We come from the North. Turn over your lipids or face the consequences!

[kiya]

I think it's the weather that's been plaguing me with craving, lately, that potent urge to eat meat wrapped up in dough and either fried or boiled. I'm feeling very northern European about all of this. Still no bathhouse, though, more's the pity.

And I have a glorious, gooey mass to eat as a result of it. Not as good as it could be -- the dough was a little too soggy, due to an accident with the milk carton, but oh so good. Perhaps I will stop being plagued with images of dumplings dancing in my head now.


jikharra, keshwyn, teinedreugan: I told the gang the story of the counterspelling sequence, and got this response:

oneironautsays "Limited Wish: 300 XP. The look on those wizards' faces: priceless."

Comments

[brooksmoses]

So, tell. What is this story of the counterspelling sequence of which you speak?

[keshwyn]

Wren makes a face. "Get Thiara or Ahdosar to tell you - Thiara would probably be better. Ahdosar's feeling disillusioned (and I don't blame him) and I'm just thoroughly disgusted by the whole thing. Ppffth. If he hadn't been as potent as he is, the Arch-wizard's meglomania could have done -incredible- damage to the situation of the world. Instead he's just gone and unbalanced a situation that had only -just- stabilized itself. So much for taking a couple of weeks and enjoying doing something -constructive- as opposed to -destructive- with my energies..."

She walks off in disgust.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

But I don't know who Thiara or Ahdosar are.

[keshwyn]

lilairen is Thiara. jikharra is Ahdosar. ;)

[mindways]

OK, here's the longer version, with background and subtext, to boot:

The Background: We recently arrived at a dwarven city (Deved Aera) which had gone incommunicado about half a year ago. One of the dark demigods (Alar) was bound in this particular mountain range, and we confirmed that he was somewhere beneath the city shortly after arriving. Deved Aera, as it turns out, hadn't been destroyed; merely reduced to the point of non-functionality by various effects of the Alar's nearby presence. Barely anyone was doing their job - or anything else - anymore due to severe depression and some disease/madness. The wizards of the city had shut themselves up in their hall and erected a magical barrier; we eventually discovered that their plan was "Isolate ourselves from the problem and try to research a solution". We left them doing that while we went off to kill the Alar; if we died, they might manage yet to eliminate the symptoms - and besides, convincing them of the truth of our story would have taken more effort than it was worth.

The Subtext: My character - the son of a pair of self-exiled dwarves, who felt the cities weren't involved enough in the world around them - is a wizard. He's always been proud of his heritage, both racial and magical, despite the differences in viewpoint of the citydwellers. However, as the current crisis escalates, he has grown more and more disillusioned with his people and the various wizardly organizations therein.

Adding to the feeling of alienation is that he's advanced from 1st level - apprentice - to 13th level - about as high a level as dwarven wizards commonly reach in this world - in the space of about a year and a half. This is virtually unthinkable to the dwarven mind; as preposterous as someone going from 'high school student' to 'accomplished PhD' in the space of a month or two.

What Happened: After one scouting expedition (ie: foray in which we nearly got killed), we managed to defeat the towering dark that was feeding off of the Alar's despair/presence, and then the Alar proper. Hearts buyoed, we ascended back to the city to find the bleakness of spirit lifting. Adosar again made his way (magically) into the wizards' hall, with a message from a city councillor, explaining what had happened, that the problem was fixed, and that the wizards ought to send a representative to the council meeting being held shortly.

Upon arriving, Adosar found all of the wizards (a fairly large number of dwarves, that) having an immense argument in their hall. The Arch-wizard, head of the Circle, had put forth a proposal that the wizards ought to take over governance of the city in this time of crisis. Emotions were running very high, and when Adosar gave the message to one of the sizable minority arguing against this plan (who promptly began using it as ammunition in the verbal melee), the Arch-wizard lost his temper in a very, very bad way, and decided to shoot the messenger...with a Limited Wish, referred to as The High Magic by the dwarves, as it's the most potent & versatile magic commonly know to wizardkind.

Adosar, having finally unlocked the secrets of the High Magic a mere 3 days beforehand, counterspelled it.

Three heartbeats of stunned silence followed, during which the Arch-wizard, shocked, attemped to Teleport away. Adosar, also having Teleport memorized, counterspelled it. The Arch-wizard attempted to smite him with Lightning, which was also counterspelled, as Adosar snarled "Will SOMEONE please grab him?"

The council erupted into bedlam, and things proceeded from there - but the moment of a mere 60-year old wizard standing up to the most powerful mage any of them knew has undoubtedly been etched into the memory of most of those present. :-) Thus, the (very apt) quote: "Limited Wish: 300 XP. The look on those wizards' faces: priceless."