HT Alias/Player Character Name Type Status/Notes Sex -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- R1.John Haight...........Arawn.............Druid .Normal/Alfar Ma ??.Chris Wells...........Ben'dar...........Warrior.Normal/Human Ma R4.Tom Corckett..........Caladan...........Wizard Normal/Human Ma W2.Marcel Liberty........Chion.............Sailor..Normal/Human Ma W3.Ryan Torres...........Farseeker.........Warrior.Normal/Human Ma --.Tobie Bonahoom........Fremea............Sidh....Normal/Faerry Fe R2.Mark Murtha...........Kell..............Trader..Normal/Human..Ma R1.David Sanders.........Kiet.Sunan........Acrobat Normal/Human Ma R4.J H Hooten............Raban.Usherwood...Bard....Normal/Human..Ma W2.Robert Maxwell........Strie'bog.........Bard....Normal/Human..Ma W4.Wout Broere...........Unali.............Ninja...Normal/Human Fe R1 John.Stowman..........Will..............Hunter..Normal/Human..Ma R4.Alex Koponen..........Z'leyra...........Healer..Normal/Human Fe R1 NPC...................Zhou Kiwat........Noble...Normal/Human..Ma Animals: Corona [Eagle] Z'leyra, Tef'wo (Horse) Ben'dar, Cover Story Info: [HD- House member, F-Foreigner, N-native non house] Arawn aka Arawn as Teacher to daughter [F] Ben'dar aka Bu Da as Horse expert [F] Caladan aka Ca Lu as Guard/Archer [N] Chion aka Capt. Chu Mai as Sailor Trustee [HD] Farseeker aka Fu Sa as Guard [F] Fremea aka Lin Mong as Noble child [HD] [Disguised] Kell aka Swan as Trader [F] Kiet aka Kiet Sunan as Zhou's servant [F] Raban aka Toban Nu as Entertainer/Guard [F] Strie'bog aka Sun Zhu as Entertainer [N] Unali aka Tun Au as Zhou's wife [HD] Will aka Sun Tzu as hunt master [F] Z'leyra aka Kakita Junami as Healer [F] Zhou aka Zhou Wa as Baron Noble [HD] Game Web Site - http://www.furvert.net/longshotgm/pbem/index.htm Public posts/actions to pnpgm@abroere.xs4all.nl (mailing list) Private emails (not public actions) to longshotgm@netzero.com Game Update #146 in sequence (file #1028) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Admin Notes: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Recap] From Arawn: [Re: Actions] After searching for the bag and perusing the book contained within Arawn will carefully tuck it away in a safe spot within his backpack. After, during the time the party waited for the fire to consume the shack Arawn will take to looking for a spot where a view of the plains leading to this area would allow for him or another scout to possibly notice if anyone has been drawn to the fire. When the box is finally discovered within the remains of the burnt shack Arawn comments on the bowl of bugs Farseeker procured from the box. "I say leave the orb alone for now and take everything else..... GM: Ack. From Z'leyra: [Re: Actions] Z'leyra warns the party "Don't cast any magic anywhere near... GM: Ack. ----------------------------------------------------------------- [New Stuff] [Augado 6th, 1634TH] [Location: Middle Katai Plains] [ Pamau Province, Pamau City] [ Northeast of city margins, few miles, river edge] [Time: 6:04am] The group stands nearby and stares at the bugs in confusion on how to use them and how dangerous they might be to the party, especially magic users. "I say leave the orb alone for now and take everything else. It might be worth returning the insects to the box and then sealing it for study at a later date." Arawn says as he glances back at the burning shack. "The Orb likely is a direct link back to their base." Zhou adds his view. "The problem is it would be in their Vong language. While the noteboook looks promising a full conversation could be difficult. Then we don't know if they can track through the orbs so I agree. Leave it and toss it to the fire. It looks so fragile it'll disintegrate." Z'leyra warns the party "Don't cast any magic anywhere near these beetles! Likely enough they would seek and attack any magic user doing so." Kell inspects the coin bag found in Nom's chest. It has 18 gold coins, 20 silver and 13 copper Katai coins. So the Vong infiltrator has some cash on hand to use for his own methods of bribes and deal making. Kell shakes and seals the bag knowing now it goes to the party as spoils of war. As the shack is now almost 90% destroyed by the fir the party consider their next move. "Back to square one." Zhou grumbles to himself. "We came all this way for answers and still don't know their base location." "I think we do." Caladan interjects and points at the bugs and the map. "If we can figure this map out it might give us clues. A invading army hiding a secret base would need to be secret. So it makes sense there is no big red X mark on the map." Raban glances around and is quiet as he watches the shack burn to the ground. He then notices Chion and Ben'dar are not nearby. He begins to move