[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: Our heroes got a bad case of saddle sores as they went on their first ride out of Crossroads, heading towards Gateway via The Gap. They discovered, much to their soreness, that it's not easy to enjoy riding horses, not at first, even with Sophie's able tutelage.] [Our heroes also learned of a possibly helpful correspondence in languages. In particular, Japanese seems to correspond to the tongue of elves in this strange land, while Spanish is the tongue of something called an orc, and Arabian is a tongue that a pair of men REALLY didn't like, but could not be identified. Will this develop further? Only time will tell!] [We open in the middle of first watch, taken by Nick and Chiaki, presumably so they can do a little light... nevermind. We'll see. Maybe something important will happen tonight. Maybe it won't.] [Session... START!] * The fire crackles merrily. * Emmet sleeps like the dead. * Nick is still awake, mostly. * Fadi sleeps, and stuff. * Chiaki sits and doesn't say much. She sifts through the contents of her bag briefly, then sits back and sighs. * Sophie sleeps peacefully. * Nick is keeping himself occupied by polishing his weaponry and listening to his CD player. * Chiaki glances at Nick occasionally, but she eventually slips a book out of her bag and starts reading instead. * Nick puts both weapons away and slips the headphones off two minutes later. "So, you're from Japan?" * Chiaki glances up from her book. "Yeah. And you're American, aren't you?" Yeah. * Chiaki smiles a little. "I've never been there, America...but I was supposed to go there on an exchange program next year." Heh, that's cool. Never really thought about going to another country.. * Chiaki nods. "I haven't really traveled much, myself, but American culture always seemed interesting to me." She shrugs and smiles. "I guess it was useful that I took all those lessons, though." Oh, yeah, your English is really good. * Chiaki smiles again. "Thanks. I try to practice it as often as I can." You'll get plenty of opportunity here. Lots of people speak it. * Chiaki is about to answer when she starts to attention. "There's someone...or something out there," she says quietly. * Nick leans forward, the sheathed short sword appearing in his hand in a flash. "You don't say." * Chiaki grips her new longbow in hand and nods. "It's out there, beyond the firelight. I can't tell what it is, though." * A wave of energy, unseen but definitely not unfelt, washes over Chiaki and Nick, tugging at their eyelids and gently urging them to sleep. * Chiaki blinks. "W-what was that?" * Nick shakes his head and stands up, unsheathing his sword. * Chiaki doggedly remains awake. I dunno. * Chiaki draws an arrow from her quiver and readies her bow. "Something didn't feel right, though. Should we wake everyone?" Let's wait for a second. * Chiaki nods in response and keeps her eye on where she believed the figure to be. * Nick hears, from the west side of camp, a soft murmur of someone speaking. A moment later, a second wave of energy crashes down on both Nick and Chiaki. Nick has no trouble whatsoever resisting, his curiosity piqued by the sound of speech, but Chiaki has no such luck and nods off where she stands, retaining just enough presence of mind to sit gently down and then lay back. ..Aw, crap. Dammit, everybody, wake up! * Nick walks over to Chiaki, grabs her shoulders, and shakes her. * Chiaki startles awake. "Did I fall asleep?" Yep. * Chiaki picks up her bow and the arrow she had in hand, quickly standing up. I don't know what happened... * Chiaki scans the edge of the camp again. * Emmet sits up in his tent and immediately reaches for the weapon nearest at hand. His fingers tighten around the haft of his greataxe and he emerges from tent, blinking owlishly. "What's goin' on?" We're under attack, soldier-boy. * Chiaki manages to pick out the rough outline of a man standing outside the radius of the firelight, making him rather difficult to spot. * Chiaki points in the direction of the man. "There he is! It's a man." ... Hey, you! Stop trying to put us to sleep! * Fadi rustles awake and instinctively charges out with his greatsword in-hand. "What the fuck is going on?" * Chiaki shouts to their attacker, "Hey, you! Kisama! Nani shittennoyo!" * A masculine voice comes from the darkness. "Fine, fine. Hold your fire, I'm coming in." I think we're about to find out. * Chiaki lowers her bow slightly, but she looks indignant. * Nick sheathes his short sword and pulls out his knife. And stop gibbering at me like that. I'm not an elf, damn it. * Fadi rolls a couple of his joints. "Good." He slings the balderic on his back and checks over his equipment. * Sophie yawns and blinks herself awake. "Bloody hell, now what?" We've got a visitor, folks. Sophie, you might want to stay inside, because, well.. I've seen you just after you woke up. * Chiaki huffs. "Elf? Oh, right. Elves speak Japanese here." She makes a face. "Who are you, and what are you trying to do?" * Sophie comes out, and even with her hair disheveled still looks pretty. She's carrying her sword in one hand. "Oh, sod off, wanker. What's with the bloody noise?" * The vague outline quickly becomes clearer as the man takes several steps closer. There is a long, supple wand in his hand, and he wears no armor, in spite of being fairly well built. His dark hair and well-tanned skin blend in quite well with the darkness, which may explain why you had such a hard