CH. 11: The Show Must Go On

[Haahque]

“Well I can tell you that I am in deed real, and you might be surprised at how many other things are real as well. As for names, I suppose many of our names do sound weird to outsiders, but to gnomes, the names make perfect sense.” Haahqae offers. His own name might not make that much sense to other gnomes, but Nevermind certainly does. Nevermind means…. So many wonderful things it’s hard to describe all of them in common.

As for her juggling. Haahqae’s been entertaining kids for long enough to know the proper response here: “Very good Camilla. It’s quite hard to do, but I can already see you making progress. If you keep it up for a few years I might have to watch out or you’ll get better than me.”

Haahqae will let Camilla attempt to juggle for as long as she’d like, even giving her a couple pointers if they’re not too harsh and can help her. Meanwhile he starts to wonder what this girl is doing here, alone, with free time to play and no one around. She probably lives nearby, but she doesn’t look excessively poor, and she isn’t rich enough to have guards following her around. It’s seeming increasingly rare to find anyone in between these days.

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra leans forward and kisses her husband on the cheek before she turns and leaves. She then heads to where Arulia's father is being held. ~This probably won't go well.~

[BishGada]

"Impaired casting..." Tulbas says thoughtfully and it appears his mind works hard remembering all the spells he practiced both in the laboratory with Raetmal and during his few combats. "Indeed, I've never given it too much thought. The situations I had found myself so far where easy enough to cast my spells, except maybe for the rush during the fight which interfered a little with the concentration." His eyes focuses again on Magnus, he covers his eyes with the blind fold, immediately imagining Magnus striking his head to 'verify' the blindfold is indeed tight. He tries to extend his other four senses, listening to the birds outside, the rustling of the robes, far noises from the streets, the smells of the materials in the laboratory. He tries to separate those smells and guess which comes from what material. Then he tries to focus the sense on the close proximity in the laboratory and says, "Well... I'm ready to begin studying."

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(OOC: I must say you surprised me. I assumed it will be more of the same but with the other spells, and I never thought of preparing for difficult conditions for spell casting.
That made me think of four things (some overlap your ideas):
1. To 'improve' casting conditions, I think Cantrips can help (wouldn't they?), but then Magnus which seems clever enough to consider bad conditions, would be so dismissive of it, no?
2. I thought also of training under stressful conditions, such as wounds, insects bites, threats from the other spell caster or other annoyance. It is similar to your ideas about impaired spell casting just include not only the senses required for the spell casting but also the moral, fear, pulse, sweat or disturbance of senses that are not crucial to the spell itself.
3. Combination of spells. (I misunderstood the meaning of impaired util I finished reading the sentence and thought of it as "pairing" / combining spells in a beneficial way).
4. Alternatives for spell, assuming lack of materials or the ability to use some of the spell components. Also alternative of components to accomplish the same spell but under different conditions.

Thanks.

[djhyland]

"Maybe the other gods don't work the same way as the Dragon Queen," Arulia replies. She used the same explanation with Camilla, and while she doesn't suppose that Niniva will like it any better than their youngest sister did, she doesn't know what else to say. "Maybe not all of the gods are bent on conquest and war. But I know that they're here, even if they don't have armies of their own."

At Niniva's comments about the city, Arulia shakes her head in disbelief. "Yes, the Army has such a reputation for treating the people in town with gentle respect," she scowls. "They will of course treat those they drove out of town with equal care, I'm sure!" She looks sharply into her sister's eyes, then shakes her head again. "No, I can't agree that things are better. When, do you suppose, that the Prefect will release Father? Before or after we've starved or been sent away or forced into slavery or prostitution? How much money do you think that Cassilda and I are earning at the forges? And even if things were going well for us, why would we not care for those less fortunate? How can you be so uncaring about the fate of the refugees?"

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Grand Market)
Camilla continues to attempt to juggle, but after a few more tries she gets frustrated and gives up, returning the torches to Haahqae. "It's hard...but that's okay, I don't need to know how. I'm gonna be a warrior when I grow up anyway," she states matter-of-factually. Haahqae's observation is fairly accurate. Her clothes seem to be of very poor quality and are covered in patches from various holes and don't quite fit her right. On the other hand, she's quite clean...as if she had just bathed today. She's also very clearly alone. It's quite a mystery.

