baloonworld

Le morte d'oolong Book 5: how they strove them wit the Temple of Death


I Of the manor of Marshal Barr, and the fellowship that went thence.

It so happed that in that time there was a manor that height the manor of Marshal Barr. And it so happed that this Marshal Barr was an holy man, and a right good man of his hands and that he had striven long time 'gainst those most disworshipful enchanters that were called the Temple of Death. And it so happed that this Marshal had died, and the manor was held by his son, but he was of little worship and so leave we him and speak we of Marshal Iron, that assummoned many warriors and goodly enchanters and bade them go forth, for that manor was haunted by many strange marvels.

And in charge of this fellowship was Paladin Glamoria Carpenter that was a goodly warrior and passing holy, and with them was a goodly scout that height Kadija and also there was Eorith, that was a goodly leech, and Thyrian Fireheart the good enchanter, and Theron Hawkwood that was aforetime in the fellowship of Baron Van Heusen, but now held he with the Towers of magic. Also there was one that height Guardian Kane and pyromancer Náriel, the good enchanter, and there too was oolong that was a good warrior, and these were all noble warriors or else goodly enchanters.

And so this fellowship went aways to the manor, and there met them with servants, that spake of divers signs by which they bethought them haunted, but was Kadja ware of an apparition that was invisible to all others, and it spake not but let her know by signs that it was the ghost of Marshal Barr, and when everych of that fellowship was spoken with the servants or yet the son then parted them and Kadja suffered the apparition to have speech though her.


II Of the speech of Marshal Barr

And then this ghost bade them go forth to the village for it was invested of miscreatures that were the warriors of his old enemies, that he had struck down, but the which now rose again as creatures of mal-engine and most foul enchantment, and by their means they had Marshal Barr's spirit in thrall, but that he had 'scaped them. So gathered they and went to the village.

III Of the journey to that village
And so went they aways, and met them with warriors and miscreatures of the Temple of Death, that held against them, but they did them such deeds of arms, and the goodly enchanters put forth their power so that they took little hurt, but that Eorith was struck astonied, and an enchanter of the temple struck oolong by a subtle working so that he was greatly afeared, so that he might not move, but then he bethought him that in that in that wise he should win but little worship, and so he strove with them again and put them to the worse and struck them down. And so hie them to the village.

And the whiles they traversed, oolong and Theron spoke a little, of quests that they had enchieved, and of what fellowships they had been, for Theron knew not that Baron Scara'Fould was a most disworshipful lord and that he used ill customs. And hast thou been infellowship with that warrior that height Lorgar? said Theron, for I have oft been put to the worse the whiles I have been in fellowship with him, for it is his custom to never hold together, but to rush and traverse that in no ways might he defend me, and so it oft haps that he requireth rescue. That is not warriorly done, said oolong, but it is oft a goodly custom of damsels that they be prisoned and so some good warrior may rescue them and win worship.

IV of the village

Now turn we to the village that was sore pressed with foul creatures, and so invested that them they might not stir without. But that town was passing strong, for they had fortified them aforetimes at the avisement of Marshal Barr, and so they kept them, but by the mean of the Temple of Death, there was sickness in that village, and so their strength waneth. But this noble fellowship came upon them and fought with the miscreatures long time and so slew them. Right so did Eorith and Glamoria that were a goodly leech and a holy warrior tend to the people and so by their grace cured them. And these villagers spake of the warnings that Marshal Barr had made the whiles he yet lived, that there was a ruin in the forest that was of mal-fortune and many strange haps.

