Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] Beat ya to it.
Date:	01-01-11 03:56:03 EST
From:	darklord@compusmart.ab.ca (His Dark Lordship)
Reply-to:	ffml@egroups.com
To:	ffml@egroups.com (ffml), hilliondynasty@egroups.com (Hillion Dynasty), ReCoN3dfx@aol.com (Shadow)

"Kenaron, dammit. Next time we have a job, make sure we actually have a
job." grumbled Ladaku as Kenaron sat against the wall in the alley.

"Look, I'm not the one that insisted that we stop in at that Shadowbrooke
place, kupo. I still don't get what you saw in that place, kupo. All that
was there was some rubble, and the tavern whores were pretty nasty too,
KUPO!"

"They always have been..." muttered Ladaku.

"Eh?" asked Kenaron. Ladaku shrugged.

"Well, since we have no current source of income after all, what do you
suggest we do?"

"Kupo, look for work in the city? Nikeah's an awfully large city, there's
gotta be a damsel in distress somewhere, kupo." Kenaron winked.

"Very well. Shall we go?"

They got up and began wandering.

Nightfall...

Having found their search for work to be fruitless, Kenaron and Ladaku found
themselves squandering their remaining riches on alcahol at the local
tavern.

Well, local would be one term for it. This paticular tavern, noted Ladaku,
was probably the oldest tavern in Nikeah, with a succession of owners who
have put a knightly effort into it's upkeep and it's business.

Ladaku sat with a mug of brandy. Everything was as he remembered it. The
tavern's connection with the inn, the fact it was a second story above a
cider merchant's house, the ninja sitting at the bar drinking silently.

Ladaku chuckled to himself.

"Some things change, some stay the same."

KEnaron, roaring drunk by this time of night, noticed the ninja too and
stumbled over to him.

"'eh, wazzup, kupo? I thought they didn't let you guys out at night, kupo."

Silence.

"Kupo, strong silent type?"

"Leave." said the ninja fairly roughly.

"Fine, fuck you then, kupo."

Kenaron stumbled back to the table that Ladaku was sitting at. Ladaku
chuckled.

"You realize you just insulted what was probably the most feared human ever
to exist?"

"Whaddya mean, kupopo?"

"That's the legendary Shadow, the immortal assassin who supposedly sold his
soul to a daemon so he could live forever and continue killing."

"Oh shut up, kupo. You and your legendary this, legendary that, bullshit,
kupo. Fucking live in the now, kupo."

"Kefka..." muttered Ladaku suddenly.

"Oh, what did I just tell you, kupo?"

"No, it's Kefka. Over there."

"Huh?" asked Kenaron, looking over his shoulder. There, sitting at a table a
few feet away from them was an unmistakable man to anyone who was literate,
which wasn't too many people, mind you, but still. Clad in clothing that
made the Rocky Horror Picture Show look like a Queen's wardrobe, wearing
makeup to boot, while still looking frighteningly masculine. His long face
and fat lower lip, everything, the way he was described the many times he
walked the earth.

"Kefka... he's alive." stammered Kenaron.

"Apparantly."

"My father traced our lineage back a fair ways, back to the Talakupa during
the days of Turan. My ancestor was bedridden for life because of him."

"I'm sure you're not the only person that has a beef Kenaron, but you're the
only person that does that is too drunk to stand and four feet away from
him, so sit down and shut up." grumbled Ladaku.

Kenaron muttered an ugly kupo under his breath.

"Brood as you wish." muttered Ladaku as he eyed another man sit down next to
Kefka. "I'm going to do some eavesdropping."

"That sounds great, kupo, so am I."

"No, you're gonna sit there and drink like the hopeless drunk you are." said
Ladaku sternly.

"Why the hell can you hold your alcahol like that, kupo? Is that some weird
Lizar trait, kupo? Resistance to alcahol or something?"

"Yes, I suppose it is..." grumbled Ladaku as he slowly moved by their table.
Seeing a lone table with a fairly wealthy looking man sitting alone right
next to the pair, he sat down at it.

"So, I have his head." Ladaku said rather quickly.

"Excuse me?" asked the man.

"The hit. Someone going by your name hired me to chop off the head of a
Wilfred Lawrence, I believe."

As the man immediately began to panic as he suddenly began to race through
the possibilities as to why Ladaku had supposedly killed off the dockmaster
of Nikeah, Ladaku focused his hearing on the conversation between Kefka and
his friend.

"Alright, Aracalen, gigs up. You still haven't quite explained it all to
me."

