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Meepo's Story Hour [NEWS! 6-19-02]
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<blockquote data-quote="Samnell" data-source="post: 1228" data-attributes="member: 130"><p><strong>Meepo's Story Hour, Book II: More Stupid Human Tricks</strong></p><p></p><p>That last was the end of the old thread. This begins the newer.</p><p></p><p>XIII-The Competition.</p><p>Wherein our hero discovers more of human values.</p><p></p><p>Talk to the monster. Meepo couldn't believe it. Talk to the monster. It wasn't even a human idea. The dwarf thought it up. Talk to the monster… and entertain it with your pithy wit while it eats us alive. It would be unconscionable to allow a monster to be bored while eating you. It went against the human way.</p><p></p><p>Even in at this moment, when his life was certainly about to end, Meepo recognized that he had codified a new article of human behavior. In reverence to their gods, who loved the stupid, they must choose the stupidest manner possible in which to die. Now the drive to throw themselves back into the jaws of rats, goblins, and worse in this ravine made much more sense to Meepo.</p><p></p><p>Meepo worried about that. Did his growing understanding mean he had become infected with human foolishness? At least with strange water creatures leaping out of great iron kegs there wasn't that great of a chance that he'd know before he died. Kurtulmak has a strange sense of humor.</p><p></p><p>"Damn it Sal. Now is not the time to talk. ATTACK this **** and then worry later. It's about to breath on you, you dimwit. PULL the swords and attack." Burble yelled as he began a prayer to his god. If the disease that was human thought had spread, it still hadn't infected Meepo's halfling friend.</p><p></p><p>Lorn, of course, could be counted on to be the most virulently stupid of all humans. "What manner of creature are you? And be thee friend of foe?" Meepo vaguely resented that Lorn's fall hadn't killed Embrill outright, even if the Worthless Dung Druid was still gone. He also wondered how menacing fish-things made of water brandishing claws could be considered friends.</p><p></p><p>Rhea slid quietly past Meepo and to the side. The kobold glanced at her for a moment. She seemed to be edging back towards the ravine and out of the fish-thing's field of view. Meepo took a small step in the same direction, but then his burning red eyes fell once more on Burble, fully engrossed in his invocation of the Laughing Rogue.</p><p></p><p>Meepo's foot stopped in mid-stride and he felt sick inside. His guts sunk towards his tail. He couldn't just leave Burble here. The humans and dwarf were nothing to him…but Burble had defended him against Embrill and killed Thurston with him. Meepo looked again towards the ravine, but forced himself to turn away. Burble was his friend. He'd never had one of those before and decided he wasn't ready to give it up yet.</p><p></p><p>The humans all waited, so Meepo readied his crossbow and waited as well. He was positive this would be the end of him, but he wasn't forsaking Burble. A ghostly spider melted into being around Jaryth and carried him up along a wall to the ceiling of the corridor the better part of the humans and Meepo stood in. He hung upside down and looked into the room where Lorn and Sal faced off against the fish-thing. No rope or hook held the boy, only the legs of his spectral spider.</p><p></p><p>The fish-thing stood motionless for a second. The air hung heavy with tension as Burble continued his prayer. Then, the fish-thing vomited up a great gout of searing water that burned everything it touched. Screams went up as its watery vomit seared at kobold and human flesh alike. Jaryth was struck full in the face and his mouth and nose filled with the burning waters. The mad whelp coughed a single time and his spider shivered as his body fell limp. Jaryth hung by his hands and feet from the ceiling, his head dangling lifelessly downward and his eyes open and unfocused as blood drooled steadily out of his mouth and trickled from his nostrils.</p><p></p><p>Meepo himself was unharmed, as was Burble, but the dwarf and Lorn took the worst of the blast. Bryant too was wounded. Rhea took a single look at Jaryth's newly-made corpse hanging from the ceiling and ran for her life out into the ravine. Meepo took a sudden step after her before remembering Burble again and stopping himself.