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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2330953" data-attributes="member: 2323">Naked With CompanyMorier left the Great Oak's presence feeling somewhat unsatisfied. Something about the tree's tone, made him think that contacting Ledare and the others would be difficult if not outright impossible. He wondered how fast he could travel on foot, and whether it would be fast enough to catch the wagon transporting his companions southward.He was so deep in thought that he failed to notice the scrying sensor hovering in the air above him. Only the rush of air being displaced alerted him to the fact that someone had teleported in behind him.He turned and stared at a man's back - tall and dark with a bald pate. He was dressed in supple leather and carried an ornate shortspear easily in one hand. "I knew that Garan-Zak had me facing the wrong way," the man said and Morier recognized the voice as one he'd heard before. The man turned his obsidian countenance to Morier and a grin of white split his face. It was the smell of smoke that finally jogged the elf's memory."Huzair?" he asked, stunned to see the apprentice of one of his father's associates here. The man pulled out a cigar from a pocket inside his vest, spoke a word and lit it off the flame that danced on his thumb."Morier," Huzair said with a disinterested nod. "Long time, no see." The elf was shocked to see the wizard, but he recovered his composure quickly."Why Huzair, what in the world brings you to the Termlane Forest?" the elf asked. Before Huzair had a chance to respond he added, "And why have you been scrying me??"Huzair snorted laughter and breathed on his cigar, making the ember at the end, flare with orange light. "Not me," he said with an innocent grin. "That was Garan-zak. You remember how he loves that crystal ball of his."Morier could remember clearly the visit the wizard and his apprentice had paid to his father when Garan-zak had first acquired the scrying device. Despite the fact that Huzair was just a boy and Morier was fully-grown the two had been sentenced to reading up on Tenser's "Magical Properties of Gemstones" while the two wizards used the crystal ball to watch Kimbery bathe at the Greenbriar Inn. The pair of them hooted it up like a couple of prepubescents. Over the next few days of that visit, the wizards scried on every attractive female they could think of, until ap-Llewellyn made the mistake of suggesting that they try using the crystal ball to look in on Gisela the horse breeder. She'd spotted the scrying sensor right away and surmised immediately who it was that was invading her privacy. An angry visit  by the raven-haired woman was enough of an embarrassment to cure ap-Llewellyn of his voyeuristic urges. Not so apparently with Garan-zak."I'm on the cusp of mastering spells of the 4th Circle. So Scry is a bit beyond me just yet," Huzair went on. "What about you? How go your studies?"Morier had only just manifested his first spell of the 2nd Circle. A fact he'd been quite proud of until Huzair showed up to flaunt his own power. "Not as well as yours, it would seem," the albino admitted."Well, maybe if you spent more time hitting the books and less time running around out in the woods naked," Huzair laughed as he tugged at one of the numerous piercings  that decorated his ear. "This another one of those druid things? You a nudist now?""You'll have to pardon my appearance," Morier said, looking himself over. Again he was startled by the absent web of scars on his torso. "I'm not prone to walking through the woods with naught but a loincloth, but an unfortunate circumstance has left me without a single possession.""What? Did a nymph seduce you and steal your clothes?" Huzair joked, punching Morier in the arm companionably. His fist was hot against Morier's naked skin."No!" The eldritch warrior chuckled. He found himself laughing a bit at the absurdity of it all. "Nothing like that.""What is the deal nature boy? You can tell me," Huzair pressed. He drew back suddenly and asked in a hushed tone, "It wasn't a satyr was it?""No!" Morier asserted more forcefully. Then he realized that Huzair had never answered his initial question. So he asked it again, "Just what are you doing out here, Huzair?" The wizard waved him off, exhaling a column of smoke into the bright sky."Garan-zak," he said simply. "The old man thinks I'm a bit too aimless - no goals, or something like that. So he was talking to your father the other day and finds out that you're hooked up with some crusading Janissary out to save the world from the forces of darkness. Next thing I know, Garan-zak's got it in his head that I should join up too. He used the crystal ball to find you and a quick teleport later: here I am."Morier noticed for the first time that Huzair looked ready for travel. He had on sturdy boots and warcaster's armor along with his fashionable leather breeches and jerkin. He wore a potion belt and a scroll organizer just like Morier had given up to complete the test of water. A finely-tooled traveler's bag hung cross-wise on his torso, and Morier felt a twinge of envy when he saw The Valliant Vessel Shipping and Trading Company logo stamped on the purse in gold. A Handy Haversack! That magical bag alone must have cost 2,000 crowns or more."Well, Morier. What do you say?" Huzair asked with a conspiratorial grin. "Mind if I help you save the world?"</blockquote>

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