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Post by wilson on Jul 29, 2007 21:55:29 GMT -5
Rabbit let Cale drink, only vaguely keeping an eye on him. Mild telekinesis slid the hounds towards Valter. "I'll play harts." He let the mage drink himself silly, explaining the rules quietly. "The rules are simple. You can move four squares every turn, either with just one hound, or with four different ones, or any combination. Your pieces start anywhere on your sides of the board. Hounds can't cross wate, harts can, but harts loose one square going through forests." He set his own pieces out, near to eachother but not close enough to interfere with movements.
"And the hounds start the hunt." He finished, as Cale was starting to lose coherency. He seemed quite alright with Valter's reasons not to drink. Frankly, he wouldn't get intoxicated around himself either. He watched Cael briefly, ooking mildly amused.
"You know, you sound even more stupid when you're drunk." He ignored the rest of the drinks, having absolutely no desire to be inebriated himself.
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Post by cael on Jul 29, 2007 23:01:40 GMT -5
"I feel a little dishy..." He had just finished his fifth pint. "Good thing I gotsh a little backup in this very cashe!" He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small vial filled with a brown liquid. Cael uncorked it and swallowed the tiny amount of liquid in one gulp. Within seconds his face lost all indications of the influence of alchohol. He straightened himself up and smiled with a hint of wisdom in his face. "That little liquid is the anti-drug. Gets rid of all outside, non-magical influences on the body. It's handy in case you're out drinking and someone tries to pull something, or you've got something important to do later. The downside, however, is that it's expensive, and hard to come by. I've only got four more of those little things. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, can I play winner?"
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Post by valter on Jul 30, 2007 12:33:03 GMT -5
Valter glanced sideways at Cael as he continued to slam down more drinks, and raised an eyebrow. "Then again, he sounds more sensible when he's drunk." Valter muttered, before turning his attention back to the game at hand. "Hounds can't cross water, harts lose a square going through forests. So, I guess you're trying to drive my hounds into water, and I'm supposed to surround your harts, is that right?" Valter asked, positioning his pieces near the far edge of his playing field, near the center of the board, keeping each hound one square apart from the other.
He looked up again as the kid decided to speak, and watched with interest as he swallowed some supposedly all-powerful anti-drug. If I end up killing the kid, that'd be something to take not of. he thought. "You could, if you can keep yourself from getting drunk again." Valter said, shrugging the mage off again. "Alright, so I'm supposed to go first..." he moved four of his hounds forward over the line one space.
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Post by wilson on Jul 30, 2007 12:43:05 GMT -5
"Game ends when one of us is down to one piece." Rabbit shrugged, not giving away moe than that. He'd won games against himself by driving stags into the water and surrounding them. The areas of blue painted water just weren't that big. With delicate precision and the ease of long practice, he moved his harts out, oddly sending one into the trees while keeping the rest on the open plains area.
"It takes two hounds to down a hart, and two harts to down a hound." He offered, realizing that it was a rather important rule. He glanced at Cael, wrinkling his nose daintily. "It doesn't do anything for the smell."
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Post by cael on Jul 30, 2007 13:27:03 GMT -5
"The smell? Oh, sorry." He pulled a pill out of another pocket, and put it in his mouth. "That, is what alchemists call a breath mint. It does something with the chemicals in your mouth that make it smell better, but it tastes horrible." He turned his attention to the game board. "I'm still a little fuzzy on how you actually win at this game... I guess I'll just have to watch and learn. As for these last four drinks..." He pulled a mahogany wand out of a pocket and dipped it in each pint of liquor. The liquid was instantly sucked up into it. "Wand of Siphoning. Good if you want to spike a drink later, or can't stand the drink that someone is serving you." He deposited the wand back into his pocket.
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Post by valter on Jul 30, 2007 13:40:25 GMT -5
"Full of tricks, aren't you?" Valter asked the kid with something bordering on amusement. "Heh." Valter glanced down at the game board, and slid a few more hounds to advance towards the harts, still keeping them in a relatively close group. As he slid the last piece into place, an explosion of noise erupted from one of the tables on the other side of the room. Glasses breaking, angry words, the thwack of a punch... With a sigh, Valter covered one of his sensitive ears.
"Now, there's a person called the White Priest, so called hero of Demia." Valter said, keeping his eyes on the game board. "But he's a deceptive con artist. He goes around destroying what he thinks is 'evil', and if you don't believe him..." Valter drew a hand across his throat and glanced significantly at his companions. "He's the guy I want dead."
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Post by cael on Jul 30, 2007 13:51:06 GMT -5
"I suppose there's no use asking if there's any other way to resolve the issue than to kill him? I mean, killing would work and all, but there are thousands of clerics in the Xyndi empire who could easily ressurect him if they believed him to be a hero. What you need is Necromancy... A Soul Bind..." Cael's voice dropped to a whisper. "It's powerful magic, and forbidden too. Even planning on using it is worth an excecution. It traps the soul of the victim, and prevents them from ever being brought back to life by any means."
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Post by wilson on Jul 30, 2007 20:07:59 GMT -5
Rabbit was silent as he listened to Valter, then Cael, moving his harts with careful, precise movements. Then he gave Cael a look that promised violence if he stuck his nose too far into his business. "This isn't your business." He moved the last square, and turned his full attention Valter.
