Icefall's Observatory III

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From: Secret Asian Man | Posted: 3/12/2001 10:18:09 PM

(OOC: Okie Dokie) --- SAM: A-OK

From: Secret Asian Man | Posted: 3/14/2001 9:24:42 AM

(OOC: BOOT) --- SAM: Steel-toed boots hurt!

From: Icefall | Posted: 3/14/2001 4:25:26 PM

Teferi stands up from his desk and walks out of his tent. Teferi: 'Come on, Kiven. I need to talk with the healers and see what they think.' The senior mage begins to walk towards a set of large tents. Teferi pushes aside one of the tent flaps marked with the healer's symbols on it, Kiven following close behind. Inside, the light is dim, due to the heavy tent cloth and a little magic. Rows of cots line both sides of the tent, each one filled with a body. While walking towards the end of the tent, Teferi takes note of all the journeymen. Most of the young mages moan in pain quietly, some shouting suddenly before calming down again. Healers of both the Star and Solar sects quietly move from one person to another, administering medicine and cold compresses to their patients. Teferi and Kiven reach a small desk at the end of the tent. Behind it, an old woman sits, studying a couple of medical journals. Teferi clears his throat and she looks up at him. Woman: 'I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up, Teferi. Do you have one of them headaches now too?' Teferi: 'No, I feel quite fine actually. I came to see whats going on though. What do you think this is, Romula?' Romula: 'I've looked through all my books and never seen anything like this. Nothing works. The poor kids just keep getting worse and worse.' Romula closes her books and stands up. She just reaches up to Teferi's chest in height. Her white hair is up in a bun so as not to be in the way while dealing with patients. Romula: 'You must come and see one of the young ones. She isn't doing well at all.' Romula leads Teferi and Kiven out of the tent and into the one next to it. The second tent is half full of more journeymen level Star mages. The old woman leads them to a cot set aside from the rest. In it is a little girl, around the age of 12 or so. She tosses and turns in her cot, her sheets lying on the floor. The girl's eyes are wide open and tears stream down her face, but she doesn't even seem to acknowledge the people around her. The girl mutters softly to herself, crying out from time to time in pain. Teferi recognizes the young girl fairly quickly. Teferi: 'That's Maizel, is it not? She just began her studies with us not long ago.' Romula: 'Yes, that's the girl. She looks to be awake, but really she's asleep, I think. She came in mentioning a headache to me early last night and has progressively gotten worse until she was in this state.' Teferi reaches out to gently touch Maizel's cheek when suddenly a small bolt of energy is released from her fingertips, aimed at the adept. He easily deflects the small attack as she starts to scream. Maizel: 'Don't move me! Don't touch me! Don't move me again!' The Star mage looks sadly upon the small child and then turns to Romula. Romula: 'She recently started doing that too, just zapping at anyone getting to close to her. Thats why we set her over here, away from the others. If the others end up like her though, we could be in a bit of trouble.' Teferi: 'Indeed. Admittedly they can't do much to anyone with such small attacks, but the higher level journeymen...' Teferi looks over at Kiven, who had be silent the whole time. The young man was now lying on tent floor, curled in a ball. The look on Kiven's face told Teferi everything. Teferi: 'Romula, please take care of everyone as best as you and your healers can. I'm going to call an emergency council meeting.' Romula gives a nod to the Star mage as he quickly exits the tent. He can't shake the images of Kiven and Maizel from his mind as he walks towards the council tent. If this is what i think it is, we are in deep trouble. A thought briefly flickers through Teferi's mind as he moves. Whoa, deja vu? He shakes off the feeling and enters the tent.

From: Icefall | Posted: 3/16/2001 12:00:44 PM

In the council tent, Jered, Raen, and Ashmere are already seated at the meeting table. Teferi: How'd you all get here so quickly? I was about to call you myself. Ashmere: My mother told me what was going on and I gathered the others. I was just about to go and get you myself. Teferi: I just finished talking with her myself and saw the journeymen. Their conditon is just getting worse. Raen: Well, they are your students. What could be affecting them? Teferi looks over at Ashmere briefly before addressing the whole council. Teferi: While in the healing tents, Romula took me to see Maizel, who had begun her Star mage training not too long ago with us. The poor child is currently in some kind of dream trance from what I can tell and in a lot of pain. When I reached out to her, she let off some directed energy at me and started shouting about not being moved. Jered: Have you ever seen something like this before? Teferi: No I haven't. I can only come up with one explanation but it is almost impossible to accomplish. Raen: What's that? Teferi: Somebody is moving the stars. Wait, don't I already know this? Why can't I shake this feeling? Raen: Well, that isn't new. You Star mages move them for your spells don't you? Teferi: Thats true, but star movements are rarely done these days. And we only move like a few stars momentarily and such spells are handled by high level adepts. Since the journeymen have yet been taught shielding from the stars, a mass star movement could cause such effects on them. A small movement wouldn't even be noticed by them though. Jered: Why don't you have them learn shielding? That is a basic skill which we make sure Solar mage journeymen learn before anything else. Teferi: Its just the way we teach them. At such low levels, we want them to get accustomed to drawing energy from the stars. Since they don't have much focus yet, they can't do much with the energy anyways. After they have risen above the journeymen level, we begin to teach them shielding along with how to conserve and control their spells. Ashmere: With a shield, Star mages can block out the influence of the stars and still be able to draw energy from them. Teferi, are you saying that the journeymen are being influenced by the stars then? Its daylight, how can we tell if the stars are moving?

