Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: tkelly@unix2.tcd.ie (Mithrandir-the-Love-Stricken-and-happy) Subject: [Sorc] The battle continues Message-ID: Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 14:17:03 GMT Jarakh paced back and forth, his mind pondering many questions at once. This Darmal that Saoirse claimed to know, but he'd never heard of. Who in the hell was he? He was a fraud, that was for sure, but where was he? He opened his mind to the general group of Ponticars. 'Report ' he gave a simple order. Several vooices took their turn, reporting quickly and concisely about the state of affairs in the city. 'Weather control was hit by a blast, it's out of commission for now' 'Much devastation all around, sir' 'Several pitched battles going on all over the city, sir' Reports also came in through extraplanar contacts that some of the Magirans had taken this fight to Astral space as well. Other Astral beings were just staying out of the way and letting the mages fight their battles. He broke contact. "Well, things do not look good. Weather Control is gone" Talon turned around and paced, smoking a cigar. "Then that means the city may very well be snow-swamped within the hour. We have to move quickly or all could be lost" Saoirse's head was clearing from the pain of Jarakh's earlier intrusions. She activated her mind-link, with only a small ammount of pain in it. 'It would seem to me, at least, that Darmal must be found quickly, correct? Then, how do we find him? He is not located in any of the main areas or your Ponticars would no doubt have spotted him long beforehand. He has not been seen at all since the battle began. And his life monitor would appear to be in a stasis' Saoirse indicated a small glowing set of green marbles that Jarakh's men kept. There were thousands of these balls. They inicated the living or dead state of the mage in question. Darmal's was glowing many diffrent colours at once which was something unexplainable to even Jarakh. 'Can we posssibly trace him through his life monitor?' "No, Saoirse, I tried to do that a while ago, but he's literally managed to disconnect the thing. He's totally undetectable" They thought about it for a moment, and the only sound was of the occasional explosion outside. The a voice came through the ether seeking urgent admittance. 'Sir, we've got an incoming communication from Generica. It's not on authorised bands' Jarakh replied 'Right. I'll be up there in a second, Sentel' He quickly gathered power with gestures and voice and transported all three of them up to the monitoring station higher up in the building. After a monments disorientation to get used to the surroundings, Jarakh saw his man, Sentel, sitting at a desk with several crystal balls all around him. One of them was glowing and sounds coming through. "Well, what have you got, Sentel ?", asked Jarakh gazing at the ball intently. "It's a scrambled message, sir, but I've located it's source and destination." "Good man. Any luck on breaking the code?" "No, sir. I ran standard procedure on it, and tried a modified spell using some vis that I had for boosting it, but no luck. There's some sort of seriously weird shield all over it. Nothing can get through it. Well, nothing I've tried anyway." Jarakh was seriously puzzled. "Damn, where's the Master of Lore when you need him" Talon interrupted Jarakh's train of thought. "Young man ", he said quietly," you said you had a lock on the source and the destination ..." "Er ..Yeah. that's right. The message is coming from a place in Generica. It's a bit too far away to get an accurate fix, but I did narrow it down that far. The caller's name I nearly caught as well. Starts with an Ig, but then it just got scrambled. Anyway, it's being received UNDER the Extraplanar Building, away from most of the conflict. I ran a cross-check. It seems that there's a heavy, but nearly undetectable defense has been raised around the area under the building. I didn't want to get too close in case I was spotted, but it's there. It's an unregistered lab, by the looks of it." Talon wa quietly mumuring "Ig ... Ig ... that rings a bell, I think" The crystal suddenly winked out. "Transmission ended, looks like" commented Sentel. Jarakh was digesting what Sentel had said. So was Saoirse. She had had to use a special save and store spell to keep all that Sentel had said on file. He was talking very quickly for even her lipreading, and she'd missed a few key words. Quickly, she transfered the file to her mind by the use of a conceptual translation spell from her old days. Now she understood what he had said. 