High Fantasy Modern Storyhour - The Long Road (updated December 7)

[RangerWickett]

October 29, 2005
11:58 am

The bizarre encounter with Wiji-wiji took up a good bit of time, and the subsequent grilling of Terry on all matters magical took even longer, so Terry is glad for the distraction of the Ded Bob show to get the others off his back. Scarpedin gets involved in audience participation, but the creepiness of a skeleton puppet apparently proves too much for the man who bested the black knight, and Scarpedin runs screaming off the stage. Meanwhile, Robert wandered the nearby shops, noticing the two men from before always a little too close to be coincidence.

Scarpedin hides from Ded Bob in a tiny gypsy wagon, where he pays for a fortune-telling and is told of great impending doom that will come to him on a boat.

After the show, everyone in the group has had time to get a handle of the oddities they've seen lately, and they decide to ignore it all by going to the most innocuous place possible: a New Age bookstore.

"So, Terry," Scarpedin says, standing tall and grinning eagerly, "tell us of this . . . magic."

"Nothing in this store is magical," Terry says.

John, in one of his rare non-smoking moments, mutters, "I can't believe you're still talking about that."

"I agree," Robert says, laughing. "I mean, I know we're at a 'Renaissance Festival' and all, but seriously, the joke's gone on long enough."

Scarpedin considers. "Your name is Robot, right? You were talking with a Japanese guy, so he should have called you Mister Roboto."

After a pensive moment, Robert nods. "Okay, let's talk about magic some more."

"Excellent," Scarpedin growls.

Terry, between perusing new age books on magic and running his fingers along tacky colored glass wind chimes, explains magic. Magical creatures, like fey and dragons, have natural magical powers. For a human to use magic, however, he has to have a connection to something magical -- typically a spirit or ghost that bonds with the human. Awkwardly, Terry cannot answer when Scarpedin asks him what his source of magic is. Terry just knows that he's got a knack for magic, which he has been learning for the past six years at a boarding school in England.

"Hogwarts," Scarpedin jokes.

Serena smirks. "I wouldn't have pegged you as the sort to read Harry Potter."

John says, "I wouldn't think he's the sort to read. I'm going outside to smoke."

Terry's explanation goes on. There are two worlds -- the human world, Terra, which is what most people think of as the normal world; and the 'fey realm,' Gaia, where magical creatures live.

"But," Terry points out, "calling it 'the fey realm' is like some jackass calling anime 'japanimation.' Terra and Gaia. That's what you need to remember."

According to folklore, Terry says, Terra and Gaia used to be a lot closer, but after some war that King Arthur was involved in (at this, Scarpedin perks up with intense interest), the fey were forced off of Terra, and the two worlds drifted apart. To get between the two now, you need special magic.

John, standing outside the shop, is the first to hear the approaching men. The black man's iPod is blaring again, playing a Prodigy song ("Smack my B*tch Up," though John does not listen to Prodigy, and so he does not realize this). The white guy glares at John, and John steps aside to let them by, exhaling smoke as they pass him.

The black guy taps Belladonna on the shoulder, and everyone but Scarpedin turns to see what's going on. The store is empty except for them and the shopkeeper, who is busy trying to keep Scarpedin's hands off a musty old spellbook that looks like it might just be genuine.

"Hey, excuse me," the man with the iPod says to Belladonna. "We need you to come with us."

She smiles disarmingly, looking up and down at the two imposing men. "I'm sure you'd like me to, boys, but I'm quite happy where I am."

The white guy who looks like Carrie Elwes says, "It wasn't a request lady."

He stares openly at Belladonna's chest, then leers to his partner. "Lucky us, hey Hex?"

"Whatever man," Hex says. "Look, lady, me and my buddy Rex here have to take you to talk to our boss. You can come peacefully, or you can say no, and some sh*t might go down."

"What the hell?" Terry steps between Belladonna and the two of them. "Guys, the lady said no."

Belladonna says, "Terry, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself."

"Yeah," Terry says, "but I get irrational when guys are assh*les to women."

"Whoa," Robert says, holding out his hands. "What's the problem here? Why do you need . . . what's your name again?"

"Belladonna."

"Right," Robert says. "Why doesn't your . . . your 'boss' come over here?"

Rex rolls his eyes. To his partner Hex he says, "Can we just take her?"

Hex nods, and pulls out sunglasses, while simultaneously changing his iPod's song. It begins to belt out the first few notes of Janis Joplin's "One Good Man." Rex reaches for sunglasses tucked in his belt loop, and Robert suddenly notices a bulge under the man's sweater.

"Gun!" he shouts, backing away.

Scarpedin turns, ready for a fight. Belladonna discreetly slips a stiletto from her hair. Terry stands in the way to defend the lady. John drops his cigarette, and is about to turn when he sees the most beautiful woman in the world heading toward the bookstore, and all hell breaks loose.

