cliffhanger...

[sythyry]

It's like a Minuet but Moderately Fast [3 Hivvem 4261]

Vae and Zeilock peered at each other.

Trye:"Ma'am, I believe that Captain Zeilock wants you to teleport the ship to the bottom of the tree."

Vae:"And why is that? And doesn't it fly?"

Zeilock:"It is not quite fast enough to get there."

Vae:"And how far is it there?"

Zeilock:"I don't know!"

Me:"Does the World Tree even have a bottom?"

Zeilock:"I don't know!"

Vae:"The let's find out!"

Me:"Let's not!"

Vae:"The I'm curious!"

Trye:"I'm interested!"

Zeilock:"I'm obsessed!"

Me:"I'm doomed!"

Zeilock:"Let's go!"

Me:"Let's fly away from the branch for a while, so that we don't leave more gigantic Locador signs pointing right at Vheshrame Mene."

Everyone else:"What?"

One quick lecture on the fancy theory of magic analysis and Locador magic and nendrai doing really stupid things later, we flew off away from the branch, at top dragonfly-wing speed.

Nendrai From All Around Come Here [3 Hivvem 4261]

One hour of flying away at Gavotte's top speed, and I absolutely refused to let Vae teleport us. Nobody paid me any attention. Vae did decide to be careful. She surrounded Gavotte with some squirmy Locador spells like fans of black claws (to make it easier to manipulate as a single thing), and some squirmy Magiador Illusidor Locador spells like poorly-buttered bread (to make her Locador tracks less screamy-bright from outside the universe.)

And then, travel, nendrai-style. Her best teleport spell surrounded us like a flower of straight black claws and curved black claws, and brought us a great distance down. Zeilock and Trye oooh'ed and aaaah'ed, and compared the scenery with things on their charts, and said that we'd come to the edge of the Pojorian Gap. I helpfully cowered under a table.

Travel, travel, travel. The far edge of the Pojorian Gap. The Sereyn Estates on Telesteia. Somewhere off the edge of Drethshcheia. Zeilock had to get a different chart-book to find that -- a thin chart-book, with lots of gaps.

Travel once more.

Zeilock:"We're off the chart, I think!"

Trye:"No, we're by the Nereidscray."

Zeilock:"Are you sure? ... Oh, yes, you are right. Next time we'll be off the chart."

Vae:"Uh-Oh..."

Me:"What's wrong?"

The Other Nendrai:The wide-ranging and generous and very powerful zap!

Vae:"Ow! That stings!"

Zeilock, Trye, and me:(all die)

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

The AIEE!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Not my best day ever, to be sure! *grin*

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

The yeep!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The ouchy!

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

The once in a lifetime experience!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Lucky whatever-you-are! Thery's had it half a dozen times, and she's not even a doorwayer or anything.

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

But now you can have *two* nendrai to keep you company!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have one prime!

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

The last of a lifetime experience, and it is!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, the last, yes, and if you're unlucky, you get to enjoy it many times before then too.

Die?

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

You know, that is a nasty trick and habit forming. I've chastized many friends, such as Pearlshadow, for their continued indulgance in dying. Don't you go getting started!

Re: Die?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Habit-forming? I'd just as soon not do it again!

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Some of them keep doing it. At least one of them I joke at thier funeral I'll throw a party in celebration that after trying so many times to die, she finally got it right.

Re: Die?

[kistaro]

Yet despite all those who claim such, almost everybody tries it eventually anyway!

[thestra.livejournal.com]

Hum.

If ever you are interested in pursuing a career safer and apparantly better-paying than 'diplomat to scary Monsters', I would be happy to put in a good word for you at the Guild...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I was trying to pursue a career as "Adequate but Slightly Too Hedonistic Student." The Duke had other ideas.

[redbird]

Oh the embarrassment!

(O Zi Ri, my apologies for obscurity--this is a reference to a fiction from my culture, which involves a standard form of apology that runs "I $do_thing. $Elaborate_chain_of_consequences. All [fish] die. Oh the embarrassment!"

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Which of course leads to IF $Fish=Dead AND $Dolphins=True THEN PRINT "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

OOC -- argh, what is that from?

[redbird]

"A !Tangled Web", by Joe Haldeman. (The ! is part of the title, not a typo.)

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

The good thing you allhave bound Heal the Awful Wound spells, what?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, expecting that from primes, the Nendrai used a special 'destroy all bound spells and then zap you' spell?

[(Anonymous)]

He wasn't trying to kill us, actually.

[(Anonymous)]

Not that he was trying to not kill us, either.

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, is that Vae!?!?

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

No... syntax is off.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Vae has not seen my journal. Indeed, considering what I've written about her, I very much hope she never sees my journal.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yes! Very very very yes!

... I hate being an adventurer ...

(All Die)

[winterbeast.livejournal.com]

Well, if everybody is dead, The blog is done, and Mr. Bloom can now attend to other things. interesting way to end a story. a great big Zzap!

Now, we have to wonder, what will he come up with next?

Winterbeast

Re: (All Die)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I'm more competant than that!

... just barely.

-- Sythyry

Re: (All Die)

[winterbeast.livejournal.com]

Okay then, admittedly the world tree will continue past the loss of Sythyry, Vae, and the airship.
How long will it take for them to be missed?
What will happen when they are missed?

Winterbeast

Re: (All Die)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

My translator is too lazy to finish translating the scene in a suitable hurry! The lout -- it has three days off, and still manages to be sluggish on the fourth. Hmph.
(Or read the comments for the obvious next paragraph.)

Re: (All Die)

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

"Well if zie were dying, zie wouldn't have written 'Zzap'."
"Well, maybe zie was dictating."

[bluedeer.livejournal.com]

A rather anticlimactic end to what was surely to be a momentous and climactic journey. Perhaps the next will be better and frought with better advised protection and perhaps, more well equipped navigation to avoid the Nendrai?

Or perhaps, a decently fresh-baked basket of poptaloops from Floooosh. Either way!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the next one won't involve me.

[bluedeer.livejournal.com]

But what fun would that be? What kind of an adventurer turns down a good adventure, no matter how hazardous and rewarding it may turn out to be? Surely you could, O Zi Ri, handle most other shortcomings that may befall your companions properly forewarned in advance?

Or perhaps not. Then again, you have to admit, things certainly did turn out interestingly enough!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be an adventurer. I don't even really want to be an ambassador!

And ... I don't like any "interesting" that includes dying.