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Topic: Guns, Goblins, and Steel Monday Nights Campaign (Read 2291 times) |
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Gulfwulf
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on Oct 1, 2007, 9:22 PM, Smart Alec wrote:| "Torrin, what's wrong with him? We - we need to move. Can you help him? Can we move him?" |
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Torrin stared at Adrian dumbfounded, not hearing the LT ask his question. He shook his head before looking at the LT and shruging helplessly. "I don't know...I just don't know. I've never seen a sickness like this before. We'll have to take him back to His Holiness, hopefully we'll find the root of this new evil there. Let's get him back to his feet and get out of here."
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Jenniza
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Although Oki was Jewish, something about this Christian Rock tune from back home that had always been popular on one of the radio stations one of her co-workers listened to... it stuck out at this time for some reason. It was entitled "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" by Switchfoot. For some reason it seemed appropriate, she began singing:
"Sunshine won't you be my mother
Sunshine, come help me sing
..."
Oki continued singing for awhile, hoping it might soothe Adrian and the others.
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ooc:
complete lyrics found here:
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Shadow-Proves-The-Sunshine-lyrics-Switchfoot/23178B779206F26C48257062003C8A35
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 2, 2007, 1:45AM » |
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Smart Alec
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No Ifs. No Buts. There's only one thing that needs to be said, and Joe says it.
"Then let's go."
Ok, two things.
"Someone help me carry him."
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Lazybones
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Looks like Boomer's out for tonight, so 900xp for full-party IC posting this week.
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Lazybones
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Sorry for the abrupt close of the server at the end there, but if my router was going to pick a time to refresh IP, that was better than in mid-game...
Have a good two weeks, and I'll see you all October 15.
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 2, 2007, 3:42AM » |
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chiz
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Vulcanos held the railing with two hands, forcing himself to look at the horizon despite feeling a touch of nausea. Fire and water don't mix well.
His thoughts moved to the strangers. I wonder if that holds true for them and us? I suppose we will see how well we mix. Willing himself to ignore his stomach, he walked over to the Lieutenant and the others.
"Do you expect to return to your own lands when we arrive in Camar? And what can I do for you when we get there - is there anything you need?"
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Smart Alec
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((OOC: for those of us who want to do something in Bastion...))
Bastion
Thirty-Nine Hours Ago
There was always a lot of waiting around in the Army. Yes, enough time had been spent in the Ebon Wood - the aptly-named Ebon Wood, Joe now knew that from personal experience - but it was best if the Duke got as complete a picture of Bastion's status as possible. Somewhere, his opposite number among the local defence forces, Vaskar, was drawing up a report. He'd sent Rusty to help out. It seemed easier. Joe wanted to savour as many relaxing moments as possible from hereon in. The stresses and panic of this unreal situation were being soothed, at last, by the balm of relief.
We're going home, he thought. We did it.
And not before time; their ammo stocks weren't great, their flak-jackets were all worn and damaged - the kevlar was fine, but the ceramic inserts were all made to be breakable, to absorb impacts and then to be replaced, and there was nothing to replace them with out here; nothing he'd seen. If what Rusty had found was true, the whole Baghdad command centre needed to be warned of what was... going to have happened later, though the whys of that issue were hard to wrap one's head around.
And though the squad had pulled through what was possibly the most profoundly weird experience anyone in the whole 3rd Army had ever had, he wasn't so sure that they could have held on for much longer. Something, eventually, would have gotten to them. Training and drills could only insulate someone so far. Someone would have snapped.
Probably me, Joe reflected. He'd been trained as an officer, but as one officer among thousands, all connected through telecommunications and the chain of command. This special-forces stuff was stressful as hell, and it didn't help that everything about this place seemed to come as a continual surprise.
Having said that, even the thought that he'd likely be in a bunk in Baghdad by the end of the week didn't stop him picking at it.
"... I'm just saying, I'd like to understand the military thinking behind sending 50 men with limited forward intel and no backup into a hostile area," Joe mused.