 

[spidertrag]

October 29, 2005
11:58 am
....
Scarpedin turns, ready for a fight. Belladonna discreetly slips a stiletto from her hair. Terry stands in the way to defend the lady. John drops his cigarette, and is about to turn when he sees the most beautiful woman in the world heading toward the bookstore, and all hell breaks loose.

Well dam, more! Nice SH so far RW!

 

[Wystan]

More

 

[RangerWickett]

This evening or tomorrow, I'll post an update. I'm busy writing my Ceramic DM story right now.

 

[RangerWickett]

October 29, 2005
12:45 pm

Rex, the tall white lech, flips on his sunglasses, draws his gun, and fires. Terry shoves the man's hand high, and the shot shatters crystal on the wall.

Hex, the short black thug with the iPod, tries to grab Belladonna. He catches her by the wrist, but she stabs a stiletto from her hair into Hex's forearm, digging deep. Hex curses and lets go, yanking his arm away from the blade.

The music coming out of Hex's iPod swells, and Robert, Terry, and Scarpedin find their attention drawn to a woman entering the store. They know she's the most beautiful woman in the world, even though Robert doesn't like blondes, and Terry is still fixated on his dead girlfriend. But the magical compulsion of her beauty keeps their eyes on her. She swaggers hips first into the shop, low pants and loose top revealing a gorgeous body, but honestly not one worth getting stunned over. The nymph flashes a luscious smile to Rex and Hex, then shakes out her hair as she walks toward Belladonna.

"Get 'er, Janis," Hex says, his sunglasses protecting him from the dazzling beauty.

From outside the store, John, apparently unaffected by the nymph, tries to grab her, and Rex steps in the way. They begin to brawl, John pulling out martial arts moves while Rex relies on brute strength to pummel the chain-smoker.

Realizing something dangerous is up, Belladonna abandons subtlety, drops her stiletto, and quickdraws a derringer from her dress. She fires into the nymph's chest, and though the impact knocks Janis back a bit, the bullet bounces off her and strikes the floor. Belladonna gapes in momentary puzzlement, and Janis grabs her by the arms.

The gunshot shakes Terry and Robert out of the nymph's spell, though Scarpedin is quite content to keep watching the two women wrestling. Serena shakes her head in confusion and tries to run into the fray, but Rex backhands her, knocking her into a shelf display on the wall. Serena crumples to the ground, and Scarpedin finally starts to understand he's been charmed. He growls with intense hate, long repressed, from a time when magic users were the bane of all good men, but he still cannot pull his eyes away from the nymph.

Terry shoves at the nymph, knocking her away from Belladonna, and Hex begins to cast a spell through his iPod. Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" begins to play, and the thug swings his hand toward John. A burst of flame strikes John and drives him away from Rex. John bats at the fire, trying to put himself out, giving Rex the time he needs to aim his gun for Terry.

Robert dives for cover, and Terry curses, weaving and trying to keep the nymph between him and the man with the gun. Rex's shot ends up bouncing off the nymph's back, and Terry backs away.

He begins to mutter in a language Scarpedin vaguely recognizes from the old days. John feels something magical in the words, and it seems so does the nymph. She leaps for Terry and grabs him just as he's finishing his spell.

The world ripples for a moment, and suddenly everything seems more vivid. Robert, John, Scarpedin, and Belladonna can still see Terry, Rex, and Hex, but they're fading, as are the contents of the shop. The store itself looks to have been transformed into living wood, and the field outside the shop is darkened by clouds and lush with flowers and thick grasses.

"What the hell?" John says. He pats out the last of the flames on his arm almost aimlessly, the sudden shift in their surroundings dazing him.

The nymph, though, still looks solid, and she is grappling with the rapidly fading image of Terry.

Faintly, Hex shouts, "We got the wrong one! That guy's the mage, not the b*tch."

"Where'd they go?" Rex asks.

And right before their images fade out, the group hears Terry say, "Guys? Ah, dammit, I knew that wouldn't work."

Then they are alone in this strange version of the shop where there are no wares, and squirrels chitter in the ceiling. John is grimacing, Robert is wary, Belladonna is curious, and Scarpedin shakes with anger.

"Stupid f*cking magic!" he shouts.

The nymph turns to look at them, as if only then realizing she can still see them.

"Get her!" John says, and he tries to grapple her.

Belladonna fires another derringer at the nymph, this time in her face. She winces beautifully, but seems unharmed. She says something in a language none of them understand, then starts to back away, trying to slip out of the shop. In her blind spot, though, Robert has managed to sneak around to her back, and he grabs her arm and puts a straight razor to her throat.

"Don't try anything stupid, lady."

