sniffles
First Post
The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith, excerpt 16
Yes, I know the numbering is off, but that's what # Devo gave it. He hasn't been able to post this yet and I want to post Caelen's latest entry in chronological order, so I'm putting this up on Devo's behalf.
sniffles
"...commonly find myself in need of an extra hand or two. I was looking at HU when I thought this, and paused to admire his bronzed, well-crafted arms. He tok'd me once, sternly, and spun around. With his back to me, he folded his arms up under his lid and sat still, looking like nothing more than a normal chest. I made a note. Retractable would be a useful feature, too....."
. An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7
"I tried again to engage the DC in conversation, drawing CA in by asking what he had been doing for the past few weeks. I even feigned interest in his response, but the conversation dried up in less time than it takes to extract a simple dram of millaissance from a Tagdrim matrix. I gave up at that point.
No matter, MA was on stage, below us, performing that witty piece we'd been working on earlier in the week about a three-headed bull. She had some musical accompaniment, which I didn't think the piece needed, but she was the artist, not I. She really is quite the poet.
ST's formal introduction to the DC went easily enough. They doubted my claim that House Cannith had a vested interest in my protection, despite the fact that the proof was right there in front of them. I considered telling them that I have become one of the more skilled artificers in Sharn -- owing in some part to the depletion of skilled craftsmen during the War, but in no small part because of my own talent. I didn't want to sound conceited, though. Modesty is a gentleman's virtue.
My exceptional talent is the reason we were all together, though, so I thought it time we got to business. Money would bring them into the conversation. We discussed again the trip into the Talenta Plains, the dragonshard I was after [ref: PJ-V7-18], the possibility that KA had already sent agents to recover it, and the necessity for speed. Not one of them was impressed that our return from this trip would culminate in attendance to the non-annual social event of the year -- the christening of the Golden Dragon. The DC do not move in the same circles that I do, however, and somehow, it seems, they do not understand the significance of having acquired an invitation. I could only hope that such ignorance did not lead to disaster when the event finally did take place.
We agreed to leave the day after tomorrow, and I turned my attention back to MA. DA was doing the same, leaning intently forward and staring across the room to the stage. I thought to tell her that she should not gawk so, but I did not want to detract from her enjoyment of the performance. ST, who had taken a guardian's position near the balcony entrance, suddenly announced -- in a voice far too loud for a place such as this -- that there were skeletons attacking. I turned towards him, intent on issuing a stern instruction to keep his voice down, when his words sunk in. What were skeletons doing in the Terrace Rose?
The stairs to the balcony... weren't narrow, but neither I would call them spacious. You could pass someone coming in the other direction if you were boorish enough to do so, but an adamantine-bodied warforged wielding a blade of psychic energy made the space seem positively cramped. I could see multiple attackers, but they were bottlenecked in the stairway.
I stood and engaged one of my many wands [ref: CJ-V6-68] to encase myself in protective energy. Unlike the rest of the DC, I had the good manners not to wear full armor and weaponry to the Rose. HU pulled himself up to the edge of the railing and looked out. He tok-tink'ed at me that no one else in the Rose had reacted yet.
Before I could gain control of the situation, the fight had boiled up onto our balcony. One of the creatures had pushed past ST and came to threaten the rest of us. My trained eye immediately told me that this was no skeleton, but a man dressed up to look like one of those particular undead. I was about to point this out when IR commanded the creature gone. He did not noticeably react to her presence. It was, I think, because she was using her powers to command the undead, not mortals. Quickly realizing her mistake, she announced that these were no skeletons, but were Stillborn.
Somehow, that sounded worse.
I had all of my wands with me, but was concerned about hitting my companions with the barrage of magical energies I had at my disposal. Placing myself in harms way, I entered the fight bodily. I clouted one of ruffians with my cane. DA was employing her specialized magic to hamper the villains, while ST and CA mechanically hacked away at their enemies. XL was in the fight too, with his staff. One of our enemies fell.
ST still held the choke-point at the top of the stairs, but pulled back onto the balcony when IR urged him to let them through so that we could all engage them. CA, eager to get into the fight, leapt off of the balcony and sped across the Rose to engage our foes from behind. A split-second later, DA used her magic to hasten the rest of us.
