= Crystal Quest Aftermath Epilogue, Part 1 =
10/24/06
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On a mountain range in the borders of the Kalandic States...
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Sarai says, "Well guys, I think I'm off to the Tower of the Watchers."
Sarai says, "I may be paranoid, but that sphere looked ready to take on the whole world. All of them."
Kenlow nods, "Indeed. I am off to the Woods of Tarianna."
The tropical stillness falls on the hot shrubs.
Kenlow deeply rrrumbles, "I presume that it is Eldar's doing, to help erase ALL traces of Matro from the Universe. When it has done it's job, it will be gone."
Akili wrenches himself away from the old memories that are slowly unearthing themselves in his memory, focusing his attention on the present. "That's a wise idea, Sarai... I'll go with you." He looks at Kenlow for a moment, nodding pensively, then says on impulse, "Come with us."
Sarai asks, "What are you gonna do in Tarianna's woods, Kenlow?"
Kenlow turns to Sarai, "I shall be training in the arts of Archery with Atheele. That and enforcing the Law of the Wild in Her name."
Sarai nods. "Where exactly are those woods?"
Sarai says, "In relation to things like, oh I don't know, the towers."
Kenlow deeply rrrumbles, "They are, well, everywhere really. Anywhere there are Deep woods, Olde woods, full of life and growth."
Kenlow reluctantly turns to Akili, "..."
Akili notices Kenlow's hesitation, and reluctantly adds, "If you feel you need to leave now... well, I'll miss you, but I'll understand." He manages a smile, and jokes, "Someone as unique as you shouldn't be too difficult to find, even if you'll be in miles of uncharted woodland. If we found the Crystals, we can likely find you."
Sarai says, "If you can give up a few hairs, I can take care of that now."
Kenlow smirks at Sarai, "Another Stone?"
Sarai giggles. "Well I do have a whole pouch of pebbles here."
Sarai says, "I could make a handful to pass around before we go our ways."
Akili glances at the others, then lowers his voice, continuing to speak to Kenlow. "After all this time of wondering where I came from... I'm starting to remember my past, before here, but I don't know why... I think Eldar has disappeared, which I can only guess might have something to do with it. I'm not sure what will happen, or what I'll do, if all of my memories come back."
Kenlow's eyes widen, then he grins understandingly, "An equally satisfactory and disturbing sensation, is it not Akili."
Sarai sits on the ground, and begins making a few SaraiStones.
Akili brightens up at Sarai's suggestion. "Hey, that's an excellent idea. I only hope we can interpret them as well as you can, should we get seperated even farther." He looks at Kenlow with his head tilted, and then grins, laughing softly. "Of course... you'd understand that better than anyone else here. So... are you going to leave, then?"
Kenlow sits amd scratches like a dog, some bits of his downy fur come out.
- A bit of smoke rises as Sarai burns a few of her hairs to ash.
Akili reaches up into his mane, and a few errant strands of long hairs come out, caught on his claws. He hands those to Sarai as well.
Kenlow asks, "Well, I was going to use Oyaht's wind spell to get myself to a nice Deep Woods-y area, but somehow, I feel that would be cheating. Perhaps I can squeeze out one last Adventure. Shall we then to the Watch Tower?"
Kenlow deeply rrrumbles, "I think that that wind spell will come in quite handy for that."
Akili muses, as he hands them over, "Too bad we couldn't communicate through these things as well. I suppose that would be asking a bit much, though." He nods to Kenlow with a pleased smile. "It also dawned upon me that we may be able to get a teleport spell out of the Watchers, considering all we've done, and are *still* doing."
Kenlow chuckles, "Not to inflate our egos *too* much, but I'd lay odds we are currently the Greatest Heroes of Annor, at least of this day and age."
Sarai makes a few gestures over her stones, and says without looking up, "Or out of the wizards at the mage tower."
Akili grins widely. "And this time, unlike our last respectable accomplishment, there's no prohibition against sharing that news. Quite a change." He agreeably nods to Sarai. "Heck, we may even be able to get such a spell from both Towers."
Akili's expression shifts, as something occurs to him. "Oh, Sarai... can you check your current stones against this?" He rummages in his bag of holding, and eventually pulls out a Salervan-sized suit of chain mail.
Sarai finishes another stone, and starts on the next. "I wanted to retire in Matro's castle, and spend some time studying and learning. Retiring at the Tower of the Mages with my pile of Matronium might be almost as good though."
Sarai takes a look at her 3 stones of badness-finding.
- The stones do not appear to change color.
Sarai says, "Those look safe."
Kenlow is amused by the weeks old sweat of a 'freshly squeezed' Salervan having no notalbe effect on the Stones.
Akili looks considerably relieved, and sticks it back into his bag. "I'm glad I thought of that, not that I was looking forward to finding a way to destroy it." He takes a few more minutes to dig through his other bags to make sure there's nothing else along those lines he's carrying... except for the bag of stasis. He leaves that one shut.
- Each stone Sarai makes is bright red when she's done.
