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Story Hour
Dear Mom - Mishap Adventures of a Mommy's Elf
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 6002488" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>The reason we split the party up so much was that we needed to schedule around the player's exams which was about impossible unless they played a few single sessions. It was better than a break in the game to us. </p><p></p><p>----------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p>The inside of the temple had changed indeed. Several times seemed to exist in the same space. They could see the image around them flickering. One moment, there was the temple ruins they knew, then there was nothing but a wild landscape, then again the ruins were in worse shape and the next second, the building was as good as new. A few times, they thought they could even glimpse people – builders, a cleaning acolyte, a priest. And from one dark corner, some sort of predator launched itself at them, just to disappear the next moment. Time was clearly in flux here, something none of them had ever experienced, worse, not heard much about, either. </p><p></p><p>Whiel the 3 elves were edgy and jumped at several of the changes, especially the beast, Uthas was as calm as a morning flower. The barbarian had little concept of arcane magic to begin with, not to talk about the complicated implications of temporal magic. He shrugged it off and grinned. "It's like me mom and her patched clothes. There's one layer over the other, and sometime something gets torn off and you see the old stuff. Then you patch it again. Or like the hems, if you tear them you see parts not let out yet. See, time's just as everyday as everything else."</p><p></p><p>Nev didn't know what to say to that, Lhess bust out laughing and the prince seemed insulted. After that, it was a bit easier, although walking through areas of different times still made them feel unsafe. And the impressions changed. Where first they had been only overlays, they now became true surroundings, and eventually, when they stepped into them they felt as if they were really in the past or the future – except that they could still see the present time temple shining through and knew where to go. How justified their worry was they could see when, at one point, they turned the corner on the second floor right after Uthas, but he was gone. "Hey? Uthas?" Nev sounded close to panic. "If that's one of your scare the elves games, then it's the wrong time. Come back here!"</p><p></p><p>Lhess pushed open one of the old, partly open iron doors close to them. Asides from cobwebs, she found nothing in the small storage chamber likely once used for candles and the like. She rushed to the other door and tried again. </p><p></p><p>Nev pointed into the corridor, which was changing images through times faster than before. "You think he's got lost in there?" </p><p></p><p>By now, it was not possible to see the real temple ruins under the temporal impressions anymore. But what exactly real was, they weren't so sure anymore. If they went with Uthas' interpretation of the layers, then they all would be real somehow, and even the prince had to admit that he had no other explanation. Temporal magic was rudimentary, the best you could usually do was influencing the timeline a few seconds, maybe minutes, here and there. It was all new to them, and probably to most scholars. </p><p></p><p>"I don't think that's possible... or is it?" the prince wondered. "It's only imprints of the past, I think..." </p><p></p><p>Right then, a cold wind was blowing out of one of the assumed impressions, which was showing the ruins in the future, covered in snow. "I think it's somehow real," Nev deducted and jumped backwards. </p><p></p><p>"Guys, I think I've found this library we were looking for." Lhess had stepped into the other room. "And I also think it is the reason for all this trouble."</p><p></p><p>The room the paladin was standing in was not too big; maybe the size of a large living room. Several shelves full of books and some other things were all over the walls and in two rows in the middle. A table and an old armchair were placed near an empty fireplace close to the door. The room flickered in some way, seemingly fighting to keep up one appearance. It didn't quite change like the rest of the temple, but it seemed to be only a matter of time before whatever prevented the room from falling to the same magic was running out. </p><p></p><p>"Just how are we supposed to carry all that with us?" Lhess sighed, sounding frustrated. "Is any of it maybe not important enough to take?" </p><p></p><p>"We wouldn't have the time to discern that." Nev looked at his cousins and blinked rapidly, a sign he was thinking quickly. "We need to find one expendable book."