</p><p></p><p>Despite the screams and carnage, Meepo got off a shot. He and Bryant both missed the fish-thing, hitting the ceiling with arrow and bolt alike. Burble finally spoke the last of his prayer aloud; "I call on my God, the True, Gambler and Laugher at our fates. To my foe I say, miss and be hurt, for you are truly accursed."</p><p></p><p>The creature hesitated a moment as a wave of unseen force struck it to its core. Not a scale slid out of place, but it was somehow lessened all the same. Rowland hurled one of his magical bolts, which struck the fish-thing and sent ripples across its scales as though it were a stone hitting a pond.</p><p></p><p>Sal and Lorn struck together at the fish-thing, but found its scales even harder than Meepo's. Their strikes accomplished nothing. Sal howled out his outrage, "You scaly monster from hell, how dare you! I offered you a freedom and peace and you attack my friends and me with your vile breath! For that you will taste steel, I only hope as you feel it going through you, you remember that you chose your demise. May your god show you pity, for my swords will show you none!” At least he figured out now that this thing wasn't friendly.</p><p></p><p>The fish-thing turned to Rowland and impaled him with a baleful, glassy-eyed stare. Those empty, soulless eyes brimmed with power and Meepo cringed away from the dragonblooded boy until Sal struck the thing with his sword and the malefic energy vanished.</p><p></p><p>Burble's hand glowed with energy as he leaped into the air, trying to touch Jaryth's back and stop the boy's rapid bleeding, to no avail. Short halfling legs could only carry him so far into the air. Jaryth coughed again and the stream of blood flowing from his mouth burst forth eagerly, like floodwaters down a river. Meepo wondered how much blood such a small human could hold. If Jaryth had so much in him, Meepo may want to fast for a few days before he tried to drink up all inside such a large vessel as Rowland.</p><p></p><p>Spined claws tore into Sal as the fish-thing continued its assault. Meepo had sent two more crossbow bolts after his first, and like the first neither had so much as inconvenienced the acid-spewing fish-thing. Burble again leaped for Jaryth and again fell short while Sal and Lorn hacked at it with their swords. Bryant pushed forward to join them and Rowland tossed another arcane bolt into its body.</p><p></p><p>Now swords were having some effect, and the creature could only seal the rents in its scaly hide more slowly. Made of water though it may be, the fish-thing's substance flowed with less speed than before. Its eyes cast about and wide, milky lids flicked over them repeatedly. Jaryth coughed once more, spraying Burble with his blood.</p><p></p><p>Once more Meepo sensed power building around the fish-thing, but Sal hacked savagely into it and it suddenly lost all cohesion as the energy vanished and it fell to a puddle in the floor.</p><p></p><p>That was quick, too quick. Meepo expected the thing to rise again in moments. It had only begun to slow. Whatever water demon it had been, it must still have a trick up its sleeve. Burble leaped again and this time he touched Jaryth's backside. The boy's bleeding stopped and Meepo sighed. It would have been nice to lose both the mad boy and Embrill in the same day.</p><p></p><p>Sal grumbled and stabbed his sword into the puddle regardless, "Bloody floating fish, it deserved to die." He then trod pointedly through the puddle and reached into the keg from which it had emerged. Meepo wondered if he'd lose his hand that way, but instead the dwarf drew out five small blue gems.</p><p></p><p>Burble was on top of things, as always. "Ok boyos, good job and that was a great hit Sal. Now will someone help to get the runt down before he falls on his head and starts to bleed out again?"</p><p></p><p>Meepo didn't see exactly what was wrong with letting Jaryth fall to his death. The whelp had already tried it once today, and a second time would only improve his chances of succeeding. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on Sal, though. Anyone that could fell a water-thing with a single blow when it had barely been wounded deserved watching. He'd been showing off his martial prowess for some time, but if Meepo had meant to set to watching the dwarf before, he'd forgotten his charge. Sal would make a very useful bodyguard.