For More Than Glory

[Memnus]

"By its very nature, the wielder of the Betrayer's Blade is alone. Anyone he takes on to guard or assist him is inevitably driven away or slain. So we're only hunting one person, and I think I know who it is." He pokes through his sheets of paper, looking for one in particular, and finally finds it, leaning way out over the table to bring it over. Scanning the page, he shows it around, even though his notes are incomprehensible to anybody but him. "A Mr. Chouper, or maybe Casper, of Marzen. Sage, and friend of the Mayor, he disappeared last winter. And, he has a well-known bone to pick with the Barnabel family, whose houses have been attacked. Nobody yet seems to know exactly why he hates them, but he certainly does."

"As for its worth, the power required to imbue a weapon with the particular polymorphic weave the Betrayer's Blade supposedly carries is enormous. Most of that power remains in the weapon, untapped. If I could figure out even a fraction of that power, or how it was bound..." His voice fades out, but the gleam in his eyes makes it plain that he's imagining things that such a source of power could make possible.

 

[crystorix]

"Yes? You keep dropping off your sentences with what you think you could discover or in what ways you can use that power. I'm having trouble picturing it, so why don't you point it out."

[OOC: I can see the advantage in putting your spoken text in color, to differentiate it from the descriptive text, and make your 'voice' different from everybody else's, but the colors people have been using are really hard to read.]

 

[Memnus]

(double message deleted)

 

[Memnus]

Fleck blinks. Clearly he hadn't realized that the possibilities are not self-evident to the untrained. "If I can determine the nature of this weapon, I may be able to bind certain of its powers into other weapons. Preternatural sharpness, unattainable by any mere smith. Kinetics weaves to focus the balance of a sword to perfection, make it easy to swing faster and more precisely. Even elemental envelopes." He looks at Rolf. "Enchanted weapons in this region of the world are difficult to locate and purchase, at best. Would you like your weapons enchanted? Not to mention that...." He lowers his voice, making sure his words do not carry beyond the table. "Even the least of enchanted weapons could be sold for thousands of gold, if properly done."

(OOC: picked a different color, which should be better. This board has a wider selection than the old one did.)

 

[firehorse]

Valdir spends the remainder of the Winter in Lalyn's camp. Grateful for Rolf's help slaying orcs and hopefully making a dent in their war against the elves, the time seems to pass rather quickly. He is perplexed at the loss of the other party members who abandoned the fight against the orcs after only one small, insignificant forray.

When Fleck's letter arrives, Valdir reads it with mixed feelings. On one hand, he misses the others of their ragtag band. On the other, there is no explaination as to why he left so abruptly. Shrugging finally, in his signature way, he determines to finish the winter out with Lalyn and go to Mittendien in the Spring to see what could have been so important.

That Spring, Valdir arrives at the appointed spot and decides to be stealthy when walking in. Arriving at the table where Fleck and the others are, he listens quietly for a bit without comment. Finally, he pipes up with "So, you left us to fight orcs on our own, after only one minor skirmish, for a......knife? I left the fight to help my people for a.....knife? I'm sorry Fleck, although I'm not the hero type, you're going to have to be a bit more forthcoming on the importance of this knife and why we are in Mittendien and not Lorlynia. Are we mere treasure hunters now? And speak Tradespeak, not Gnomish/Mage gibberish."

 

[Memnus]

Fleck turns to Valdir, exasperated. "Not just any knife, Valdir. A hundred years ago, this 'knife' was the warhammer that slew the Mittendienish general Allard, in his final battle against the goblins. A hundred years before that, if legends are reliable, it was a massive axe in the hands of the most feared orcish chieftan in history. I'm not talking about a knife, I'm talking about a source of magical power. If I find it, study it, I can make each of our weapons strike stronger, faster, and truer."

He looks pleadingly at Valdir. "There are people in this country that hate outsiders. If the Betrayer's Blade were to fall into the hands of such a one, especially one in power, what it does could spark a war between Mittendien and Thoradur. Or Lorlynia."

 

[firehorse]

Valdir takes Fleck's words in silently. "That makes more sense." Then he falls silent again. After another few moments of deep thought, Valdir gives one of his characteristic shrugs. "Ok, sounds like something worth doing then. The orcs are at a standstill and I've pretty much, with Rolf's help, satisfied my feeling of obligation to Lorlynia. My people still seem to be consumed with merely holding ground and not expunging those bastards back across the mountains. I'm in."

Valdir walks up and claps Fleck on the shoulder, "See what happens when you talk plainly?" Chuckling, he grabs a chair, orders some honey mead, and sits down.

"So tell me, can this enchantment be modified to extend to arrows or the bows that shoot them? Also, when we get some time, I've been working on arrows that can carry various alchemical substances within their glass shafts. All I need is some alchemical substances and a little gnomish ingenuity."

 

[crystorix]

"Better hope you never fall down atop your quiver," Rolf jokes.

 

[firehorse]

Valdir chuckles at Rolf's comment. "That would be.....unfortunate, would it not?"

 

[Memnus]

Fleck also laughs at Rolf's crack, but replies to Valdir. "There's no reason it shouldn't be possible. And I'd be happy to look at what you've managed to do with glass arrows. I imagine they'd fly truer if designed for the purpose than just arrows with vials lashed to the tip."

He returns his attention to his notes, and to the business at hand. "I asked you here, in particular, because Solinburg is near the center of the kingdom, but also has enough traffic from outside that other rumors can be caught. Fortunately, it seems the Blade has no intention of leaving the Kingdom. We may need to travel as far as the capital, though."