'Sentel, you're a marvel' Sentel looked at her, caught by surprise with the thought message. He flushed. "Erm, thanks, Lady" 'We must get a move on quickly. If that is Darmal, then we can get him. If it isn't , then we have another strata to this plot. Jarakh, get five of your best Ponticars. If Sentel's estimation is correct, we are in for a rough ride' Jarakh was momentarily amazed that he was being given orders, but quickly opened a channel to his Ponticars. "Arak, Jemmon, Kalis, Tyrlis, get up to the Monitoring Station now. Your presence is needed." After a few moments, the four mages arrived, looking worried. 'Jarakh, I said FIVE, not four' "Yes, I know Saoirse. I am the fifth." She looked at him in amazement and shock 'But you can't! You're needed here, Jarakh, to oversee and control' "Nonsense. The city is at war. These are desperate times. We need to crack this Darmal person before it gets too late. So let's stop beating about the bush and get ON with it. Besides, I feel like a field trip. I haven't had one in years ", She was ready to argue again, but saw the expression on his face. He wouldn't be shaken from his views. She nodded assent. Arak, Jemmon and Kalis were faces that Saoirse already had met. Arak looked worried, confused but determined. Something of a temper too, she remembered. Jemmon was something of a darker, calmer figure. Wise in his own way. Kalis was the youngest of the troupe, but powerful. They were all young Academicians, but Ponticars nonetheless. Tyrlis, on the other hand, was a strikingly beautiful woman. Saoirse knew her to say hello to, even before the war. Tyrlis was one of the only female Ponticars in Magira, but she was damn good at her job. She specialised in offensive spells designed to crack the opponent's defense and knew the whole area of offense v defense like the back of her hand. 'You have made a good choice, Jarakh' she "said" to him privately. He merely nodded to her and then began explaining the situation about Darmal and how he is holed up under the Extraplanar Building and a spy by the looks of things. They were needed to help break down his defenses so that he could be captured and pumped for questioning. They all merely listened and readied themselves for an attack. Tyrlis then talked with Sentel about the shield that he'd encountered, gleaning as much information as possible. Then she started to draw up plans. The Crystal Message Indicator lit up again suddenly. The only sound to come through it was "Igly ...." Sentel quickly went to work, casting enchantments. "It's going to the same place as the other one", he said. Jarakh quickly signed this to Saoirse, who couldn't see Sentel's lips. She nodded. 'Perhaps now would be a good time to attack, Jarakh. His shields may have weakened enough to allow us a chance to punch through.' Tyrlis was busy using the crystal as a locator, trying to find out what exactly Darmal's shields and scrambling consisted of. The message stopped abruptly. Tyrlis looked up. "I think he is using a high-powered spell of his owwn devising to keep his defenses. He doesn't have a Parma in operation that I can see. I would suggest a quick assault now. He appears to be making other contact with the two rebel Masters as well, but on a diffrent channel, using a diffrent code scheme. Jarakh agreed, as did Saoirse. They readied themselves. The Magirans first threw a Parma shield all around themselves to keep hostile magics out. Talon invoked his most powerful wards against attack. Then they all cast individual wards that each of them knew to better resist all manner of influences. Saoirse was the first to finish casting her wards, and waited a good two or three minutes for the others. "How do you always manage to finish so quickly, Saoirse?" asked Talon purely out of interest. 'It's a talent, Talon. Something I've always had a knack for' Jarakh then began a transport spell which the others joined in on, to lend extra power and stop Jarakh from taking the full brunt of that much power. Then, in a puff of smoke, they all transported simultaneously to the bottom floor of the ExtraPlanar Building. Tyrlis immediately took out a wand and divined the direction of the shields. Arak cast a spell to locate doors or trapdoors or any number of exits down into the basement. The rest of the party stood guard while these two worked. "I have a reading on the power level of that shield. That's one hell of a shield. This Darmal guy is one seriously strong mage. I've never seen anything like this power!" Arak pointed over to one side of the wall. A door's mechanism clicked and swung open with a creaking sound. They moved down the tunnel beyond the door in a line , watching very7 carefully for any traps or anything that could cause them trouble. They could all feel the power radiating from the room below them as a beacon. Jarakh, Chief Ponticar and Master of the Council had rarely seen such a display of raw power before, even. They arrived at another door. It swung open before them and there, in a chair, quietly smoking a cigar and looking directly at them contemptably was Darmal. He was quite relaxed. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Have a seat. Enjoy the show." They were stunned to the last. There hadn't even been the slightest indication that they had been traced or spotted or anything as far as they could tell. But this man had found them Jarakh turned to Talon. "Ever seen him before?" he asked quickly. "Definitely not. Don't know who he is." Darmal arose out of his chair. "Well, I guess the game's up, humans ", he said wrily. "You, Darmal, Mage of unknown authority are charged with spying and betraying the Council of Magira ", said Arak," and furthermore " Darmal turned and levelled a blast of Power at Arak before any of them could even react. It ploughed through Arak's defenses, practically ignoring them, and hit the mage full in the chest. Arak screamed briefly before his chest was blown through and the far wall took the remaining impact of the blast. The reaction was instantaneous. They all levelled their most potent attack spells at Darmal, with the intent of utterly destroying him, only to watch in dismay as each of the spells were simply soaked up by his shielding as though nothing had happened. Tyrlis suddenly fell back in realisation and horror. "Yes, young magician, it is true ", said Darmal darkly , " Why don't you tell them what happened to young Arak there" he pointed at the smouldering corpse. Tyrlis stood mutely looking at him, then cleared her throat. "There is a theory among many of the Lore college that the gods themselves, as well as some of their minions, have the ability to use an energy named primal energy or base energy. It is better than mortal magic and protects them completely from our spells. It also allows them to bypass our defenses. Primal has it's own type of signal that is way off the scale of normal detection. That's what he's surrounded by. He's a god." The rest just looked at Darmal as he smiled from ear to ear. Talon spoke up. "Despite his treatment of that poor fellow, Arak, I must admire one of such power. BUT, I too know of the theories behind Primal. It is strong stuff, but gods have a very difficult time using it in Nexus. Isn't that right, Darmal? That is why the gods don't walk the land every day of the week. Nexus draws upon your primal powers and -" Darmal moved to obliterate Talon, but this time Saoirse got the better of him and cast a spell of destruction at the roof above his head just an instant before Darmal's spell was to fly. The roof came crashing down suddenly, and the six mages quickly transported themselves out of there. Darmal looked up and swore. He too quickly cast a fast teleportation. His body warped back to it's natural state, a silvery humanoid, involuntarily before he left. Out on the street, there was a sudden appearance of mages. Sentel called through to Jarakh suddenly. "Sir, the Power has just fled. Reports indicate that the power base behind the two just crumbled also" 'What sort of status are we in?' "Well, sir, I've just seen a communication directed from one part of the war to another. The Two have surrendered.' 'Any sign of Darmal' 'No, sir. His life crystal is still off the bands. There was some extraplanar activity occured in your vicinity a short time ago. Maybe he left through a portal or something' Jarakh broke contact. "Well, it seems that the battles have stopped. Gods above it's cold out here. The Winter must be coming in quickly. The two rebel Masters have apparently sued for peace. They're surrendering. This where my job comes in. Come on, you three, it's time to go clean up" He indicated Kalis, Jemmon and Tyrlis. "But what about Arak?" Kalis hasd tears in his eyes. "There's nothing we can do for him, son", said Talon," Let him be, he's gone to a better place" Kalis didn't seemt too sure of that, but he decided to accept it. 'Jarakh, call an Assembly meeting about this as soon as possible. I've a distinct feeling that this isn't over yet' Saoirse warned. The Ponitcars departed. -- Mithrandir [tkelly@unix2.tcd.ie] Bill has loads of guns, and bombs, and more guns, and is dead cool. How is dat for Carictar Devleopment -- Alan O'Dea