Lost Arcana; Team B

[JKTrickster]

"Nah it's fine," Barimm said handwaving Euwig's offer away. "I'm pretty self sufficient and there's nothing that I really need." Staring out onto the road, he took a deep breath and sighed. He had hoped that he could perhaps send word to the druids back home, to tell them that everything was okay and that he could handle it - this mission. He wondered how his beloved was doing, and whether she had gotten any better since the last time he saw her.

Leaning back into his chair, he stretched and sighed. He should throw off such thoughts and focus on the long quests ahead - otherwise he would never see her again.


"Well it doesn't seem like this could get any quieter," he said sarcastically. "Maybe we can talk some more about ourselves? If you don't mind of course," he added quickly.

[The Great Skenardo]

Jack Whisper
Jack twists in his seat as he watches the spidery creatures go about their work,
"I've never seen the like!" he remarks, "The tick-tock tap of tiny feet and the whirring of blades. If I feared of such things, that'd be the stuff of nightmares, sure enough."
He nods to Euwig, and this time the nod carries a measure of respect in it.
"Well well! I think I'm well provided for."
Kicking back in his seat, he gazes at the scenery moving by.
"Ourselves? So it please you, speak on! I've the sense there's something you wanted to say or ask, hm?"

[Rarkasha]

Kiuran watches the spiders work, walking over to a window to watch them leave. When Barimm mentions talking about each other, she turns around, looking unsure of herself for the first time since she'd been to the academy.

I... suppose we could. I'm afraid I don't talk about myself much, however. I doubt I'd have anything interesting to contribute."

[Sliver]

While Barimm offers to talk, nobody seems to actually pick up on the offer and be first. You sit quietly for a few minutes, the tension slowly building up.

"Fine, I'll be first!" Euwig calls out.

"When I was young, I lived at a small gnomish settlement with my father. My mother loved the tinkering and inventions that the gnomes came up with, but she died when I was a baby, so my father wanted to expose me to her interests, to try and keep her memory alive through me. It worked, as I really got interested by their work. But most of them used magic to enhance their inventions, and I just couldn't get the hang of it. I practiced hard, the motions and words. Got it all perfect, but nothing came out of it."

"When the gnomes saw that a wizard would never come out of me, they tried to convince me that their type of inventions wasn't for me, that I could be a crafter, or aid them, but never match their machines. It just made me work harder."

Euwig pauses, looking into the distance as the clockwork spiders worked relentlessly on fixing the carriage.

"One day, came into the village a man that was... Like me. He didn't have magic, yet he had machinery that was superior to the magical machines of the gnomes. He was able to create warforged by himself. You know, these living golems that seem to have a soul? Yeah. The inventions he had would seem like magic to anyone but him."

"By the time he came, I was fourteen. The mundane mechanisms I learned and mastered had impressed him, or perhaps he pitied me, or felt sympathy, but nevertheless, he took me as his apprentice."

It's nearly sunset when he's done. You feel as if time flew by while he talked...

[Azoth]

Chihanna listened intently to Euwig's story. Oohing and Ahhing at appropriate points. When he was done she smiled.

That is really amazing. I wish I could make amazing things like you could!

Guess I will go next.

I kinda lived a boring life. My parents didn't appreciate my love of dance and sent me to a monastary to learn to be a proper lady...well it kinda worked. I learned, but still love to dance more than anything.

After the monastary, I joined my dad's church and was forced into a bit of the diplomat role. He figured other church or court officials would listen more to a "harmless pretty girl" than an intimidating old man. I learned that I have a small gift with magic while talking to an official from a far away land. So, since then I have been working on my dancing and magic.

Great ways to stay fit and slim too! Alot more fun than dieting or running or lifting weights and getting creepy man muscles...you also don't stink nearly as much after a night of dancing as you do from a ten minute run.

[The Great Skenardo]

Jack Whisper
Jack listens with off-hand interest as people in his group start spilling some version of their life story. He idly fiddles with a silver piece as they talk, nodding complacently to each biographical detail.
"So that's the shape of it? Well well."
He flips the coin into the air and catches it... but slips it back into his pocket rather than check which side comes up.
"Suppose it's only fair for me to go next, aye? My own tale isn't near so interesting as gnomes or dancing." he purses his lips and scratches his mustache, looking reflectively up at the sky.
"Let's see... my father died when I was young, and I never knew my mother; she ran away before I was born, you see. It's just as well though- If they didn't want me, then there's no way they could have borne my younger brother at any price. He's the rotten one of the family, I'm afraid." Drumming his fingers on the heel of his boot, he continues,
"What else... I did manual labor for a while, then once I could no longer be held to do that, I spent some time traveling these roads of ours. See Ol' Jack Whisper doesn't linger any one place too long. Never look back, that's the ticket! You never know who's catching you up."
A moment of silence.
"I'm also a teetotaler, but on this subject I will maintain an infuriating silence. Apologies." Here he tips his hat in mock chivalry.

