![[previous]](gu-prev.gif){kind=small}
![[next]](gu-next.gif){kind=small}
Back to the index.
Malachai heads towards a forested shadow with Tazik and Serena in tow. They ignore the primitive traps that were set up in the forest by the natives. The natives rush and surround them, saying that they need women for the dragon, the big forest dragon. Malachai doesn't kill them.
Malachai agrees to let the natives escort them to their "reception room", which has the appearance of an aboveground dungeon. It's clean and fairly comfortable, and there is food around. Considering that the hut is walled up with wooden bars, escape should be trivial, so they go inside for a bite to eat. The natives reassure him that the dragon will be by soon and vacate the area, with the exception of an old man. The old man says that everyone that has passed through this area has given up their women rather than risk facing the dragon, with the exception of one old man named Sir Erik who went into the woods and talked the dragon out of eating him.
A bit later, the old man puts his hand on the ground and exclaims, "Your destiny awaits!" Malachai pushes the bars aside and leaves the room, over the objections of the old man. Serena puts her hand on the old man's arm, reassuring him that Malachai will return.
Malachai looks around the town and spots the dragon. It looks more like a worm than a wyrm, has a head about as high as Bucephalus's body, six legs on each side, and no wings.
Malachai calls out, "Hello, dragon!", in Thari. The dragon slows down, perks it's head up, and replies in perfect Thari, "Hello?"
They chat. The dragon claims to be a tax collector for the emperor, a little monkey about so tall who lives in the heart of the woods. He normally takes money and goods from these villages. "These villagers occasionally offer me women - I try to convince them that neither I nor the emperor eat women, but they insist that it pays their taxes." The dragon pulls out a pipe and asks Malachai for a light. As the dragon puffs on his pipe, they exchange introductions. Malachai introduces himself as Malachai of Amber. "Random's son!" "No..." "A relative?" "Yes". The dragon asks Malachai to relay his gratitude to Random for the most excellent stash, from Rathar the Third.
The dragon acts highly civilized, and claims that the empire consists of many races. It says that dragons tend to be tax collectors for the outlying parts, where they tend to kill tax collectors. The dragon and Malachai contemplate tax collecting methods.
The dragon, bemoaning his career, "No, I get stuck in a backwater because I'm a big, strong brute who doesn't burn very well."
The dragon agrees to have Malachai and "his women" along for company, as long as the women don't go running off screaming or anything like that. Serena lets herself be reassured that the dragon won't eat her, and Tazik says she's made replacement teeth for a dragon that came by at one point, who claimed they were taken by some guy in a skirt who said he was going to sow them into the ground.
When they arrive at the dragon's base camp, they see three young ladies tightly bound to stakes. The stakes have one end driven into the ground, and have tooth marks on their tops.
Malachai goes over to say hello to the helpless maidens, and they aren't very talkative. He ungags them, and they start screaming the usual litany, "save us, help us, ..."
Malachai waits for them to finish whining. They fail to do so, until Tazik looks them up and down and says, "What a waste". That causes two of them to shut up, and Malachai takes the opportunity to mention that soon the dragon will be returning and he'll see about getting them released.
Not too much later, the dragon returns, having acquired legitimate tax from the villagers after having crushed two of the buildings. It asks Malachai to finish freeing the maidens, if they give their word not to run away.
Malachai goes to the bound babes and tells them that if they stay here, they'll be safe, but if they run away, the dragon will hunt them down and kill him. He unties the first two, then ungags the third, who starts screaming again. After a few attempts to calm her, he gives up and regags her.
Tia -- "Malachai and his bondage women"
As the dragon heads off to another village, Tazik asks if it would like a rider. The dragon soon lumbers off with Tazik on its back. Serena sets up camp and starts making supper, showing off her frontier skills.
Tia -- "Hurry up, marry her, and get her pregnant so you can leave her at home."
Toon Infestation? Call the Dworkin Man!
Serena offers some food to the gagged woman, who starts screaming immediately upon being ungagged. Serena, exhibiting far less patience with hysterical women than Malachai, shoves the gag back into her mouth. Food is good.