Kendra Synclair (Prefect's Mansion)
When Norris moves in for a kiss, Kendra quickly blocks him by moving first and kissing his cheek instead. She then departs and asks to see Thoron. She never got permission to do so, but the guard doesn't question her, so takes her to his room.

Thoron's room is nearly identical to Norris'. Thoron himself hasn't changed much, from what Kendra has seen. She hasn't seen him in a few years. He's a bit older, in his early 40s now, but doesn't much look like it. He keeps in good shape at the forge. As a young girl, Kendra used to wonder what it would be like to have a strong, able-bodied father than the bitter cripple she got stuck with. Maybe she wouldn't be in this situation now, were that the case.

Thoron is sitting on his bed, but quickly stands when Kendra enters. He seems to notice her uniform more than her face, as he doesn't appear to recognize her. "So, is this it? Am I to be hanged or shipped off to the mines?" he asks, clenching his fists.

Tulbas (Mageware Shop)
And so the lesson on casting with impaired vision begins. Magnus goes over the basics and they use a few practice cantrips along the way. Tulbas learns that some spells do not require you to see at all, like Comprehend Languages (when dealing with spoken languages), or Mirror Image. But some spells are useless without sight, especially ones that require a specific target like Magic Missile or Spectral Hand. Spells cast on oneself do not require sight at all, like Armor or Shield. And touch-based spells are the same, assuming the target is holding still and nearby (if they are trying to avoid being touched, then obviously he's at a big disadvantage).

Spells with wide areas can also be cast with no vision, but it's dangerous to do so since the wizard can't be sure what he's doing. For instance, he can easily cast Burning Hands in front of him, but won't be sure if he'll hit an enemy or a friend or nothing at all.

There are ways to get around the vision limitations. Tulbas has infravision naturally, so that helps (but not in magical darkness or if he is blinded). Familiars can be used to see for the wizard, if they are powerful enough. There are also some spells like Wizard Eye that will become available to him once he gets stronger in the Art.

"Any questions?" asks Magnus when they finish. "If not, we can proceed to casting with impaired hearing."

Arulia Seroth (Farmer's Street)
Niniva frowns at Arulia and puts her hands on her hips. "Not this again. You just 'know' it, do you? By the gods, Arulia...you can be so insufferable. You think you know everything, that we're all just mindless sheep beneath you, is that it? The world isn't so black and white as you seem to think, okay? If you spend all of your time looking for perfect scenarios, you'll never succeed. That's why you left the Holy Guard, isn't it? The Seekers weren't perfect? And now the Dragon Queen isn't perfect. Well, nobody is perfect, nothing is perfect. That's the world we live in."

She jabs her finger in Arulia's shoulder. "And don't you dare act all sanctimonious on me, hypocrite. You didn't lift a finger for those refugees either that I recall. It's easy to walk around talking about how holy and noble you are, when you don't have to actually do anything to back it up. You stand there and go on and on about how the army is the worst thing to ever happen to this city, but what are we doing right now, Arulia? Aren't we going to see your friend, the soldier, to get her help? So I guess it's okay to get help from the army when you do it, but if I want to try and get free food and drink for my family, somehow I'm a heartless bitch, is that it?"

She pulls her cloak tighter around herself. "Forget it. I'm going. You can go see your friend on your own." She turns away in a huff.

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Sewers)
Shima moves forward on his own, taking a left then a right. Here the corridor spills open into a massive chamber. It's the same underground river they encountered earlier, a fast flowing stream of toxic sludge pouring through the area. There's an old, rickety dock here. Although there is no boat nearby. But more pressingly is the small community of gully dwarves that have made their home here.

Gully dwarves, known formally as the Aghar clan, are considered the most repulsive and embarrassing of the dwarven clans (at least to those who recognize them as dwarves at all). Most consider them little better than cockroaches or rats; vermin that dwell in the underbelly of any society, digging through trash and eating whatever scraps they find. Gully dwarves are abysmally stupid, notorious cowards, and are generally pretty filthy and disgusting.

This small tribe, consisting of a dozen in total (including children) seem to have turned this chamber into their home. They've collected a bunch of thrown away objects, garbage mostly, including old cooking pots, soiled sleeping bags, and whatever other refuse they could find. A handful are armed, but most are not. Even those who are only have clubs, daggers and knives.