"It is not my place to question the Duke's orders," came the reply. Vibius Albus seemed unfazed by the line of enquiry as they walked a circuit of Bastion's walls; the centurion inspecting the state of the defences, the lieutenant seemingly trying to absorb the details of the place before he left. "The Duke has maps, scrying, and the counsel of some of the finest military minds in Camar. Do I know better than them what should be done? Who is to say?"
"Thing is, sometimes you do know better." Joe tried to put some emphasis into his words, keen to get his point across. "You're on the ground, you see how it is close-up. You get a... what's the word. An insight into the real picture. You can't direct a theatre of operations without listening to the guy on the front lines. And the guy on the front lines should be feeding this stuff to the guy at the top, all the time. I mean, I know there's a lot of distance, but still."
The Camarian shook his head, though his words lacked condemnation or implied criticism. They were, simply, statements. "There are times when one cannot simply stop and ask twice. You have to act."
It was Joe's turn to shake his head. "That's all very well, but you lost fifty men because they sent you in that wood without any idea what was in there. Are you telling me that there are no times when stopping and asking is a good idea?"
For many moments, the Centurion did not answer, and they continued pacing around the walls in silence. As their path took them to the stream and the town graveyard, though, Vibius found his voice, though it was heavier than before.
"I regret the deaths of my men, and the atrocities done to their bodies, Lieutenant. I regret that it had to be so. But, sadly, it had to be so. We were without support, but that was because there was no-one else to send. Much as there was no-one else to send with you. And had we not done so, had we simply stayed in Bastion? The Orcs would have come from the Wood and swept over us, and you would never have come at all."
Joe couldn't help but scoff. "You can't claim that -"
"I claim nothing, Lieutenant." Vibius's sincerity, right then, could have stopped bullets. "I only know that I followed orders, and that I followed my calling; my code. And here we are. That gives me hope, perhaps, that my faith in that calling is not misplaced. But that is all I will 'claim'."
It was a... strange way to look at things. Joe's military instincts, instilled by years of cadetship, rebelled at the idea. Even so, he couldn't think of the right words to denounce it; and looked at in the right light, and from the right angle, it even made a sort of sense. Leaps of faith, unorthodox tactics... they weren't all that different, in a way. And even Sun Tzu and the like had a respect for omens...
Vibius voiced a query of his own as he exchanged nods with a sentry atop one of the towers. "Is there nothing similar where you come from? No code of conduct for soldiers, or code of honour for warriors?"
Joe shrugged. "Well... we've got LDRSHIP."
"Leadership?"
Acronyms and mnemonics clearly hadn't caught on in Camar. It took a few moments to explain.
"... then there's the H, stands for -"
"Honour?"
"As it happens, yeah." The Centurion nodded his approval as Joe went on. "Then there's the I for Integrity, and the P for Personal Courage. Bit of a fudge, that one, but LDRSHIC don't exactly roll off the tongue."
Vibius smiled at that. "A good code. And do you live by it?"
It was Joe's turn to think in silence, as the pair of soldiers reached the southern gate.
"I try." I try.
***
The River Nalos
En-route to Camar
Now
"Do you expect to return to your own lands when we arrive in Camar? And what can I do for you when we get there - is there anything you need?"
For a guy who'd been left in a dungeon to die by a load of monsters only a few days ago, this Vulcanos guy had cleaned up well, Joe had to admit that. Even if he did look a little uncertain of the water.
"That was the idea," Joe replied. "We did what we were asked to do, and now, we get to go home. Hopefully we won't need anything; last time they gave us use of rooms, a bath and maids, so - uh, that is, we had maids for maid duties."
"You know what I mean," added the Lieutenant exasperatedly, almost daring Vulcanos to say otherwise.
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 16, 2007, 1:26AM » |
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Jenniza
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Oki realized she had a lot of work to do to complete her reports if they were going to go on air, now that the reality was setting in that they were going home. She sighed at the unfinished reports she still had to assemble and realized that if this went down like the movie Contact, it wouldn't matter, everything on her camera and computer would be wiped.
If on the other hand, it made it across, than she'd have to face even worse scrutiny as people would probably think this whole adventure was fabricated. It was nearly a lose-lose scenario either way. She sat back and sighed a minute as she took a break from working on her reports.