Right so that fellowship yode them to that ruin, and there were many miscreatures that held the passages against them. And so the fellowship strove with them, and there were many passages of arms, and it so happed that Náriel was taken unware and so she was put to the worse and with that came Glamoria and slew them. And so Náriel made piteous complaint: I pray thy forgiveness, said Náriel, for aforetimes when I have cried for aid I was put to the disworship by that fellowship. It is no force, said Glamoria, for it is to my worship to do aid to noble warriors and goodly enchanters. Then was oolong foughten with a mighty enchanter of the Temple of Death, that wove such an enchantment that he needs must flee, and a strong miscreature ran foot-hot after him, and so turned him and strove with it, but it had the better of him, and gave him terrible maims, and so by adventure he recountered with Eorith that blessed him and made him hale and Kane laid such an enchantment on him that it might do no harm, and so turned him again and strove and so overcame it.

V Of the slaughter of those miscreatures

And as the book rehearseth these miscreatures rose again and yet again, but such was the blessings of Eorith's god that it happed only as she list, and so they slew them with little hurt. But at the end of that slaughter, they were all forfoughten, and so rested they a while, save oolong and Kadja, and the whiles they waited they spoke of their quest, forsooth, said oolong, 'twould be greatly to our worship an we were to enchieve this quest the whiles our fellows sitteth in rest. That were ill done said Kadja, for this is a mighty foe, and therefore it is more to our worship that we should bide with this goodly fellowship and thereby overcome them and so they accorded them both. But soon was Náriel complished of her meditations, and so joined them and she list to be foot-hot on the quest. That ye shall not do by my council said Kadja and so waited them and put them in array and then parted them.

VI Of the adventure of the portal

Right so came they to that ruin. And there they found many creatures of evil will, and passing strong. Guard thyself, said oolong, for I will have ado with thee. And so fought they together, and rushed together and there was a great medley, and so they traced and traversed, and waxed wonderly wroth, and each struck many sad strokes, and at the last oolong was foughten with a strong warrior and he wist that he was passing strong, and that this warrior was better breathed, so that at the last he would overcome him, but right so came Theron, and these two warriors fought together and so won the degree.

Then was oolong ware that Náriel was foughten with a ghost afore an uncouth door and so aided him she and then they had the better. And many of that fellowship strove with many miscreatures, but beyond that door were strange adventures, as the book now reherseth. For oolong and Náriel accorded them and passed that door. And it so happed that an they traversed that door, of a sudden were they in great pain that they might not stand, but lightly they recovered them, and many ghost came upon them, and so fought they. Then were they ware of a spirit that was prisoned, that spoke curteist that it was the spirit of Marshal Barr. Right so by the mean of Náriel, that prison brast to-shivers, and so rescued him, and returned they to the fellowship, that strove with many creatures of mal-engine, and many good warriors were passing weak, that they might not stand, and this were by the mean of the Temple of Death. Noble oolong, said Glamoria, take up mine sword, for methinketh that you shall do the better. I shall do an thee list, said oolong. And so fought he with that creature of mal-engine that had Marshel Barr in thrall as I have afore rehearsed, and at the last overcome them. Then rested they and Kadja made shift to search for any other that were of a part to that ill temple.

I'm not sure if I want to play Biccy or oolong more. Any preferences from fellow players?
Dom- any part of Lucian's lines you object to ?

( 24H LARP prequel fanfiction )

Guild of Free Separated Reformed Researchers,

Syndic, I enclose the copies and latest field-translations of the normal fragments, recovered from the Mirror-Tomb referred to in the Codex Bicuitium. I apologies for the weight, but the Merlin protocols insist that all field notes and internal documents be carved in slabs of granite to endue the meta-entropic effects in the vicinity of the Mirror-Tomb. The runes are archaic in the extreme, and there are uncertainties and may be outright errors in the translation.

Yours,
Seeker Firestone,
Greenland Anarchist Non-state,
AE1108



... the furthest ranges of this world and the others I had and by way of trial meetings with some normal people three main groups, those the Baker, Maid and Gypsy identified. For the [beginner-class-participant ?] gypsies are to be interview by far the more useful, since they consider, how the world is real will speak, and able, crucial points can be mutual experience e.g. fire, trees and the old guidelines to identify of Blag, while Maids speak convincingly of over such things are completely unable, and instead of of the Knickers, Which Jerky Move, the [Meaning? Reason?] of Washing Behind Ears, How One Speaks During in Presence of the Ladies and Knowing Your Place, of which no think[ing] possible is meaningful, although the first two can be copied to something success ...