</p><p></p><p>"Why?" Lhess wondered, while Orlath was already browsing the shelves next to him for a fitting volume. </p><p></p><p>"There is a mass reduce spell for such situations, which can also be done in a ritual. We will probably have just enough time. What it needs is one from the type of things to be reduced as a component in the ritual. Which, of course, makes it about useless for living things unless you are into sacrifices," Nev explained in his usual long winded way. "We have all the other things we need, as it isn't anything unusual – candle, a piece of a measuring rope, incense of shrinkwood, black chalk to draw the area of effect in scale..." While he was talking, he already cleared a rug off the floor and began to prepare. "We did it before, actually. Long story."</p><p></p><p>Lhess just stared. She had never before even heard of shrinkwood, and here her cousin presented it as standard spell component. "Okay. Do you need me to do anything?"</p><p></p><p>"Get a bit of material from the walls to mix in with the chalk," Nev said. "It reduces the spell difficulty."</p><p></p><p>While Lhess went to do just that, Orlath returned with a very old volume of "Basic Ingredients for Beginner Spells." It was almost falling apart and obviously not a part of the very well kept main collection. "That'll do fine," he grinned. </p><p></p><p>Lhess stepped out of the way and watched. Her brother had an uncanny way to judge the measurements of any place right, and she didn't doubt the outline of the room he drew on the floor to place the candle in was in scale. Nev ignited the shrinkwood in a small earthen cup he had produced from somewhere. He took the piece of measuring rope and sat next to Orlath, who was making weird waving motions with his hands, as if he wanted to draw the room to him. Then they launched into a complex spell chant the paladin understood only half of, if that. She swore to herself to pick up her arcane studies again. Their mother was already annoying her about it, and maybe she was right. She had the talent, so she should make use of it. </p><p></p><p>Arcane symbols emerged from the candle light and danced in a soft glowing yellow light around the heads of the two casters, then they expanded outwards and lit up the room. The books seemed to be shining in a fiery aura for a moment, then they changed and started shrinking, leaving the other things and the shelves as they were. Unsupported by anything but magic, they hung there for a few moments before being drawn towards the outline of the room on the floor. There was no sign of the candle anymore. There they arranged neatly and fell down on what looked to be a plate of stable smoke the size of the outline. Orlath quickly launched into another spell, sprinkling a few drops of sour smelling liquid over it all. Lhess was pretty sure it was vinegar. Before she could ask, Nev grinned at her. "A conserving spell so they won't fall off the plate when we put them into our backpacks." The prince was already doing that while getting up. Nev followed him to the door. "We need to find Uthas and get out of here."</p><p></p><p>The room, relatively stable in time until now, flickered out of existence and for a moment, Lhess had the impression falling because the floor where she stood was gone. A picture of the future. The next, she was staring into the eye of a young elf girl in acolyte white, who shrieked in panic and dropped the books she was carrying. Then everything was back to normal.</p><p></p><p>Except that the two men were gone. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The wizard Suto was supposedly still young. But the worn out, thin, pale, white haired and wrinkled man who opened the door to the ritual chamber with a suspicious look in his eyes and some sort of spell glowing around his hands looked anything but young. Flip could barely contain his surprise. Maybe working with dark magic did such to you, which was as well because in a way, it would make the wizard easier to deal with. </p><p></p><p>"Who are you?" he snapped as he noticed the halfling. At the same moment, Gurt was stumbling into him as planned and nicked him with the poison. That, he didn't notice because, as hoped for, he was putting his attention on Flip.</p><p></p><p>"He's my bestest Friend," Gurt explained. "I'm a friend of his," Flip said at the same time. "And I am not exactly friends with the villagers either. Don't know what exactly is going on but the armored folks look an awful lot like paladins to me." He grinned in what he hoped was a dangerous manner. "Now Gurt here tells me you are a powerful mage and their new master so I guess you can teach them a lesson or two, but we have to hurry."</p><p></p><p>Suto mumbled a word, and the glow around his hands surrounded his body for a moment, then faded. Flip was sure he had seen this sometime before, a sort of magical armor. Good Gurt had already gotten the poison to him. "This way," the halfling pointed and went towards the long winded ascent to the side of the hill as agreed on with Gurt.