Thanks
I also enjoy reading the RP, forms an interesting backstory to some things :p
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The full moon was present in the sky, its light shining down. Blitukus walked towards the two black dragons, smiling. He felt for a moment as if, in a way, he was somehow continuing an overarching quest that begun with his mother and still continued. It was all a single chain of events in a way... He felt further at peace thinking of this, and, second to that, proud of what he had achieved. The two black dragons were working with what looked like a purplish, cylindrical device with a spiked end on the bottom and transparent innards, and it was suspended on a wheeled frame of some kind. It was readily able to be carried by the dragons, but it was nearly as big as Blitukus. One dragon, a dark green color, was holding a handle on the purplish device, the other, pure black in color was holding a handheld device of some kind, looking into a display of sorts.
The black dragon with the handheld device spoke, "No, we're still in the yellow... try... two meters to the west." The dark-green dragon rolled the wheeled device a bit to his right. The black dragon spoke again, "You passed it, a little back, a quarter meter." The dark green dragon slowly moved it towards his left. The black dragon spoke again, "Ok, the signal is good but all we're getting is a blank glow here." The dark green dragon replied, "I think she only forwarded it for the first 4, she'll catch up to us in an hour or two. Good enough, anyway." The dark green dragon then pressed down on the handle, pressing the cylindrical part into the ground, then lifted up, causing the frame to part from the cylinder, leaving the frame held in his hand, the cylinder sticking out of the ground. The dark green dragon then continued, "5 down, 10 to go, then we can call it a night." Blitukus walked up to them and spoke, "Hello!" They both spoke, "A kobold?" he black dragon continued, "Hi there." Blitukus thought... his goal was painted there, where they planted that cylinder... what they were doing had to be fairly significant somehow. Blitukus asked, "I am curious, what is this? I am new here, you might say." The dark green dragon spoke, "We're placing teleport nodes for the network." The black dragon continued, "Scattered among this world are weak points in space. The main hub sends a signal out among the aetherial plane, and it can be detected with the most strength at these weak points. This is how we find where to put new nodes." The dark green dragon continued, "The operator at the main hub forwards a connection out to the weak points where we're working... she's supposed to do it before we get there but sometimes we're faster than she is." Blitukus smiled... a hub of teleportation portals... it would definitely make transit far faster. Blitukus spoke, "Fascinating, truly, but I must reach this hub, I am on an important quest." The dragons spoke in unison, "Just teleport!" The black dragon continued, "It's a free service provided by the government... we may have just planted this one but it works just fine." Blitukus responded, "Teleport... erm... of course..."
This makes me feel like a complete outsider... then again, I actually am, here.
The black dragon spoke, "WHOA! Uh-oh!" The dark green dragon asked, "What?" The black dragon continued, "I just cought a message from our surveyor circling the heavens above, he said he was right over the sunny side of the world when he got hit by a dense region of the solar flare! He's ok, but he says his sense of the aetherial has been temporarily saturated... it'll be another 2 hours before he can get us more locations." The dark green dragon replied, "He's OK? Good... well, I guess we'll have an extended dinner break after the next two." The black dragon laughed, "I guess so." The black dragon then spoke again after a moment, "Hmm, you know all it takes is one greedy pr*ck in a high place getting the wrong idea, and I bet the kobolds will end up subjugated. Wouldn't be surprised if they end up getting pushed so far back the rest of the world would look down on 'em." Blitukus sighed slightly from his nose. The dark green dragon replied, "Nah, they can be pretty resourceful given the chance, that happens and I'll bet you 5 moneys they'll bring themselves right back up, it's been too long since we've seen a real kobold hero about anyway." The black dragon chuckled, "You're on!" Blitukus smiled... perhaps somewhere down the line, 5 moneys would be changing pockets. Blitukus had reached that objective point... where was the next? He looked at his sphere of direction, the map it displayed clearly marked with a red and blue dot... the blue dot was far to the northwest, likely over a thousand miles away. If the teleportation network was as advanced as it seemed, it shouldn't be a problem... of course, assuming Blitukus could figure out how to use this teleportation network. Blitukus asked, "I understand you know quite a bit about what's where, having planted these things after all, what's at this location here, marked by the blue dot?" The dark green dragon looked at it, then looked at the black dragon. The dark green dragon picked up the wheeled frame, and gave it to the black dragon, "Here, you get the next one ready, I'll answer his questions, this one might end up being a long answer." The black dragon accepted the frame, and began to move off to ready it again, "Ok, have fun."