From: Icefall | Posted: 3/16/2001 12:44:52 PM

Teferi: Well, we can wait until tonight, or we can find out now. Raen: Now is always a good time to act, Teferi. Teferi: Okay then. Teferi opens up a long rectangular box sitting in a corner of the tent and takes out a few rolled up papers, which he hands to Ashmere. Teferi: Could you please lay out these star maps on the table for me while i work on this spell? Ashmere nods and begins to unroll the first map. The paper, although it had probably been rolled up for a long time, it easily lies flat on the table. Ashmere unrolls the other maps and lays them on top of the first. Meanwhile, Teferi begins to gather energy for a spell. The light in the tent starts to dim. Within minutes, the tent has become pitch black. The adept Star mage chants a spell and moves his hands in a swift gesture, as if throwing something. Suddenly, the darkness is paired with millions of tiny points of light inside the tent. Teferi takes his seat with the rest of the council and starts to study the maps. Ashmere: The details in these maps are extraordinary. I take it that Icefall made these? Teferi: She is one of the best in Star maps, you know. These were a gift she gave me during the autumn festival of some time back when it was held not too far off from her observatory. Anyway, back to the maps. Ashmere: This isn't good, Teferi. Look. The constelation of Boren is missing. Ashmere points up at a spot in the dark tent which is void of stars and then at a similar spot on one of the maps with a set of stars. Teferi: And Lucca has switched spots with Polian. Its just as i thought, someone is moving the stars and moving a lot of them. Jered: Oh my gosh, look! Everyone looks towards where Jered is pointing as one spot of light vanishes and another one appears somewhere else. Ashmere: Who could be doing this? And how? Teferi: All I can come up with is the Dark Solar mages, but they can't move stars, can they? Raen: Who knows what they have learned in their power hungry greed? Teferi waves a hand towards the dark tent ceiling and daylight rushes in. Teferi: At any rate, we have to figure out what to do with the journeymen right now. A loud explosion is heard not too far away, followed by screaming. A second explosion, while not as loud, sounds much closer to the council's tent. Teferi looks outside to see one of the healing tents up in flames, the other collapsed on itself. A figure runs towards the council's tent. As it gets closer, Teferi recognizes the person to be Romula. By now, all of the council was standing outside the tent. As Ashmere comes out, she sees Romula and begins to run to her. Romula: May the stars protect us! The journeymen... The woman falls to the ground and doesn't move. Behind her, not too far away, stands Kiven, his hand still stretched out towards the healer. A blank look is in his eyes. Ashmere: MOTHER!

From: Icefall | Posted: 3/16/2001 4:16:41 PM

As Ashmere runs to her mother on the ground, Teferi stares in shock at his student. Kiven slowly lowers his hand and runs off, setting fire to tents as he passes them. Looking around, Teferi sees a number of Star journeymen running around, setting fires and attacking fellow mages. This is horrible. How can we save them? A feeling continually nags at the back of Teferi's mind. Something is off here, isn't quite right... Ashmere holds her mother's body in her arms, crying to it. Ashmere: Romula, mother, don't leave us! Jered goes over to Ashmere and gently feels Romula's wrist. He gives the Star mage a sympathetic look and whispers to her. Jered: I'm sorry Ashmere, but she's already gone. Ashmere: NO! Jered tries to comfort his fellow council member as she cries. Meanwhile, the nagging thought in Teferi's mind continues to bother him. This all seems familiar, yet off somehow...I can't quite put my finger on it though... Teferi thinks hard about the image of Romula running to them and then falling. As he starts to think about Kiven and the way he stood, things begin to fall into place. This stuff has already happened before, hasn't it? But this time its different. Racking his mind to figure out what is going on, Teferi tries to think back to before all this happened.

From: Kildread2 | Posted: 3/16/2001 6:22:18 PM

(OOC: Boot, along with a ''Check your mail when you can, Icefall'') --- Kildread2-...

From: Icefall | Posted: 3/16/2001 10:02:15 PM

Well, I was at my desk reading that book. But what about before then? I remember darkness...but how can that be if I was reading? Was there something before the darkness? Teferi begins to get a minor headache as he works hard to think. There had to be something before the darkness, but what? A figure in black...a man...a mage... Slowly reality begins to seep into Teferi's thoughts. ...a spell, cast by this mage...one of the Dark Solar mages...Zadorin. This is some kind of spell world then? This has all happened before, but Romula didn't die here. She was severely wounded and died during our journey southeast. This all feels so real, yet like a dream or something...maybe thats the point of this spell. If so, then I know how to stop it. Teferi blocks out the screams and sounds of destruction around him. He ignores the scent of burning tent fabric and everything else. Gathering energy, Teferi begins to cast a spell of his own from within the nightmare world. The Star mage begins by setting up elaborate shields, both physical and mental. He then casts out a subtle line of magic, setting it to search and find the source of the nightmare spell, Zadorin.

From: Secret Asian Man | Posted: 3/16/2001 10:27:58 PM

(OOC: Hey, where is everybody?) --- SAM: Hello?

From: BigFatGaw | Posted: 3/17/2001 7:38:56 AM

(Calm down SAM, I'm still here, and I bet some others still are too. It's just pretty much down to Icefall right now, so we're just waiting.) --- It's frustrating when you know all the answers, and nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

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