</p><p></p><p>"Wait for me," Gurt wailed and followed. "Am scareds of thems but I do not wants to be alone." </p><p></p><p>The wizard hard trouble following them. It could not be the poison yet; actually, the poison was more affecting the mind than anything, so Flip guessed it must be the man's fragile condition. Gasping for air, the man had to wave a spell or two to finish, and those spells he seemed to have trouble with already. When they finally emerged on a ledge on the side of the underground complex, staring down on a dark, shadowy forest, sweat was running down Suto's face and he had to lean against the exit wall for support for a moment. </p><p></p><p>Jumping up and down, Gurt pointed into the mists and shadows. "There they sneak up on us, can you see them?" </p><p></p><p>Of course, no one was there, but in the last few minutes, the human had kept looking around and listening to nothing. He was likely hearing voices by now, and probably seeing things. This was the most tricky moment of their plan, not counting the initial encounter with Flip. If he would see through the trick, they would likely both be toast – or the next sacrifices. </p><p></p><p>Wiping his eyes and getting ready for some spells, the wizard tried to discern anything in the shadows. "Can't see... what's wrong? Is there someone down there at all?" He elbowed Gurt. "Is this some sort of trick?"</p><p></p><p>"Of the light, maybe," Flip quickly added. "I can see quite well in the dark and they are moving." The halfling took his crossbow and aimed it at the dark, reading it for a shot. He wondered if he was overdoing it, but at this point, they had maneuvered themselves into a corner already. The next few seconds would show. At least, Flip thought, he couldn't be sad about any lost opportunities if he would end here – after all, he only remembered his name. </p><p></p><p>Suto stepped forward, trying to eye both the halfling and the forest. He swayed, turning his head this way and that way, listening to sounds only he could hear. Then he raised his arms and, in a surprisingly loud and clear voice, cast a spell that lit up the area below them in a blueish light. It was immediately clear that no one was there, even to his slightly poisoned, exhausted mind. </p><p></p><p>Flip didn't give the guy a chance to do anything else. The wizard was standing at the edge of the ledge, looking down with a frown. The halfling rushed forward and bumped with the fullest speed possible into the human, hoping that his lesser weight was still enough to topple the exhausted man down. But he would not have made it if Gurt had not reacted almost as quick, seeing what his new friend planned. Both of them were lucky not to fall down behind the yelling wizard, though. It was Gurt steadying Flip who prevented the worst. He two of them looked down to where the unmoving form of Suto could be seen among rubble and boulders. The blueish light went out. </p><p></p><p>"We dids it, we dids it," Gurt yelled happily, "Wes got rids of that evil guy."</p><p></p><p>"It's not over yet." Slightly confused by the quick events, the halfling pointed back to where they had come from. "There are prisoners to free, and we should check out that ritual room of his." </p><p></p><p>The prisoners, while shaken and distrustful at first, proved to be little problem. With the help of the no longer charmed dwarf, they set about getting them out in little time. It turned out that 2 of the kidnapped villagers had already been sacrificed though. Which made Flip very reluctant to bother with the ritual room. "What if he has already summoned something up?" He looked at the dwarf who was herding the former captives out. "Do you have any other magician type in your village, by chance?"</p><p></p><p>The dwarf shook his head. "Sadly, the only other wizard is on vacation in Freeport for a while. We do have a hedge witch, but if it comes to demons, as I suppose you think, she would be little help. She's deadly afraid of them." </p><p></p><p>"Who in their right mind isn't?" Flip mumbled. He stared at the door to the ritual room while the others, including Gurt so he noticed, went uplevel. He tried to remember what he had read before. This demon – Flab – was a demon of wishes and bad luck. Maybe he could utilize that. In any case, something had to be done and it looked like he had been volunteered to do it. </p><p></p><p>With a sigh, Flip opened the door. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Uthas shivered in the sudden cold and stared at the frozen shore and the upset sea. Icy winds were blowing from the land outwards and small snowflakes were dancing all around him. A few seconds ago, in his view, it had been summer. </p><p></p><p>He was still standing on the 2nd floor of the temple ruins, but where there had been a corridor a moment before, the floor ended a meter or so off his feet, the former floor and walls now lying down at ground level as a heap of rubble. Even around and behind him, there were hardly any walls, and the ceiling was gone. Some meters behind him, the corridor still had ceilings, and remains of the 3rd floor could be made out in a morning mist clinging to the ruins despite the wind. </p><p></p><p>The future, he realized with wonder. Expecting to see the present blink back into place, he didn't move for a while, just blinking at the scene. When nothing happened, he began to realize something had gone wrong and scratched his meager hair. </p><p></p><p>A long time ago, his mother had told him to wait if he was lost, so to give the search