Patchwork Universe

Patchwork Universe

ooc: In the interests of clarity all dragonic related interaction has been moved to this new thread.

The golden shape of the dragon, surrounded by alarmed pirates, croached near the barn. It looked much smaller in the daylight than it had in the dark.

But it had already attracted the attention of a number of people. Dr Odom, the mild-mannered museum curator, was pounding towards it with a ferocious expression. Dr Jewel and Jones the bartender followed shortly behind and the oriental Kao Sheng pursued them.

In the distance Lady Violetta was also directing her newly gained magical abilities at the dragon. Nearer to hand Trubshawe and Magpie, previously concentrating on the cave-troll, had just been alerted to the the change in their circumstances. And, although no one could see him at present, Harlequin's kite still flew in the clear blue sky, loaded with flamethrowers.

It seemed likely a melee was about to develop.

Patchwork Universe · Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:48 pm Post subject:

Magpie glanced up, and after a long couple of seconds hauled his eyes away again. The flying creature was surely not real, or not from the Earth at the very least.

He couldn't think of anything to do about a flying creature, but equally it was quite possibly imaginary. In any case he'd think quicker with this large beast no longer trying to crush his crew.

First step - get it nearer Trubshawe and its club on the ground. He darted up to it, made a quick slash with his sword - he thought the blade breached the skin - and got the beast turning and swinging at him.

Trubshawe's eyes widened as the pirate fell towards him, rolled under the blow, and came up again.

The blow had missed, fortunately, and Magpie darted forwards at the beast again, making it turn its head to track him. He got the other side of it and saw it raise its arms again - so far, so good, but had Trubshawe managed to get the loop of leather over the spike on the club? and would the weight connect with its pillow sized head?

***

Dr. Odom slowed to a jog, then a walk, then stopped. He took a moment to force himself to concentrate before raising the wand.

***

In the greater scheme of things, a troll was just a member of another minor species to Kalyndis. But when he saw Trubshawe and Magpie, he decided that humans he knew were more important than trolls he didn't.

The troll looked dumbly at the dragon for a moment, but when Magpie attacked, it turned to swing at him.

Pirates hurriedly backed away as the dragon lunged forward, long neck extending to fasten crushing jaws on the troll's shoulder.

***

Another dragon could be seen flying towards the troll, although a little haphardly. As it got closer, it looked less like a dragon and more like a strangely shaped kite, with flames dripping from the front.

***

Nodding curtly to himself with satisfaction, Dr. Odom watched the humans get out of the way and the dragon fasten itself to . . . something else. It was distracted by and concentrating on another evil-looking creature.

Dr. Odom aimed carefully, his arm and hand steady, his target clear and his intentions unambiguous.

Father Michael had been like a visitor to this place and Dr. Odom had been like his Guide. Perhaps Father Michael would have come to Jones' eventually on his own but then he might have been late enough to be alive and he would not have been led to his death by Dr. Odom.

Dr. Odom took a deep breath and sent three more bolts racing for the dragon.

***

Jewel and Jones came alongside Dr Odom as he fired at the dragon.

Jewel said nothing. She watched the bolts fly home, hoping that they would do enough damage to remove the need for any further attack. Aware that Jones would be readying his own wand, she made herself take a couple of steps forwards and sideways. She needed to press her own close-ranged attack, whilst staying out of the way of theirs.

***

The area suddenly seemed to be brimming with people hell-bent on damaging these magnificent specimens.

"What are you doing?" yelled Trubshawe in frustration. "Don't kill -"

He watched helplessly as the bolts slammed into Kalyndis' side.

***

Some distance away by the pub Lady Violetta had also pointed and aimed a wand while speaking the words of a spell she barely understood. As a jet of water appeared with ponderous slowness from her wand to curl out into the air her vision of the conflict was obscured.

To Jones, sensing the spell from behind while aiming at the dragon ahead it seemed that events unfolded like those in a dream, watching his own hand raise his double wands to fire at the dragon. He watched as Odom blasted and Trubshawe shouted and a spiral of force slid out from his own wands, a doubled helix of wind and water held for a moment of agonising slowness under the control of the wand before it erupted into a cyclone.

People staggered under the cyclone blast, the dragon's wings whipping the air adding the force of the wind and a flurry of wind-maddened water drenched them all.

High above the kite was caught in the updraft and spun wildly, as the hapless Harlequin attempted to wrench back control.

[OOC NOTE: Please see the current Timing Trouble thread on the Beta Test forum for a clarification and update to the earlier ruling on this interaction. Any further out of character discussion to be appended to that thread. This thread is now officially in TIME IN.]

Harlequin · Good Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Chimera

The cyclone hit Firefly full force. Harlequin had to drop his final flame-thrower in order to grab onto the kite's frame and wrestle it back into his control. The updraft span him up, and up, and up, until he couldn't see where his flame-thrower had landed. He finally managed to straighten up, but too late to spot the wall of mist in front of him...

[OOC: Harlequin flies off to the Academy: Enter the Firefly]

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 350 Location: The Museum

The strength of forty-six years of virtually endless stairs kept Dr. Odom upright. Forty-six years of understanding rain only as an abstraction, something that only appeared in or damaged books, baffled his senses as he tried to follow what was happening within the wind-whipped water. He shifted his grip on the mace and hoped he would have time to react if anything came at him, thinking that using the lightning wand in the current environment might not be the best idea in the world.

Dr Jewel · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:56 am Post subject:

There were some advantages to being a ghost. Jewel had never considered that weather-immunity would ever count for much, up until now.

She remained completely untouched by the cyclone and was able to calmly walk forwards whilst keeping both eyes on her prey.

Trubshawe · Good Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 237 Location: The Zoo

"We had the situation under control," muttered Trubshawe under his breath as the world turned to chaos around him. "Imbeciles. Imbeciles!"