[Here the original is torn; we are missing several paragraphs]

... was at all successfully found; the Baker found I the maintained [Noun] sex (poss. as in "partner"), demonstrates to an affinity for the sky magic and a proven history of the fight and can as degenerated copy be regarded, had been gotten dirty (by?) the world am real by the way. [Beyond]

[Here the original is torn; we are missing several paragraphs]


... explained several of the secrets of the normal behaviour to me, and I transfer here my field notes: They showed me an accumulation greenish articles, approximately spherical [Lit. "spherically"] , with indentions to opposite sides, which explained size of a [Noun]-head and that it was [called ?] "apple", a kind of " [in sequence; is;] fruit" with, there one can be eaten watering place, master of celebrations or [poss. Magic-water] would [take]. [Here the grammar is very difficult, and I am not sure the clauses line up]

[Here the original is torn; a corner is missing]


... the trees, more frequently [admit ? known ?] for their use of the Kobolden for magic transpiration for murder and escaping and of the Druid for [shared-life? marriage?] healing. They can be removed from the trees with a simple tractor. Apples not (in the normal experience, although I keep doubts about the condition of the apples in the [not-normal] world), poisoned or cursed, although something other fruits a distance of the natural poison effects offer, always the same for each kind included.

The formation-member of the apple available in this place was sour to taste and here they informed a normal [talent/skill/ability/power/ritual], which [" as mine; admits is;] "baking" [untranslateable. fragment] connection to the Bakers is beyond my understanding). A hole was cut between the indentions, and the apple is set over a fire. Here there were something disorders, but the fire was apparent to the fire one could use, around a [dragging fishing rod ?] on to burn identically. After one time period, the apple was become "baked apple" and more softly and more sweetly ...


( Original text under the cut )

HOLYGLITTERCRAP THERE ARE NORMAL PEOPLE IN THE SHIRE. I met one called Linte. He claimed to be a Bakers's son. A son! Bakers are people who use sensible rirual materials, like flour and water to make bread, using a mundane process which involves an `oven'. He was born and grew up with "siblings", a sister and two brothers and none of them have died or avenged the others or anything. There are 4 of them, The sister is even a set number of years older than him and always has been. During the day he works as a bread-delivery boy; he takes the `freashly baked' bread from the `ovans' and to different people in the town who want to eat it. His girlfriend has an AUNT, and lives with her extended family who are all sort of merchent who trading rope, cloth and other mundane items!!. They go merchenting again and again and just trade things, rather than being captured by bandits or turned into undead!!! There was anther guy at the contest who knew how to fix a roof! If he'd had said he was a great mage-architect who had built great souring cathedrals of rock with the power of his mind, I'd have beleived him, but fixing a roof is just laughable.

Travesty tried to put a good spin on things, by saying that maybe they wern't his parents, but were in fact some sort of shape-shifitng abomination pretending to be his parents, as part of a naferious plot, and eventully Linte and Kadja (such plausable names, you;d never guess that she had an Aunt) addmitted to haveing fay ancestory, but I think they were making that up so I'd stop freaking out.

Its proberbly a trap to lure adventuures, but like always I can' just walk away. I've been invited: to a meal with his familly where there will be home-cooked food. If I'm not back the day after, or if I come back changed, Travesty will get the location of the town and a box of matches. I'd worry about him burning down an innocent town even if it does check out okay, but the odds of it being for real are farcical.

