of ash and dust, something they should have turned into a long time ago. "Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," Lhess mumbled as she slowly lowered her sword. "Well?" she asked the prince as if nothing had happened. </p><p></p><p>"Huh? Oh!" Her brother scratched his head. "You are thinking we got ourselves into trouble but that is not true. It's more like trouble got into us."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, you always say that. It's why mom sent me after all." The paladin put her sword away and winked at the two men. "And I came just in time, as it seems."</p><p></p><p>"We were doing... fine, really.... Lady Theka should not have... wasted your precious time with... this. We are not... usually interested in... what you want to do," Nev gasped. </p><p></p><p>Looking back at the tower, Lhess shook her head. "Yeah," she said. "It sure looked like you had everything under control. The undead tire so easily it is a blast to just outrun them."</p><p></p><p>"Point taken," Orlath conceded. "But we were after a con man. He is still on the run."</p><p></p><p>"He isn't." Lhess closed her eyes to let her special life detecting ability take over. "There is nothing alive in there. A few unfortunate ghosts, probably."</p><p></p><p>"They... got the swindler? Good." Nev stretched, trying to get rid of cramps. "And there are ghosts who, I think don't get they are dead, they still think the library exists and all."</p><p></p><p>"I'll check on them tomorrow, and we'll see what else from te false priest's loot we can find. The lizard told us everything when he came running into the village."</p><p></p><p>"Can you even help them, with the curse and all? Even the Church of Redemption couldn't..."</p><p></p><p>"I am the church of Redemption. At least right now." Lhess didn't notice the surprised look on her relatives' faces. "And I'll sure have a talk with the chapter leader about not getting back to this. The sign looks a few years old. Well, now that we are clear, let's go back... slowly," she grinned at Nev. "I saw Uthas appear with the orc I came here with, and I can guess what they have been up to. Just one question left."</p><p></p><p>"Which is?" Orlath sounded resigned to his fate by now. </p><p></p><p>"Where's Flip? You did bring him here with you, as your town house was empty." </p><p></p><p>"He's probably off with some halfling girl or two, I saw some in the village," Nev suggested. "Whatever he is up to, I'm sure we'll see him in the morning and he will have had a better night than we did."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5937312, member: 53286"] The tower's interior looked worse than the outside, and the first door Orlath found and tried to rush through with a new found energy was stuck and bounced him back. With a curse, he rubbed his shoulder, glad that his friend had not seen him. Then he pushed the door again, but to no avail. In all the years, the wood had gotten wet so often that it was now completely stuck, molded to the frame, too. But that also meant the human could not have come through here. Looking around, the prince finally spotted a small set of stairs behind a half crumbled statue. Just when Nev reached him, he charged on, his former lack of breath seemingly forgotten. Nev couldn't call out anymore. He leaned against a wall and huffed for air, wondering how his cousin did it. That lead him to remember a cantrip he had learned a child for just such an occasion. With some difficulty, he managed the words and blew into his palms, and immediately, air came back into his lungs and he felt a lot better. It would not last long, but it should enable him to keep up with Orlath. Orlath reached a wide corridor with a lot of broken or rotten decoration. Somewhere across the hallway, he could hear a clanking noise. Grinning, he adopted a regal pose, with one hand on his sword and the other on his component pouch. He would show this swindler not to ridicule the gods or to steal from villagers. Following the sounds to the source, he arrived at huge double doors. They were slightly ajar. In the last moment, he had the good sense not to rush in but to peak around the doors first. He saw a large room spanning half of the tower, from the layout, it once had been a ballroom of sorts. The sounds came from the left corner in the back. In the dim light his elven senses were a great help. But he still wished he had not seen what he just saw. Carefully, he retreated. A ballroom, alright., There was still dancing going on. In fact, the room was just filling up with the participants of this danse macabre. Skeletons, mummies and from what he could make out, a few zombies as well. If they were not careful, they would stumble over their own entrails. While Orlath was not particularly scared of the undead anymore, he would not take on this set alone. He would need Nev – but first, they had to find the con man. A moment later, he could make out fresh dirt on the ground – footsteps obviously from the human he was in pursuit of. Throwing a last look at the ballroom door, he followed them to what once had been a great library. Now, there were not even rotten books, the crumbling shelves were just empty. On some of the shelves, though, were stacks of newer items which appeared to have been stolen from the village, including a large silver chalice looking like it would belong in the temple. Something was moving in the back of the room, so Orlath, sword drawn by now, moved forward. "There you are," a voice came from behind, and the prince jumped. It was Nev, of course, now out of breath again. "Did you notice the undead celebration in the ballroom?" "Yeah, we can take care of them later, for now, I think we found our conniving friend." "Take care of them later? But..." Nev sighed once more as he saw Orlath had stopped listening. At this moment, he was sure glad his friend wasn't the crown prince. Nev had his eyes on the ground to watch where the footprints were going, so it took him a moment to notice Orlath had left the trail. As he looked up, he saw the other elf approach a set of tables. From his point of view, several meters ahead of where Orlath had swayed right, Nev could see dark forms sitting at the table, hoods drawn into their faces. They were sitting at what would have been copying tables once, where the lower ranked scribes copied everyday stuff like news and announcements to hang in villages or even books and pamphlets which were borrowed out a lot. So this must have been a somewhat public library once. However, it was logical to assume that those scribes still sitting there, moving their hands as if still writing, were not part of the living. There