"Kefka, it's simple, really. We have to find the mountain that looks like
Pat Buchanan, because in that paticular area is a rather handy joint known
as the Arsenel of the Gods. At the Arsenel of the Gods, I will be able to
find out the exact location of Crystal Peak, and we can make travel plans
accordingly."

"Crystal Peak..." muttered Ladaku softly.

"Look, I don't know who framed me, but I'm not the one that ordered Wilfred
dead, so take his head and get away from me!" yelled the rich man, who was
red as a beet.

"That's fine, that's fine..." muttered Ladaku as he got up slowly and walked
back to where Kenaron was sitting, rather bored looking.

"So, whadya know, kupo?"

"That I think following those two would be in our best interests."

"Kupo, two minutes ago you said to leave 'em alone."

"Two minutes ago I wasn't worried."

Kenaron looked at him oddly.

"Ladaku, kupo, what the hell's wrong with you?"

Ladaku looked at Kenaron and chuckled.

"A lot of things, my friend, a lot of things. Shall we book a room?"

Kenaron grunted in response. Ladaku got up and passed through the door to
the inn part of the building. The innkeeper looked at him rather oddly.

"Y...yes?"

"Room for two."

"N..n..none of those left, sir. I can put you in with someone I've stuck in
a room of three, though."

Ladaku sighed.

"Fine, fine."

"Alright, here is your key." he handed Ladaku a key with the number 13 on
it.

"Lucky number..." thought Ladaku with a chuckle as he returned to the tavern
and grabbed Kenaron. "Come on, shorty. Time for a rest." he grumbled as the
half asleep drunk moogle grunted in acknowledgement.

Stepping into the room, he tossed the Moogle on the bed. After making sure
he would live through the night, Ladaku closed the door and left the
building. He needed to take a walk.

As he walked out the door to the relic shop into the cool night of the
nikeah port, he almost crashed into a young elven woman in a absolute
panic. A winged elven women. Avariel. Shaking his head, Ladaku continued
on, ignoring the stare he was recieving from her.

The moon was full. A sacred night, as far as Ladaku was concerned. Looking
for an area where he could sit undisturbed, he reflected on that which had
just happened. Kefka was back, that much in itself meant trouble. But the
fellow he was with, that... Aracalen. Something about him gave Ladaku the
chills, especially since he knew of crystal peak.

Ladaku sighed as he sat down. He was too damn old for this shit.

He had been there but five minutes when he heard a commotion coming from a
window. A quick turn of the head revealed it to be a window at the inn. A
quick deduction in his head revealed it to be coming from his room.
Muttering an obsenity, Ladaku ran back to the inn, to the room number and
threw open the door.

A very groggy looking Kenaron was sitting in a corner, with a swaying
crossbow in his hands, with the Avariel he had seen earlier holding a ball
of ice in her palms. An ice spell.

"STOP!" yelled Ladaku. Both of them looked at him, Kenaron looking
overjoyed, and the Averiel with a classic "Oh shit..." look on her face.

(I'll give Lara a chance to catch up here.)
-- 
The eternal lord of darkness...


Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] Moogles here, moogles there, moogles moogles everywhere...
Date:	01-01-12 09:44:57 EST
From:	larathia@mcs.net (Larathia)
Reply-to:	ffml@egroups.com
To:	ffml@egroups.com, hilliondynasty@egroups.com

The wyvern landed gently on the outskirts of what looked to Lia to be a
large city. "Nikeah," said Junior, flatly.

Lia was glad he'd fallen into silence; he had asked too many disturbing
questions of her on the trip, and she had had a hard time providing answers
that wouldn't result in more trouble than she could handle. Her theory that
'moogles equal trouble' had very definitely been confirmed.

Now...how to get away? The others weren't concerned with her, it seemed -
perhaps they knew the wyvern could fly faster than she could. And either
could probably *run* faster than she could, too - most humanoids could,
avariel wings created an incredible drag factor on the ground. Junior and
the big fellow were unconcernedly unbuckling straps, possibly getting a
lunch ready - it had been quite a long trip.

Time for me to fly, then, thought Lia. What they probably *didn't* know was
that an avariel was faster than a wyvern when it came to getting airborne -
providing something of a lead. Less mass to move, so over short distances
she could outfly the huge beast.

She was tempted to freeze the wyvern's feet to the ground, to increase her
lead...but she hadn't the heart. There was something pitiful about any
flying creature that was forced to ferry passengers. She smiled, then - and
enacted a very simple spell. Taking a deep breath and breathing it out, a
sparkle of dewfrost lightly coated the grass around the landing area;
enough to make footing treacherous for the two humanoids, but not enough to
hurt them - and as soon as one slipped on the grass, Lia was up and away.
Free at last! She sped towards the cover of the city without even a single
glance back to see if she was pursued; if she was, looking back would cost
her precious seconds - and if she wasn't it didn't matter whether she knew
it. In only a few minutes, she was safely in the bounds of the city, in the
midst of the market square.

