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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi
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As you head out, you remember an old fable, an elven tale that Hywellen told once. It was about a man that created life and thoughts from woods and water and metal and magic. He bade them worship him as a god, and they did, for he was their creator. The inventor was cursed by the gods themselves, for being vain and arrogant enough to create life, for that was a task left to the gods alone.
The inventor was stripped of his senses, given eternal life, and thrown to the deepest part of Alyarune Ailyas (the lake in Vaellath Kana, Alyarune meaning Lake in elvish). His creations were burned to ashes, and the lore surrounding their creation purged from memory.
But the description in the story mentioned that they had a box at the back of their mouth, where their throat should begin. It was said the box held its soul, but maybe it held its voice instead....
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
The faint chattering of the overcrowded rats in the next room reminded Magdi of something suddenly, though the connection between the sound and the memory wasn't completely obvious to her outside of her subconscious. She let go of Sorra's hand and skipped through the doorway excitedly.
"The man who blows bubbles under Alyarune Ailyas!" she exclaimed, "of course!"
"When you look out onto a lake and see bubble rising to the surface, what do you think causes it? If it’s an ordinary lake you’re looking out onto you might be justified in thinking the bubbles were blown by a fish: even animals that live under the water still need to breathe, and sometimes if you look closely you can see pockets of air that they’ve already breathed in and out again floating up to the top of the water, if you look very carefully and are patient enough. It’s not just fish that live in the lakes and make bubbles, of course, there are other animals that dwell in the water too: the non-fiery varieties of salamanders, for example – little frogs on occasion too, and there are plenty of birds who live beside the water which like to dive down into it in search for these smaller things. More seldom, you might see a mammal in a lake, a rat perhaps, or a water vole, which is a creature which seems extremely similar to a rat to an ignorant person, but that a well informed individual will know is quite a different animal. Those are the things that can make bubbles in an ordinary lake. Alyarune Ailyas, however, is not an ordinary lake."
Magdi listened carefully. Kander knew all about water voles, of course, and he'd explained about them to his sister quite patiently on the bank of the river one warm afternoon. Alyarune Ailyas, however, was something Kander had not explained to her, probably because he knew nothing about it. His ears were picked up as hers were. She knew he'd be interested in anything that had to do with a new type of wild thing.
"Alyarune Ailyas is our lake in the middle of our woods." Hywellen revealed. The elven version of things were always the best versions, he'd explained to them more than once, so this lake was unlikely to be an exception. "
Alyarune Ailyas isn’t just a lake either, it’s also a prison.
If ever you should see bubbles floating up to the surface of the centre of Alyarune Ailyas – and you’d have to have very sharp eyes indeed to see these – then you may as well know that they are being made by a terrible individual. The blower of these bubbles is not a young person, even by our standards the one who blows bubbles under Alyarune Ailyas is very old indeed, which means by your standards, he is unimaginably old. He has been under Alyarune Ailyas for many, many years, breathing under the water. He was breathing under that water when I was born, he’d been breathing under that water when my father was born and he’s breathing under that water right now. This is because the man who blows bubbles under Alyarune Ailyas has been sentenced to blow bubbles forever, and he can do very little else.
There was a time, however, when this horrible man did his breathing elsewhere: on the land as the rest of us do. The reason he doesn’t do that anymore, or rather, that he didn’t stop breathing at all a long time ago, is because he wasn’t content to let creatures that live on the land breathe above the ground and creatures that live under the water breathe under the water and leave it at that. This man thought it would be a good idea for there to be creatures that lived without the necessity of breathing at all. It was not a good idea, in fact: that sort of idea is what lands you under an unspeakable quantity of water for eternity with nothing to do but breathe under it.
Unfortunately for him, this man didn’t have the common sense to realise this before it actually happened to him..."
Magdi and Kander exchanged nervous glances, waiting for their host to continue. Tunde's eyes were somewhat glazed over though, presumably she was thinking of something else, which was silly of her.
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I'd have spoilered the flashbacky bit but I didn't know that the grey would read on grey too well.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra squeezes Magdi's hand thankfully before the goblin lets go. Then she turns to the storyteller and frowns.
"Bubbles?" she echoes. The excitement on Magdi's face is obvious, so it must mean something, but to Sorra it's no more intelligible than the babbling of the magic box.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
The phrase probably was quite meaningless to a non-elf, Magdi remembered.
