15 – 45

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“Because she is a high elf,” Ariel said.










“She claims she doesn’t want you,” Gabriel replied.


“The Crawl,” Mary whispered, clenching her fists.








“That sounds… Fair,” Yngrid said quietly.









She sighed, but nodded. “Fair enough.”









“Circs?” Billie said incredulously, turning to him.

“Circumstances. It’s an abbreviation.”































McGraw straightened up, raising his eyebrows.









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36 thoughts on “15 – 45

  1. I’m really sorry this is almost a day late. The brain gremlins were acting up hard; even though it’s a shortish chapter, it’s taken me this whole time to squeeze this thing out. But anyway, there we go, and one more down off the backlog. If I can keep up the same pace we might finish burning through that next week!

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Yeah Prin deserves to be chewed out. She didn’t exactly think on what is going to happen afterwards when it is all said and done. First she told the head of the cult she belongs to currently she isn’t going to follow orders, Second she is now interfering in the business of another cult which is a big no no especially business between a Paladin and their god. Both of those things is enough to get you sentenced to a long time in the stockade then summarily dismissed.

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    2. And now several adventures will be aware of the nature of the new artefact, so Darling and the Empire will also be. Well played Principia😒 In this case, she and the entire class were extremely stupid. With the Mask, they could have been safe in Last Rock in less than 5 minutes.

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      1. And if they had done so at some point Gabriel would still have been called away, and Prin might still have stolen the mask to get him back since Arachne wouldn’t have been around. The dangers here (such as they were) existed in Last Rock as much as the Desolate Gardens. Possibly more so – there would be more people to see the ‘Archon of Tarthriss’ in Last Rock.


      2. Arachne would definitely had been there, or at least Yornhald, who could have explain her stupidity to Principia.


      3. Eh, I figure Prin knows what she is about. Remember she asked the avatar who all was present before she offered them a ride. To me that says that she thinks that news of the mask getting out is acceptable. Probably she knows that the whole world is going to want to know what happened, and if she can get the big players caught up by telling Mary and Darling’s people then that is less government officials or elves conning to knock on her door.

        Especially if the group’s plan is still to give the mask to Arachne. They literally just need to get back to Last Rock and hand it over and then she can deal with the fallout. The adventures aren’t going to be able to get through the students and couldn’t tell Darling soon enough to matter.

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  2. Not so sure how successful you’ll find yourself being in the “bringing Principia to heel” department Mary, but I’m sure as hell looking forward to seeing you make your attempt.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Mary does not necessarily need physical force to bring to heel, a good yelling session could suffice if her arguments are good.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Mask of adventurers apparently doesn’t have a time limit – wow is this a hornets nest and a half

    Also looks like Mary does realise some connection between Ariel and her sister judging from the reaction. The Crawl is probably enough of a hint

    Liked by 4 people

    1. No problem. Yngrid will just hold out her hand and it’ll jump between spaces back into… Wait, that doesn’t work anymore now that she’s on this plane. 😉


  4. I’m amused that Tellwyrn shows up late to investigate the event site, and a strike team teleports in after they get there to bug her about the fay magic event and starts challenging her on her possible responsibility for it. It has been established that arcane users can manipulate fay magic and vice-versa, but both the presumption that she might be and then the implied disrespect and threat of speaking to her about it in an accusatory voice seems… daft. My best guess about what’s happening there is that either someone who hasn’t had enough sleep is mouthing off, or… someone authorized an arrest or assault on anybody showing up to the scene of the crime looking suspicious.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Isn’t that kind of transformation more of a fay magic kind of thing to do? Not that I would be comfortable saying Arachne can’t do it. I bet she doesn’t want to if she can though: In her boots I wouldn’t want to admit it to the world in case she needs that ace up her sleeve for a rainy day.

        On the other hand, practical jokes–and bizarre and terrifying lessons in not crossing the archmage–are other things she is known for….

        Liked by 1 person

      2. During the whole mess with Principia and McGraw at Last Rock, we saw Tellwyrm transform one of the adventurer into a dog. But you are right that transformation is easier for fae magic.


      1. Huh. It had escaped my notice that November at least was one of her students, and possibly still is one. Good catch if that’s it, but that would also imply that the Empire’s intelligence and mage teams are pretty danged competent if they know she’s part of the pack of fay wolves heading into town. I would actually be amused if that were true:

        “You honestly didn’t know? Well, for some reason your student November Stark and sixteen other people turned into giant wolves and started running into N’Jendo. We’re still following up on it and trying to steer them away, but they’re weirdly insistent on going towards Ninkabi. If you would be so kind as to avoid interfering with us we can straighten this out without casualties, they’re not being very aggressive so it looks like disenchantment ought to fix this one. The problems are pinning them down long enough to do it, and the enchantment being weirdly resistant to divine dispelling for fay work, but we’re pretty confident we’ll manage.”

        That would be just what I would expect from emergency services: Responding to the crisis they can see, because who knows or cares why those wolves are running to Ninkabi? They can pass that question to the forensic investigators and forget about it.


    1. She’s standing there next to several very powerful fae users. In the absence of other information it’s probably a good bet that she orchestrated this fae event with them and given her history she’s probably the one in charge of the group.

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      1. I may have missed something, I thought it was just her, Sheyann, and Chucky. Mind you, if you were saying ‘several’ there to imply that even just the two multi-millennial elf witches might count for several at the power scale of what strike teams get to recruit from usually… that may be a fair point.


    1. Billie is… special. You can make a shipping idea out of that reaction though: Relationships have been founded on weaker bonds than appreciation for each others’ competence and senses of humour, and Gabriel is known to be weak against curvy, older women hitting on him. It’s probably not too likely considering the species barrier, but Billie is very… special.


    1. She also can see auras with it, and it can pierce nearly all magical disguise, including those of the Vanislaad.

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  5. I am so proud of Gabriel! Look at how he’s grown! I mean, he used to be a noonish asshole! And now he’s is competently sorting out a complicated situation! My baby’s all grown up!

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  6. That Avatar needs a hug. And, some AI friends he cannot directly network with for company.

    Um… Gabriel won’t always need Ariel… and… Well… a world’s worth of Netflix with a friend beats being stuck in the Crawl or the bottom of an ocean trench…

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    1. That does sound like a nicer retirement option than getting stuck in that one Avenist artifact dump Xyraadi was chilling in for a couple centuries. I’m not sure exactly how much sentience, sapient consciousness and sense of self Ariel has to suffer with if she gets something worse though. It may not actually make much difference to her.

      I took different things away from that little reaction and reveal: Now some people who might tell other people know Kuriwa is a high elf because of that exchange and her reaction to Ariel. Also, Kuriwa the meddler now knows where Ariel is, and if nobody else does something about it first she is likely to bring up the topic with others. If she’s curious what else Arachne may know about a high elf sword one of her students has–or wary of what an annoyed Arachne might do about it if the sword gets taken from Gabriel–she may be putting that conversation with the Professor fairly high up on her to-do list.


  7. Sheesh, Gabriel, it’s like you’re trying to make an enemy. Just say you found it in the Crawl already. No point keeping a secret when Ariel’s going to blurt it out anyway.


    1. Er, Gabriel is generally better off if he shares nothing at all about his nifty sword and scythe. The more people who know about them, the more people will try to take them or prepare against what he can do with them. Look up the “need to know” concept for additional background in why it’s a bad idea to tell secrets even to your friends.


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