Oh, the beauties for sale! But humans preferred gold to barter, it seemed.
Useless, soft, *heavy* gold - which Lia didn't have.  However, she *did*
have most of her strength for spells back, and in the midst of summer even
an unusual looking, fish-and-salt-smelling ice mage could find employment.
Four frozen meat cellars (and for one perverted individual, a frozen
bathroom) later, a hundred heavy gold coins were hers to spend.

If there's one thing about looking and smelling like you're in dire need of
a bath, it's that you can buy many things at a discount - shopkeepers were
willing to cut their rates drastically just so Lia wouldn't stay and haggle
longer. Especially when she bought cakes of soap and other
cleanliness-related toiletry.

The one thing she *didn't* see were public baths, or even public bathing
pools. Nikeans apparently went for indoor refreshment. That meant she'd
have to buy a room at the inn to bathe. The strong need to be *clean*,
really clean, was enough to make her put up with being shut away from the
sky. She glanced up - she still had most of the afternoon, but no telling
how full the inn would be. 

There were no single rooms left. There were no double rooms left. Lia ended
up getting a triple - but convinced the innkeeper to make sure there was a
big tub so she could get things properly cleaned. It didn't take her long,
even though tubs tended to be made of coated cast iron and thus very
problematic to haul around.

It took her the entire rest of the afternoon to get all the sea and other
stinks off of herself and her gear - which she strung up on a string near
the open windows. It took half an hour just to get all the knots out of her
long green hair, and to braid it back up with silver ribbons - but at least
she looked the part of a proper avariel mage now - even down to the
hawker's gloves many wore for the sake of their avian familiars. Feeling
quite cheerful despite being indoors, she then made her way out and to the
docks to see if her companions from the ship had arrived.

No, no ship, said the dockmaster. The next one was expected to arrive day
after tomorrow. Lia thanked him and headed back to the inn. At least she
could make a living here, freezing cellars on commission, until they arrived.

By the time she reached the inn, she was totally absorbed in magical
theory; how best to pull power from the world to, say, freeze a
13-foot-high, 6 feet wide, 6 feet deep meat locker. So she was *very*
surprised when her forward view was suddenly blacked out. Looking up in
panic, all she could see was lizardlike skin - a huge overgrown lizard was
looking at her! She scrambled for a spell to at least slow it down -
lizards were cold blooded, she seemed to remember, so it'd be hard to just
kill it with ice - but then it just shook its head, ignored her, and moved on.

She wondered what other oddities were walking around town. Perhaps she
should look in the common room. It was on her way to her room anyway...

She very quickly decided it would not be to her advantage to stay. The
humans here dressed anywhere from standard fisherman's garb, to solid black
head to toe, to an outlandish costume that looked like Elvira meets To Wong
Foo at Frank N Furter's Castle. Shaking her head at the strangeness of
humans, she headed for her room. She'd get her gear (probably dry by now),
and sleep out on the rooftop.

The room stank of alchohol, even though the windows were still open. Lia
wrinkled her nose; one of her roommates must have arrived. Quickly she got
her clothes off the wire, then turned to see who the person was.

It wasn't a person. It was "Another FUCKING moogle!", Lia growled. "On the
ship, in the air, and now *in my bedroom*!"

"Huh?" mumbled the moogle. It opened groggy eyes - but came as alert as a
drunk can get when it saw Lia and her expression of rage.

"I'm going to freeze your ass to that bed, moogle, see if you can cause me
any trouble there!"

Kenaron saw Lia's hands start glowing silvery-white, got the clue she was a
mage, and grabbed his crossbow - aiming it at her hands. His drink-sodden
brain wondered why she grinned, and her hands got brighter. He stumbled out
of the bed and backed against the wall, still pointing his crossbow
unsteadily at her.

"You draw a weapon, moogle?" she said, and sounded delighted. "Good - then
I don't have to let you live; I can freeze your whole worthless body
instead of just your fuzzy ass. Even Master Arcanis couldn't fault me if
you threaten me, right?"

But just then, the door to the room was thrown open, and the giant lizard
creature was standing in it. "STOP!", it yelled. Both of them looked at
him, Kenaron looking overjoyed. Lia realized that, once again, a moogle had
trailed trouble in its wake. She altered her spell so it would provide a
shield, hoping she could get to the window in time. Once outside, the
moogle could bounce ballsacks with the lizard all night long and she
wouldn't care. But in the morning, she'd have a few words with the
innkeeper, and get a different room.