teams a chance to find him. But that had been when he had been very small and had gotten lost frequently in the maze of streets and tunnels that was Armanth City. On the other hand, this had to do with magic, and both Nev and Orlath had drilled it into him not to mess with it and wait for them if in doubt. </p><p></p><p>But if he was in the future, they were not here, and maybe in this time, they wouldn't even exist anymore because Uthas has not been there to protect them.A worrisome thought. He had to find a way back, maybe this weird time jumping still happened in other areas of the ruins. Determined to get out of the cold wind at least, Uthas walked into mostly intact corridor, checking for signs of any time magic he could probably use to get back. </p><p></p><p>But while he found stairs to below, also mostly intact, and a bunch of giant rats he had to chase away, he found nothing remotely looking like magic. The place was cold and abandoned, and so was he. He was also very tired as he had had no sleep, so despite the time in this... time... he decided to make camp with the little things he had in his belt pouch and warm up at a fire. </p><p></p><p>When he woke up, the sun indicated it was early afternoon. Despite 3 fires he had build around him, the half-orc felt cold and uncomfortable. Not knowing what else to do, he decided to check if the village they had come from was still around and if so, if a half-orc with a mostly friendly disposition would be able to find a room and some food there. Luckily, his coins had been in his belt pouch. He assumed that gold was gold and silver was silver, so he would be able to make a decent living for a while. And hopefully find a way back. </p><p></p><p>While the old well where they had found the goblin was gone, the path to the village was now a small road and he saw several people in winter clothes moving in either direction. No one took specific notice of him, and he saw a few hobgoblins, orcs and other humanoids among them, so he was confident enough he would not be seen as an enemy just for his heritage. </p><p></p><p>As he crested the little hill that shielded the village from the wilder parts of the area, his mouth fell open. The settlement was still there, but it was no village anymore. He saw a good sized town, with several roads leading into it. It even had a proper harbor now. Uthas had no idea how fast settlements usually grew, but several of the houses, even those not around the center, looked to be several decades old at least.</p><p></p><p>He thought about it for a moment, then he decided it didn't matter. It was probably easier to find work this way if he needed to. Or someone with the knowledge to help him back to his own time. A town like this was bound to have several mages, and if not here, he could still move on to Freeport. </p><p></p><p>As he walked into town, he noticed a human girl and a hobgoblin warrior looking at him, then talking excitedly to each other. For a brief moment, he wondered what that was about, but the sight of a tavern blew all thoughts of anything else but food and drink out of his mind. "The Lonely Goose" was a smaller place, but frequented by a lot of people on this small road, so Uthas went right in behind one of the other travelers. He felt at home at once. A warm cosy common room with two roaring fires, the scent of ale and wine and roasted meat and spices... He dropped down next to one of the fires to warm up and cheerfully waved the orcish barmaid. "Here's a hungry traveler," he announced as she came close. "A spiced hot wine and some roasted pig with tubers and potatoes would be great."</p><p></p><p>"New around here?" she asked in a full voice and winked at him. "Your accent sounds like nothing I've heard." She rolled her words in a way he could not remember the villagers talk back in his time. But6, he supposed, language changed like everything else. </p><p></p><p>"Very new," he chuckled. "And it seems I'm under-dressed for the weather." He noticed too late that this was a silly comment that could get him too much attention, but she just nodded in understanding. </p><p></p><p>"You teleported in with one of the recruiting wizards, right? They keep forgetting to tell the southerners that they need to bring warmer clothes. You didn't bring any equipment?" She looked for a backpack. </p><p></p><p>"Ran into some trouble making camp up on the road," he improivised. "They couldn't get me, but they got most of my stuff. Not that it was all that much. Spare clothes – too cold for the climate as well, ya see – some rations and a rope. Nothing irreplacable."</p><p></p><p>"The bandits are getting more and more annoying," the woman frowned. "Anyway, there is a storage shed on Harbor Road where you can get warm clothes for little money, as we have had the problem lots of times now. If you want something more fancy and can afford it, there are several good tailors in town, too."</p><p></p><p>"Thanks," he nodded. "Will go with the storage, not too much coin on my name right now." He decided to play careful, too much wealth could draw too much attention. </p><p></p><p>"Yeah, most recruits have little coin," she grinned. "But you can pay for the food, right?"