</p><p></p><p>Burble carefully looked over the gems Sal had found and pronounced them valuable, though not greatly so. He'd only examined the problem of getting Jaryth off the ceiling for a moment before deciding it was of no import to him. Meepo heartily agreed.</p><p></p><p>The others looked curiously at Jaryth, still hanging some ten feet from the floor while Burble noticed Rhea was gone. Meepo told him she'd fled during the battle, judiciously avoiding admitting that he'd nearly followed. Burble was outraged, "Damn that b****. I will gut her for taking off in combat, Damn wench deserves to be fed to the fricken rats for her damn cowardly butt."</p><p></p><p>Lorn responded stiffly, "You should not talk about Rhea as such. She was a woman, and this is no place for her. It was about time she realized it." This was no place for a kobold either, but of course Lorn couldn't be bothered with such trifles as Meepo's peace of mind. If he were, he'd have killed himself long ago, instead of just trying every now and then. Meepo wished for once the lackwit could get something right.</p><p></p><p>Burble had been bandaging his and Meepo's wounds, but he stopped in the middle of wrapping a cloth about a bleeding cut in his leg to reply to Lorn with his customary tact, "Well you want her, go chase after her yellow bellied ass. I personally will slit her throat for stealing our oil and gold. Now we shall have to head to a town a lot sooner then we planned on.”</p><p></p><p>Meepo was impressed with Burble's forthrightness. It wasn't often a non-kobold displayed such exemplary priorities in such a frank and honest manner. The halfling must have kobold blood in him somewhere. If it weren't for that burn-scarred face, Meepo wondered if he'd see scales around Burble's eyes.</p><p></p><p>The humans fell silent for a few moments, and looked up at Jaryth. They all knew he couldn't stay on the ceiling forever. Eventually that spider would vanish entirely and he would fall to the ground. It was Rowland who acted quickly when it finally vanished. He spoke a single word and Meepo again felt a thrill of energy as Jaryth's fall slowed to a gentle descent to the ground. He was awfully disappointed that the whelp's brains didn't end up decorating the floor along with his blood. Damn Rowland.</p><p></p><p>But Meepo didn't have long to bemoan Jaryth's continued life. The door at the far end of the hallway, where Rhea had run, creaked suddenly. The woman had left it ajar when she fled, and now a light spilled through the small crack between the door's edge and the wall.</p><p></p><p>"Oh blast it!" a man's voice hissed as the door creaked. There was a long silence and Burble drew his bow. Meepo got his crossbow in hand and a bolt ready. Burble scurried quietly a bit closer to the door.</p><p></p><p>"Huh?" the same voice whispered. There was another silence and then, "Oh all right!"</p><p></p><p>The door opened wide and torchlight dazzled human and kobold eyes alike for a moment. The group's own light was at the other end of the corridor, nearer to Jaryth. A tall figure was shadowed by the light, and beside him a shorter one of a height with Burble and Meepo. The silhouette of a recurved bow was obvious in the tall figure's hand. It looked to be drawn.</p><p></p><p>The two shadowed figures whispered too quietly to discern words, but eventually the shorter one nudged the taller. He raised his bow a bit higher. It wasn't clear whether the two realized they'd been spotted or not. The tall figure took a single step further and as his light fell on the nearest members of the group, Burble shot an arrow that struck hard into the figure's shoulder.</p><p></p><p>"Get those bastards. Trying to sneak up on me, will you. Meepo take them out. Might be Rhea trying to sneak back the damn wench. Teach her a lesson I tell you. May the rats get your bloated bodies you filth of dung." The halfling shouted.</p><p></p><p>"Good shot to be sure, but even with an arrow in my shoulder, I can still pin a fly to the wall in the dark. How about you show yourself before this has to get messy?" The tall figure spoke. He almost sounded as though he were amused.</p><p></p><p>Trust a human to be amused by an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Meepo wondered if this were amusing, would they find one through their skulls downright hilarious? He'd have to find out some day.