[ You all find yourself in the Library, since this is the cool hip place to be. All except Ada, that is. ] [ You're probably here to do research, or discuss your findings, or prepare for your mission, or fret about the general situation you've found yourselves in. ] [ Session Start! ] * Sei has his nose buried in - well, actually, three books at once, cross- referencing. It's very impressive. * Ethan is - get this - READING! Granted, it's more of that really long series of books on human military tactics, but still! [ The GM keels over dead from shock. ] (Game over!) ... interesting. Very interesting. * Sei nods. "I can see where a lot has been covered up in the historical texts..." * Nebrinel is half-heartedly reading something. She has a bunch of books that she hasn't bothered reshelving lying about. Not exactly the most methodical researcher, apparently. Just found a chapter dedicated to Urik, where I'm from, and how they managed to hold their pass through the Ironwalls against elven incursions pretty much all through the wars. s'really fascinating. They had advance scouts hidden all throughout the pass, who could report when they saw an elven advance using metal cones linked with yards and yards of wire. * Sei blinks. "Interesting!" Once alerted, the defenders had huge masses of ballistae and catapaults, along with hordes of archers hidden in wood or stone pillboxes. Combined with the local terrain, the elves couldn't break through it. * Ethan reads more. "Seems that, early on, the commanders in Urik realized that they couldn't beat back the elves with normal tactics... the average elf was simply bigger'n stronger, and their mages could devistate massed infantry formations. So the idea was to keep the elves from getting close enough to let their advantages in melee take hold. * Sei nods. * Nebrinel doesn't seem to be paying attention to Ethan. Go figure! *frowns* ... strategy seemed to be based on the idea that any losses by the elves were particularly devistating, since it took a couple hundred years, at least, for elves to reach maturity and be ready to fight. Meanwhile, a human could be ready to fight at 18. 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Nebrinel (2d6+2) and gets 7. * Ethan hmms. "So, basically, each soldier the elven armies lost would take decades to replace, whereas the human population was replenishing itself far more rapidly." * Sei nods. "That's some good planning..." 1d10 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Yu-Mei (1d10) and gets 5. The writer also seems to think that a big factor was that the elves were really slow to change their strategies and adapt to what the humans were doing... and by the time they did, the humans had anticipated the change and figured out a way to counter it, either through changed tactics or improved technology. Motivation was also a factor, the writer seems to think... whereas the elves were fighting for territorial expansion and domination, which most of the regular troops didn't really care about, the humans were literally fighting for the lives and freedom of their families. * Sei nods. s'interesting stuff. * Ethan grins. "Also nice to know that not *everything* I learned about elves was complete bullshit." * Sei laughs. "Yes...accounting for those differences can be important." * Nebrinel smiles thinly at her book, and sets it aside, open. Then she picks up another one. * Nebrinel frowns at the new book. I mean, when I was growing up, there was this story they used to tell us about how elves would eat our souls. How ridiculous is tha- *pauses; blinks; eyes Nebby* - yeah. Anyway. *returns to reading* * Nebrinel sure doesn't notice Ethan. Books. Grr. * Ethan has the grace to look reasonably embarassed, if anyone notices. * Ikarufox is now known as Fyril * Nebrinel sighs noisily, for the manyth time. * Sei returns to his books. Books! Problem Nebrinel? * Fyril totters into view near one of the sets of bookshelves. He's carrying a bunch of books in his hands, and is using his chin to tamp them down in his grasp so they don't fall over. His gaze is therefore somewhat downwards. * Nebrinel puts her book down, and looks at Ethan. "The problem is that I am still here, staring at these books in the idle hope that something new will occour to me." * Fyril perks his ears a bit at Nebrinel's voice, and tries to look over, nearly causing the books to fall over. He stops before they fall, and starts to turn slowly towards the others. You'd prefer to be out on the road, looking for some answers there... understandable. * Ethan shrugs. "Never been much for research myself... no offense, Sei." * Sei smiles behind his book, after a few seconds to parse that. "Eh, none taken." * Nebrinel chuckles. "It is only to my annoyance that I am here, and not there." She looks over at Fyril. "Although some do not share that opinion today." * Fyril speaks through clenched teeth. "There's nothing wrong with the road. But there's good things to do here, too." He starts moving slowly over that way. * Ethan shrugs. "One thing I've learned in my relatively short life... in our line of work, you don't have many chances to relax somewhere where you don't have to worry about something trying to stab, bludgeon, or eat you. s'best to take advantage of those opportunities when they come around." * Arsenal has left #YeOldeChibiRPG * Nebrinel smirks. "So you say. I am not so sure." * Nebrinel taps the book she smiled at. "At least it wasn't a total waste." * Fyril finally makes it over, and sets the pile of books down carefully at his feet. He cocks his