Also: Nab is a wer-might avatar, and we rescued another bride from a demon-groom. Time to make a prospectuses for Artificer-Pope Biscuit's Circus Skills and Finishing school for Young Ladies of Quality and Freaks

I found some people hanging arround in the barony. Gish was there so I tagged along. We were taking Bride-Bride to meet Earl Gray, to whom she was to be married. There were defenders there and everything; we were meant to stop at nothing a bull through all who stood between us and delivery of Bride-Bride and apprently dowery. This weant against aall of my experiances in the borderlands, whihc are pretty much to talk to everyone and never start fights you don't have to. There wern't may from the borderlands posse present, so maybe they didn't know about dealing with things vastly beyond your capacity.
Still, it was a bright moolit night and the air was still and cool, so it was just as well to be out side to enjoy it.


Druids had sacred grove on the highway. Violance nesued. Orchid started it. Some were dark, druids others either wern't or hid it better. Killings, loss of interest, return for futrher violance later. Hunter shares my opinions on those with whom he shares a faith who insist on being dense.


Earl Gray's guards tried to stop us, and we didn't pile into them, although I did remind everyone of our orders. Was in trouble with Morrigan, so I lied that I was trying very hard. Is there anything lieing can't do?

Gish told me there was a joke waiting for when we got there. Joke was that Bride-Bride was secretly Jarak all along. Not-Jarak Bride-Bride had already come through with Blackwing and Rain. It was Blackwing's time of the month, so his allegies were playing up.

The Earl's party was boring, and the guest reception was shit. I'm sure I knew the earl's hair from somewhere.
There was a juggler (mediocre) -guitarist
(lack of screaming feedback) and a stage magiction who used excitng skills of deceptiona nd slight of hand rather than boring old magic to obtain mediocre acheivements with packs of cards. Iusslss bullied her for lack of skill in her deception. I imagine that when you decieve an order god into thinking you are his or her or its preist, other people's deceptions look common place. Naismith was asleap by this point, which gives a good indication of how boring the party was.


Then the stage magition treated us to an explosion of blood and horror by sawing Orchid's hand off. The Earl was impressed, and rightly so- the saw was clarly in contact with his chest.
She was possessed, several maids teleported 5 feet forwards and Bride-Bride vanished in the excitment. I grabed her once things had calmed down a bit. She was full of horror and scaredness and crisis, so we had a chat about her possible future and her newfound terror of cards. I helped her overcome this through poking, and took oppertunity for brief magical adventures in the back rooms of castle gray, but it was boring. Hopefully, she will take my advice, change her name (possibly to `The magnificent Grobe') , get a wig, some platform shoesand tour the countryside for a few months. Otherwise my instinct is that the earl is going to make her saw off arms all day. He really liked that trick (and by trick I mean bloodshed). One of the Gray's advisors had also vanished or was otherwise implcated in the plot, and we decided to go and poke his temple/monestry thingie at some point.

All of the gladiators on his lands are shit too, as they are forced to fight to the death at all times, which I immagine makes practice retarded. I susspect that most htings on the Earl's lands are retarded. Anyhow, a quick scout around later revealed a recall point, which we suspected was part of Bride's escape/abduction procedure. The Earl was content, as the dowery was intact. Earl is a poor noble; I hope he either gets better or flips out and stomps off crushing everything in his path. Fishie gotta swim, hidiously nails might preists gotta crush everything in path, birdy gotta fly.

Morning arrived, and with it sprite hunting. This had nothing to do with anything; I think the Earl hadn't seen anything die for a few hours and was suffering withdrawel. Breeze turnned up and told us that we now had to recove Bride at all costs. That that phrase is one that Captin Randor will proberbly never dare use again. The sprites had cool hats; I tried to trade information ("If you start running now you might live to see tomorow") for one,
but it attacked Brend instead. Brend is apprently a lot more dangerious than he was when we were in the dungion of endless argueing about sticks.