"I can make sure he doesn't have a body to come home to. I don't do magic, but I can most certainly take care of your problem." He hesitated a moment, fingers walking along the edge of the game board, avoiding the pieces. "Clerics are some of the easiest to get to give into temptation, if you find the right one." He gave a one shouldered shrug. "It makes them easy prey. What are you willing to pay to have your problem taken care of?"
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Post by valter on Jul 30, 2007 20:30:21 GMT -5
"No, no, it's more complex than that. Besides, the White priest resides in Demia, like I told you. I'm supposed to be the one who kills him." Valter said fiercely, without bothering to look up. "I'm not having it any other way, but right now, I can't touch him. Light magic is deadly to demons, as I'm sure you know, kid." he said, giving Cael a stiff nod. He made a few adjustments to his hounds, he was now splitting his pieces into two groups.
"This is where Umbra comes in. I don't think you have quite a taste for history Rabbit, but perhaps the Paladins guild still remembers?" Valter asked, glancing back up at the kid. "What's your name, anyway?" It seemed extraordinary that they had not asked this before.
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Post by cael on Jul 30, 2007 23:38:01 GMT -5
"Cael. And I want to help. I know you guys hate me, and I don't blame you, but I want to break free of those idiotic Paladins. I'm done being the good guy. I'm going to do what I want, and not care about authority, or morals." He looked at Rabbit. "I don't want money. I just want to cause some chaos. Like this." He snapped his fingers, and an aura of faint magic filled the air. At the table next to them, a beer mug began to levitate, while still in the hands of the man drinking it. It smashing into the man next to him, and the two began fighting. "Ahh, Prestidigitation. I don't really count it as a spell in my book, but it can be used for some fun things. Oh, and just getting rid of the body won't work. There are four spells that can bring someone back to life without the need of a body."
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Post by wilson on Jul 31, 2007 8:38:12 GMT -5
Rabbit gave a long suffering sigh, adjusting his pieces slighly before hactually made his move. His stags were spaced apart, but he was coordinating thm as a group, trying to sheer off a hound from Valter's groups.
"I don't care about history. I don't even care about your personal vendetta." He tapped a finger against his chin, considering the move he'd just made, then leaned back a bit, satisfied. "And I don't care if you odn't want money, I do." He directed that at Cael, voice deadly neutral.
"Just tell me who you want me to kill and how much you're willing to pay. Then we negotiate, blood gets spilled, and I don't have to listen to your ramble about your life's story."
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Post by valter on Jul 31, 2007 9:23:45 GMT -5
"Alright then, I'll just cut to the chase." Valter said irritably, converging his hounds towards the large group of harts. "There's a man here with an enchanted artifact that I've been tracing. It's supposed to nullify light magic, but it's been reenchanted so that full demons can't touch it. Supposedly, it was created by Umbra for his weaker demon generals."
He slid his last piece into place, just three squares away from the closest of Rabbit's harts. Suddenly, a keen whistling on the wind caught Valter's ear; with a quick movement, Valter raised his right fist, just in time to shatter an oncoming glass thrown from one of the brawling tables. Bits of glass cascaded over the table and the gameboard.
"However..." Valter said, continuing as though this had not happened. "This man is a well known member of the nobility in Xynd, highly protected, and a great scandal if he should die." Valter grinned unpleasantly at this. "So, what would you charge for that kind of service?" Valter asked.
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Post by cael on Jul 31, 2007 12:21:38 GMT -5
Cael looked at Rabbit with the same look that he had been shown. "I don't think you understand. I'm willing to help you out, free of charge. You keep all the money, I keep the memories, and, of course, you'd keep the memories too. As for getting this guy... You forget that I have connections. I just ask a Paladin if he could bring him to me for one of my experiments, the guy comes in, whether he likes it or not, you do what you want, and I replace him with... Something... I'll actually probably be fleeing the kindgdom after that point..." Cael talked on with increasing determination.
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Post by wilson on Jul 31, 2007 20:43:37 GMT -5
A shard of the glass flew towards Rabbit, a simply twist of his telekinesis freezing it midair. He reached up without looking and plucked it out of the air, setting it down on the table.
"This is my job, little magicker. Keep your shiny nose out of it." He snapped, voice vaguely irritated. "I've done nobility before. It sounds like an enjoyable hunt." He paused, tracing numbers on the table beside the board briefly before he moved one of his harts, talking it up behind the oneclosest to the hounds so that it would take at least another turn to ctch it. "Is there a time limit? It costs mor if you need it done sooner rather than later."
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Post by valter on Jul 31, 2007 21:02:15 GMT -5
"Now, now, a little help couldn't exactly hurt, could it?" Valter said bracingly, his hands sliding across the board and continuing to move his hounds. He was being careful not to place any piece within range of an attack, but was also starting to move his hounds into a circular shape, planning to surround Rabbit's pieces.
"But, then again... I can't trust humans too much." His left hand blurred, grabbing a jagged piece of glass from the board and holding it menacingly at Cael's throat. "Should your thoughts come to betrayal, death will surely follow." Valter said, eyes blazing for a second. He flicked the glass carelessly over his shoulder, a thud told him that it had embedded itself in the wood.
"Now, I'm in no particular hurry, although I'd prefer to have the deed done sooner than later." Valter said. The sounds of fighting masked their conversation from listening ears. "And also, I'm quite sure that the ruler of the Xyndi Empire has power that reaches far beyond that of the Paladin's guild."
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