She turns slightly to smile at him, and then she blows down at the razor. As her breath touches the blade, the metal begins to rust, and Robert pulls the razor away in surprise. Then, before he knows what he's seeing, the nymph's thick blonde mane falls through his arms to the grassy ground. He looks down, and instead of the woman he sees a golden fox. It leaps away and sprints for the forest.

John runs after it and jumps to try to grab it, but it evades him, then vanishes in the trees.

With no more enemies apparent, the four of them take a moment to look around.

"Huh," Belladonna says. "Nana never mentioned anything 'bout this."

"Where are we?" Robert asks. "Wait, don't answer that. I'm going to pretend I don't already know the answer. Yes, I understand. This is just a hallucination. A mass, really trippy hallucination, and damn does that big guy punch hard."

John lights a new cigarette on his bloodied lip. "I got set on fire. Stop complaining."

"Terry?" Scarpedin says. "Hey man, come on. Terry?"

Belladonna smiles with gallows humor. "I don't think he can hear you, dear."

"TERRY!" he shouts, as if her statement was a challenge. "Get the f*ck out here and get us back to the real world Terry."

A few feet apart from the rest of the group, John remarks, "Pretty weird, huh?"

"What?" Robert says. "Oh, no. This is perfectly normal." He laughs. "Don't you vanish into a fairy world on most of your vacations?"

"Hey look," Scarpedin says, pointing. "A pixie. Anybody got a jar? I wanna catch it."

"You are very easily amused," Belladonna says. "Really, we should be looking for someone who can help us out of here."

A voice calls from the nearby trees. "Rooking? Founda somea-one I'd a say. Hai!"

"Good," Robert says, tense with feigned happiness. "Wiji-wiji's here too. That makes perfect sense."

"You in werry big trouburu," Wiji-wji says. He's holding a Ren fest t-shirt, and despite his dark tone he still has a smile on his face. "But Wiji-wiji," he says with great enthusiasm, "will herupu you. You want tahki reg?"

Robert frowns. "Uh, sure, Wiji-wiji. And pick us up some hamburgers too. You guys want anything?"

John says, "I want to get out of here."

Scarpedin whispers to Belladonna, "Can we trust this guy? He's Japanese."

Belladonna just gives Scarpedin a blank look.

Robert looks down with seeming embarrassment. "Well, yeah, I guess, and I know how silly this sounds, but can you help us out? Since, you know, you're the only person in this entire place now, it looks like."

Indeed, around them, the land resembles the Ren fest grounds, but with no people, more plant-life, and floating sprites talking to woodland creatures. The sky is overcast. Not dark, but not sunny.

"No, no, no," Wiji-wiji says. "I not onry one hiru. You go see Ded Bob. He herupu you! Werry funny show, hai! Takusan tanoshii yo!"

And then Wiji-wiji turns, tucks the t-shirt under his arm, and walks away.

"Um," Robert says, "so yeah. We'll just. . . ." he shouts after Wiji-wiji, "just go see Ded Bob. Again."

Just like that, Wiji-wiji is gone, and the four of them alone. None of them needs to say what they know. Terry wasn't crazy, and they're in the fey realm.

 

[genshou]

Amazing talents at both writing RPG products AND running/retelling games? I'm so jealous!

Keep up the good work, RW. You bring color to the EN World.

 

[RangerWickett]

Thanks Genshou! It really is a great help to see people interested in the story. I'm just a little embarrassed that I'm still writing about things that happened back in early May. I prefer writing dialogue, but I might need to trim things a bit or else I'll keep falling further behind.

This game inspired me to write my latest book for E.N. Publishing, actually, which will be coming out later this month. Especially in the first adventure there were some spells that were overpowered because I was still playtesting things.

I've got another game tonight, so I'll write up a quick update, then get to planning.

 

[RangerWickett]

October 29, 2005
1:06 pm

"What the hell do you jack-asses want?" Ded Bob asks.

Scarpedin hides behind the rest of the group, nervous around the animated skeleton puppet. Ded Bob, walking freely without the aid of a puppeteer, looks down at them from the stage he normally performs on. He's translucent, like a ghost, and he obviously isn't happy to have been called out.

"What are you?" Belladonna asks. "I hope that's not too rude of a question."

"I get it all the time, toots." Ded Bob shakes his head. "I'm a ghost. I just look like this because I've been inhabiting the puppet for so long. But believe me, inside I'm all man."

"That must suck," Scarpedin says. "Why didn't you just let yourself stay dead, you creepy f-"

Robert holds up a calming hand. "Hey Bob, I'm not really the sort to believe in what's going on here so could you cut us a bit of a break? We're stuck here. How do we get out?"

Bob frowns, which is amazing because his face is just a plastic skull. "You know, I've got another show starting in a few minutes."