</p><p></p><p>"Sneak up me will you? And bet your bloated life it was a good shot. Drop your weapons and identify yourself, or you get shot again. Laugh at me while you try to kill me? No way Bucko. No fricken way. " Burble nocked another arrow.</p><p></p><p>The small figure whispered just audibly to the tall one, "Perhaps they are dumber than even Lord Semmon realized..." Meepo didn't know who Lord Semmon was, but the humans he was saddled with were certainly stupider than any would imagine until one endured prolonged exposure to them.</p><p></p><p>Lorn spoke up, "The two of you invade our camp, and then insult us when we defend ourselves. You would be wise to identify yourselves, or Burble's bolt will not be the only thing causing you to bleed."</p><p></p><p>"Thanks Lorn and you said it. Damned idiots come up without a care and you bet your rear I will shoot first. Could have been goblins for all I knew." Meepo thought that sounded like a rationalization. Burble must be thinking fast on his feet and trying to play the group against these strangers to strengthen his power base.</p><p></p><p>"Which isn't much." Lorn said, referring to all Burble knew. Meepo reminded himself that even with Embrill gone, there were still threats to Burble's power around.</p><p></p><p>"Lord Semmon say you? How do you know of that one?" Burble wasn't so hostile now. Lord Semmon sounded like a chieftan. Maybe he had threatened to kill the humans if they didn't fetch these other humans that the group was looking for. "Meepo, cover them and get ready to kill them should they try to attack." As if Meepo needed to be told. "Ok, identify yourselves."</p><p></p><p>The small figure responded again. It must do the thinking for the human. "We were not aware these halls were your singular province. We have been sent by Lord Semmon, in search of the... rescue… party sent by his knights. Lower your weapons."</p><p></p><p>A light was brought forward. Rowland's doing. Now the newcomers could see the whole of the group. Shut up in this corridor, they'd make wonderful targets. Meepo hoped Lorn and Jaryth died first. "This three are all that remain of the original party sent by Lord Semmon.” Lorn gestured to Bryant, Sal, and Burble. “I have joined them in this worthy cause. Don't ask about those two.” He gestured towards Meepo and Jaryth.</p><p></p><p>Humans learned swiftly. Talking hadn't worked for the fish-thing, so it must work for the next thing with two legs they ran into.</p><p></p><p>"Is it safe to move forward, or will another volley of arrows send us to death's embrace?" Meepo noticed how hoarse and raspy the small figure's voice was. He wondered what was under that cloak which kept it hidden. A small owl perched on its shoulder. The tall one was a thin human, another Lorn most likely.</p><p></p><p>"Well you're the ones coming up on us, and you have yet to identify yourselves or show who you are, so you bet I will keep you covered. We have faced death enough, so I can live with another time to keep my wards up." Burble was angry, but there was an edge to it. He must realize that the party was still battered from their battle with the fish-thing. Maybe if they threw Jaryth at the strangers… It would be a distraction at least.</p><p></p><p>Burble took the risk and introduced himself. Meepo supposed it was wise. These strangers might end up being useful tools, and they'd be easier to manipulate if they knew names. Humans tended to trust more when they knew a name, at least when it was another human's name. Kobold names didn't get such consideration.</p><p></p><p>"Burble, lower your weapon and let them speak." Lorn insisted. Meepo noticed that for all Lorn's bluster about letting the humans speak he hadn't revealed his own name to them yet.</p><p></p><p>"Then you go talk with them, me, I am staying right here. They can speak all they want, but I damn well do not want them closer till I know some names and what they want with us."</p><p></p><p>"FINALLY! The voice of sanity comes to us like a cool breeze off the waters! My thanks to you good sir. A round at the pub has your name on it, my treat!" The tall one complimented Lorn. He bowed, but didn't put up his bow.</p><p></p><p>"Colvin of Keoland. I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm sure had I done so, you would have recognized the name and not been so hasty with your bow, my little friend. After all, it's not every day one catches the fastest bowstring on both sides of the Azure Sea unawares!" Meepo had no idea who the human was. He couldn't be that important. In fact, Meepo couldn't think of any human who struck him as terribly important.