around and look for them when he spots movement near the river. Walking that way he finds Chion and Ben'dar at the river bank a short way out from the shack. They are inspecting a small rowboat like raft hidden among the bushes. Of course a boat would be hidden. He wonders why no one thought to search the river bank earlier. Raban sees Chion and Ben'dar walking back. Chion is holding a small wooden box. Chion approaches the fire light and slowly draws the hand sized box open. Looking inside there is a small worm sized creature. It seems to be wrapped up in a cocoon like sac. Arawn recognizes the creature as one that looked like it crawled from the dead human at the burning warehouse. Though that one was a bit smaller. This almost looks like it might be a mother version swollen with baby worm or something. It had crawled out of his ear. Arawn long suspected the ear is critical for understanding and control. The Blue Bugs from the L'p'nth castle and Zen'da plains seemed to have controlled the person with highly suggestive mind manipulation. At least some of the dead Zen'da the party found had some in their ears. The ear is a direct channel to the mind so it makes sense a bug might use it to control a person. Then someone had suggested that the ear is used for language. It was suggested that maybe the Vong worm allows one to understand human languages and translate back and forth. Chion's worm seems docile as if hibernating in its milky white sac of fluid. "It was in the boat at the bank. Nom must've used the boat for fast travel." Ben'dar just wrinkles his nose at the bugs. He remains quiet but finds insects rather disturbing. "We've got company!" Farseeker raises a hand for the party to go quiet. Farseeker's hearing is highly tuned it seems to these things. As the party quiets down somewhere to the south voices can be faintly heard. "...fire...this way...get help....bring buckets..." Are just some of the distorted distant voices. Farseeker grumbles at the thought of fisherman coming out early in the morning and finding this fire a clear beacon of their location. Unali decides it is time to go and Zhou agrees. The voices are maybe half a mile away but the voices get louder every second. Bags are packed and the horses and led forth. Each remounts and quickly moves north through the light forest. Flying over the shack Fremea scans the shack one last time. It seems odd Nom would live in such a human structure. Why not use a Flyer to move about? Fremea recalls Nom's title as Attendant in the letter Arawn has. What was he attending to or was this some reference to a rank? A cupboard finally bursts open in flames and falls to the ground as Fremea flies after the party. [Time: 6:06am] The party moves north and north west but for now keeping mostly north along the banks. Farseeker suggests using the bank to cover up tracks. The mud will show tricks clearly but Fremea can take a simple patch of bush and wipe the track away to obscure it. After a few minutes the party heads back inland and away from the river bank. Curious Fremea heads back high overhead in the darkness and sees who is at the shack. It seems about 3 humans looking around and one finds the body and the decapitated head. There was time for Raban to move the body onto the ashes but it was too low a fire to burn the body in time. Fremea hears the voices below and the villagers give opinions of bandits and river pirates and even a local gang. Happy that no evidence of their time here is missing she flies back to rejoin the group. The party moves in silence as they consider their next move. They have water and supplies for a long journey but where to go? The mountain chain is vast to the west. Some were hoping to search the shack more but even the embers were too much for a completely search. Who knows what other secrets it might have. Ben'dar rides Tef'wo and hates the mud still caked on his great muscular legs. He'll have to clean the mighty horse soon. He has been very quiet lately as if his mind is elsewhere. But some suspect he rather just get in battle and kill Vong. "It seems odd that Nom Amor would have just a shack in the middle of no where. I suspect he obtained it from some poor sap he killed. But wouldn't a house in the city have been more efficient? Makes me wonder if he was hiding something. The bugs wouldn't be a serious thing for Katai folks. They might consider him bug happy but that's it. So why then would he want to hide something? Other than himself of course. From Unali's description of his disguise in the baron's estate it looked rough and tough to wear. This masker creature might not be so easy to just don like a hat. So maybe disguises were time consuming. So he either wanted to hide himself in true Vong or....." Caladan trails