"A fairy tale a friend of mine told me once. There was this egocentric elf who was very, very power hungry and who thought himself terribly clever. He had a lot of magic at his disposal as well as a reasonable understanding of the natural world and he liked to take things apart to see how they worked. According to the old story, after many years of study this elf created cobbled together lifeforms that were actually capable of independent thought. He made dozens of them and as soon as he'd done that, he ordered them to worship him which they were happy to do since he'd made them into living things out of bits and bobs. The gods watched him do this and were pretty peeved about the whole thing given that he was rather stepping on their territory there and all..." she rubbed the back of her neck.
"So they seized the guy, made him deaf, blind and dumb, turned him into a mindless vegetable, weighted him down and tossed him into the lake: Alyarune Ailyas. As a punishment for creating life out of nothing, unnatural life that didn't even breathe, they made him live for ever, able to do nothing, except breathe. I think my friend used to be told the story when he was a kid; maybe something to deter them from going too far out into the lake without supervision, I used to think. Rumour was that if you looked very carefully you could see the air bubbles coming up in the middle of the lake. I know I probably wouldn't have wanted to swim out there with him lurking in the depths, watching but not watching. He would have breathed every drop of that lake, in and out, a hundred times over, I imagine. The poor things he made didn't come out of it much better: they were burned alive until all the wood in them had turned to ash, all the metal into molten ore and all the water into steam. I always thought it was a little unfair on them as they couldn't have controlled the circumstances of their "birth" but Gods tend to be vengeful anyhow..." she ducked slightly, looking over her shoulder and then readjusting her cloak before continuing.
"The thing is, Hywellen said that if you looked down one of the creations' throats, you would find a box. The boxes had the creature's souls inside them. Or at least that's where their voices sounded from..."
She shrugged and then gazed up at the embroidered drapery on the ceiling, whistling a bar or two of some tune or another.
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My, what a lot of orange text. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"So maybe the giants did want to stop it," Sorra says softly, thinking. "Or else, take it for themselves. But whose stuff is all this? It can't be Nohar's; it's too big. Were there other mages in the city, or was one of the other war mages more than what he seemed? Or something else?"
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"Well, given the story's provenence it's tempting to suggest this stuff belongs, or belonged, to an elf," Magdi began, "but then the notes were written in Erlissan, not elvish, which doesn't mean an elf didn't write it but... let's just say the elves are a very proud people and leave it at that. Then there's the fruit cake, which is somewhat incongruous as a halfling speciality... of course, compared to the rest of this stuff it's perfectly ordinary really..."
The state of the rooms didn't bring to mind a particularly proud person either, Magdi thought, but then making assumptions about stuff like that based on racial profiles was rather foolhardy anyhow.
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Knowledge checks to see if Magdi can answer about Sunpeak Spire's mages?
[roll0]
[roll1] Ignore the arcane roll if I need to have ranks in it, please.
"As for other mages... yes, Sunpeak has - - had, a fairly strong casting community, not just the warmages. Some of them were friendlier than others and the ability levels varied a fair bit."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi, Samuel
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Just as a bit of trivia-there were other types of magi in Sunpeak Spire. Wizards, Clerics, Adepts, etc.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel becomes paler and paler as Magdi tells her story, almost becoming physically ill, especially at the revelation of the boxes containing the creatures souls. Unable to hold it down, he rushes back inside the room, runs to within a foot of the missing wall, then vomits uncontrollably for a few moments. When he's done, he wipes his mouth with his sleeve, takes a deep breath, then walks back to the others, still visibly shaken, just in time to hear Sorra ask about other magic users in Sunpeak.
"Yes, there were certainly other magic users in the Spire, both Divine and Arcane, even a few who were versed in Bardic Magic." he glances at Magdi here, uncertain as to whether or not she is a wielder of such magic, but suspecting such as several times, songs have been mentioned in conjunction with her name "The Warmages were merely the guards of the city, so to speak, a duty we failed miserably at. Other magic users came here because of our beautiful library, or to attempt to establish similar magical orders like our own, or to set up temples to the god of their faith."
With that out of the way, Samuel's visage grows stern, though still a bit sickly and he announces to the entire group, "If what Magdi said is correct, and given the evidence of this and the adjoining room, I believe she is, we HAVE to open all of these boxes. I CANNOT" his voice gains much volume here "Stand by and let any creature have it's soul imprisoned inside of a box. It is abhorrent and foul, to a degree that puts most necromancers to shame. We can keep two, for a time, in order to show others, but they too, must be released sooner rather then later. You may all wait outside the room if the sounds they release are to much for you" he glances at Magdi here, understanding her gentile nature and not wishing to impose any sort of suffering on her "But I will be going back in there regardless." after he finishes his statement, he pauses and looks around the group, giving them a moment to decide what they wish to do, then he turns around marches back into the room and to the desk, intent on opening up every single box in order to release the soul contained inside.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Before Sorra leaves, she takes the one box she'd taken out of her sack and hands it to Sam. Then she flees back into the main room and puts her hands over her ears.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sam didn't look well at all. Magdi was a little surprised at how seriously he'd taken the tale: she'd sort of expected to be dismissed about it, the link was somewhat tenuous after all.