The dark green dragon crouched, and looked closely at the blue dot. He spoke, "The color of the dot says that's sure... but I wouldn't stay there too long. That's Arkus' tower." Blitukus asked, "Who's Arkus?" The dragon replied, "Not many times people have asked me that one, he's one of the most famous high mages. He's seemingly invented several new spells and nearly built an entirely new level of magic from scratch just out of nowhere, as if it all came as an odd inspiration... the thing is... he pursues these at all costs. His trains of thought make absolutely no sense to us... and some of his proposed ideas, well, made us do a double-take. Some regard him as a genius the scale of which should be worshiped, some regard him as... well..." A moment of silence passed. Blitukus asked, "Erm, well...?" The dragon continued, "He's alone in his tower, and has looked into arts many of us consider a bit, well, too far. He's a very nice person most of the time but can be rather forceful and generally doesn't like uninvited guests. Although his contributions are many and well known, the methods he uses to develop them indicate to all witnesses, he possesses some rather questionable ethics. Sufficient to say, the inspectors are no longer willing to go to his tower and the government is at a loss about what to do about him, although things have started to sour ever since that one experiment of his broke loose and the military had to get involved. I'd recommend just not going over there, but I sense you're dead set on it, so second to that, I recommend taking the time to watch your own back." The black dragon spoke, "Ready!" The dark green dragon replied, "Ok, let's go." He then turned to Blitukus, and spoke, "Good luck, and be careful." Blitukus nodded. The two dragons then flew away, headed north.
Kind of reminds me of me, except for that whole questionable ethics and rampant experiments part.
Blitukus walked up to the node, and looked at it... all he knew about magic was that it used aetherial energy and was focused by willpower. He felt his soul coursing with energy... it seemed the environment provided enough ambient energy for most personal-use needs. He sat, and focused on the node. He tried to interface with it with his mind as best as he could... and found that only the vaguest sort of interaction was possible, but it was refinable. He spent the next few minutes using his will and thought-power to refine his connection with the node until he actually had a clear connection with it, almost as if it were telepathy... although all it told him was the location of the main hub, sitting in the very center of the central continents. He began thinking of ways to try to actually teleport... his shift of concentration caused the connection to close. He refocused himself and found this time he was able to connect with the node much easier and much more quickly than the last. He smiled... Dracha was right, he was picking this up quickly. He stood and walked toward the node... it felt as if some sort of aetherial signal was tugging at the energies within him... wherever his energies were concentrated, it felt as if the matter there were slightly jumpy. He sat a bit further from it, and felt how it was pulling at his aetherial energies... Blitukus moved the energy within him, and spread it out evenly among his body. Then, he began to allow it to build up... he willed for it to evenly begin to fill every particle of his body. He felt his matter becoming attached to his energy, as if by some sort of energy-based string. He then put force behind his energy... and found that it simply splashed to the front of his body and he was left back at step 1. He retried this, except, he tried to unbind his energy, setting it adrift among space before putting a force behind it. He found that it moved, and he began to feel a bit displaced... but then the binding broke between his matter and his energy, causing the unbound mana to simply evaporate away, leaving him sitting there feeling rather drained. He breathed deeply, and slowed himself, absorbing new energy from the ambient environment. When he and his spirit had restored a proper amount of energy, he tried again... this time, as his decoupled body of mana drifted away, he placed his willpower on keeping the bond between his mana and his physical body together... this bond became taut, and he forced his mana to move further, dragging his existence behind it... he felt suddenly displaced. He felt as if he were hovering, drifting. Then, he noticed, his mana, sent ahead of him and dragging him behind it, was nearing the node. The node sucked in Blitukus' body of mana, and then cast it through aetherial space, following a signal to its source. Blitukus was pulled along behind it, breezing across, above, and literally through the continents, zipping past biomes at a rate that would have made his flying machine seem to be, at best, moving at a snails pace. With pinpoint precision, as if it were on a rail, Blitukus' body of mana took him forth, directly to the central continents. He suddenly emerged from aetherial space, finding himself falling. He soon after landed softly on a hard, smooth stone floor. He looked up. The sun was high in the sky, nearly at 12 noon. In a matter of seconds he had traversed such a distance as to set himself on the sunny side of the world. All around him were towering constructs of mithril and crystal glass, arching into the sky. There was a peaceful chatter about. Many large antenna-looking protrusions stretched into the sky from large, more complicated looking teleportation nodes nearby. In