Serena prevents the women from fawning over Malachai, so both of them fawn over Bucephalus. Bucephalus tolerates them. The dragon and Tazik return, carrying another maiden. Tazik hands the maiden down. Serena ungags her, and the first words out of her mouth are an incantation which causes the campsite to burst into fire. The dragon stamps around putting out the fires. Malachai tries a power word disrupt, but the magical effect is already over, and the fire continues burning. Tazik taps the woman on the shoulder, and when she turns around, Tazik says, "That wasn't very polite", and punches her in the face. She drops.
The dragon pulls out a large tablet and starts tracing diagrams on it with a claw. It explains that the tablet is a communications device - he has to report in as soon as he's done. Footprints appear on the tablet, and the dragon warns them that there is some unrest, due to a group of religious fanatics that are trying to convert by the sword. The dragon suggests that they tie the two uncooperative women to its back and move to a different campsite.
They move on, and there is a sudden, hard shift. Malachai and the dragon chat - the dragon agrees to show Malachai how to spot the signs near the places where one moves between areas of the forest.
They arrive at a trading post to get some new clothing for the two who were joining them voluntarily; Serena loads up on perfumes and trinkets. The dragon puts the bill on the Emperor's tab. One of Serena's trinkets is a laser, which she accidentally triggers as they walk out the door.
The dragon tries to show Malachai the signs before the next shift, but Malachai cannot see them. After the shift, they're in a crystalline forest. Serena accidentally triggers the laser again.
Another shift later, and they're on the edge of a bustling city. Tazik is impressed.
The dragon takes them into a building, and into a large voice-operated freight elevator. The sorceress, having worked her gag free again, kicks out a few power words. Malachai tries to disrupt, and..,. nothing happens. No magic here. They disembark from the elevator into a room filled with nightmareish creatures that have the attitude of accountants. The dragon reports in, then takes them to the emperor.
All living tax has to be presented to the emperor. "It's kind of embarrassing to present a flock of chickens to the emperor"
Malachai picks up an anti-magic stick to keep the sorceress from causing trouble. When they reach the throne room, everyone's clothing appearance changes into formal 17th century garb. There's a monkey lounging in something that looks like a candy dish.
Presenting to the emperor...
Dragon: "this is Malachai of Amber"
Emperor Mor, excitedly: "Random's son?"
Malachai: "No, his nephew"
Apparrently, Random's pharmacetical knowledge is well known and respected in this place. The emperor gives Malachai a pendant with a likeness of the emperor on it, saying that with that Malachai will not need to pay for anything while in his kingdom. Malachai presents Serena and Tazik; the emperor flatters them.
The emperor says that the taxes owed by the bondage babes are the equivalent of one years' work. The empire seems to be a very lax place. "She's the one who won't shut up? Put her into the dungeons until she becomes reasonable" "And the other one - she's a sorceress? Give her to Lady Belatrins. She was once a sorceress..."
A celebration happens. There is a compulsion to celebrate. Malachai tries to resist. Serena is exubrient, Tazik is taciturn, examining how things are put together. Malachai feels like celebrating more when the monkeys are around. When there are more than three monkeys around, he cannot resist celebrating.
After the celebration, they crash for the night.
Ilkandacian is still hiding from the Pattern and the Logrus in a badger hole. After having spent a week teaching cross-shadow magic to Randall, his host's, daughter, Ilaryn, the time for the Gathering arrives. The Gathering is a periodic event when the various badger clans gather at the site of a host clan in order to conduct business, scheme, and politic.
Ilkandacian attends as a member of Randall's clan, and carries a favor given to him by Ilaryn. The favor is magically bugged, of course, but done subtly enough that he doesn't think that many of the locals would be able to spot the spell. Additionally, the bug is cross-shadow. Ilk comments on the cross-shadow nature of the bug, and Ilaryn replies that she doesn't want anyone barging in. She suggests that she wouldn't mind being bethrothed, and Ilk replies that he will be leaving to return home at some point in the not-so-distant future. She retorts that she can just travel with him, Ilk responds that if going were that simple, he could already be there, returning could be as difficult as the going, and generates an illusion of his human form, placing a badger in the image for scale. She replies that she could just sit on his shoulder and whisper... spells into his ear, and could just travel with him while he is in this set of shadows. Ilk retreats from the field of battle.
Lots of business happens at the gathering - far more business than politics, as far as Ilkandacian can observe. Several days into the gathering, a couple of badgers come up to him and ask him to bring a gift to the leader of his clan. Ilk examines the gift, and notices that it is very subtly tainted with a slow poison. He then takes the gift, eats it, shifts to neutralize the poison, and states that he will give the intent of their gift to Randall. As it turns out, the gift was a food substance, so the threat falls flat. The giver takes offense at Ilk's treatment of his gift, and, demanding satisfaction, challenges Ilk to a magical duel.