time seeing him. Or maybe it's his cloak, which even now seems to be shifting oddly, making your eyes hurt to look at it. * Chiaki finds herself studying the patterns on the cloak, but she quickly shakes her head and looks away from it and instead gazes defiantly at the man in front of them, sizing him up. * Sophie looks at the cloak for a minute, then blinks and rubs her eyes. * Emmet glances over at Sohpie, but only briefly. He has not yet put his axe away, and he tries his very hardest to keep his eyes on the peculiar newcomer. *** RDMgryphon (Randoms@dpc6935171138.direcpc.com) has left #EW * Fadi shrugs and relaxes his pose. * The man keeps walking forward until he's just outside of Nick's reach. He frowns a little and finally says, "I see you're still with him." ..Eh? What? * The man's eyes shift to Fadi for a moment. "Him. The one who speaks the tongue of devils." * Sophie yawns. "Yeah, he's a bloody wanker. Who the hell are you?" * Fadi twitches. "So that's what I sound like?" He chuckles. "Maybe Christianity is on to something." The tongue of the devils? * Chiaki glances at Fadi. Yeah, well, Harold's probably off converting the unwashed masses or something. He's probably talking about Arabic. * The man scowls even more, if possible. "I am Quentin of Tyr." You know, 'of tire' isn't the most heroic title.. * Fadi smiles. "Nice to meet you. Name's Fadi Al-Sabir." I mean, it's a glorified wheel. * Emmet looks back and forth between Fadi and the newcomer. "Oh." So if I 'speak the tongue of Devils', as you put it, what do you want with us? * Chiaki frowns slightly and waits. I want you. Or, more specifically, your sword. ..Eh? * Nick glances over at Fadi. * Chiaki blinks. * Fadi raises his eyebrow. "Sorry man, I like my sword. It's kinda important in the 'keeping me alive' bit." * Fadi chuckles. "And I'm kind of attached to my 'other' sword." * Nick can't help but snicker. You cannot control it, boy. It will consume you. Small and ugly though it is. * Emmet looks as though he would love to cover his face with his palm, but he hasn't yet set his axe down. * Chiaki keeps her mouth shut. Okay, then maybe you could tell me what exactly it's going to do? You seem to know a lot about it. I don't know exactly what it will do. But in the end, it will consume your soul. What little soul you have, anyway. And how will giving it to you make it better if it's going to eat my soul? * Emmet grunts. "It'll eat somebody else's soul?" If you don't mind, can the rest of us get filled in on this? * Chiaki nods. "What's going on, anyway?" Because I will see it destroyed. * Fadi shrugs. "And how will I know you won't use it for yourself. It's a very nice sword." Can you do it in the morning, please? I mean, from the looks of it, you were going to attack *us*. I am sworn in the service of Tyr. His will is my will. Who - or what - is Tyr? First, who- Yeah. And second, how do I know you're not lying? I know people who'd say their mother was in traction and needed money for the operation just to get high. Tyr is my god. The god of justice. And you cannot know that I am not lying. In fact, I suspect that you are already in the blade's thrall, and would not believe me no matter the proof offered. * Fadi takes the sword and drops it to the ground at his feet. "Try me." * Emmet watches in silent fascination. I knew that sword was no good. Name the proof you desire. * Chiaki eyes the sword on the ground with a questioning glance. * Fadi shrugs. "I have no clue what the heck Tyr can do. Show me something that will make me believe you're in their service." * The man reaches down to his side and unhooks a warhammer inscribed with a set of scales. He raises it in front of him and chants for several minutes, and then a pillar of flames roar down from the sky to engulf the massive blade lying on the ground. * When the flames retreat a moment later, there is a large charred circle on the ground around the blade... which is completely unharmed. * Chiaki 's eyes widen, and she jumps back a couple steps. * Emmet squints his eyes and turns his head away from the flames, shielding his face with on uplifted arm. "What the--" Wow, that.. didn't work at all. * Fadi steps back as the flames engulf the sword. He whistles. "Nice pillar of fire. Remind me not to piss you off." * Quentin's eyes go wide. "But..." * Chiaki mutters, "Shinjirarenai." But? * Sophie rubs her head. "Not half as peculiar as some of what I've seen." * Chiaki glances up at Sophie. "...You've seen stranger things here?" You mean other than the dragon? Yeah. Sadly, yes. * Emmet shakes his head to flear out the spots formed by a blazing inferno shooting out of a dark night. "Fadi, didn't you buy that sword from Alfred?" The evil is... more powerful than expected. * Chiaki stares at the charred circle again. "...What kind of place -is- this?" Nah. That sword got busted when I found this one. Oh. Big surprise. Okay, so either the sword is really powerful and evil, or maybe it's not evil and just really powerful? Or maybe it's just somethin' cool? Where the hell did you get that thing, Fadi? ..No pun intended. THAT doesn't sound like a question I've heard before... Like I said, I found it. There, the cat's out of the bag. I didn't kill someone for it, I didn't buy it off a pot dealer, I found it. * Emmet frowns pensively. "But where WAS it?" Where? Stuck in a stone in the middle of the forest? Given to you by a mysterious hermit? With that bag of food? Yeah. * Chiaki blinks. "When was this?" * Fadi