</p><p></p><p>"Lord Semmon tasked us to check these ruins for signs of his wards. He likely assumed you all dead by this point I'm guessing. What a treat to see you alive and.." he touched the arrow sticking from his shoulder with a wince "...in such fighting form."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Samnell, post: 1228, member: 130"] [b]Meepo's Story Hour, Book II: More Stupid Human Tricks[/b] That last was the end of the old thread. This begins the newer. XIII-The Competition. Wherein our hero discovers more of human values. Talk to the monster. Meepo couldn't believe it. Talk to the monster. It wasn't even a human idea. The dwarf thought it up. Talk to the monster… and entertain it with your pithy wit while it eats us alive. It would be unconscionable to allow a monster to be bored while eating you. It went against the human way. Even in at this moment, when his life was certainly about to end, Meepo recognized that he had codified a new article of human behavior. In reverence to their gods, who loved the stupid, they must choose the stupidest manner possible in which to die. Now the drive to throw themselves back into the jaws of rats, goblins, and worse in this ravine made much more sense to Meepo. Meepo worried about that. Did his growing understanding mean he had become infected with human foolishness? At least with strange water creatures leaping out of great iron kegs there wasn't that great of a chance that he'd know before he died. Kurtulmak has a strange sense of humor. "Damn it Sal. Now is not the time to talk. ATTACK this **** and then worry later. It's about to breath on you, you dimwit. PULL the swords and attack." Burble yelled as he began a prayer to his god. If the disease that was human thought had spread, it still hadn't infected Meepo's halfling friend. Lorn, of course, could be counted on to be the most virulently stupid of all humans. "What manner of creature are you? And be thee friend of foe?" Meepo vaguely resented that Lorn's fall hadn't killed Embrill outright, even if the Worthless Dung Druid was still gone. He also wondered how menacing fish-things made of water brandishing claws could be considered friends. Rhea slid quietly past Meepo and to the side. The kobold glanced at her for a moment. She seemed to be edging back towards the ravine and out of the fish-thing's field of view. Meepo took a small step in the same direction, but then his burning red eyes fell once more on Burble, fully engrossed in his invocation of the Laughing Rogue. Meepo's foot stopped in mid-stride and he felt sick inside. His guts sunk towards his tail. He couldn't just leave Burble here. The humans and dwarf were nothing to him…but Burble had defended him against Embrill and killed Thurston with him. Meepo looked again towards the ravine, but forced himself to turn away. Burble was his friend. He'd never had one of those before and decided he wasn't ready to give it up yet. The humans all waited, so Meepo readied his crossbow and waited as well. He was positive this would be the end of him, but he wasn't forsaking Burble. A ghostly spider melted into being around Jaryth and carried him up along a wall to the ceiling of the corridor the better part of the humans and Meepo stood in. He hung upside down and looked into the room where Lorn and Sal faced off against the fish-thing. No rope or hook held the boy, only the legs of his spectral spider. The fish-thing stood motionless for a second. The air hung heavy with tension as Burble continued his prayer. Then, the fish-thing vomited up a great gout of searing water that burned everything it touched. Screams went up as its watery vomit seared at kobold and human flesh alike. Jaryth was struck full in the face and his mouth and nose filled with the burning waters. The mad whelp coughed a single time and his spider shivered as his body fell limp. Jaryth hung by his hands and feet from the ceiling, his head dangling lifelessly downward and his eyes open and unfocused as blood drooled steadily out of his mouth and trickled from his nostrils. Meepo himself was unharmed, as was Burble, but the dwarf and Lorn took the worst of the blast. Bryant too was wounded. Rhea took a single look at Jaryth's newly-made corpse hanging from the ceiling and ran for her life out into the ravine. Meepo took a sudden step after her before