Kenlow asks, "Akili? If you're so concerned, why didn't you just toss it in the devouring sphere?"
Akili perks his ears at Kenlow. "Hmm? Concerned about what? I didn't think of the armor until just now."
Kenlow deeply rrrumbles, "No, not the armor, the Stasis Bag."
Sarai marks each Sarai stone with a large S.
Akili blinks, then looks down at that bag. "Oh. Well, one of the last times I reached in there, I stabbed myself on a polearm. I suppose I always hoped it would come in useful again, since it would cost nearly as much as a new one to repair... but an adequate use never presented itself."
Akili muses, "Although, since you bring it up... I suppose I should check. I'd hate to randomly find another bit of Matro in there." He opens up the bag, and carefully empties out its contents.
Akili dumps out a cherry, a trident, a vial of red liquid #34, a block of wood in a horseshoe shape, a polearm, a Hungamunga blade, a buckler, a circuit board, three bloodstained cots, a wooden skeleton toy, a frizzy white wig, a live calico kitten, and a pair of blue pants.
As he dumps them out, Akili also comments, "If I'd been thinking faster, I might have tried to scoop up the sphere in this before it got so large, but... well, too late now."
Kenlow sniffs at the kitten.
- The kitten mews at Kenlow.
Kenlow merfs at himself for not understanding 'Cat', even if the kitten would be talking Baby Talk 'Cat'.
Akili eyes the kitten dubiously. "That's the first time something living's come out of there since it's broken so badly. Well, um... do you want it, Kenlow?" He looks at the pile of stuff, then says, "Does anyone want *any* of this?"
Sarai says, "Not I."
Calico kitten struggles to crawl out from under the pile of stuff.
Kenlow geeeently scritcha-scritchas the kitten behind the ears.
Akili glances at Sarai's stones to make sure they're still indicating safety. As far as can recall, the cots were from some Black Hand soldiers, and should be safe.
Calico kitten mews plaintively, partly caught beneath a cot.
- The stones remain the same color.
Kenlow gently tries to free the kitten.
Calico kitten clambers out and looks around for somewhere to hide.
Akili debates for a little while, then with a sigh, shoves everything back into the bag... except the kitten. "Maybe I should destroy this thing," he mutters.
Calico kitten totters around a little, then curls up next to Kenlow's foot.
Kenlow'dog-scratches' himself untill there's a good sized pile of down-fur. He puts it in his largely empty 'fanny pack' and puts the kitten in on top of it.
Akili grins a little. "Although... it may be quite a source of entertainment to the Watchers. Maybe I'll give it to them." Once everything's gathered back together, he asks, "So... who gets which of those stones, Sarai?"
Kenlow pants.
Calico kitten goes to sleep.
Kenlow hopes the kitten is weaned, he is NOT nursing it!
Sarai says, "Everyone who wants one gets a Sarai stone."
Sarai says, "And for that matter, everyone who wants one gets an 'anyone else' stone, provided that the target is willing."
Akili indicates that he wants a Sarai stone... and a Kenlow stone, as well.
Sarai hands one of each to Akili. "Here ya go."
Akili places them both in his more accessible sack of spell scrolls and potions, after giving them a thorough investigation. "So the closer they are, the brighter they'll be... and if they're any other color than red, then it indicates that the target is on a different world than the one the stone is on. Is that about right?" he confirms.
Akili doesn't ask what it means if they're clear, as that seems to be pretty self-explanatory at this point.
Sarai says, "Nope, different color means a different kind of match."
Sarai says, "Salervan was close enough to Matro to be a match, but not the same color."
Sarai says, "You could say that Red is a true match, and blue is a clone, or other imperfect match."
Akili is quite glad he asked. "I see. So for us, unless we spontaneously develop clones or something... they should pretty much always glow a shade of red, even if we're worlds apart. Nicely done, Sarai."
Sarai says, "A shade of red, or pure white."
Sarai says, "I don't think it will work across worlds unless they are connected, like Matroland is to Annor right now."
Akili nods, "Of course." He tilts his head a bit. "Really? Hm... somehow I thought we were tracking Salervan to the world Matro was on, but perhaps not. Any suppositions as to what color they'll be if we're on unconnected worlds?"
- Sarai's stone is marked with an S. The stone for Kenlow is a K with little bat wings. Finally, Akili's own stone is marked with a A, with an illustration of a mane. All the markings are in black ink, and care must be taken to avoid rubbing the ink off. -
Sarai says, "White as white, I'm pretty sure. As it would be any time we are incredibly far apart."
Akili opens his mouth, reconsiders, and slowly nods. "Right... I suppose that makes sense, although it could be misleading. Let's just hope we don't have to find out, then."
Sarai nods, and packs up her stuff.
Sarai makes sure the three stones of evilness are in their own pouch.
Akili glances around, making sure nothing important has been accidentally left behind, and observes, "I suppose that's everything. Shall we be on our way? I doubt that sphere is going to patiently wait for us."
Sarai agrees.
>>>End of log