Ilkandacian considers his the duel-related portions of the briefing he received before the gathering. It mentioned that he shouldn't beat people in duels too severely and tip his hand. Ilk is speculating about how to proceed in order to best glorify Randall's clan, when he receives a message from him, stating that he has heard from his daughter that Ilk is about to enter a duel, wishing him luck, and asking him to uphold the clan's good name. Ilk speculates out loud for the bug's benefit as to what the most effective way to humiliate his opponent would be, and shortly thereafter another note arrives. This note mentions that he is listed as one of the clan's top defensive specialists, so he might want to humiliate his foe by simply not attacking.
A judge arrives and leads Ilkandacian to a circle inscribed with crude but effective magical wards. Ilk and his challenger enter the circle, the wards are raised, and the duel begins. The challenger casts a spell, and Ilk decides to simply ignore it rather than to unweave it as it is being cast. The challenger continues to throw spells at Ilk, who ignores them and eats their power.
After a while, Ilk notices that the dust that his opponent has been pulling out of a pouch at his waist and throwing into the air with each casting isn't being consumed like a normal spell component, but is slowly drifting towards him. Upon further analysis, the dust appears to be some form of spore, probably intended to do something nasty to him. Ilk sets up an matrix in the center of the area to attract the spores and keep them from drifting where they might do some harm, and the spores start coalescing into the pattern of a tic-tac-toe game. A bit later, Ilk's foe collapses, seemingly due to fatigue. However, it is apparent to Ilkandacian that his foe is faking - he has more energy than he is exhibiting.
The judges declare the duel over and Ilkandacian the victor, and drop the wards. Ilk remains ready to catch any more spores thrown by his attacker, and magically pents a handful that his opponent tosses into the air, and then seals the pouch containing the spores. The judge asks him why he still has that magical construct up -- the duel is over -- pointing to the spore attractor matrix. Ilk ignores him and dances the collected spores in front of his foe, who screams, jumps up, and runs off into the crowd. The judge demands to know what Ilkandacian has done to his opponent after the duel was over, and Ilk points to the spores and says, "Cleaning up". Ilk seals the spores and ignites them, then, as an afterthought, telekenetically fetches his opponent's pouch adds it to the fire.
"Plague!" echoes across the burrow as badgers panic, beginning with the judge. "Don't worry - I'm dealing with it", Ilk mentions to the judge standing next to him, as he pumps some more power into incinerating the spores. The spores are hard to burn, and keeping the smoke contained is annoying, but through the judicious application of far too much power, they are destroyed.
Randall arrives with another judge. They generate an illusion of the duel, and watch the challenger pulling the spores out of his bag and sending them wafting towards Ilkandacian. The judges huddle briefly, then declare that the challenger, his clan, and all who interact with them are excommunicated. Their burrows are to be torn open to the sky, exposing them to the birds. Nasty. Badgers go scurrying off to sever all of their ties to the excommuniated clan, and Ilk's host asks him what the issue was with that gift that supposedly caused the duel. Ilkandacian replies that it must have been just a ruse to excuse a duel. Randall then begins loudly congratulating Ilk on his victory and his skill and timeliness in exposing this terrible scheme to destroy their entire society, and Ilk joins in, turning it into a mutual back-patting society. Randall uses the opportunity to give his clan a PR boost, implying that Ilk is one of the more reclusive members of his clan who is a possible suitor for one of his decendants, and one of the many powerful mages in his clan...
The GM is a liar.
After Ilk's host has finished publically glorifying his clan and Ilkandacian for exposing and stopping this plot, he recommends that they return to their own burrows, because Ilk must surely be tired after that duel. Actually, Ilk is still filled with the energy that he drained from his opponent, but he plays along, managing not to bounce as they walk to a commerce gate to return. Once they are within Randall's burrow, he asks Ilk, now that there are only friendly ears listening in, what really happened to start the duel. Ilk explains the poisoned gift, the nature of the poison, and his response to the gift. That poison would have caused his host's death and would have greatly hurt the clan.
