theworldofdreams.com

*as dictated by my mage brother Kayn*

I was doing guard quests today and feeling pretty good. Earlier I had cast Enervare on a horse that was munching on the wheat outside of my house and gained a good amount of buffs that combined with Bless, Protection and Polymorph made me feel as if I could wrestle an Ogre Lord with one hand tied behind my back. Um, well, cast spells at an Ogre Lord with one hand tied maybe! I trotted my horse Aura down the sandstone streets of Trinsic, listening to the clip clop of her hooves and admiring the play of light over her glossy, obsidian hide.

I asked Clifford the Guard for a quest and he mentioned that a titan had been causing problems outside of the Shabooli fort and if I had the time, would I mind taking care of it for him? I said, "Sure, Clifford, I'd be happy to send another evil begotten titan shrieking into the utter depths of hades." He paused and raised an eyebrow at me. I looked away for a moment and refrained from blushing. "Umm, sorry, I tend to wax eloquent sometimes. Sure, I'll be happy to kill him." Clifford sighed and turned away muttering something about waxing my eloquent and I hastily made a gate.

When I arrived, I meditated and summoned two earth elementals. The ground around me shuddered and rippled as it formed into a pair of hulking elementals whose eyes glimmered with the most minimal amount of intelligence. I smiled cheerily and said, "Hail and well met, o' sons of the earth. Thank thee for coming to my aid." The right hand elly glanced at his brother with a puzzled expression. The left hand one shrugged and grunted. I sighed and said, "Let's go kill stuff, 'k?" They both grinned at me, a most horrible experience I must say, and shook their earthy heads vigorously.

We hunted about the fort but could not find the titan. I headed up next to the fort's palisade from the far eastern end. The thick logs that were lashed together to form the palisade must have been cut a very long time ago because most of the bark had flaked off and they were worm eaten. A tiny scarab beetle scurried out from under Aura's hooves. Up above I spied the fallen, golden form of a titan! Sitting on her horse next to it was Ciara!

"Hail! How are you?", I said smilingly, happy to see her again. Ciara was dressed in varying shades of purkle and smiled back somewhat grimly.

"I was fine until this blasted titan spawned on top of my head. I had to kill the blasted thing before he woke everyone up in the fort." she remarked.

"Oh, I am on a guard quest. I bet he is the one I was supposed to kill off. Why thank you so much."

"No problem, he was bugging me.", she remarked. "I am on a Adventurer Guild quest. I have to get 15 Shabooli hunter heads in two days. I have 3 so far." she said glumly.

"Well, the fort looks full. Let's go in and clear it out!" I suggested enthusiastically. Ciara eyed my dirt buddies and smiled. "Ok!"

We moved carefully through the fort's entrance and immediately encountered Shabooli archers and witch doctor's. Ciara switched to her bow and began shooting archers full of holes while I sent my earthen minions to mash the witch doctor's into the ground, which they enthusiastically set to. Carefully, we covered the entire interior of the fort, flushing out Shabooli's and sending them shrieking into the utter...umm, well, we killed them and looted 'em. Several hunters appeared and Ciara gleefully separated them from their heads. After it was all over, we sat outside the fort talking. I was about to head back to Trinsic with my titan head when another large group of Shaboolis began to fill the fort. Well, I couldn't miss out on this!

As the first time, we started to move in slowly but my new set of earth elementals got over enthusiastic and chased Shabooli witchdoctors every which way. That, of course, caused other Shaboolis to leap out from hiding. In no time, the interior of the fort buzzed like a disturbed hornet's nest. Ciara smiled grimly as she alternated shooting Shabooli bodies full of arrows and slicing them thinly with her rapier. I felt sort of useless in a way, sitting there on Aura watching my earth elementals cause havoc and not doing anything active so I dispelled a few elementals that witch doctors and warlocks summoned and then rode forward a bit to direct my somewhat vague elementals a bit better.

That was a mistake. The Shaboolis looked at me and one of them said, "Hey, where's your leather skirt?" I blinked and said, "Ummm, well, I gave at the office and that is what they wanted." He nodded his head sagely until his companion whacked him on the back of the head and said sternly, "That is an enemy mage, you idiot." The first looked at me and demanded, "Is that true?" I noted that my elementals were nearly out of sight and they were so busy they probably wouldn't hear me yell for help. I had studied the Shabooli language and adopting their accent, I said, "Oooga booga, wonka willy, I am just a nice Shabooli." I sat there confident I had fooled him until his smart ass friend said smugly, "We aren't nice." and tried to poke a hole through me with his spear.

I was outraged and galloped away from him but they called other Shaboolis and all of a sudden I was the focus of some very unfriendly eyeballs. Ciara was methodically creating havoc about her so I quickly summoned two more earth elementals to protect me. A group of several witch doctors and warlocks grinned nastily as the summoned swarms of bees and grasping roots to entangle me. Ciara dodged a vertical wall of water that descended from the sky like an airborne tsunami. I felt offensive spells slam into me and before I could cast magic reflection, more hit me. My health sank alarmingly and rapidly like an out of control elevator! I galloped toward the gates as more spells struck me. I saw only red but I was almost out of the gates. However, a teensy little fireball that was the size of an coin followed me and everything just went black...

Yes, I had died again! As I stood there morosely I hoped I hadn't left Ciara in a lurch. At least my new elementals would help cut down the odds. Suddenly, she galloped out the gate with Shabooli and MY elementals after her. She muttered a few things I was glad I didn't quite hear and after killing off her attackers, ressed me. I apologized for dying and she laughed and cast greater health on me.

I was amazed, she had been surrounded by Shabooli of all type, fighting off fire elementals, earth elementals, air elementals and not a hair out of place or the least bit out of breath. I shook my head and retrieved my possessions, then remounted my patient Aura and started putting all my clothes and armor back on.

When I was done, I rebuffed and helped kill off the last few Shabooli that were left alive inside the fort. Ciara had pretty much cleared the slate except for a few fugitives hiding in bushes. After we were done, I thanked her again for the excitement and the ress. She smiled sweetly and remarked, "You supplied the excitement, I just ressed." I sighed as I thought of my earth elemetals running amuck and saluted her. Summoning a Gate, I traveled back to Trinsic.

Clifford strode up to me as I appeared and said, "Forsooth, brave adventurer, did thee send yon titan wailing into the utter depths of hades? Hmm, I heard you wailing too awhile back. You aren't supposed to follow them!" I growled and threw the head at him.