glances over at Chiaki. "Before you came around." He looks back at Quentin. On our way to the little place back there. Ah. Yes, Fadi came across a sword and led us to believe he killed someone for it. Hey, I didn't lead you to it. You jumped to *that* conclusion yourself. * Nick groans and rubs his forehead. You told us you might have, and from what I know about you, it's entirely plausible. * Chiaki sighs and sits down somewhere nearby. * Fadi rolls his eyes at Sophie. "You don't know *that* much about me. Anyways, I told you where I got it." You're right. I only know what I've seen. * Sophie looks at the priest. "By all means, take the sword. I, for one, will be glad to be rid of it." * Nick sits down next to Chiaki, still rubbing his temples. * Quentin levels his gaze at Fadi and waits. * Chiaki says quietly to Nick, "Um, does Fadi really kill people often?" * Nick sighs. "The only time he has was when the guy had turned into a tiger and tried to kill a horse." * Fadi shrugs. "I saw the fire, but I didn't see anything from Tyr. I'm still not sure if you're telling the truth." I will have the sword, one way or another. * Chiaki shudders a little and replies quietly, "I suppose that's a good enough reason." He's a good guy. ..Sort of. * Chiaki nods silently. "He seems nice...but I guess all this talk of killing things - and people - just makes me nervous." Well, we've had to kill goblins and stuff, but that 's it.. I guess it is pretty dangerous here. * Fadi shrugs. "From what I've seen, and mistake me if I'm wrong. You've came snooping around our camp, demanded the sword I posess, insulted my heritage, tried to destroy the sword in a pillar of flame and failed, and am now threatening to K.O. anyone standing in your way from what you want. Doesn't sound very justifiable, if you ask me." Yeah, kind of. * Quentin twitches. "You're already being corrupted. Be warned, if I must destroy you to destroy the sword, I will." * Quentin turns his back and walks out into the darkness. ..Well, I'm not sleeping tonight, I'll keep watch. * Sophie looks after him, then grumbles. "Bloody hell, I'm going back to bed." * Sophie does that! It's probably my turn to watch, anyway. I'll stay out here with Nick. * Fadi shakes his head. "That guy just doesn't make sense." He heads back into the tent, carrying his sword. * Chiaki glances at Nick. "Are you sure you don't want to rest? You seemed tired." I've got enough stamina for *hours*. * Nick grins. * Chiaki blinks, then laughs. "Okay, then. I think I'll go and try to get some sleep." Aw, alright. Seeya later. * Emmet seems oblivious to any double entendre that might have been in Nick's remark. "I'll make the rounds," he offers. "I've got to walk off some of this stiffness." * Chiaki picks up her bag and heads off to the tents. Sure. * Nick pulls out his crossbow and props himself up on his backpack. * Emmet paces out a sketchy perimeter around the campsite. He takes care to keep his eyes away from the fire, so as not to be night-blinded as he stares out into the darkness. * It is quite a long time until the sun rises, but apparently this priest doesn't feel like making a second attempt. * When the sun finally does rise, it rises on a VERY tired Nick. Gruh. * Nick staggers upward, tottering over to his tent. * Berserk photon warriors run screaming up Sophie's optic nerve to assault her brain. * Sophie starts awake. "Argh! I've STILL got a headache." * Fadi wakes up. "Nice of you to tell us. Now... We need to get hunting." * Chiaki wakes up and stumbles sleepily from her tent. * Nick slowly starts packing his tent up. * Fadi starts packing his tent up. * Chiaki helps with the tents. * It takes little time to get the camp packed up, and the remains of the fire smothered. Now it's time to travel. Too bad certain people are still sore from yesterday. * Sophie gets up and starts packing, also tending to the horses. * Emmet rubs at his eyes and sets about breaking his tent down without complaint or hesitation. He helps the others with their tents, as well. * Nick looks like walking death, but manages to pack the tent into his saddlebags. * Emmet watches Sophie tend to the horses. "Oh," he sounds crestfallen. "We're riding." Naturally. * Sophie mounts up. Nick, are you okay? Did you sleep at all? I'm fine.. * Nick sort of half-staggers, half-flops onto his horse. I'd take that as a no. * Emmet climbs into his saddle, trying his best to emulate Sohpie's apparently effortless movements. He didn't sleep during my watch. * Nick holds out a hand to Chiaki. * Emmet discovers that emulating Sophie is difficult, as his ass protests most vigorously this horrible mistreatment. * Fadi puts on his armor and climbs into the saddle of the horse he had after un-tieing it or something. "Let's get going." * Chiaki takes Nick's hand and climbs onto the saddle. * Fadi doesn't try to emulate Sophie. "Geeze, how the hell do you sit in these things for days on-end?" Gnnk. "You probably have to grow callouses on your thighs and ass," he speculates. * Chiaki winces. * Nick doesn't seem like enough of his brain is functioning to feel pain. You just need to understand your horse. Probably a lost cause, in your case. Glad you have such a high opinion of me. Quite. * Nick flicks the reins. "Let's just get going.." * Sophie nods. Huh. I know what calloused hands and feet are like. I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to a calloused ass. [And so our heroes ride off into the sunrise.] [Session... END]