Belladonna smiles. "You can spare a few minutes for a lady in need, can't you?"

Ded Bob growls like a tiger, then nods. "Alright. I'll get you to do some jumping jacks for me later. How'd you poor schmucks get stuck on Gaia?"

"Terry left us," Scarpedin spits.

Robert waves off Scarpedin. "Don't pay attention to him. It's not important why we're here. We care about how we get back."

Bob laughs. "What the hell makes you think I can help you?"

"Wiji-wiji told us," John says.

"I'm not a phone book, son," Bob says. "Who's that?"

"Again," Robert says, "not important. If you can't help us, who can?"

Bob moves like he would roll his eyes if he had any. "Okay, there's this chick, Barbara. Owns the candle shop down past the jousting field. I've talked to her a few times. She's got a ghost too, and she actually does, y'know, magic stuff."

"Excellent," Robert says. "Then why were we wasting our time with you?" He turns to leave.

Bob laughs. "Fine then. I won't help you guys out. You can find your own way to deal with the fey."

"I can take 'em," Scarpedin says.

Robert hides his grin as he turns back to Ded Bob. As he suspected, attacking the ghost's pride put them in a superior position.

"So," Robert says, sounding bored, "what brilliant advice do you have to give us?"

"Cold iron," Bob says. "It hurts fey. If you run into anyone here who looks like an elf, you'll need something to defend yourself."

"God d*mned elves," Scarpedin mutters.

John looks to Robert. "We could use some weapons."

"Oh yes of course," Robert says. "We'll just arm up with swords and go hunt down a woman who can," he laughs nervously, "turn into a fox. I assume, Bob, that you just happen to have weapons to sell us."

"No, you smart-ass," Bob says. "But I do have two cold iron skillets. Hey, beggars can't be choosers."

Belladonna smiles. "How much?"

"Well," Bob says, "I'd normally sell these for $50, but because of your dire circumstances, I'll cut you a deal. I'll give 'em to you free if you do a little dance, hop up and down for a bit, and then maybe-"

Belladonna has already pulled out and handed over a $50 bill. She smirks at him, and the puppet sighs.

"Ooh," Scarpedin says. "Shot down."

 

[genshou]

cut you a deal. I'll give 'em to you free if you do a little dance, hop up and down for a bit, and then maybe-"

Belladonna has already pulled out and handed over a $50 bill. She smirks at him, and the puppet sighs.

"Ooh," Scarpedin says. "Shot down."

Ouch... even worse than our encounter with the satyr Gromph in a recent online campaign.

I like a Story Hour that keeps me hooked and makes me laugh. I don't mind the large amount of dialogue, since it helps to flesh out the characters. If you start to fall too far behind, though, feel free to do what you need to do

 

[RangerWickett]

October 29, 2005
1:30 pm

(I'm trimming this section down for the sake of speed, and because the interaction wasn't terribly entertaining.)

The group heads across the fey side of the Renaissance Festival, and finds a candle store run by a woman named Debbie. They're able to contact her because her ghost, Chandler, spots them and relays the conversation. Chandler, a dry British ghost, mentions that he really shouldn't be able to see them, because normally ghosts cannot just see both Terra and Gaia. Some strange magic must be going on.

Debbie is a decent woman, and when she learns that the group is in trouble, she offers to help, though the group never actually sees her in person. On Terra, Debbie sends some of her employees off to look for Terry and his abductors, while Debbie and Chandler work on a spell that will give the group at least a somewhat solid body on Terra. Since strange magic is passing between the two worlds here, they think they'll be able to pull something off that normally would be beyond their power.

While they're discussing this with Chandler, the group spots a black cat hiding up in the rafters, its intense green eyes watching them hungrily. Belladonna draws a derringer and shoots at it, but the cat leaps away and vanishes through the ceiling, leaving a shadowy splotch staining the wood. This prompts some extra superstitious talk about bad luck from black cats, and John finally mentions seeing the man in the black suit who was standing by the side of the road when the bus crashed. The black cat that caused the crash leapt into the man's arm, John tells them, and the man simply walked off into the woods.

Debbie asks nervously if they'll be able to pay her back for her services, since she's having to provide them with expensive magic. Robert offers the gold Japanese coin he got from Wiji-wiji, but Debbie laughs that off, saying it's far too much. She only was thinking around fifty bucks.

While the rest of the group is waiting for Debbie to get them some information and prepare the spell, Robert walks out of the store to explore Gaia. On a nearby hill, where on Terra people fought a human chess match, there is a flock of turkeys, gobbling merrily. In the middle of them is Wiji-wiji, sitting beside what looks like a golf bag full of clubs. The Japanese man holds up a roasted turkey leg and waves for Robert to come over, an eager smile on his face.