[ We find Our Heros sitting in the library of Castle Black. Same part of it they usually sit in, too. ] [ They've got a tray of snacks on the table before them, and some wine. With all this, they're just bound to have an interesting conversation! ] [ No, really. Honest. ] [ Session Start! ] * Sei is having a snack and deeply concentrating on a book - a brand new one, actually - in front of him. He's even taking notes. * Ethan is still making his way through that elven analysis of human military tactics, while simultaneously munching on various foodstuffs. Mmm... s'an impressive flanking maneuver... double flank, actually. Nice... * Nebrinel is drinking idly. Xivilai certainly knows how to treat people she doesn't actually want around! Hmm, that reminds me...I should probably be studying something more practical, with what's coming up. What about those Orb thingees Ada and Nebrinel have talked about? (I dunno! I'm busy trying to fix this.) (DunnOrb!) ( *falls over* ) (... That's scary.) ("Is it a source of immense magical power that you can use to manipulate the universe from a distance?" "Dunno.") ( The Orb of Ignorance! ) (Is someone pasting this to Cham yet? ^_^) * Nebrinel looks at Ethan. "The Orbs? Perhaps Ada would be a better speaker on that subject..." she glances at Ada, "But perhaps I can fill you in vaguely." * Sei looks up, interested. Although, lords above, Sei should be better at this subject than I as well. (Wah!) (Sei has forgotten all. x_X) ( *facepalms* ) However. The orbs are magical sources. They are not unlike extremely powerful Great Weapons. Without the nasty morganti effects, because they aren't weapons. * Sei nods. So... if someone had one, it'd make their magic more powerful or something? (*finds a mini* I take it we're ignoring the one where Nebbie tells Ada they need to be gone within two hours.) (We can conveniently forget the demand for haste, I suppose. ^_^;) (Although the mini served an EXCELLENT purpose otherwise.) (Yeah, it demonstrated that we hate each other. :P) (Important!) * Nebrinel shakes her head slightly. "Not exactly, but I imagine proximity doesn't necessarily hurt. They're actually used to power the majority of Elven magic. Nearly every elf..." she glances at Ada, "Or other person who uses Elven magic is connected to one." * Nebrinel adds, "Whether it be the one controlled by the Empire, or the one controlled by Xivilai." * Sei nods. * Nebrinel swishes wine. "Really, the only purpose of having an Orb of your own is rebellion. As Xivilai has so aptly demonstrated." Ah, okie. Thanks. That makes sense. So, basically, the only relevance the Orbs have in this is that, like Xivilai said, the Jenoine getting one would be a *really* bad thing. * Ada shifts on her shair, slightly. She glances at Nebrinel, then finally speaks up, "Great Weapons can function as Orbs, though. At the very least, the most important part: you can use them as a source." (And now I see that Nebrinel essentially said the same thing earlier. But give me a break; I'm working on logs. ;P) ( It's okay. We forgive you. =P ) * Nebrinel smiles a little, and uses up her niceness quota for the month by not being snarky at Ada's reiteration. (Grr. I should just delete both those lines. ;P) (I have the power!) (!_!) Basically, yes, I believe that's how it falls out, Ethan. (Go Planet!) Right... so yeah. In the extremely unlikely event we find an orb, or see one for sale in the local market next to the tomatos and squash, we should try'n keep it out of the Jenoine's grubby han- does it even have hands? Fists, perhaps. * Nebrinel smiles a little. "Not that that would ever happen, but I could certainly imagine a few uses for it, and a good place to dissapear to." If nothing else, we could always bounce the orb off of the Jenoine's head. * Sei nods. That...would be interesting. Not that I'd want to be nearby to observe. ... which would be an waste of an incredibly powerful object, granted. But a funny image. * Nebrinel taps her finger, and gets herself some more wine. "I am annoyed. I was all prepared to go to Tree-by-the-Sea, and now we wait for him instead." Fyril? * Nebrinel eyes Ethan with a look of annoyance, then shakes his head. "No. Baron Tree-by-the-Sea is coming to visit Xivilai." (Her! I wish I could shake Ethan's head.) (Shake it like a maraca.) * Ada eyes Nebrinel. "I suppose you could meet him halfway and challenge him in a fight to the death." Right, right... s'the problem with looking for Fyril. He's all stealthy and stuff. * Sei raises an eyebrow. * Nebrinel says dryly, "Well, at least it would be an even fight. However, I think Xivilai would disapprove." * Ethan eyes Nebby, and drops the subject like an explosive cow, returning to his book. ( Wait, wait. Is Tree-By-The-Sea actually supposed to be coming? ) (According to Yu, yes!) (It must be a very spry and mobile tree.) ( ENT! ) I didn't think her disapproval would stop you. Her disapproval could obliterate mountains. * Sei idly taps a page of the book. "Ethan, are you familiar with 'Fenarian Fire?'" * Nebrinel takes a sip of wine. "I will try it her way." ... vaguely. Some kinda oil stuff that, when ya light it on fire, burns real hot and real long. * Sei nods. "There's a discussion in here about adding some magical properties to it, and then...er...catapulting it at opposing armies." He winces. "Sounds nasty, actually." Ow. * Sei nods. "Very definitely not my thing, but I thought you might want to know." I've heard of vats of it being tossed by catapault, but no magic involved. I do know that it got used in some coastal battles, since it burns even on water. * Sei hmms, makes a note, and keeps reading. ... in the unlikely event we ever end up leading a large naval force, that could come in handy. Otherwise, I think we should prolly depend on Ada for our requirement of hot burny death. Sounds reasonable. This looks like the sort of thing I wouldn't want to use unless absolutely necessary. (Mmm.. greek