"If these boxes do contain souls then they're packed in pretty close quarters: there must have been more than half a dozen different voices in the first one alone." she noted aloud, wondering if she was trying to reason they weren't trapped souls out of logic or distaste. "If you want you can make a start but--" she began, but Samuel had already left for the three-walled room, "wait to open a couple seperately, please, so we can try and see if we can pick anything out!" she called after him.
She didn't want to listen to any more boxes but if any of those voices were trying to communicate a message or warning somebody ought to try to pick it out, and the more ears trying to do so, the better their chances.
Before going back to join him, Magdi paced to the collection of cogs and paranalia in the centre of the room. It almost looked like it had been quasi-humanoid shaped once...Spoiler
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The first description of the room mentioned something like an exploded clockwork halfling, she's looking for a box here...[roll0]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel marches determinedly into the room with the boxes. He makes it all the way to the desk before he realizes no-one else came with him. Shrugging his shoulders, realizing that not everyone would be willing to listen to the horrible sounds, souls or not. Just as he's about to start ripping lids of the boxes furiously, he realizes just before he came in Magdi asked him to open a few slowly, separate from the others. Calling out in a loud voice, he says "Magdi, I'm going to start with 3 boxes, I'll open them one at a time, and slowly, so be ready, I'll begin opening in 1 minute." With that, he reaches down and chooses 3 boxes at random and picks them up carefully.
After carefully counting down the prerequisite minute, Samuel pries open the lid of one of the boxes, releasing the soul inside. Wincing at the loud wailing shrieks, he steels his will and resolve, and at the end of the first boxes wailing, he opens another, and then as it's sound fades and then stops, he opens the third and final box. Once all 3 have been opened, he shakes his head back and forth, trying to clear the terrible sounds from his mind, and to restore his equilibrium a bit. Again he calls out in a very loud voice "That's all 3 of them Magdi. I'm about to start opening all of them, I'll be doing them in groups of 5, so brace yourselves and cover your ears, it's going to be loud. Go into the corner of that room, then call out and let me know that you're ready for me to begin." With that, Samuel begins to pick up all the boxes, carrying them over to the bed, and arranging them into groups of 5. Once he's done, he waits for the others to let him know they are ready for him to begin.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi
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There is a fragment of what might have once been a runed box. The white paint is badly chipped, and the fragment itself can't be more than a centimeter long.
One box was bad. Three? A lot worse. The screeching voices tear out, echoing madly through the chambers. Four vials on the table explode, sending bits of glass and colored liquids everywhere. A blob of purple hits the wall and burns the parchment away underneath it. Another purple bit of goop eats through the table in an instant. The shelves shake, though they do not fall. The rats squeal and squeak in terror as their precarious 'homes' shake.
In the room where the boxes are, the wind-up doohickeys explode, sending shrapnel everywhere. Dust bunnies perish in an instant, and everything turns gray as they stain the room. The runes on the boxes suddenly begin glowing with white and green lights.
But then it is over, swiftly as it began. The dust settles, and the screeching ends.
Samuel and everyone else in the room with him takes [roll0] damage. All of you make a DC 15 Fort save vs. partial deafness (-4 on Listen checks for the next in game hour).
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Delving into the pile of parts assuaged Magdi's doubts somewhat. It wasn't long before she retrieved a fragment that looked suspiciously similar to the runed boxes. She held it out for Sorra and Eztra to see, then she heard Samuel announce he was going to start opening boxes.
[Sorra, Eztra]
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There is a fragment of what might have once been a runed box. The white paint is badly chipped, and the fragment itself can't be more than a centimeter long.
"I'm going to try and see if I can pick any words out this time..." she whispered, feeling a little queasy, then she padded into the ajoining room, closing the door after herself.
To say that she regretted doing that would have been an understatement. Despite having survived a giant attack she felt certain she was going to black out from the force of sound. Things were actually blowing up around her. She attempted to shield her face with her arms and sunk to the ground, writhing in agony. If Samuel had been listening for specifics he may have heard a string of Gulgai curses whined through gritted teeth.