Even the elements seemed to have joined in the confusion, and Trubshawe found himself in the centre of a maelstrom of wind and water. A fist-sized raindrop struck him in the face and his vision blurred as though through a film of tears.

To the best of his knowledge the dragon hadn't managed to finish the troll before the current madness erupted. Which meant that there was a wounded, enraged beast just a few metres through the churning elements in front of him.

Magpie's plan involving the saddlebags, which had been frankly optimistic to start with, was certainly never going to fly now that Trubshawe could barely see and was being buffeted by heavy winds. With a curse, he flung himself to the ground, clinging onto the heavy bags to stop the gale blowing him away. Now all he had to do was hope he didn't get stepped on by several tons' worth of troll...

Kalyndis · Good Joined: 22 Jan 2004 Posts: 188 Location: Kerya

Kalyndis had barely closed his jaws when lightning lashed across his back. He staggered, and involuntary spasms tightened his jaw with crushing force. His muffled roar of pain combined with the troll's screams and the crackling of electricity. Water poured down on the troll and the dragon as they rolled in the mud, the dragon struggling to regain control of his claws, the troll smashing with his other arm at the monstrous head that had fastened on his shoulder.

Jones · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:35 pm Post subject:

Jones staggered in the backlash from his wands and as water obscured his vision lurched intop one of the pirates. The two men nearly came to blows before Jones choked out his identity.
"It's Jones, the innkeeper," he said as he and the pirate supported each other. "Watch out for that brute of a dragon, it's already killed at least one person..."

The innkeeper hesitated as something he hadn't paid much attention to earlier caught his interest. The dragon battling the cave troll was glittering gold in the sunshine. Red and black and green dragons he'd seen and fought in his youth but *gold*. That was a new one.

Wiping the water from his face he peered more closely at the whirling conflict, trying to make sense of the blurred figures.

Harlequin · Good Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Chimera

He didn't have much chance to review the situation before a whistling sound heralded the arrival of Harlequin's flame-thrower, falling in Jones' direction. He jumped out of the way, cursing all things fiery. Luckily, not having much juice left, this flame-thrower only erupted in a small explosion. A short burst from the water wand soon damped the flames.

Captain Magpie · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:16 pm Post subject:

Magpie came round in time honoured fashion - the cat was licking his face and he wasn't quite sure what was going on, but was pretty sure it wasn't good.

His senses took stock - a throbbing headache was the first thing to impinge, then the sound and feeling of a serious quantity of weather. Winds and rain he was used to - but their ferocity surely meant he'd been knocked out for a while. He just saw stars in front of his eyes and gave up trying to open them for a little while. Eventually smell kicked in and the presence of the ship's cat under his nose made him move.

He sat up and opened his eyes gradually, pleased to see just wind, rain and the friendly faces of members of his crew.

"Thought you might not make it there, Cap'n", said one. "Took a right thwack round the head."

"Not sure what it was - looks like it had stuffed a saddle bag full of weights - cunning bugger"

Images flooded back - the troll trying to swing its club over its head (as per the plan), the dragon biting at its shoulder (certainly not in the plan, but didn't look dangerous) and then the troll's arm stopping, and the club with it, and the weight shifting forward to pull the bag free of the club's spike and flying straight towards him.

He winced in pain. It hadn't been a good plan to start with, but there you go. Time to move on.

"Yes, not as stupid as it looked," he said, hoping not to have to field too many questions - that Trubshawe better know which stories were funny and which could actually damage a man's reputation. A small part of Magpie's brain thought he'd get over the shock and embarassment pretty quickly, but it was somewhat buried under the acute pain his cock-up had resulted in. Time to move on.

"Right - what's the situ? Risks first"

"Flying beast", "Lightning", "That beast with the club" were three of the murmured answers. The crew weren't used to seeing the Captain incapacitated.

"Nothing we can't handle then?" said Magpie to keep them cheery. "Allies?"

"There were a few turned up, all seem to be attacking the flying thing"

"Right - Keep close, let's work our way round to the newbies. They'll be needing some assistance soon enough"

Kao Sheng · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:28 pm Post subject:

It was at about this point that Kao Sheng arrived upon the scene, a little out of breath, but otherwise relatively composed, stopping somewhat out of the immediate range of the cyclones, explosions and general chaos.

"O valiant adventurers," he cried once he had recovered his breath, "Please allow this insignificant person to most sincerely implore you in the strongest possible terms not to compound an already tragic misunderstanding with further activities of a violent nature, however well-intentioned and justified they might currently appear to be!"

Dr Jewel · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject:

Jewel paused for a moment.

She frowned, reviewing sentences that were barely understandable over the noise of the wind and water. She looked at Kalyndis again and then back at Kao Sheng.

"Are you asking me to not attack the dragon?" She ventured cautiously.

Kao Sheng · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject:

"At least until the circumstances surrounding these unfortunate events have been clarified, such would indeed be the nature of my humble request," he called back. "It must however be conceded that the second participant in the central confrontation may be less than inclined towards a civilised conversation!"

Dr Jewel · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject:

Jewel took a look at the blade in her hand. Then she let her arm drop to her side. Mostly she felt relief. She was hopeful that the man - or God - had a genuine reason to save her from having to launch an attack. She began to walk back to where Kao Sheng stood.

"What exactly is the tragic misunderstanding?" She glanced at Jones as she spoke; the inn keeper had already indicated that he knew more about this newcomer than she did.

Kao Sheng · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:32 pm Post subject:

"In the interests of brevity, it may be best to summarise for the moment," Kao Sheng replied rapidly, "And merely to say that the unfortunate Kalyndis was, in a very literal sense, not himself."