</p><p></p><p>"Darling," he grinned. "I can always pay for food and drink. I save elsewhere." With a chuckle, the woman left to get his order, and Uthas had a few things to think about. So he was considered a recruit from the south now. Recruiting wizards teleporting people in? Teleports had been a difficult thing, especially around Freeport. He would need to find out what was happening – once he had his stomach full.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 6002488, member: 53286"] The reason we split the party up so much was that we needed to schedule around the player's exams which was about impossible unless they played a few single sessions. It was better than a break in the game to us. ---------------------------------------------- The inside of the temple had changed indeed. Several times seemed to exist in the same space. They could see the image around them flickering. One moment, there was the temple ruins they knew, then there was nothing but a wild landscape, then again the ruins were in worse shape and the next second, the building was as good as new. A few times, they thought they could even glimpse people – builders, a cleaning acolyte, a priest. And from one dark corner, some sort of predator launched itself at them, just to disappear the next moment. Time was clearly in flux here, something none of them had ever experienced, worse, not heard much about, either. Whiel the 3 elves were edgy and jumped at several of the changes, especially the beast, Uthas was as calm as a morning flower. The barbarian had little concept of arcane magic to begin with, not to talk about the complicated implications of temporal magic. He shrugged it off and grinned. "It's like me mom and her patched clothes. There's one layer over the other, and sometime something gets torn off and you see the old stuff. Then you patch it again. Or like the hems, if you tear them you see parts not let out yet. See, time's just as everyday as everything else." Nev didn't know what to say to that, Lhess bust out laughing and the prince seemed insulted. After that, it was a bit easier, although walking through areas of different times still made them feel unsafe. And the impressions changed. Where first they had been only overlays, they now became true surroundings, and eventually, when they stepped into them they felt as if they were really in the past or the future – except that they could still see the present time temple shining through and knew where to go. How justified their worry was they could see when, at one point, they turned the corner on the second floor right after Uthas, but he was gone. "Hey? Uthas?" Nev sounded close to panic. "If that's one of your scare the elves games, then it's the wrong time. Come back here!" Lhess pushed open one of the old, partly open iron doors close to them. Asides from cobwebs, she found nothing in the small storage chamber likely once used for candles and the like. She rushed to the other door and tried again. Nev pointed into the corridor, which was changing images through times faster than before. "You think he's got lost in there?" By now, it was not possible to see the real temple ruins under the temporal impressions anymore. But what exactly real was, they weren't so sure anymore. If they went with Uthas' interpretation of the layers, then they all would be real somehow, and even the prince had to admit that he had no other explanation. Temporal magic was rudimentary, the best you could usually do was influencing the timeline a few seconds, maybe minutes, here and there. It was all new to them, and probably to most scholars. "I don't think that's possible... or is it?" the prince wondered. "It's only imprints of the past, I think..." Right then, a cold wind was blowing out of one of the assumed impressions, which was showing the ruins in the future, covered in snow. "I think it's somehow real," Nev deducted and jumped backwards. "Guys, I think I've found this library we were looking for." Lhess had stepped into the other room. "And I also think it is the reason for all this trouble." The room the paladin was standing in was not too big; maybe the size of a large living room. Several shelves full of books and some other things were all over the walls and in two rows in the middle. A table and an old armchair were placed near an empty fireplace close to the door. The room flickered in some way, seemingly fighting to keep up one appearance. It didn't quite change like the rest of the temple, but it seemed to be only a matter of time before whatever prevented the room from falling to the same magic was running out. "Just how are we supposed to carry all that with us?" Lhess sighed, sounding frustrated. "Is any of it maybe not important enough to take?" "We wouldn't have the time to discern that." Nev looked at his cousins and blinked rapidly, a sign he was thinking quickly. "We need to find one expendable book." "Why?" Lhess wondered, while Orlath was already browsing the shelves next to him for a fitting volume. "There is a mass reduce spell for such situations, which can