off to let the others ponder it. "Magic!" Farseeker sits up in his saddle. "But we know the Vong dislike magic as much as the Katai. This is why they are likely here. Enemy of my enemy and all that stuff. So if not a magic item maybe a magic detector!" "That's what I guess we overlooked. There might have been one in the shack. Might have been too small to detect by the Sidh or our eyes." Caladan sighs with disgust. Will looks to Chion to see why he could enter the fire. Chion explains a simple fire resistance ring. A simple item but it works for short term. He laughs in that no one actually thought it worth taking from previous treasure so he took it. "That journal the Brigade guy made of the Vong words must've taken time. I wonder why they were collecting the info? Was the group trying to listen in on the Vong? Why not use those worm things to just do that?" Strie'bog adds to the topic at hand. Kell grins at that. He knows how business works. He comments that the brigade might need leverage and a edge. If the group knew the Vong language they could act on a level playing field with the Vong. That is what the markets of cities do. Language is a barrier to every transaction. But Kell suspects it might go beyond that reason to another motive. Kiet rides in silence thinking his first good or at least workable interrogation the party had did finally give them some information. But ironically it was the man thinking they were allies of his. If he knew and wasn't in such pain needing death maybe he wouldn't have spoken up. Kiet knows pain and it can be a powerful reason to spill secrets. Kiet grins at the thought of pain to the Brigade makes them talk but then frowns at the thought that pain to Vong only excites them. Raban finds the ride a bit hard on his butt. The horse is a bit hard on him today due to uneven terrain in this area. He scans the skies just in case the Flyer wishes to return to do something. He wonders if his goddess will reach him about all this Vong nonsense when he may need her. Will rides wondering how he got into this mess. Joining this group on some mission he thought would be easy and quick. Now he has crossed one half of the Katai Empire to chase some bug loving creatures who enjoy pain. He now also realizes the city they left was his last chance to flee. At least Whitney did that though it might've been cowardly. But maybe not if it means walking into possible death in the future. "We'll ride a bit then stop for breakfast once the sun comes up." Zhou speaks as if he is in command but glances to Unali for approval. A top her horse still in black Unali almost looks like a demon riding it. At times she seems to shimmer and disappear in the darkness. Its almost spooky to watch her. She considers the past events. So the Vong invade the middle world for the second time. This time they decide to infiltrate slowly. Over months they setup allies and other growing areas like Lake Oca. They send a few ahead like Nom to setup allies like the Peace Brigade. Since the documents seem to be elusive on other leaders like Nom it implies he was their best. He did setup the Brigade and that's a large group several thousand strong. She wonders how far they could've gotten if the Vong had their maskers to disguise themselves as humans. They must've needed to get more of those things and until then used the coffins to disguise their movements. As she realizes this is likely their only hope in the next few days to stop the Vong she hopes the Empire could deal with such aa threat once the war started for conquest. She worries about her family, her teacher and yes even the Empire. Z'leyra rides while still shifting clothes. Changing shape is always hard on the body. Clothes seem to be loose for awhile and she oddly notices Kell and Raban glancing over at her as if they see something in her. She shakes her head and hopes that the Flyer would've brought more results. But it was simply too fast for them. Fremea realizes that soon her wings in the sun might bring danger so flies as much she can until then. She remains forward recon and scout for the group till then. She considers the bugs. They attacked her and she would like to just kill them all. It is rather odd in that she actually used to like bugs. She'd help bugs who couldn't fly out a window but now they repulse her. She shakes her head in disgust. Arawn sits and listens to others but is in deep thought. The bugs are a common tool for the Vong like a sextant is to a sailor or saw to a carpenter for humans. They are clearly bred for a single purpose. Some to attack or find magic users. Some as weapons to explode, explode in fire or just bore through targets. Some to use for translators or disguises. Arawn has seen many bugs lately and tries to piece