More of our foes stormed past ST, displaying a keen interest in IR. Stepping back, I used another of my wands [ref: CJ-V7-42] to throw the first bodily from the balcony. He landed with a satisfying crump on the walkway below, but soon staggered to his feet. IR and VA were working in tandem with ST to drop our foes one at a time. IR even had time to summon in some reinforcements, in the form of a brace of dead elven warriors. I kept my distance from those.
Before long, we had cleared the balcony and pushed down into the Garden Room. CA was standing atop a table far across the room, enjoying himself immensely, it seemed, while surrounded on all sides by enemies. XL rushed to assist. DA went to help him, too; just as her magic had hastened us, she used it to slow down CA's enemies. He really did look like a hero of legend, his blades a blur of motion while his enemies moved as though stuck in some cube of gelatinous material. I should mention that to him; I'm sure he would appreciate hearing it.
IR was warning us that a small dragon was hiding in the lattice wall of the Garden room when a small bead of fire flew through the lattice and into our midst. I knew immediately that one of my best cloaks was about to be ruined.
The fireball hit almost everyone. CA and some of his opponents were the only ones too far away to be damaged. It hurt a lot -- doubly so for me because it hit HU, also. The fire almost destroyed VA -- perhaps he is particularly susceptible to it? Regardless, I had to do something, and quick, to protect the DC from our unseen opponent. Pulling another wand [ref: CJ-V7-30], I used it to scan the immediate area. The magic located everything within about twenty feet of me -- including the presence of the dragon. I pointed it out to ST, who used his blade to remove a large patch of lattice. The dragon fell away, lost to sight as it plummeted downwards.
Opposite us, about eighty feet away from the tower, was an elven man standing atop a flight disk. It was a wonderful piece of work, seemingly a single roundish crystal about four feet across and crackling with energy. I knew very well that it was the manifest zone within Sharn that kept the disk afloat, but still I was impressed. The power necessary to charge such a device, and the complicated matrices involved in it's construction would have been an interesting challenge, even for my unparalleled skills. I wondered if the crystal had to be natural, or if the construction process itself built the crystal? Were I to build such a thing, I would start with a lattice of Tagdrim matrices, built into a frame that would eventually surround the constructed crystal. The frame could be submersed in encillated quicksilver for dismemberment at the project's completion. Concurrently layered Stromm fields in the presence of tor shift-light generator and eight silvered refraction lenses would work as a basis to build the device. Naturally, the seed would be a Syberis dragonshard with a Kinsian octal cut. It's center would need to be bored out, however, to redistribute it's millaissance alignment into more of a flattened torus paradigm. Sixteen rierdra crystals would need to be embedded into the construct for control, but how co-linear containment be achieved?
My apologies. I seem to have drifted away from my story. Regardless, that is what was going through my mind when I saw the arcanist. He had just completed a spell and a half dozen air elementals, each about the size of HU, broke through the lattice to surround IR. They tried to spirit her away. XL dropped back to help her, as did a number of the summoned elven warriors.
Something else happened outside, and where the wizard stood just a second ago, the psuedodragon now stood. I quickly pulled out a wand [ref: CJ-V6-81] and blasted him with beam of electricity. The creature flew backwards, severely wounded. It flew out of sight in a barely controlled dive.
DA had managed to use a light spell to stun most of the elementals, and IR had extracted herself from their midst. She and VA moved back into the main room of the Rose. I threw a quick enchantment on STs blade and told him to clean up the last of the elementals. He jumped to obey.
Through the main entrance to the Rose strode the elven wizard. He must have teleported to the far side of the tower. As he came in, he challenged IR to a conjurers duel. The prize would be the orb she carried. Naturally, IR wanted nothing to do with the duel, but VA pointed out that the man was Aerenal, and the challenge was a valid one. Velrys, as he named himself, summoned up an earth elemental and waited.
Patrons and staff both were flooding out of the Terrace Rose and onto the landing outside."
. An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7.