She just had to get to the window...

Larathia


Subj:	 [ffml] Re: [HD] Moogles here, moogles there, moogles moogles everywhere...
Date:	01-01-14 20:27:13 EST
From:	darklord@compusmart.ab.ca (His Dark Lordship)
Reply-to:	ffml@egroups.com
To:	HillionDynasty@egroups.com, ffml@egroups.com

Ladaku raised an eyebrow at Kenaron. Kenaron simply shrugged.

"You're... our roommate?" he asked finally.

Lia blinked. Looking at the Moogle and the Lizard, she felt somewhat
speechless. This was one of those situations where you're damn if you do
and damned if you don't. If she admitted to it, the pair would probably
consider it thier lucky night and Lia would be fucked... litterally. If she
said she wasn't their roommate, that's breaking and entering and she would
be fucked... most likely litterally.

Ladaku examined the young Avariel with interest. Awfully far way from home,
she was. Ah yes, he recalled. The Avariel had never forgiven the Moogles
for the Moogle wars. Most likely she came in here, saw Kenaron passed out
and felt like she was fighting for her life. She also was eyeing the
window. Ladaku sighed mentally. It was a trifle of a pity she didn't know
what she was dealing with.

"Relax. No one is going to hurt you."

The woman remained silent.

"Fucking kupo..." groaned Kenaron. "Thanks, Ladaku. I thought this crazy
bitch was gonna kill me, kupo."

"Kenaron." said Ladaku. "Do me a favour and close the window. It's a trifle
chilly in here."

Kenaron nodded and shut the window, making sure his crossbow was still
pointed in Lia's general direction. He then leaned agained the shutters.

"Fuck, remind me never to drink again, kupo." he moaned while grasping his
head.

Lia bit her lip. Always too stubborn, she thought to herself. Now she only
had one means out of here, fighting. If she got the lizard out of the way,
she could easily outrun the moogle, however, looking at the lizard's legs
told her there was no way in hell she was gonna be able to outrun that
thing. The first hit had to kill, or at least keep it out of the loop until
she was out of the inn.

The unfortunate fact was that the lizard apparantly had dealt with mages
before, because he apparantly could tell instantly when she began
converting her shield spell to a ice missile.

"Now, now. Don't try anything like that. You wouldn't be able to hurt me
anyway, and I'm not very easy to deal with when I'm angry."

"Quiet, Lizard!" yelled Lia as the ice bolt was launched, blasting right
through the lizard and making a sizable imprint on the wall. The lizard
fell back, and Lia made a mad dash for the door. Out in the hallway, she
quickly decided the easiest means of escape was through the front entrance.
Running with all her might, oh how she hated closed coridors, she heard the
very fast pitter pat of running behind her. She was almost at the door,
almost there, almost there...

A train hit her from behind and redirected her direction to a wall. Her face
pressed against the cedar as a pair of clawed hands pressed her against
it.

"Awfully daring, aren't you, darling?" snarled the lizard. "Now that we've
tried this your way, we'll do it mine."

Lia felt something touching her neck, and felt herself lift off the ground.
It took her a few seconds to clue in that the lizard was carrying her back
to the room much like a mother cat carries her kittens. Carrying her back
into the room, she saw the moogle sitting there with a smug "Now you're
going to get it" look. The Lizard litterally tossed her onto the bed and
slammed the door shut.

Lia let out a loud sigh. She was in for a hell of a night.

"Now then." said the lizard. "You may start by explaining who you are and
why you are here."

Lia stared at him. An interrogation? She was more so expecting to be chained
down, but she supposed this was somewhat more desirable. Unfortunately,
since she was not in the least bit of a liar, she merely blurted out that
which she knew as the truth;

"I am Lia of House Macaw, and I am travelling here with some friends,
however, I arrived early."

The lizard gave out a snicker.

"I am Ladaku, and the moogle you attempted to kill is Kenaron, who is a
worthless drunk."

"Shaddup lizard breath." grumbled Kenaron.

Lia sighed. She didn't give a rats ass about these two. She just wanted to
get out of here.

"So why did you arrive early?" asked Kenaron.

She looked at him oddly.

"Something to do with that huge storm that was at sea a few days ago?" asked
Ladaku suddenly. She blinked. How the hell did he know about that?

Lia finally nodded.

"Hmmm..." Ladaku sat back. "I'll make you a deal. We're currently following
someone. Accompany us and I'll let you continue your life happily."

"And if I don't?" asked Lia boldly, though she immediately scolded herself
for doing so.

"I'll find suitable punishment for attempted murder." said Ladaku with a
grin.

Lia sighed again. She *WAS* in for a hell of a night.