She felt this level of frustration both in her room at Bastion as well on the boat ride on the way back to Camar. She continued to work furiously on her reports; however, in the off-chance that things worked out in the end.
Even if it was only someone in the military that believed her for only a few minutes long enough to accept the squad's intelligence report of the imminent attack... on the off-chance that their source of information and their incredible adventure had to be revealed to the military in a concise fashion with evidence.... it might all be worth it.
So she kept at the reports on her computer as much as possible.
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mannedoc
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Adrian sits away from the rest of the group, still thinking on what that woman said to him. He is staring at his hand, more likely at the shadow his hand is making, nothing strange on that, just a shadow, and then he turns to see Phil and smiles. Phil projects a huge shadow, he is a big man, no wonder, besides, the angle the light has… “What the hell? What is that?” Adrian mutters for himself. He eyes a shadow behind Phil, besides the first one he saw. Or is it the same shadow? Adrian shakes his head, to get rid of the illusion. Then, for a moment, the shadow turns to him and motions him with the hand to approach… or at least that is what he thought he saw for a moment. Adrian suddenly stands up, surprised but not afraid of what he saw, or thought saw. Once on his feet, a strange sensation invades him, filling within with some kind of joy. He hears a melodic voice that says “Come… Come.” Adrian turns looking for the direction where the voice came from, when realizes that it came from within. He shakes again his head, but this time a half smile comes to his face. This time he feels a sensation of belonging.
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TheBaldMan
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Phil stared across the water. His stomach empty and the nausea fading after heaving much of its contents into the water. It was one reason he had not joined the Navy. That, and his intense fear of boats. He could hear every crack and moan of every board and if anyone took care to notice his hands clung tightly to the nearest rail pale white from his solid grip. He had seen that movie, Titanic, and just knew there was an iceberg heading for this boat; lurking beneath the water ready to suck him and the others down in a whirlpool of drowning death. He longed for the sand of Iraq, and being able to look for miles and see no boats.
He glanced at his friend "AA" hoping for some reassurance and was shocked to his senses. It appeared to Phil that "AA" was staring at his butt! Worse yet he was smiling eyes filled with adoration! Spinning around somewhat abruptly, not lessoning the tightness of his grip on the rail, Phil exclaimed. "Double A, why are you looking at my a$$ that way?! You still not feeling well?!" His friend had just not seemed right since they left the forest temple. He suddenly realizes "Double A's" body seemed, for lack of a better word, shadowy. Phil shook his head, this boat...it was all bad about boats.
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 16, 2007, 1:04AM » |
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chiz
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on Oct 15, 2007, 5:48 PM, Smart Alec wrote:
The River Nalos
En-route to Camar
Now
"Do you expect to return to your own lands when we arrive in Camar? And what can I do for you when we get there - is there anything you need?"
For a guy who'd been left in a dungeon to die by a load of monsters only a few days ago, this Vulcanos guy had cleaned up well, Joe had to admit that. Even if he did look a little uncertain of the water.
"That was the idea," Joe replied. "We did what we were asked to do, and now, we get to go home. Hopefully we won't need anything; last time they gave us use of rooms, a bath and maids, so - uh, that is, we had maids for maid duties."
"You know what I mean," added the Lieutenant, almost daring Vulcanos to say otherwise. |
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Vulcanos was not one to pass up a chance to engage the outlander, oblivious as he was of the mores of another world.
"A tumble with serving wenches indeed be a pleasant diversion, Lieutenant, and I'm sure another on our return is well deserved. However, let us speak of more serious things. The Grand Duke be in dire need of warriors. You have proven your mettle. Is there that much you miss of your homeland that you would not consider extending your stay here? I do not speak for the Duke, but I expect you would be rewarded handsomely if you agreed to extend your service here."
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 16, 2007, 1:08AM » |
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Boomer
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With the way home coming closer and closer Nantle could think of only one thing. To stop the attack on the camp. But what was the quickest way to go about it? Go through the chain of command? Even he had to admit it could take a while before the person with the rank needed ordered the return of soldiers from the field.
But then what was the alternative? They could try to track down the ones who were going to attempt the attack themselves. Made him glad once again he wasn't in the leader's shoes.
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That ought to cheer Adrian up 