"Monique Hasdin, server at The King of Cups; nice smile"
"Adelienne Silverstar, bard; great voice"
"Glorianna Hopebringer, ex-paladin; well equipped"
"Samm Hardpole, blacksmith; strong arms"
"Tarya d'Cannith, artificer; House Cannith"
. An Excerpt from the "List of People Mistakenly thought to be Xil, and Their Noticeable Traits", by Artemis Heuw Cannith
Yes, I know the numbering is off, but that's what # Devo gave it. He hasn't been able to post this yet and I want to post Caelen's latest entry in chronological order, so I'm putting this up on Devo's behalf.
sniffles
"...commonly find myself in need of an extra hand or two. I was looking at HU when I thought this, and paused to admire his bronzed, well-crafted arms. He tok'd me once, sternly, and spun around. With his back to me, he folded his arms up under his lid and sat still, looking like nothing more than a normal chest. I made a note. Retractable would be a useful feature, too....."
. An Excerpt from the Craft Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7
"I tried again to engage the DC in conversation, drawing CA in by asking what he had been doing for the past few weeks. I even feigned interest in his response, but the conversation dried up in less time than it takes to extract a simple dram of millaissance from a Tagdrim matrix. I gave up at that point.
No matter, MA was on stage, below us, performing that witty piece we'd been working on earlier in the week about a three-headed bull. She had some musical accompaniment, which I didn't think the piece needed, but she was the artist, not I. She really is quite the poet.
ST's formal introduction to the DC went easily enough. They doubted my claim that House Cannith had a vested interest in my protection, despite the fact that the proof was right there in front of them. I considered telling them that I have become one of the more skilled artificers in Sharn -- owing in some part to the depletion of skilled craftsmen during the War, but in no small part because of my own talent. I didn't want to sound conceited, though. Modesty is a gentleman's virtue.
My exceptional talent is the reason we were all together, though, so I thought it time we got to business. Money would bring them into the conversation. We discussed again the trip into the Talenta Plains, the dragonshard I was after [ref: PJ-V7-18], the possibility that KA had already sent agents to recover it, and the necessity for speed. Not one of them was impressed that our return from this trip would culminate in attendance to the non-annual social event of the year -- the christening of the Golden Dragon. The DC do not move in the same circles that I do, however, and somehow, it seems, they do not understand the significance of having acquired an invitation. I could only hope that such ignorance did not lead to disaster when the event finally did take place.
We agreed to leave the day after tomorrow, and I turned my attention back to MA. DA was doing the same, leaning intently forward and staring across the room to the stage. I thought to tell her that she should not gawk so, but I did not want to detract from her enjoyment of the performance. ST, who had taken a guardian's position near the balcony entrance, suddenly announced -- in a voice far too loud for a place such as this -- that there were skeletons attacking. I turned towards him, intent on issuing a stern instruction to keep his voice down, when his words sunk in. What were skeletons doing in the Terrace Rose?
The stairs to the balcony... weren't narrow, but neither I would call them spacious. You could pass someone coming in the other direction if you were boorish enough to do so, but an adamantine-bodied warforged wielding a blade of psychic energy made the space seem positively cramped. I could see multiple attackers, but they were bottlenecked in the stairway.
I stood and engaged one of my many wands [ref: CJ-V6-68] to encase myself in protective energy. Unlike the rest of the DC, I had the good manners not to wear full armor and weaponry to the Rose. HU pulled himself up to the edge of the railing and looked out. He tok-tink'ed at me that no one else in the Rose had reacted yet.
Before I could gain control of the situation, the fight had boiled up onto our balcony. One of the creatures had pushed past ST and came to threaten the rest of us. My trained eye immediately told me that this was no skeleton, but a man dressed up to look like one of those particular undead. I was about to point this out when IR commanded the creature gone. He did not noticeably react to her presence. It was, I think, because she was using her powers to command the undead, not mortals. Quickly realizing her mistake, she announced that these were no skeletons, but were Stillborn.
Somehow, that sounded worse.
I had all of my wands with me, but was concerned about hitting my companions with the barrage of magical energies I had at my disposal. Placing myself in harms way, I entered the fight bodily. I clouted one of ruffians with my cane. DA was employing her specialized magic to hamper the villains, while ST and CA mechanically hacked away at their enemies. XL was in the fight too, with his staff. One of our enemies fell.
ST still held the choke-point at the top of the stairs, but pulled back onto the balcony when IR urged him to let them through so that we could all engage them. CA, eager to get into the fight, leapt off of the balcony and sped across the Rose to engage our foes from behind. A split-second later, DA used her magic to hasten the rest of us.