The gully dwarves don't seem to have noticed Shima's approach yet. This is despite one of them standing guard at the door, holding a club and wearing stitched together padded armor. But he's asleep on duty, snoozing peacefully while leaning against the wall.

[Haahque]

“A warrior? Wow, that’s quite an aspiration.” Haahqae’s surprise is genuine, even if he keeps using his speaking to child voice. A warrior isn’t what he would have pegged this young, poorly dressed by well bathed girl to have chosen as her career path. Juggling wouldn’t work for her either, so who knows, maybe she is a warrior.

“A warrior is a brave aspiration, but a warrior has little to do without a worthy adversary. Who are you planning to fight when you’re big and strong?” Haahqae lowers his voice as he speaks, to a mere stage-whisper. He looks around to make sure there’s no one spying on the conversation. He secretly hopes she’ll proudly declare that she wants to fight the dragon-army. But such words are dangerous, something he also hopes she knows.

The dragon army. Since they arrived, everything went wrong. Their taxes drained the money out of all the honest folks with jobs, so he can’t do his usual supplementary income work with a side of research like he likes to do. They claimed to have cracked down on crime, but theft and bribery seem even more prevalent than before. They also have annoying checkpoints everywhere which mess with his plans of traveling around the place all the time. Also, these weapon laws make his adventuring career just that much harder. If Haahqae was a fool he’d probably walk up to the head of the army or the church and declare them stupid and punch them, but Haahqae is wise beyond his years (*or at least he thinks he is), so he bides his time and hopes someone finally deals with them.

[djhyland]

Arulia stands speechless, her face red with anger and embarrassment. Much of what Niniva said was true, at least after a fashion. She hadn't done anything to help the homeless before the army had shipped them off to who-knows-where, and no matter how good a person Kendra seems to be, she is relying on a soldier for help while decrying the army. But to accuse her of "knowing" everything and thinking of everyone else as "mindless sheep"? Arulia thinks--or at least hopes fervently--that that is untrue, that she doesn't come off like that.

Arulia raises a hand to call Niniva back to her, but can think of nothing that will bring her back in the kind of temper that she's in...at least, nothing that she dares cry out on a crowded street. Lowering her hand, she blinks back the tears that threaten her eyes and hurries on towards Kendra's house, hoping for no further upsetting encounters.

[Chris1234]

Keeping his anger in check, Shima falls back slowly and as quietly as he's able, freezing if anyone appears to be looking in his direction.

On reaching his colleagues, Shima pushes the door to, and then round the corner updates Felran & Ne-Chanz, giving approximate dimensions and layout, finally adding, "Unless either of you have sympathies with these creatures, maybe a dozen or so, some armed and armoured, but some of them are young, I think they qualify as 'need to be cleared out.' That is if you want the human woman to give you information about the thieves. Your call."

If Felran or Ne-Chanz decide to clear out the creatures to the north, Shima will follow in third place, intending to hold the entrance to prevent any from escaping to the south.

[TristenC]

Grubnick buys a hood and the pair head off to get lunch.

[Ooc: i'd prefer to eat while at the marketplace, are there food-stalls around?]

[HorizonsDream]

"None of the above," Kendra says as she approaches the man. "Please, sit down," she says, motioning for him to sit back down. "It might be awhile yet before any sentences are carried out," she explains. "My name is Kendra, and I'm friends with your daughter, Arulia," she explains.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Grand Market)
"Ummmm...I dunno," Camilla admits with a shrug. "I was going to join the Holy Guard and fight bad guys. But...they don't exist anymore." She frowns to herself. "Maybe I could be a mercenary instead. But probably, I'll just be married to some big dumb jerk and be forced to cook and clean and have babies," she says rather bitterly.

Kendra Synclair (Prefect's Mansion)
"Kendra? Wait, I remember you," Thoron says, sitting back down. "But I heard you got married. Why are you here, dressed like one of the prefect's elite soldiers?" he asks.

Grubnick (Grand Market)
Grubnick searches around the marketplace. Finding another hood is easy enough, and there are a few vendor stands selling food, including fried fish, cheese, and and roasted mutton legs.