[JKTrickster]

Barimm was silent as he eagerly listened to the others. He loved stories, and he used to loved listening to the Elder Druids talk about the wild forest. But that was a distant memory now - they were either crippled beyond belief, or too tired from trying to stave off the plague.

Turning to the others, he smiled. Not wishing to share his own bad news, he only shook his head and quietly commented. "I am a Monk," he said as he looked outwards. "I have spent all my time as a monk, but even then I have led a full and realized life. But after...." he winced, as he remembered the last great war. "After that terrible war, the forest was plagued. So that's why I'm here," he said simply.

Stretching, he looked outwards. "I wonder if we're be able to help anyone else out there."

[The Great Skenardo]

Jack Whisper
Jack merely shakes his head.
"It's a terrible curse for the charitably minded, isn't it, for your one real talent to be violence and killin'?"
He laughs and brushes a finger across his mustache.
"After all; you can break bones better than any man I ever seen, but can you set 'em again? Can you punch the famine out o' the land, or mend a heart that's brake?"
Jack smiles easily.
"The talent makes the man, don't you think? What can the best hammer do in a world where he's run out o' nails?"

[Azoth]

Chihanna looked to Jack and fought a scowl at him. She went to gently reach a hand over to rest it gently on Barimm, a kindness in her eyes.

Don't pay him any mind. I am sure we will all be able to find a way to help your people. Might of arms can be used in many ways. After all, it takes strong arms to tend land and nurture plants to grow. We just need patience to bring it back.

[JKTrickster]

Barimm smiled at Chihanna and nodded. He shrugged - he more than understood the virtues of patience and perseverance. Eventually they would recover the Lost Arcana. With the Lost Arcana returned, the Druids will be able to use it to combat the plague, the heal the wounded, to tend the forest. Life will flourish like it always has and it always will as Selûne had ordained. But....he stopped himself from thinking anymore. He promised himself that. No more dark thoughts.

"Your words are too kind Chihanna and I thank you for them. The only problem is that the Druids have been weakened by the theft of the Lost Arcana. I struggle to think how my community fares...but I know we can make it in time."

Without glancing back at Jack, Barimm massaged his shoulder. "A hammer without nails would be useless yes...but a whole range of tools including a hammer is not. Do not mistake this battle as who I am - it is merely the lengths I will go through to make sure we succeed."

[The Great Skenardo]

Jack Whisper
Jack thinks about Barimm's retort, waggling one booted foot idly as he sits.
"More talents than that, eh? Now there's a thought."
Once more, a kind of crooked grin cracks his rougish appearance.
"Work you miracles as well as massacres? If your open palm be even half as soft as your closed fist be hard, then I wonder I haven't heard word of you before in this wide world."
He laughs again, seemingly his reaction to half the world. Then he grows more serious, weatherbeaten lines showing in his tanned face as his almost frowns.
"Well miracle-worker that you say, can you break a curse?"

[Rarkasha]

Kiuran, quietly watching for awhile, thinks back to her own circumstances.

"I cannot speak for Master Barimm, but the Knights are no stranger to the contradictory concept of fighting for peace. The Ashen, my comrades... are particularly familiar with this notion." She shifts uncomfortably as she continues, as she begins to relate to the situation personally.

"You've seen my weapons, correct? They are not called from the ether: they are an extension of my soul. Beliefs and emotions made manifest, a blade only as sharp as one's convictions. My parents were Azurin, and this ability came naturally to them. I was never told how unusual an ability it was. I don't think they could have prepared me anyhow, for how it feels when you have killed someone else," she raises a hand to touch the tatoo of the eye on her forehead, then chuckles.

I suppose I'm belaboring the point, Master Jack. What I mean to say is, I am familiar with curses, after a fashion. Part of it is inflicted from others: a curse born from dark, old emotions. Another part is my own, born of my own darkness. I can take ownership of one, both, or none, as I please. I hold no delusions on that fact. And I am, in the end, a killer. A hammer, as you say. And I will continue until I run out of nails."