also be done in a ritual. We will probably have just enough time. What it needs is one from the type of things to be reduced as a component in the ritual. Which, of course, makes it about useless for living things unless you are into sacrifices," Nev explained in his usual long winded way. "We have all the other things we need, as it isn't anything unusual – candle, a piece of a measuring rope, incense of shrinkwood, black chalk to draw the area of effect in scale..." While he was talking, he already cleared a rug off the floor and began to prepare. "We did it before, actually. Long story." Lhess just stared. She had never before even heard of shrinkwood, and here her cousin presented it as standard spell component. "Okay. Do you need me to do anything?" "Get a bit of material from the walls to mix in with the chalk," Nev said. "It reduces the spell difficulty." While Lhess went to do just that, Orlath returned with a very old volume of "Basic Ingredients for Beginner Spells." It was almost falling apart and obviously not a part of the very well kept main collection. "That'll do fine," he grinned. Lhess stepped out of the way and watched. Her brother had an uncanny way to judge the measurements of any place right, and she didn't doubt the outline of the room he drew on the floor to place the candle in was in scale. Nev ignited the shrinkwood in a small earthen cup he had produced from somewhere. He took the piece of measuring rope and sat next to Orlath, who was making weird waving motions with his hands, as if he wanted to draw the room to him. Then they launched into a complex spell chant the paladin understood only half of, if that. She swore to herself to pick up her arcane studies again. Their mother was already annoying her about it, and maybe she was right. She had the talent, so she should make use of it. Arcane symbols emerged from the candle light and danced in a soft glowing yellow light around the heads of the two casters, then they expanded outwards and lit up the room. The books seemed to be shining in a fiery aura for a moment, then they changed and started shrinking, leaving the other things and the shelves as they were. Unsupported by anything but magic, they hung there for a few moments before being drawn towards the outline of the room on the floor. There was no sign of the candle anymore. There they arranged neatly and fell down on what looked to be a plate of stable smoke the size of the outline. Orlath quickly launched into another spell, sprinkling a few drops of sour smelling liquid over it all. Lhess was pretty sure it was vinegar. Before she could ask, Nev grinned at her. "A conserving spell so they won't fall off the plate when we put them into our backpacks." The prince was already doing that while getting up. Nev followed him to the door. "We need to find Uthas and get out of here." The room, relatively stable in time until now, flickered out of existence and for a moment, Lhess had the impression falling because the floor where she stood was gone. A picture of the future. The next, she was staring into the eye of a young elf girl in acolyte white, who shrieked in panic and dropped the books she was carrying. Then everything was back to normal. Except that the two men were gone. The wizard Suto was supposedly still young. But the worn out, thin, pale, white haired and wrinkled man who opened the door to the ritual chamber with a suspicious look in his eyes and some sort of spell glowing around his hands looked anything but young. Flip could barely contain his surprise. Maybe working with dark magic did such to you, which was as well because in a way, it would make the wizard easier to deal with. "Who are you?" he snapped as he noticed the halfling. At the same moment, Gurt was stumbling into him as planned and nicked him with the poison. That, he didn't notice because, as hoped for, he was putting his attention on Flip. "He's my bestest Friend," Gurt explained. "I'm a friend of his," Flip said at the same time. "And I am not exactly friends with the villagers either. Don't know what exactly is going on but the armored folks look an awful lot like paladins to me." He grinned in what he hoped was a dangerous manner. "Now Gurt here tells me you are a powerful mage and their new master so I guess you can teach them a lesson or two, but we have to hurry." Suto mumbled a word, and the glow around his hands surrounded his body for a moment, then faded. Flip was sure he had seen this sometime before, a sort of magical armor. Good Gurt had already gotten the poison to him. "This way," the halfling pointed and went towards the long winded ascent to the side of the hill as agreed on with Gurt. "Wait for me," Gurt wailed and followed. "Am scareds of thems but I do not wants to be alone." The wizard hard trouble following them. It could not be the poison yet; actually, the poison was more affecting the mind than anything, so Flip guessed it must be the man's fragile condition. Gasping for air, the man had to wave a spell or two to finish, and those spells he seemed to have trouble with already. When they finally emerged on a ledge on the side of the