Randall suggests that they rest, to cover up the fact that Ilk has more stamina than the normal badger. Ilk heads to an un-used byway and dumps the excess energy that he acquired during the duel into a power source, and notices that it contains an energy tap. His opponent was trying to tap into his energy, but now that link can be used to suck him dry in return. Ilk contemplates tracking down the plague spreader, just to make sure that their clan doesn't try anything else. Upon realizing that going to their burrow to kick ass would count as trafficing with them and get his host clan excommunicated as well, he asks Randall what would be an appropriate form in which to go a-hunting. Randall suggests a grey badger -- they separated from us some time ago and never agreed to our laws, so couldn't be expected to know about or follow the exommunication rules. Ilk tweaks his shape until it matches that of a grey badger.
Randall calls out, "Daughter, I know you're listening to us. Come here". Ilaryn translocates in from the blue crystal shadow. She volunteers to join in the raiding party, but is discouraged from doing so, since she can neither shapeshift to disguise her form nor be concealed effectively by an illusion. She modifies the bug such that it can work two-way, grumps about Ilk getting all of the fun, and then tells him that she is working on a present for him, and that normally only betrothed exchange presents, but she hopes that he won't be offended, but that she wouldn't mind being bethrothed. Sigh. She returns to the blue crystal shadow to act as backup, pointing the shadow gate away from her father, but towards Ilk. Ilk teleports out to the burrow of the newly excommunicated clan via several hops to disguise his path.
The burrow is empty. Ilk quickly determines that it is abandoned, and that the roof was caved in about a month ago. Poking a probe outside the burrow, he observes many dead badgers and a few dead birds. The badgers were killed by beak or claw, and the birds are unmarked, but have plague spores inside their brains. Ilaryn points out that some of the month-dead badgers are the ones that challenged him to the duel earlier that day. Curiouser and curioser. It also appears that the area around the burrow is saturated with the plague spores. Ilk sets up an attractor to clean up the spores, then, remembering that the judges were going to gate in to oversee the excommunication of this burrow and cave in its roof, constructs a teleport block over the area and strengthens it to a degree such that it probably couldn't be penetrated by anyone using only local magic. Ilk asks Ilaryn to warn her father about the plague danger and convince him to stall the judges, and she replies that he is already briefed on the situation.
The spores appear to have been set up where they would contaminate someone coming in to cave in the roof of the burrow, leading Ilk to wonder just how many traps were nested within traps here -- the poison to the duel to the excommunication to what? He looks for and notices two old teleport traces heading away from here. Finally, after pumping more power lent by Ilaryn into the attractor, Ilk is confidant that the free spores are all pent. He then sheds his fur, shifts to a silicon-based brain, and expels the spores from his body and stacks the infected bird bodies next to the spores.
A bird decides that Ilkandacian would make a good lunch, and stoops on him. Ilk magically zots it, but it eats the magic and keeps going, cutting a path through the teleport block. Ilk shifts for more armor and zips up the block behind the bird, who dulls its claws on his carapace, fails to lift his greater than two-hundred pound badger-sized body, then falls to the ground, too shocked to fly. Ilk crushes it. and adds its body to the pile. He considers leaving the spores pent safely for the judges to find, but, upon realizing that they would just exile the judges in order to avoid the risk of contamination, teleports the spores and bird bodies into the sun, checks again for stray spores, then drops his teleport block and teleports to the blue crystal shadow.
Ilaryn is shaped like an elf. She's six foot six inches tall, has pointy ears, large eyes, and is extraordinarily beautiful. It appears to be her natural form. She says that this is the present that she was working on for him. "Now can I travel with you?" Ilk is stunned into silence. Ilaryn says that she broke the spell, but after being prompted for details on the spell, describes shapeshifting, saying that she just felt her way into this form. Ilk shifts to his human form, and she says, "Very nice."
Ilk tries to recover by asking if the judges have arrived at the burrow yet. She says that Randall and the judges have entered the dead burrow, and are investigating what could have caused this. Ilaryn casts bugs through the two old teleport traces, to reveal old tunnels at the far ends of each of them.
Ilk checks again for contamination on him and then shifts back to badger form. He asks Ilaryn if she would like to shift back as well and join him in tracking down the power tap, and she replies that she would like to remain here as backup, so she can pull him out instantly if he gets into trouble. Ilk flees to the burrow and backtracks the power tap. It's cross-shadow.
Back to the index.