For reasons beyond my understanding, we wandered off into goblin teritory. Thee were goblins cerimonying or somthing it was massivly destructive. This is the first I saw of it, but Trantis spent the whole weekend dedicating deaths to his irrritating triple god. I say irritating, because it insists on inappropritely timed and possitioned ceremonies. I sware, when he started doing one next to the troll it was so tempting to cancel the shrivel that was keeping to down. The Fire mage seemed to think that igniting th e troll would keep it down. Now I'm no fire mage, but I'm pretty sure that that the ignite spell would say, light a fire, but I'm pretty sure that you make fires out of flamable things. Like wood. Trolls, I have learnt from my extensive studies (occasionally refered to as 'looking') are, like guards, made out of meat, which is differently burnable from wood. But like I say, I'm no fire mage, so maybe I'm just ignorent about the secrets of meat-burning.
Someone said that Trantis had taken up with Interfector, forming a guild almost as insignificent as me and Rain (I might recruit breeze any day now, but only if I relax the membership criteria :D ). I always thought better of Trantis; he certainly seemed better than that when I was chatting with him.

Anyhow, past the goblins Nab found a recording in a crystal ball in a box in a circle on the dunes. THE SPICE MUST FLOW It was a ransom demand, so its possible the Bride didn't escape but was kidnapped, although its equally possibly that she escaped and wanted profit from it. Thre recoding was made outside the temple of the sacred virgin(didn't recognise this till we wenrt there; it was full of vampires) , so we told the earl about the ransom (he refused to pay) an d went there. Or did we do somthing else first? We might have pontificated about how we were going to break into the bank. I think it was dodgy Hel who decided to create an elaborate plan about how to break into the bak without first gathering any information about either the bank set up or the skills of the people avalible. Like I said, eveything was retarded. Dodgy Hel further informed us that there was not other way to gather the money than doing the bank job. After the bank job, we read some of the papers recovered, and it became very very obvious that drugs pushing, extortion and prostitution would have obtained
us at least as much, have involved fewer dwarfs.


Thats the other thing we did first, we went to the sewers, where there were man rats and ratmen, neither of which were like the borderlands ratmen. In return for killing the one the other told us about the bank, so we decided up on a new plan, this one less elaborae and inexplicably based on information. Yeah flying shit; Breeze was on crowd controll, and itr worked beautiffully. Mara would have loved it. Breeze was either in, or infront of the front line. I think the warlock who was sworn to protect elves was at the back, protecting burny hel from I dunno, getting her feet dirty or somthing. Did I mention that he also bitches about Zephera behind her back and was all in your face and trheatening to Breeze in times of relative peace? Warlocks
might not be the monolithicly stupid bunch of ass holes I always assumed they were. Still retarded and assholes, but in a more diverse way. And our pet humact for the weekend had a possessed mace, so maybe they're have more than one personallity between them too.
Getting to the sewers we had the retarded troll incident, and the self-healing Tree ent incident. Perhaps one of the mages had the imunity spell and could have made the treent imune to its healing; that might have been quicker; I should have though otf that at the time. The rat fighting and the flying shit left us all diseased, some of us several times over. I wasn't, but Morigan has mighty hugs, and so is a disease vector. (actully it was her 'gather round children and stand very close to each other while I do this ritual trick that got me, but I'm pretty
sure thats why there were hugs too)


On the way out the rat men showned us the bank back enerance,. It was elf-sized, so I could fit people down in with impunity, but running into the rock-hard constructs at the other endwhilst suffering from tiny chests might have been inconvenient. Like The discussion did turn to the possibility of breeze teleporting peole, but we decided that being unable to leave under your own power was a bad thing. Later Burny hel would earth merge inside the bank, presumably because this discussion had clued her into the possibility of getting stuck, arrested and therefore away from the insanity.

On the way back, we met nuns. they were fools; one of them asked about my past, which is the first time that anyones doen that to me on patrol. Then again I only ever ask possessed people. Another beleaved that her flagilations in some way competed with the epic savagery of the beatings that Auriniyan distributes for inapproprite dieing. Morigan thinks that the ones she distributes can compare too. Derision.

The nuns were on their wqay to the temple/nunnery/shrine place. It was full of vampire and undeads. All day I'd been looking at people and seeing the inner smallness of their heads, and in the vampires it was made manifest. Then they exploded with icy wrath. Yay zepherea.