underground complex, staring down on a dark, shadowy forest, sweat was running down Suto's face and he had to lean against the exit wall for support for a moment. Jumping up and down, Gurt pointed into the mists and shadows. "There they sneak up on us, can you see them?" Of course, no one was there, but in the last few minutes, the human had kept looking around and listening to nothing. He was likely hearing voices by now, and probably seeing things. This was the most tricky moment of their plan, not counting the initial encounter with Flip. If he would see through the trick, they would likely both be toast – or the next sacrifices. Wiping his eyes and getting ready for some spells, the wizard tried to discern anything in the shadows. "Can't see... what's wrong? Is there someone down there at all?" He elbowed Gurt. "Is this some sort of trick?" "Of the light, maybe," Flip quickly added. "I can see quite well in the dark and they are moving." The halfling took his crossbow and aimed it at the dark, reading it for a shot. He wondered if he was overdoing it, but at this point, they had maneuvered themselves into a corner already. The next few seconds would show. At least, Flip thought, he couldn't be sad about any lost opportunities if he would end here – after all, he only remembered his name. Suto stepped forward, trying to eye both the halfling and the forest. He swayed, turning his head this way and that way, listening to sounds only he could hear. Then he raised his arms and, in a surprisingly loud and clear voice, cast a spell that lit up the area below them in a blueish light. It was immediately clear that no one was there, even to his slightly poisoned, exhausted mind. Flip didn't give the guy a chance to do anything else. The wizard was standing at the edge of the ledge, looking down with a frown. The halfling rushed forward and bumped with the fullest speed possible into the human, hoping that his lesser weight was still enough to topple the exhausted man down. But he would not have made it if Gurt had not reacted almost as quick, seeing what his new friend planned. Both of them were lucky not to fall down behind the yelling wizard, though. It was Gurt steadying Flip who prevented the worst. He two of them looked down to where the unmoving form of Suto could be seen among rubble and boulders. The blueish light went out. "We dids it, we dids it," Gurt yelled happily, "Wes got rids of that evil guy." "It's not over yet." Slightly confused by the quick events, the halfling pointed back to where they had come from. "There are prisoners to free, and we should check out that ritual room of his." The prisoners, while shaken and distrustful at first, proved to be little problem. With the help of the no longer charmed dwarf, they set about getting them out in little time. It turned out that 2 of the kidnapped villagers had already been sacrificed though. Which made Flip very reluctant to bother with the ritual room. "What if he has already summoned something up?" He looked at the dwarf who was herding the former captives out. "Do you have any other magician type in your village, by chance?" The dwarf shook his head. "Sadly, the only other wizard is on vacation in Freeport for a while. We do have a hedge witch, but if it comes to demons, as I suppose you think, she would be little help. She's deadly afraid of them." "Who in their right mind isn't?" Flip mumbled. He stared at the door to the ritual room while the others, including Gurt so he noticed, went uplevel. He tried to remember what he had read before. This demon – Flab – was a demon of wishes and bad luck. Maybe he could utilize that. In any case, something had to be done and it looked like he had been volunteered to do it. With a sigh, Flip opened the door. Uthas shivered in the sudden cold and stared at the frozen shore and the upset sea. Icy winds were blowing from the land outwards and small snowflakes were dancing all around him. A few seconds ago, in his view, it had been summer. He was still standing on the 2nd floor of the temple ruins, but where there had been a corridor a moment before, the floor ended a meter or so off his feet, the former floor and walls now lying down at ground level as a heap of rubble. Even around and behind him, there were hardly any walls, and the ceiling was gone. Some meters behind him, the corridor still had ceilings, and remains of the 3rd floor could be made out in a morning mist clinging to the ruins despite the wind. The future, he realized with wonder. Expecting to see the present blink back into place, he didn't move for a while, just blinking at the scene. When nothing happened, he began to realize something had gone wrong and scratched his meager hair. A long time ago, his mother had told him to wait if he was lost, so to give the search teams a chance to find him. But that had been when he had been very small and had gotten lost frequently in the maze of streets and tunnels that was Armanth City. On the other hand, this had to do with magic, and both Nev and Orlath had drilled it into him not to mess with it and wait for them if in doubt. But if he was in the future, they