-- 
The eternal lord of darkness...

Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] It's a big frying pan, you'll fit.
Date:	01-01-15 11:35:16 EST
From:	larathia@mcs.net (Larathia)
Reply-to:	ffml@egroups.com
To:	ffml@egroups.com, hilliondynasty@egroups.com

The world was spinning, and her wings hurt.

Those two facts were dominating most of Lia's thoughts right now. Jockeying
for third were 'How does he know about the storm?', 'Why would they want me
along?' and 'Omigod I can't believe I tried to freeze a lizard'. It was a
difficult fight, but the grim implications of 'Why would they want me
along?' were gaining ground.

She'd heard the tales of kupo. She did not want to find out what lizards
called it. She raised her left hand to her heart, palm inward. Whatever
else, they would not have her for that. She could stop her own heart before
even the lizard would be fast enough to pull her hand away. The slowness of
an avariel on the ground was compensated for by unmatched speed in other
respects. She could not kill him - but she did not have to be his prisoner,
either.

That question eased, if not answered, the lizard's question got a place in
her confused jumble of thoughts.

"Follow who?" she asked.

"Now why would I tell you that?" the lizard responded with an open-jawed
showing of teeth she had to interpret as a grin. "You're going to have to
learn to trust, girlie, or you'll just end up a smear on the carpet - and
this inn charges enough as it is."

How would her companions find her if she was not here when they arrived? On
the other hand, it didn't look like there was a lot of choice in the
matter; she could fly away from them the minute they left the inn, but the
lizard carried missile weaponry and was strong enough to get them a long
way. It would be too much to hope that a creature who depened on long-range
weaponry was a lousy shot. And he seemed to be able to follow spellcraft,
which threw out surprising him with any ice.

Which left those skills the avariel kept unique to themselves. None of
which was accessible inside an inn, anyway. She'd have to wait until they
got outside, and then call a bird. It wouldn't be able to fight for her,
but it would be able to find Arcanis when he reached port...and hopefully
would be able to guide him (and by extension the others) to where she was.
It would depend on how much Arcanis knew of avariel, and of birds.

Or maybe not. In a reflexive glance towards the (unfortunately closed)
windows, she saw a little parakeet - probably escaped from a local
housewife's cage. It was watching her through the glass with most
unbirdlike interest. Lia quickly returned her attention to her own
less-than-ideal situation. Whatever it was doing here, the glass would
prevent her communicating with it and she did not want the lizard to kill
it just because it was there.  After all, the parakeet was mostly
green-feathered...and the idea of little feathers as green as her own wings
poking out of the lizard's teeth was simply unbearable.

It decided her.  Although she was in no position to bargain, she decided to
try anyway. Keeping her left hand in position over her heart, she said "If
you and -- " she nodded toward the moogle "agree not to touch me, I will
agree not to attack you nor try to flee. If you know of us, you know we do
not lie."

Ladaku wanted to laugh. He could guess what her hand was there for, and he
had seen the parakeet, though he wondered what good she thought it would do
her.  Avariel just *did not* know how to lose. Ah, well. She'd probably
kill herself in a heartbeat rather than surrender, and there were still
things he wanted to know. And she was right; avariel did not lie. They just
couldn't get their heads around the concept, honesty was built-in. 

It had been a long day. It was time to take a break, and start getting to
the bottom of things in the morning. "All right," he said, and watched her
shoulders visibly sag in relief as Kenaron's eyes widened in surprise.
"Don't worry about her," he said, and finished, "If she breaks her word
I'll kill her, and she knows it."

"Yeah, but it's *me* she'd kill first, kupo," grumbled Kenaron as he
stumbled back to his bed.

"I'll take center, then," replied Ladaku. "You on one side, her on the
other. She has to go through me to get to you. Feel better now?"

Lia quietly went and stood in the indicated corner; she had no use for
beds, and was very much regretting having to be indoors in a closed-in room
with a moogle that stank like ten liquor cabinets. Nevertheless, it
secretly delighted her when a small breeze she summoned to circle around
the room caused the moogle to wrap up in its blanket, muttering something
to the effect of "her fucking ice bolt already *did* go through you, Ladaku".

The breeze made her feel a little better, a little less closed in. Though
it also circulated the stink of drunk moogle. As she entered the trance
state that was the closest she got to sleep, she regretted that she had not
tried the Stink Cloud spell she'd been working on the morning this whole
fiasco started. Too late now, though.

Ladaku noted the breeze, but did not much care. It wasn't an attack, it
didn't matter.  If it kept the avariel from cracking and breaking out the
window, so much the better. There was a lot to do very soon.

Larathia