Me an Fidello were left feeling all spinny and ill. I think the vampire had some sort of mind-powers, which it used on Eagalson (`No no stop hurting her, thats the wrong thing to do.' Bless him.), and presumably the slight-of-handest. The nuns fled. Stupid nuns; I was willing to startle them with my bizare physiology, opinions and life story until their minds exploded.

In short, the dwarfs wouldn't give us the boomy stuff until we cleared their mines of drow and duger (and giant bats). Hunter was dispairing due to the mopy disease, and Gish couldn't be arsed either. Breeze kept me a in functional cycle of manic depression by reminding me of past horrors and the unmentionalable retardedness of existance. Anyhow, bespite being elves, the drow were all fighers rather than mages, and all the swords were more protected than I could dispell, so there wasn't anythingin particular for me to mai
m.
It was late, so Trantis was restrained from ritualling everything to death in favor of stabbings. The dwarfs minded for noodles. They were disgusting. They were all stunted and grotesque and short and bearded and short and short. Zephera vanished at one point. Maybe this is what gave burny hel her cunning plan to get left behind at the bank?

Tarrak fitting down narrow crawl spaces looks funny.
By the time we got out, hunter and Gish were drunk or high or somthing, and had told the dwarfs about our plan.

Then we went back to the compound, Iussles clutching the barrel of boomy stuff like it was his baby. Hunter less depressed, and Gish creating wonderful, hidious noises. I suspect that either Gish's flute or the boomy stuff possessed Iusslss, as he then went on a destruction spree. However, see earlier speculation reguarding him deceivng his god. Hooray!

Then everyone hated each other for a bit. I prefered the borderlands, where we hated Interfector,our comand structure, and our surroundings in that order, but not each other. hunter was giving breeze the ability to heal himself if he got separated, so Engalson beat him and gish into unconciousness, and off we went. Before attacking the back, Brend gave us a calming pep-talk, we all forgot about any of the plansand warlock-warlock was astonishingly rude. Trantis apprently went for the entire fight without killing anybody. I avoided it entirely, apart from the abortive effort to extract burny hel. Burny hel, orchid and Engleson were captured, but she was extracted by warlock-warlock and Egalson escaped by playing dead and being a guard, and consequently being made out of meat wrapped in steel. He told me and breeze about his escape and I was very impressed. It will hopefully open up a huge range of occasions on which I can be 'paralysed' by ghouls or 'possessed' by vampires, or simply 'tied up'

`...'


`Yes Master I will obay. Incidently master, your head looks very small from this angle. Like an apple or somthing balanced on your sholders oh great one. I lied! your chest is small!'

`Oh no! how could it end this way? I am helplessly bound by these ropeps! what a terrible fate has befallen me. Woe'

That would be awesome.

Usless wanted to keep all the loots. For a moment, in the moonlight, he looked just like Interfector, so he was shouted down. Zepherea got thr magical ones and told us what they did. Carlsburg got the rest. I shall have to find out whom the comune with daity one called.

paid for Bride. I'm not really too sure why they sent her to us after we gave the the money, but they did. She wasn't possessed or anything; it was very odd of the alliance. took her back to get married; explained to her that fleeing to the baroney was a valid alternative, but she wasn't interested. Then we hung arround in the thingie place again. Compound. Breeze invented baloon vollyball, which is very hard in the wind. It was awesome. I was eventully utterly victorious. Then we went to the wedding, a Bunch of Barony defenders gate crashed and I fled with Bride, Breeze and Hunter. Bride had got to know Earl Gray, and was consequnetly thinking of Lanister. Explained to bride about the bank job, she xplained to me about Earl Gray. Fled. Iussless found us and withdrew her just as Earl came over the horrizon, so popping her out would have been a bad thing. We really should go back for her. I think the Balancers should look after her best, but maybe she'll have better ideas.

"Breeze? Hunter? Are you up for that?"