were not here, and maybe in this time, they wouldn't even exist anymore because Uthas has not been there to protect them.A worrisome thought. He had to find a way back, maybe this weird time jumping still happened in other areas of the ruins. Determined to get out of the cold wind at least, Uthas walked into mostly intact corridor, checking for signs of any time magic he could probably use to get back. But while he found stairs to below, also mostly intact, and a bunch of giant rats he had to chase away, he found nothing remotely looking like magic. The place was cold and abandoned, and so was he. He was also very tired as he had had no sleep, so despite the time in this... time... he decided to make camp with the little things he had in his belt pouch and warm up at a fire. When he woke up, the sun indicated it was early afternoon. Despite 3 fires he had build around him, the half-orc felt cold and uncomfortable. Not knowing what else to do, he decided to check if the village they had come from was still around and if so, if a half-orc with a mostly friendly disposition would be able to find a room and some food there. Luckily, his coins had been in his belt pouch. He assumed that gold was gold and silver was silver, so he would be able to make a decent living for a while. And hopefully find a way back. While the old well where they had found the goblin was gone, the path to the village was now a small road and he saw several people in winter clothes moving in either direction. No one took specific notice of him, and he saw a few hobgoblins, orcs and other humanoids among them, so he was confident enough he would not be seen as an enemy just for his heritage. As he crested the little hill that shielded the village from the wilder parts of the area, his mouth fell open. The settlement was still there, but it was no village anymore. He saw a good sized town, with several roads leading into it. It even had a proper harbor now. Uthas had no idea how fast settlements usually grew, but several of the houses, even those not around the center, looked to be several decades old at least. He thought about it for a moment, then he decided it didn't matter. It was probably easier to find work this way if he needed to. Or someone with the knowledge to help him back to his own time. A town like this was bound to have several mages, and if not here, he could still move on to Freeport. As he walked into town, he noticed a human girl and a hobgoblin warrior looking at him, then talking excitedly to each other. For a brief moment, he wondered what that was about, but the sight of a tavern blew all thoughts of anything else but food and drink out of his mind. "The Lonely Goose" was a smaller place, but frequented by a lot of people on this small road, so Uthas went right in behind one of the other travelers. He felt at home at once. A warm cosy common room with two roaring fires, the scent of ale and wine and roasted meat and spices... He dropped down next to one of the fires to warm up and cheerfully waved the orcish barmaid. "Here's a hungry traveler," he announced as she came close. "A spiced hot wine and some roasted pig with tubers and potatoes would be great." "New around here?" she asked in a full voice and winked at him. "Your accent sounds like nothing I've heard." She rolled her words in a way he could not remember the villagers talk back in his time. But6, he supposed, language changed like everything else. "Very new," he chuckled. "And it seems I'm under-dressed for the weather." He noticed too late that this was a silly comment that could get him too much attention, but she just nodded in understanding. "You teleported in with one of the recruiting wizards, right? They keep forgetting to tell the southerners that they need to bring warmer clothes. You didn't bring any equipment?" She looked for a backpack. "Ran into some trouble making camp up on the road," he improivised. "They couldn't get me, but they got most of my stuff. Not that it was all that much. Spare clothes – too cold for the climate as well, ya see – some rations and a rope. Nothing irreplacable." "The bandits are getting more and more annoying," the woman frowned. "Anyway, there is a storage shed on Harbor Road where you can get warm clothes for little money, as we have had the problem lots of times now. If you want something more fancy and can afford it, there are several good tailors in town, too." "Thanks," he nodded. "Will go with the storage, not too much coin on my name right now." He decided to play careful, too much wealth could draw too much attention. "Yeah, most recruits have little coin," she grinned. "But you can pay for the food, right?" "Darling," he grinned. "I can always pay for food and drink. I save elsewhere." With a chuckle, the woman left to get his order, and Uthas had a few things to think about. So he was considered a recruit from the south now. Recruiting wizards teleporting people in? Teleports had been a difficult thing, especially around Freeport. He would need to find out what was happening – once he had his stomach full. [/QUOTE]
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