9/25/02

As you approach the table where the two companions sit, you can overhear a hushed conversation under furrowed brows and, as you pull up a chair to join them, Eldane finishes his last thought before turning to greet you, "..more like time slows down. I don't feel any different, though." As Aster quickly scribes a few more notes onto an already crowded page, Eldane smiles, "It's good to see you again. The others are out either wenching or shopping while we're talking shop. Not much of interest to anyone not slinging spells, but we can finish later. How far had we gotten? Had we told you about the barrow yet?"

Your eyes raise in worried surprise and your head shakes slightly. Eldane takes a sip from beneath a thick meringue of froth, frothing his face in foam up to eyes, as Aster looks up from his writing. "No, we hadn't mentioned it yet. I wasn't with you the first time, but after you came back get me I had the dubious pleasure. Never before had I seen a layout so designed to keep people out. The random twists and turns, and the traps! Walls closing behind you, huge stones falling to crush the unwary. I noticed most of them and was able to disable them without too much difficulty, but I could see why they had to come back to get me. There's something subtle about the detection of traps that... well, it just takes experience, I guess."

"We got plenty of experience with traps before you were there, Aster, but we still couldn't see 'em coming. I was on the ceiling most of the time- thanks for lending me those slippers, by the way."
"Of course, my little friend, I had no use for them at the time."
"But even on the ceiling it was dangerous. We'd gotten separated by falling walls and attacked by these pale, slurping undead with just the weirdest hair. Leodan brandished his Bo symbol at one and it just crumbled to dust!"

"And later, when I returned with you, Iryi did as well with four magic missiles! Each! That girl is growing extremely powerful. I'm glad she's a friend of ours, though it may behoove us to find some replacement for the intoxicant she's been yearning for- she gets crabbier with each passing week."

"She does not!"

"Be that as it may, I certainly hope to learn something of the effects she can produce and in some way learn to replicate them. That's actually what we were discussing before you arrived. Eldane, through the use of magic, can increase the speed of an individual-"

"Decrease the speed of everything else! That's what I'm trying to say-"

"It's tantamount to the same thing, really. I want to learn how to produce the same effect, but in order to do that, I must first- with his help- scribe a scroll of the spell, and from there I can copy it into my spellbook. While I was working on your lute-"

"Thanks, by the way, it sounds great."

"My pleasure. I got a few bottles of ink from Dysan. Haste on the fly is nice, but I think scribing a few extra will serve the party well- especially if we return to the basement of that barrow."

"Return?"

"Certainly. If we went in prepared- a haste scroll for each of us, an extra fireball or two. But we could probably handle it with what we have now, as long as we went in prepared. That sword certainly looked valuable, and who knows what else has collected at the bottom of that grave?"

"Big stone creatures and a bunch of those creepy undead things."

"Leodan called them 'wights'."

"He could have called them "mother"- I'm not going back there. We should just roll a big stone in front of the entrance and head to Geanavue."

"Now you've got my agreement- I'm all for leaving. But if we're held here longer for one reason or another, why not give the place a thorough cleaning."

"You mean looting."

"I mean both."

Ash takes a seat beside his old friend Eldane, a beer in hand and a discerning look on his face.

"Elf, are you filling my musical friends ears up with your scheming? Well, this time I agree with you. I've thought about that barrow all the way back here, and I think you might be right. I'd really like another crack at that knight down there. No good man would surround himself with such villainy such as those sickly creatures we fought. He got the best of me the first time through, but I wasn't properly prepared. If I had only had enough space to rush at him, but those darn walls always seemed to be closing in on me down there, like a mother's womb I tell you! Nor did I have the proper passion for the battle. He caught me off-guard with all that honorable-sounding talk, had me all confused. But not next time! No sir, next time we go in, it should be with the strength of the Bo within our bodies, the speed of your magic, the adrenaline-rushing sound of Eldane's music in our ears, and the fury that only an orc warrior can muster! My first charge will knock that Knight right back to the netherworld he belongs in!" says Ash, ending with a sharp pound to the table. So passionate were his words that he only now notices how he heedlessly spilled his beer all over the floor during his speech.

With a wry grin he adds quietly "Well, and that Greatsword he had did look mighty fine. I could probably use that to great effect, were I to wield it."