Once the noise had finally subsided apart from a continuous, tinny ringing that just wouldn't stop.
"...I'm...going ...to check... on the girls. Do not open any more of those things."
She crawled out, opening the door with judicial use of one shoulder.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra reels backward at the noise from the other room, keeping her hands clamped over her ears.
"Did you have to do them all at once?" she shouts as loud as she can, trying to find her balance. Her head is spinning. Finally, she gives up and sits down as gracefully as she can without moving her hands at all.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
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Fort Save: [roll0]
Samuel staggers as the wailing from the boxes completely overwhelms his senses. The pain from the wailing combined with the injuries he sustained from his fall earlier causes his nose, eyes and ears to all bleed profusely. Unsure as to the volume of his voice, or really, even where he is, he speaks loudly, hoping he's not actually screaming, and says That....That may not have been the best of ideas after-all. I think these things could literally kill me if I open any more. I hate to say it, but those souls may have to remain imprisoned, unless someone can figure out a better way to release them. I apologize if I've caused anyone harm. He staggers away from the bed and the boxes, barely able to keep himself from falling over. Still, concern for his companions drives him to move his body into the next room, though he doesn't quite make it across the threshold before he falls over. He crawls further into the room until he finds something he can use to brace himself and stand back up. Despite his efforts though, he is unable to, and slumps over in a sitting position, looking around the room with bleary eyes. He whispers "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that" he then falls quiet, dazed and in pain.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Watching Samuel wobble into apologising gave Magdi a little twinge of guilt for chiding him. She scooted up next to the mage and flopped down too, seeing that their friends seemed to be phased but generally unharmed.
"You were only trying to do the right thing," she reassured, "it's my own fault for following you and putting myself right next to the things."
She looked him up and down. "I really hope there are some decent clerics in Navek, Sam. By the time we get there, we're probably going to need 'em." With that she leaned over, checking for wounds and generally fussing. "So what exactly have you done to yourself now? Did any of the cogs hit you?"
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[roll0] If they did, bad luck: there's nuttin' I can do help. :smalltongue:
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra staggers up to her feet and finally dares to move her hands.
"What did you do?" she demands, wobbling back and forth and trying to stay upright. She must be yelling, but she can't tell.
The anger--at the mages, at their leader, at this stupid boy--flares back up, but she manages to shove it away at the sight of blood running down his face. She's stuck with these people no matter what she thinks.
Sorra manages to walk over to Magdi's side and kneel.
"Maybe I can help?"
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Can I take 10 to aid another? If so 13. Otherwise [roll0]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"Apparently we overdid it a bit with the boxes," Magdi explained meekly through her facemask of dust. "it was all rather dramatic: those wind up do-dads Eztra found in the desk drawer blew up and I don't know if I was imagining things but I could have sworn the boxes were glowing..."
When Sorra bent down to help her with Samuel she muttered her thanks.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel looks around blearily, trying to locate Sorra while she's talking. "I, I think I opened them a bit to fast. I tried to take it slowly, but they were just so loud." looking towards Magdi, who has been trying to patch him up a bit, he speaks, albeit haltingly No, no cogs, it was just the sound itself, it was almost a physical force in it's power. I'll second the glowing though, I saw that as well. He coughs hard after he's done speaking, a bit of blood speckling his hand. "We can't go to Navek yet, we have more in this place to explore. Just need to stop bleeding and regain a bit of strength before we go on, that's all."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi sighed and flopped back against the wall.
"Did you manage to pick anything out at all, Sam?" she asked. "I really tried but it was just so incoherent..." she picked at a sharp splinter that was lodged in her arm. "I heard at least one elven voice this time. I only caught 'I am' though... not particularly informative. There was halfling in there too: 'to fly', I thought they said... it really doesn't make any sense... I assumed from the cacophony of the first box that the voices were of people under duress - but I'm sure somebody said greetings... you don't say that when you're being attacked, do you?" she shook her head, wishing the ringing would stop.
She pushed herself up again.
"Can I have a look at one of the boxes you kept to take to show people please?" she requested suddenly, "I'm not going to open it, I promise."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel withdraws one of the two boxes he has stowed away in his pockets, and hands one of them to Magdi for her to examine.
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I know I didn't specifically write that I picked them up, but a post or two before that I stated my intention was to keep two in order to show people. Also, did I manage to hear anything that I could understand?