remembering Burble again and stopping himself. Despite the screams and carnage, Meepo got off a shot. He and Bryant both missed the fish-thing, hitting the ceiling with arrow and bolt alike. Burble finally spoke the last of his prayer aloud; "I call on my God, the True, Gambler and Laugher at our fates. To my foe I say, miss and be hurt, for you are truly accursed." The creature hesitated a moment as a wave of unseen force struck it to its core. Not a scale slid out of place, but it was somehow lessened all the same. Rowland hurled one of his magical bolts, which struck the fish-thing and sent ripples across its scales as though it were a stone hitting a pond. Sal and Lorn struck together at the fish-thing, but found its scales even harder than Meepo's. Their strikes accomplished nothing. Sal howled out his outrage, "You scaly monster from hell, how dare you! I offered you a freedom and peace and you attack my friends and me with your vile breath! For that you will taste steel, I only hope as you feel it going through you, you remember that you chose your demise. May your god show you pity, for my swords will show you none!” At least he figured out now that this thing wasn't friendly. The fish-thing turned to Rowland and impaled him with a baleful, glassy-eyed stare. Those empty, soulless eyes brimmed with power and Meepo cringed away from the dragonblooded boy until Sal struck the thing with his sword and the malefic energy vanished. Burble's hand glowed with energy as he leaped into the air, trying to touch Jaryth's back and stop the boy's rapid bleeding, to no avail. Short halfling legs could only carry him so far into the air. Jaryth coughed again and the stream of blood flowing from his mouth burst forth eagerly, like floodwaters down a river. Meepo wondered how much blood such a small human could hold. If Jaryth had so much in him, Meepo may want to fast for a few days before he tried to drink up all inside such a large vessel as Rowland. Spined claws tore into Sal as the fish-thing continued its assault. Meepo had sent two more crossbow bolts after his first, and like the first neither had so much as inconvenienced the acid-spewing fish-thing. Burble again leaped for Jaryth and again fell short while Sal and Lorn hacked at it with their swords. Bryant pushed forward to join them and Rowland tossed another arcane bolt into its body. Now swords were having some effect, and the creature could only seal the rents in its scaly hide more slowly. Made of water though it may be, the fish-thing's substance flowed with less speed than before. Its eyes cast about and wide, milky lids flicked over them repeatedly. Jaryth coughed once more, spraying Burble with his blood. Once more Meepo sensed power building around the fish-thing, but Sal hacked savagely into it and it suddenly lost all cohesion as the energy vanished and it fell to a puddle in the floor. That was quick, too quick. Meepo expected the thing to rise again in moments. It had only begun to slow. Whatever water demon it had been, it must still have a trick up its sleeve. Burble leaped again and this time he touched Jaryth's backside. The boy's bleeding stopped and Meepo sighed. It would have been nice to lose both the mad boy and Embrill in the same day. Sal grumbled and stabbed his sword into the puddle regardless, "Bloody floating fish, it deserved to die." He then trod pointedly through the puddle and reached into the keg from which it had emerged. Meepo wondered if he'd lose his hand that way, but instead the dwarf drew out five small blue gems. Burble was on top of things, as always. "Ok boyos, good job and that was a great hit Sal. Now will someone help to get the runt down before he falls on his head and starts to bleed out again?" Meepo didn't see exactly what was wrong with letting Jaryth fall to his death. The whelp had already tried it once today, and a second time would only improve his chances of succeeding. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on Sal, though. Anyone that could fell a water-thing with a single blow when it had barely been wounded deserved watching. He'd been showing off his martial prowess for some time, but if Meepo had meant to set to watching the dwarf before, he'd forgotten his charge. Sal would make a very useful bodyguard. Burble carefully looked over the gems Sal had found and pronounced them valuable, though not greatly so. He'd only examined the problem of getting Jaryth off the ceiling for a moment before deciding it was of no import to him. Meepo heartily agreed. The others looked curiously at Jaryth, still hanging some ten feet from the floor while Burble noticed Rhea was gone. Meepo told him she'd fled during the battle, judiciously avoiding admitting that he'd nearly followed. Burble was outraged, "Damn that b****. I will gut her for taking off in combat, Damn wench deserves to be fed to the fricken rats for her damn cowardly butt." Lorn responded stiffly, "You should not talk about Rhea as such. She was a woman, and this is no place for her. It was about time she realized it." This was no place for a kobold either, but of course Lorn couldn't be bothered with such trifles as Meepo's peace of mind. If he were, he'd have killed himself long ago, instead of just trying every now and then. Meepo wished for once the lackwit could get something right. Burble had been bandaging his and Meepo's wounds, but he stopped in the middle of wrapping a cloth about a bleeding cut in his leg to reply to Lorn with his customary tact, "Well you want her, go chase after her yellow bellied ass. I personally will slit her throat for stealing our oil and gold. Now we shall have to head to a town a lot sooner then we planned on.” Meepo was impressed with Burble's forthrightness. It wasn't often a non-kobold displayed such exemplary priorities in such a frank and honest manner. The halfling must have kobold blood in him somewhere. If it weren't for that burn-scarred face, Meepo wondered if he'd see scales around Burble's eyes. The humans fell silent for a few moments, and looked up at Jaryth. They all knew he couldn't stay on the ceiling forever. Eventually that spider would vanish entirely and he would fall to the ground. It was Rowland who acted quickly when it finally vanished. He spoke a single word and Meepo again felt a thrill of energy as Jaryth's fall slowed to a gentle descent to the ground. He was awfully disappointed that the whelp's brains didn't end up decorating the floor along with his blood. Damn Rowland. But Meepo didn't have long to bemoan Jaryth's continued life. The door at the far end of the hallway, where Rhea had run, creaked suddenly. The woman had left it ajar when she fled, and now a light spilled through the small crack between the door's edge and the wall. "Oh blast it!" a man's voice hissed as the door creaked. There was a long silence and Burble drew his bow. Meepo got his crossbow in hand and a bolt ready. Burble scurried quietly a bit closer to the door. "Huh?" the same voice whispered. There was another silence and then, "Oh all right!" The door opened wide and torchlight dazzled human and kobold eyes alike for a moment. The group's own light was at the other end of the corridor, nearer to Jaryth. A tall figure was shadowed by the light, and beside him a shorter one of a height with Burble and Meepo. The silhouette of a recurved bow was obvious in the tall figure's hand. It looked to be drawn. The two shadowed figures whispered too quietly to discern words, but eventually the shorter one nudged the taller. He raised his bow a bit higher. It wasn't clear whether the two realized they'd been spotted or not. The tall figure took a single step further and as his light fell on the nearest members of the group, Burble shot an arrow that struck hard into the figure's shoulder. "Get those bastards. Trying to sneak up on me, will you. Meepo take them out. Might be Rhea trying to sneak back the damn wench. Teach her a lesson I tell you. May the rats get your bloated bodies you filth of dung." The halfling shouted. "Good shot to be sure, but even with an arrow in my shoulder, I can still pin a fly to the wall in the dark. How about you show yourself before this has to get messy?" The tall figure spoke. He almost sounded as though he were amused. Trust a human to be amused by an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Meepo wondered if this were amusing, would they find one through their skulls downright hilarious? He'd have to find out some day. "Sneak up me will you? And bet your bloated life it was a good shot. Drop your weapons and identify yourself, or you get shot again. Laugh at me while you try to kill me? No way Bucko. No fricken way. " Burble nocked another arrow. The small figure whispered just audibly to the tall one, "Perhaps they are dumber than even Lord Semmon realized..." Meepo didn't know who Lord Semmon was, but