were at least a dozen, and his friend was headed right towards them. "Orlath!" he called out. Suddenly, semi-transparent ghostly shapes appeared all around them. "Ssshhhhh..." they made, putting their ghostly fingers in front of their lips. One who looked like a female dwarf of all things looked at him very disapprovingly. "This is a library, you know," she hissed, her voice sounding like turning pages in a book. "Ah, no, hate to disappoint," Nev said, deciding on the blunt approach. "This was a library once, a long long time ago, but now it is but a ruin and you are all ghosts stuck in this cursed building. Now, if you'd let me pass..." He had no idea what made him say that, but it seemed to work. The look of confusion on the faces of the ghosts was both priceless and pitiful. When he was back in Freeport, he would see to it that someone would finally take the curse of this building, Nev told himself. Orlath was not looking back, he just rounded the next shelf and almost bumped into the copying tables. For a moment, Nev hoped that the undead scribes, too, would just tell him to be quiet so they could turn back. But there was no such luck. A dozen mummies threw back their robes and stared at them with strange green eyes. Nev caught up to Orlath, sword also drawn. "You need," he gasped as his spell was starting to wear off, "to be more careful. You can't charge into a cursed building like that!" "You have a point," the prince admitted while retreating a few steps. "But we have faced undead before, even back home. Remember the mine graveyard with all the weird zombies?" "Yeah but you are forgetting something." Nev pulled his friend back to the library exit while the mummies started grunting and picking up speed. "What?" "We had your sister with us. This time, there is no one to turn undead for us. Unless you have suddenly picked p a few skills in necromancy." "Uh... we have our weapons..." Orlath picked up retreating speed, knowing what Nev would say. "You certainly remember what happened the last few times we seriously wanted to use our swords. Uthas has a name for our fighting style, remember?" "I get it, I get it... so, what now?" Renewing his second wind spell, Nev felt impatient with Orlath. "Well, there is but one thing to do – run!" Lhess stopped to consider the trampled over sign on the grass. 3 sets of footprints probably meant that the two elves the lizard had been talking about when he came with the orc slave into the village center were still following the false priest. It also meant someone, possibly not the runner, had paid more attention to what was ahead than his surroundings. The paladin reached out to straighten out the sign when she heard gasping and moaning coming from the tower. In a quick move, she slipped behind a willow tree and drew her sword. A moment later, someone fell over the sign again and loudly cursed in elvish. She knew that voice and choice of bad words all too well. With a smirk, she stepped out from her cover, just to be bumped in by someone else, who also cursed loudly while rubbing his elbow which had made unpleasant contact with the paladin's armor. "Hi Nev," Lhess smiled brightly at her cousin. "And hello, brother. As I see, your tendency not to watch where you are going hasn't changed a bit." Orlath gathered himself up from the ground, by now looking rather tattered. "Lhess?" His eyes grew wide like the moon. "What are you doing here?" "Saving your behinds, it seems." The woman pointed towards the tower. "At least if this collection of various undead is any indication." The space between them and the tower was crawling with zombies, skeletons, mummies, ghasts and some other variations. Gasping for air again, Nev could neither say something nor go any further. He grabbed Orlath for support and tried to hide behind Lhess. Orlath fought the burning in his lungs to make a useful reply, but all that came out was "It's not what you think." "What do I think?" Lhess got into position and lifted her silver gleaming holy sword to the dark sky. Then she shouted out the ancient words of the elven gods to destroy undead abominations. A wave of light spread out from her weapon, hitting the front line of the approaching horde. One by one, they crumbled, falling to the ground in piles of ash and dust, something they should have turned into a long time ago. "Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," Lhess mumbled as she slowly lowered her sword. "Well?" she asked the prince as if nothing had happened. "Huh? Oh!" Her brother scratched his head. "You are thinking we got ourselves into trouble but that is not true. It's more like trouble got into us." "Yes, you always say that. It's why mom sent me after all." The paladin put her sword away and winked at the two men. "And I came just in time, as it seems." "We were doing... fine, really.... Lady Theka should not have... wasted your precious time with... this. We are not... usually interested in... what you want to do," Nev gasped. Looking back at the tower, Lhess shook her head. "Yeah," she said. "It sure looked like you had everything under control. The undead tire so easily it is a blast to just outrun them." "Point taken," Orlath conceded. "But we were after a con man. He is still on the run." "He isn't." Lhess closed her eyes to let her special life detecting ability take over. "There is nothing alive in there. A few unfortunate ghosts, probably." "They... got the swindler? Good." Nev stretched, trying to get rid of cramps. "And there are ghosts who, I think don't get they are dead, they still think the library exists and all." "I'll check on them tomorrow, and we'll see what else from te false priest's loot we can find. The lizard told us everything when he came running into the village." "Can you even help them, with the curse and all? Even the Church of Redemption couldn't..." "I am the church of Redemption. At least right now." Lhess didn't notice the surprised look on her relatives' faces. "And I'll sure have a talk with the chapter leader about not getting back to this. The sign looks a few years old. Well, now that we are clear, let's go back... slowly," she grinned at Nev. "I saw Uthas appear with the orc I came here with, and I can guess what they have been up to. Just one question left." "Which is?" Orlath sounded resigned to his fate by now. "Where's Flip? You did bring him here with you, as your town house was empty." "He's probably off with some halfling girl or two, I saw some in the village," Nev suggested. "Whatever he is up to, I'm sure we'll see him in the morning and he will have had a better night than we did." [/QUOTE]
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