(OOC: Is this another leather hood he is searching for, or a regular cloth one?)

Arulia Seroth (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
Arulia continues on to Kendra's place alone. This gives her some time alone with her thoughts. It occurs to her that while she may know Takhisis is evil, the rest of the city likely isn't aware of that. The church is generating good publicity by offering free food and healing and perhaps most importantly, performing miracles.

For as long as Arulia has been alive, Haven has been run by the religious. First the Belzorites, then the Seekers, then the Cult of the Master, now the Takhisians. People have become rather jaded as a result, and generally don't see much different in them anymore. Except, of course, Takhisis, whose followers can perform real miracles in public, for all to see. From the perspective of Niniva or most of the other people in Haven, the Takhisians haven't done anything to warrant the level of suspicion and hostility Arulia exhibits toward them. Simply stating that she knows they are evil won't hold water for most; she'll need actual proof.

When she arrives at the gem store, she finds that once again it is locked up. There is no answer when she knocks on the door.

[Haahque]

And suddenly the conversation went into a territory Haahqae was completely lost in. On Nevermind, if for whatever reason a girl ended up confined to the home, she rarely ever complained about it, it meant she had direct access to the house’s lab to try out her own experiments whenever she wanted! She didn’t have to worry about going out and getting food for them to eat. As for cooking and cleaning, well, all gnomes were familiar with cleaning, after an experiment went wrong you had to learn quickly. As for cooking? A great opportunity to test out your latest machine! Making babies? Haahqae has no idea why that’s a problem. Nearly all his research has shown that most or all races, even humans, enjoy this a fair bit.

Surely Ismene didn’t think like this? Ismene was a gnome, and gnomes are much more level-headed. Although she’s been living in big-folk land for a while maybe it’s rubbed off on her? No, that can’t be. Ismene said it herself just today, she wants to stay at home and study, a very worthy aspiration. Magical knowledge and experimentation is an even more worthy aspiration then performing technological experiments, like so many other gnomes do. Ismene, as should be expected, remains perfect.

“And what would make you say that? If, who, why wouldn’t you marry a nice man? I’m sure there must be some human men nice enough that they’d treat you well.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when Haahqae started feeling like a fish out of water. He had to change the topic, and soon.

“So, what brings you to the market today? Were you here to buy something?”

[Chris1234]

While Felran & Ne-Chanz are quietly deciding what to do with the Gullies, Shima checks out the door to the south for traps.
He find it almost therapeutic, and comes up with an alternative potential plan for dealing with the Gullies, almost as if a voice had been whispering in his ear.

The dwarf announces, "Ne-Chan, Felran, we could try and talk to the Gullies. See if they want to be escorted somewhere else. Then clear out the rest of the place, let the woman have a look round, get your information and then escort the Gullies back here. I'm going to quietly close the northern door and see if I can open the southern door and we can explore that way first. You can have longer to think about how we want to deal with the Gullies."

Unless either of the companions say otherwise, Shima stealthily advances to close the northern door as quietly as possible and then tries to disarm any detected mechanical trap on the southern door, followed by trying to pick the lock. After that he stands back to obligatory 21', round to the east, and adds, "Should be all clear, on you go.."

When Felran & Ne-Chanz have opened the southern door and declared no immediate threat, Shima picks up the duty of scouting ahead. (As before stealthily, right at a fork if nothing else to choose, returning after 5 minutes (so gone 10 mins max) and gets the other pair if he sees anything untoward or notable or any closed door.

[HorizonsDream]

"I did get married," Kendra says. "My husband is being held not too far from here," she points out as she looks towards the door. "As to reason why I'm dressed as one of the prefect's elite, well, that would be because I am one of his elite," she adds. She knew that being one of the soldiers wasn't going to make her any friends, but she had her reasons for doing this. Though, she certainly wasn't going to go into those reasons here and now. "The reason why I'm here is to see if there was anything you wished to pass on to your family," she said. "Right now, that is about all I can do for you."

[TristenC]

[Ooc: deep cloth good for covering the face. Would the leather one be enough to conceal his face well? For some reason I thought you had mentioned that it didn't..]

Grubnick orders a leg of mutton and something for Delarn while keeping a watch on the area.