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
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Looking at the box
1) to see if it's still glowing and
2) slightly silly: she was going to look at it and try to assess if they're flimsy enough to lob out the side of the building and break, thus distancing them from the noise. I don't know that they're far up enough for that to make a huge difference though even if the box broke and attempting to do that with almost 100 of the things would be absurd. Additionally, she's not really inclined to believe the boxes contain souls, on balance. Still out of curiosity if nothing else:
[roll0]
knowledge:[roll1]
I don't think Magdi knows enough about boxes to glean too many details from the construction but what der hey. :smalltongue:
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
The box is not glowing anymore.
Magdi
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Presuming the runes don't protect the magic boxes from impact damage, the boxes should probably break if you throw them out the open space where there should be a wall.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"It doesn't look too sturdy..." Magdi mused, turning the box over in her hands. "If you're really worried about these things, Sam, we might be able to break 'em by dropping them over the edge of the room. We can't really afford to do that with the lot of them before coming back to Jory though and it might not be enough of a drop to protect us from the noise."
She peeped out at Sorra, hoping she wouldn't be too cross with the suggestion.
"Of course," she added hastily, "we've no proof that the noises are made by trapped souls in the first place, and I guess - and I know this sounds awful - but, even if they are trapped souls, they've been here this long... they can probably hold on a little longer still..."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel looks weakly at Magdi, still very woozy, and in great pain. "I had that thought as well Magdi. I think the biggest risk would be if the lid on the box came off prematurely, instead of when it hit bottom. Not to mention, what if Giants are still nearby? They might hear that sound, and if it has ANYTHING he greatly emphasizes the last word "to do with what they were looking for, they'll come running, and quickly. No, I'm afraid you're right, for now those boxes will have to remain sealed, at least until we are stronger, and better able to deal with what the sound/souls sealed inside them." Samuel falls silent again, exhausted after speaking for so long, his sides aching, his ears hurting, his nose raw. He would like nothing better then to take a nice steaming bath, curl up in a bed with a good book, and go to sleep.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi turns the box about in her hands once more before returning it to Samuel.
"I didn't see any giants out there," she says glancing over her shoulder towards the other room. "And I really think if they were close enough to hear one that was opened just outside, they'd have heard at least one of the four we've already opened inside. But I'm in no hurry to open another in any event."
She bit her lip and then minced over to the high shelves that housed the rats.
She gazed at them from afar. They looked even more distressed than they had done before, which was no small wonder considering the racket they'd been subjected to.
"I don't mean to be a pest," she began sheepishly, "but would anyone be able to give me a boost? I'd like to see what sort of cages those are..."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra pushes herself to her feet, gives Sam one last, short glare, and tries to regain her balance. When she feels steady, she turns to Magdi.
"I'm not exactly tall. But I can try, I guess. Just...please don't set them loose above us. I think we have enough problems already." She resists the urge to shoot another venomous look at Sam.
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Magdi's a medium load for Sorra, I think. :smalltongue:
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"...Of course not. That'd be pretty dangerous, huh?" said Magdi, who had, mere seconds before, been planning on doing almost exactly that. Apparently, even after all these years she still needed a level-headed person around to remind her not to be stupid.
She looked up at the shelves again, then back at Sorra, trying to gauge the least uncomfortable way to get up. She didn't really like needing help up with things, it was slightly less embarassing if one had a step ladder, or another similarly small person to help out (they at least were in the same awkward position as you were, after all), but having to get the big folk to physically help you was always somewhat undignified.
She took a cautious step towards Sorra. "Right. Um..."
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If Magdi needs a balance check or something, feel free to roll it for me.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra puzzles over how exactly to go about it for a few seconds. Finally, she just takes a step toward Magdi, squats down, and wraps her arms around the goblin's lower legs.
"Ready?" she asks. Then she stands up slowly, lifting Magdi as high as she can while trying to stay balanced.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
While it is a rather awkward process, it is not inherently difficult. Magdi can see the cags with much more detail than before. The rats seem to become agitated at seeing this strange new thing, that isn't their normal keeper.
Magdi
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The cages are made mostly of twiggy bits of wood, with metal bottoms and rivets holding it together. The bars have been well-chewed, it seems, though they have not broken yet. Each cage is about a foot and a half long, eight inches tall or so, and about as wide. There are three little wicker baskets with what looks like birdseed, cheap jerky, and stale crackers inside, one in each cage. A large black rat is furiously chewing on one. There are little ceramic bowls as well, one in each cage again, filled with surprisingly clear and clean water.