them all in one group. While he isn't a bug expert. He then recalls something. Caladan's teacher studied the blue bugs when they visited him in the L'p'nth mountains. But he is too far to find now. Maybe he is a bug expert? Arawn shakes the thought and returns to the bugs. They tend to be the same shape and size except for the worm and disguise thing that Nom had on his nose when Unali fought him in the house. Arawn considers the last few months of their travel and tries to piece it together. "You know the map and bugs with it seem to remind me of the flying castle...that room with the map table. When some of those controls were used it generated a map. While it was an illusion using lights and magic it almost looked at one point like tiny fireflies to me." Farseeker speaks his memories out loud to no one in particular. Arawn considers that and an eyebrow perks up. Bugs for a purpose. The map had no markings. Bugs were designed for a reason. Maybe they are linked. Arawn wonders about that. [Time: 6:37am] A half hour later the group finally stops and prepares a fast breakfast. While it isn't hot food the meat and other small items were obtained from the city for this use now. Arawn pulls out the map and places it on the ground. He then pulls the bowl of bugs out. Before anyone can protest they are handled he opens the lip and pouts them onto the map. The bugs just plop down and don't move. Well they don't seem to be target bugs for magic. To prove his point he concentrates on mana sensing the bugs. The bugs don't move at all so they can't send the magic or sensing ability from his hand. Fremea watches the pile of bugs. She comments they are docile or dead. She then makes the comment they need to be awoken. Arawn raises another eyebrow. Of course! Thanks to Fremea a bit comes together. He glances at the book the brigade made of Vong words. HE scans the Katai words. No. No awake or wake up. He sighs. He tries to speak some of the words. But he soon finds his tunic wet from spit that comes out. It seems the Vong words make the tongue lose control and spit flies everywhere. Some laugh at his messy study of the book. "Look for home." Farseeker seems to understand what is going on and suggests that. Arawn runs his finger in the ever increasing rays of the rising sun down the book. Nope. No home. The Vong must've not used that word in Katai or something. What else to look for? Secret. Nope. Hiding place. Nope. Arawn growls as he finds the book now lacking. Then it hits him. Base. The brigade used base as a word for headquarters or base of operations. Surely...and there it is. "Niii'vuu" Arawn speaks. That was the word for base. The party stares at the bug for 30 seconds then a minute. "A good try." Zhou frowns. Fremea nudges the bugs with a finger. Then the bug suddenly moves! Did it sense her magic or just her finger's heat? Arawn repeats the word as the first bug moves. Fremea shivers and touches the other bugs. Arawn repeats the word again. The bugs begin to crawl in random fashion around the map as if dazed or waking up from hibernation. The largest bug one with a slightly triangle like head moves to the upper left corner and seems to sit there stopping all movement. The other bugs twitch their antennae and seem to be talking or sensing the air. The other 3 bugs move to a certain point. One bug plants itself on a spot. The other two bugs move to the right edge of the map and just sit there. Arawn stares at this map. Arawn takes a finger and pokes the large bug in the upper left corner. When this is done the other 3 bugs seem dazed and moves again in random fashion. Arawn then places it back in the corner and they resume their position after Arawn speaks the words. So that must be a control bug. Arawn then moves the two on the right and speaks the words. But this doesn't affect the other two. So they must not be needed to mark one spot. Then Arawn moves the one in the almost center of the map. He speaks the words and the bug returns to that spot. He repeats this two more times. He then looks up and grins. Farseeker nods. "X marks the spot." But Arawn frowns and realizes there is no scale. He asks Unali to get her detailed map of the region out to compare the region. He wonders if the bugs could be given more commands for this map. [Time: 6:42am] - Sun is now up. Actions? Comments? Next Update...Friday... GM: Thanks for folks who emailed. Its better to try to find and work on the clues. Trying is better than nothing. Even if you didn't post at least an email knowing that you're still alive is better than nothing. :) So thanks. GM: While the Lymrian illusion map wasn't directly a Vong bug thing. There is a direct memory link to that situation that might've hinted to the purpose of the bugs. Ergo the above. :)