the humans he was saddled with were certainly stupider than any would imagine until one endured prolonged exposure to them. Lorn spoke up, "The two of you invade our camp, and then insult us when we defend ourselves. You would be wise to identify yourselves, or Burble's bolt will not be the only thing causing you to bleed." "Thanks Lorn and you said it. Damned idiots come up without a care and you bet your rear I will shoot first. Could have been goblins for all I knew." Meepo thought that sounded like a rationalization. Burble must be thinking fast on his feet and trying to play the group against these strangers to strengthen his power base. "Which isn't much." Lorn said, referring to all Burble knew. Meepo reminded himself that even with Embrill gone, there were still threats to Burble's power around. "Lord Semmon say you? How do you know of that one?" Burble wasn't so hostile now. Lord Semmon sounded like a chieftan. Maybe he had threatened to kill the humans if they didn't fetch these other humans that the group was looking for. "Meepo, cover them and get ready to kill them should they try to attack." As if Meepo needed to be told. "Ok, identify yourselves." The small figure responded again. It must do the thinking for the human. "We were not aware these halls were your singular province. We have been sent by Lord Semmon, in search of the... rescue… party sent by his knights. Lower your weapons." A light was brought forward. Rowland's doing. Now the newcomers could see the whole of the group. Shut up in this corridor, they'd make wonderful targets. Meepo hoped Lorn and Jaryth died first. "This three are all that remain of the original party sent by Lord Semmon.” Lorn gestured to Bryant, Sal, and Burble. “I have joined them in this worthy cause. Don't ask about those two.” He gestured towards Meepo and Jaryth. Humans learned swiftly. Talking hadn't worked for the fish-thing, so it must work for the next thing with two legs they ran into. "Is it safe to move forward, or will another volley of arrows send us to death's embrace?" Meepo noticed how hoarse and raspy the small figure's voice was. He wondered what was under that cloak which kept it hidden. A small owl perched on its shoulder. The tall one was a thin human, another Lorn most likely. "Well you're the ones coming up on us, and you have yet to identify yourselves or show who you are, so you bet I will keep you covered. We have faced death enough, so I can live with another time to keep my wards up." Burble was angry, but there was an edge to it. He must realize that the party was still battered from their battle with the fish-thing. Maybe if they threw Jaryth at the strangers… It would be a distraction at least. Burble took the risk and introduced himself. Meepo supposed it was wise. These strangers might end up being useful tools, and they'd be easier to manipulate if they knew names. Humans tended to trust more when they knew a name, at least when it was another human's name. Kobold names didn't get such consideration. "Burble, lower your weapon and let them speak." Lorn insisted. Meepo noticed that for all Lorn's bluster about letting the humans speak he hadn't revealed his own name to them yet. "Then you go talk with them, me, I am staying right here. They can speak all they want, but I damn well do not want them closer till I know some names and what they want with us." "FINALLY! The voice of sanity comes to us like a cool breeze off the waters! My thanks to you good sir. A round at the pub has your name on it, my treat!" The tall one complimented Lorn. He bowed, but didn't put up his bow. "Colvin of Keoland. I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm sure had I done so, you would have recognized the name and not been so hasty with your bow, my little friend. After all, it's not every day one catches the fastest bowstring on both sides of the Azure Sea unawares!" Meepo had no idea who the human was. He couldn't be that important. In fact, Meepo couldn't think of any human who struck him as terribly important. "Lord Semmon tasked us to check these ruins for signs of his wards. He likely assumed you all dead by this point I'm guessing. What a treat to see you alive and.." he touched the arrow sticking from his shoulder with a wince "...in such fighting form." [/QUOTE]
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Meepo's Story Hour [NEWS! 6-19-02]
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