More of our foes stormed past ST, displaying a keen interest in IR. Stepping back, I used another of my wands [ref: CJ-V7-42] to throw the first bodily from the balcony. He landed with a satisfying crump on the walkway below, but soon staggered to his feet. IR and VA were working in tandem with ST to drop our foes one at a time. IR even had time to summon in some reinforcements, in the form of a brace of dead elven warriors. I kept my distance from those.
Before long, we had cleared the balcony and pushed down into the Garden Room. CA was standing atop a table far across the room, enjoying himself immensely, it seemed, while surrounded on all sides by enemies. XL rushed to assist. DA went to help him, too; just as her magic had hastened us, she used it to slow down CA's enemies. He really did look like a hero of legend, his blades a blur of motion while his enemies moved as though stuck in some cube of gelatinous material. I should mention that to him; I'm sure he would appreciate hearing it.
IR was warning us that a small dragon was hiding in the lattice wall of the Garden room when a small bead of fire flew through the lattice and into our midst. I knew immediately that one of my best cloaks was about to be ruined.
The fireball hit almost everyone. CA and some of his opponents were the only ones too far away to be damaged. It hurt a lot -- doubly so for me because it hit HU, also. The fire almost destroyed VA -- perhaps he is particularly susceptible to it? Regardless, I had to do something, and quick, to protect the DC from our unseen opponent. Pulling another wand [ref: CJ-V7-30], I used it to scan the immediate area. The magic located everything within about twenty feet of me -- including the presence of the dragon. I pointed it out to ST, who used his blade to remove a large patch of lattice. The dragon fell away, lost to sight as it plummeted downwards.
Opposite us, about eighty feet away from the tower, was an elven man standing atop a flight disk. It was a wonderful piece of work, seemingly a single roundish crystal about four feet across and crackling with energy. I knew very well that it was the manifest zone within Sharn that kept the disk afloat, but still I was impressed. The power necessary to charge such a device, and the complicated matrices involved in it's construction would have been an interesting challenge, even for my unparalleled skills. I wondered if the crystal had to be natural, or if the construction process itself built the crystal? Were I to build such a thing, I would start with a lattice of Tagdrim matrices, built into a frame that would eventually surround the constructed crystal. The frame could be submersed in encillated quicksilver for dismemberment at the project's completion. Concurrently layered Stromm fields in the presence of tor shift-light generator and eight silvered refraction lenses would work as a basis to build the device. Naturally, the seed would be a Syberis dragonshard with a Kinsian octal cut. It's center would need to be bored out, however, to redistribute it's millaissance alignment into more of a flattened torus paradigm. Sixteen rierdra crystals would need to be embedded into the construct for control, but how co-linear containment be achieved?
My apologies. I seem to have drifted away from my story. Regardless, that is what was going through my mind when I saw the arcanist. He had just completed a spell and a half dozen air elementals, each about the size of HU, broke through the lattice to surround IR. They tried to spirit her away. XL dropped back to help her, as did a number of the summoned elven warriors.
Something else happened outside, and where the wizard stood just a second ago, the psuedodragon now stood. I quickly pulled out a wand [ref: CJ-V6-81] and blasted him with beam of electricity. The creature flew backwards, severely wounded. It flew out of sight in a barely controlled dive.
DA had managed to use a light spell to stun most of the elementals, and IR had extracted herself from their midst. She and VA moved back into the main room of the Rose. I threw a quick enchantment on STs blade and told him to clean up the last of the elementals. He jumped to obey.
Through the main entrance to the Rose strode the elven wizard. He must have teleported to the far side of the tower. As he came in, he challenged IR to a conjurers duel. The prize would be the orb she carried. Naturally, IR wanted nothing to do with the duel, but VA pointed out that the man was Aerenal, and the challenge was a valid one. Velrys, as he named himself, summoned up an earth elemental and waited.
Patrons and staff both were flooding out of the Terrace Rose and onto the landing outside."
. An Excerpt from the Personal Journal of Artemis Heuw Cannith, Volume 7.
"Monique Hasdin, server at The King of Cups; nice smile"
"Adelienne Silverstar, bard; great voice"
"Glorianna Hopebringer, ex-paladin; well equipped"
"Samm Hardpole, blacksmith; strong arms"
"Tarya d'Cannith, artificer; House Cannith"
. An Excerpt from the "List of People Mistakenly thought to be Xil, and Their Noticeable Traits", by Artemis Heuw Cannith