head inquisitively. "What's that one?" A good clue. I cross-referenced the weapon holders list with all these books, and got something specific. * Nebrinel smiles thinly again. "It is something, at least." Oh...? Yes. * Fyril smiles a little bit, but not all that much. "That's something, yeah. You know where it is?" Well, I know where at least one of the Great Weapons are... or, at least, who has it. *muttergrumblemutter* * Nebrinel smirks. "You should look on the bright side. Just send our elven friend a letter informing him of Sadira, and she'll be dead before you can think about it." ... I've considered that. Extensively. I've even written six drafts. * Sei grins. "I've underestimated you, Ethan." Of course, lacking an address to send it to... I can't exactly send a letter to the elven capital, saying "Please tell the Jenoine hidden in your midst that I know someone with a Great Weapon he might want to kill". It's a start * Nebrinel frowns. "It does not matter much, as long as we are here." She eyes Fyril. "Cooking?" ( Wait, wait. Ethan can WRITE? ) (Just blowing all your conceptions of him out of the water, eh?) ( Hey, I have a 6 Mind score. =P ) ( Oh. True. ) (You WHAT? o_O) (*cracks up*) (Sei's gonna *die*.) * Fyril grins happily. "And other things. But some cooking." He ticks items off on his fingers as he talks. "And magic, and some mythology, and a book about thieves..." (....so does Sei. *sob*) (Nebby's an 8, babe.) * Sei grins. * Nebrinel chuckles. "Looking for inspiration?" ( Note that Ethan's nowhere as learned as Sei... he's relatively quick- witted, though. At least in certain areas. ) (So's Ada. We rule.) (Yeah. We're the brains of this outfit. Yep.) * Fyril nods effusively. "Inspiration's a good way to put it. Inspiration for a lot of different areas." Whateverr works. If you want, Fyril, one of these books has a few chapters on the tactics of human scouts and sabateurs during the wars against the elves. * Fyril cocks his head curiously. "Which one?" * Ethan opens his Magic Book (Thanks, Sei!) up to the appropriate place, and hands it to Fyril. (Ethan has a Magic Book? >.>) (?!) ( In the sense of 'a book storing many other books ) (Yes, that.) ( It's only holding that one series of books. ) * Fyril takes it smiling a bit vacantly, and starts reading it, his eyes moving rapidly over the page. The humans were, needless to say, rather outmatched by the elves during the wars, so they had to be rather sneaky at times to survive. * Fyril nods slowly as he turns a page. "Strategy and ideas are important." * Nebrinel picks up her book again, and starts reading again, frowning. ... well, if nothing else, maybe I can bore the Jenoine to death with some of the stuff I'm learning. * Nebrinel frowns, and says, "I severely doubt it would care." ( Rule Number One; do not read about tactics to the godlike entity. You might give it ideas. ) (Like what? Wasting it's time building a cow-a-pault? ( No. Inventing a spell that creates billions of flesh-eating cows out of thin air. ) (...) ... point. * Ethan frowns. "Prolly impossible to bore something that's been alive that long, anyway." * Sei nods. "Very difficult, from what I understand of the language." I could always sing to it. Maybe it'd commit suicide. No, I think not. * Nebrinel puts the book down and sits back. She brushes Plaguey's hilt, and looks like she's thinking. ... true. It seems to make the lot of you more homicidal than suicidal. That does seem to be a sign. Quite. * Fyril distracts himself from the book long enough to nod emphatically at that. "Leave the singing to me. And Ada." Fair enough. * Fyril hums lightly as he turns a few more pages, and looks up sheepishly. "You don't mind if I hang onto this for a bit, do you?" Nah. Once we get on the road, I won't be doing much reading... someone's gonna hafta stand guard during the night, and I gotta catch up on my katas. * Sei nods. "Can't read while you walk...unfortunately." You can. Just need good balance. Distracting, though. * Sei nods. * Nebrinel mms and stands. "I think those are enough books for me. I shall see you all later." She looks over at Fyril, and says, in a completely unquestioning manner, "Come by for training when you are done." ( Oh, you mean staff training? ... ) (...) * Sei waves to Nebrinel. * Fyril nods absentmindedly and flips another page. * Nebrinel walks out! She is free of the library! * Ethan hrms. "If you wanna get in some extra practice with your the Healing Blade, Sei, we could prolly set that up pretty quick." ( She's getting away! After her! ) (*snicker*) * Sei nods. "Good thought - thanks! I could definitely use the practice." (It's raining! :D This is rare in San Diego.) Hell, we could do it right here. Wouldn't even have to worry about healing afterwards, as long as you attacked with the healing blade end of your sword. * Sei smiles. "True...we should probably go to one of the sparring areas, though. I wouldn't want to upset anyone." ... point. I don't think Xivilai would appreciate it if I accidentally stabbed one of her bookcases. * Sei nods. "Hitting a book of magic with a cursed glaive could be a very, very bad thing." ( Bwahaha. ) Hitting a cookbook with a cursed glaive could be a bad thing. Oh, dear... Especially with this cursed glaive... although, on the other hand, it could be rather tasty. * Sei ponders. "I think that would be better tried under controlled conditions." * Ethan frowns. "Of course, I don't wanna take the chance that I'll end up having to fight a Jenoine with a powerful magic drumstick." * Sei nods. [ End Session! z.z ]