fire.) (Only it's Italian fire.) Yeah. Burny death is a nasty way to go. * Nebrinel downs more wine. It's a lot less sipping at this point. (Same difference?) (Well, it's Italian in the sense of that it corresponds to the Italy of AoC.) ... once shoved a guy's face into a fire. Not one of my prouder moments. * Nebrinel finshes off a glass, and pours another. "As long as it works." * Ada comments, idly, "Burning flesh, up close, is pretty disgusting." Smells awful. * Sei nods. Tell me about it. Was rather pissed off at the time... bit nastier than I usually like to be. * Ada curls up a bit more. She looks rather comfortable as she waves a book over. Literally. "Oh? What was wrong?" Son of one of my family's rivals for command of the region. His father was one of my dad's top lieutenants... real good fighter. Good guy, too, unlike my dad. The son... not much of a fighter, but apparently had some skill as a diplomat. And he was a real ass. Anyway, he made some... comments... jokes about the death of someone who I'd cared about quite a bit, just a bit after it happened. I think I told you that story, Ada. Ugh... * Ada ahs, catching her book lightly and bringing it down before opening. "Yes, I remember." Appareances to the contrary, I've got kind of a bad temper. Takes a lot to blow my fuse, but when it goes... * Ethan looks down a bit. "... it's usually pretty ugly. I lost it, knocked him around, then shoved him face firts into flaming coals." * Sei nods. Prolly woulda gotten in trouble for it, if people hand't heard the initial exchange, and pretty much agreed he deserved it. *chuckles bitterly* Hell, my pops was happy to see me show a 'warrior's spirit'. Ass. ... so yeah. Fire bad. * Sei nods. "Unpleasant situations." * Ethan rubs his neck. He looks a little embarassed, now that he's finished with the story. * Nebrinel quirks an eyebrow at Ethan, but reserves comment. Maybe it's because she's busy filling up her next glass. * Ada speaks up after a moment. "Your father has a strange definition of a warrior's spirit, then." Well, yeah. *coughs* I think he figured that I was moving away from my usual less-than-intense attitude, rather than it being a semi-isolated incident. Hm. * Nebrinel says, with a tinge of amusement. "Ethan's Father isn't much of an exception.' Seen a lotta guys like him, yeah... not as bad, but the same... they live the battle for so long, it infects every aspect of their lives. They can't stand down. * Sei nods. I've heard of plenty of cases where armies inflicted more damage outside of battle - to each other - than in it. Alcohol helps that along. * Sei nods. But with some... the battle, the war, it's everything. Raising your kids is a little war. Marraige is a little war. m'trying to avoid becoming like that. I enjoy a good fight... but I also enjoy not fighting. * Sei nods emphatically. "This is good." * Ada mmms faintly, now thorougly engrossed in her book. For example, eating is not fighting. And eating is good. *downs a coupla donuts* * Nebrinel glances down towards her hip in annoyance, then closes her eyes for a second. "You're a credit to peacemakers everywhere." Nah. m'just a goofball with a pointy stick. And a sharp sense of humor. And dashing good looks. *powerposes* * Sei grins. * Nebrinel finishes off her glass. "Then you're a credit to goofballs everywhere." [ A passing undead gives Etahn a 'you're crazy and stupid' look. ] * Ada snorts, faintly. * Ethan waves to the passing zombie-like thing, and sits back down. [ More like a vampire, really, but hey. ] ... so, what do we do when ol' Tree-By-The-Sea gets here? I mean, I know my job is to shut up and not offend him, but... * Nebrinel glances at the vampire, then sets down her empty glass. "Try to figure out what I could possibly offer him that he would be interested in, in exchange for the weapon piece." She smirks a little. "Or if Xivilai wants to donate to the cause." * Sei nods. Worse case scenerio, we could just wait until my curse kicks in again, and use that as leverage against the guy. While I admit he'll likely want to give us anything to keep you away, your curse probably won't occur again for a while yet. Mmm? Howdya know? * Nebrinel smirks. "As I have very little in the way of material posessions to offer him, any option is a good one." Not much I can offer, I guess. ( Unless the Baron makes... an Indecent Proposal! (TM) ) (Sei'd probably do it, too.) ( I was actually talking about Nebby, but that'd work too. =P ) (Oh.) * Ada looks at Ethan. "It's caused by the changing of a moon, remember?" ... right. Yeah. Forgot. * Nebrinel smiles faintly. "Be imaginitive Sei." She eyes her glass. "Perhaps he would like a force trained in archery. That I could do. As long as nobody in the empire figured out I was alive." She leans on the arm of the chair and mutters, "Brilliance." Or he might ask us to do some ridiculous and annoying quest for him. There was one war a few hundred years back between Urik and a neighbor that was decided by a staring contest. * Ada looks up at Ethan, blinks, then shakes her head and looks back to her book. * Nebrinel shakes her head. "It'd be so much easier to..." she trails off. Or side won because we sent a guy with no eyelids. Or so the story goes. * Sei grins. ... unfortunately, we all have eyelids, and I doubt this guy would fall for that. The real problem's that we couldn't afford to wager a weapon on our side in a staring contest. * Nebrinel stands slowly. "I... am going to focus. And think. 'Scuse me." * Sei nods. * Ethan tosses Nebby a cookie. "Focus on the cookie. Ponder its chips." * Nebrinel, in a stunning display of manual dexterity, absolutely and completely fails to catch the cookie, knocking it to the ground instead to keep it from hitting her body. After a second, she brings it up to a hand quickly, and stalks out with it just as quickly. * Sei raises an eyebrow. [ And so Nebrinel failed to kill Ethan, which saved her from Ada's revenge. Session End! ]