the center of this hub, a conical tower with a spherical top, overlooking the entire hub. The hub had many dragons milling about, some disappearing in flashes of light, others appearing out of nowhere. The entire area seemed heavily trafficked. Upon the land, some dragons sat, some walked, but there were several vehicles traversing a smooth stone road, hovering above it silently, each hauling metallic crates, doubtlessly either containing or destined to contain various cargoes and goods. In the air, near the ground, dragons were flying around, going about their daily business. Above them, the tallest towers were linked to one another by barely visible bridges seeming to consist of nothing but energy. Above the top of the highest towers, an occasional flying machine would zip overhead, blue and green, organically shaped, silent, yet swift, a dull red glow appearing around their rear, what one would infer would be some kind of engine. The buildings were vast, but plants seemed to grow on their metal structure. Indeed, it seemed the entire city was a fusion of nature and civilization, a peaceful combination. The gunk and pollution of overuse of energies, present with technology and likely having a counterpart in magic, was not present at all. The air was pristine. All around, the people were happy, their benevolent government and powerful civilization providing even the basic workers a good standard of living it seemed. There were no signs of starvation or epidemic, and everyone had what they needed plus a bit extra for fun. Blitukus looked around, and grinned. It was beautiful, a place full of wonders unseen since after the demons... it was everything Blitukus had dreamed a future technological civilization would be... and it was rather unfortunate it was doomed to crumble. Perhaps, in the future... after all was said and done, the Dragons would be able to rebuild their grand civilization. It was truly grand in all ways... in scale, the city spanned out, approaching the horizon, its harmonious presence seen throughout the entire local area. Another trait of the city was the ability to at an instant tell which buildings were more advanced. The milky white mithril buildings were either cylindrical, spherical, conical, or a simple combination of these. The more intricate and organically shaped buildings had a large amount of brilliant blue adamantine used in their construction. In general, it seemed the most advanced objects were made of adamantine, the more adamantine, the more complex the object. Relatively nearby, toward the rear of the city, near a hill, was a large toroidal mithril building, arcs of mana circulating around it. Several dragons, each wearing a fairly well detailed adamantine robe, stood atop this building, channeling the energies toward the center. A powerful glow emanated from that direction, the building seeming to require its own power infrastructure to function. One one side of the building, several different metals, mostly piles of silver, and glowing crystals were stacked along with several liquids of different colors. On the other side, fine spools of adamantine, a loading bay for vehicles on both sides. Adamantine was produced at a very slow rate despite the immense amount of energy, but it seemed numerous strands were produced simultaneously, although beyond that, details were unavailable to Blitukus at such a distance. Judging by the construct of the building, compared to the rest of the mithril buildings, only the most advanced and resourceful nations would have the ability to develop and build such a facility, and judging by the robes of those dragons, and their glowing eyes, only the most skilled mages would be able to properly understand and run the operation... it did take knowledge and experience with extremely small-scale functions applied to large scale operations, after all. The adamantine creation facility was surrounded by various flags and statues... perhaps developing it was actually a multinational effort? Blitukus smiled. This civilization was advanced both in its methods and in its society, for the government had long been benevolent, and the world at peace, for such a massive research project to be completed in such a graceful manner. Blitukus enjoyed it all, but brought his focus back towards his goal. He had less than a day to retrieve the component and get back to the portal.
He walked up to the central node of the hub... it was all rather busy, but things moved swiftly. As he entered within range of it... he got this sudden feeling of omnipresence, as if the entire world were at his fingertips. He studied his sphere of direction, and charted a path between the red dot and the blue dot. When it was his turn, he connected to the hub, and indicated his desired course to it. The glows seemed to shift a bit as it aligned itself to a new destination. Blitukus once again sat and focused himself, parting his mana, dragging himself behind it through the astral realm. The hub sucked him in, and catapulted him northward. He emerged shortly after, launched up slightly, then falling down, landing softly on dry grass and mud. The air was cool. He was in a deep valley, and to his right, a single tower, consisting of adamantine supports and dark glass, mithril spikes attached to it, each spike holding a ruby-based crystal assembly. Near the top, an energy-bridge joined a door at the top of the conical tower to the top edge of the cliffs surrounding the valley. Blitukus walked up a hill to the side, then up various slopes until he reached the top of the cliffs, then stood before the energy bridge. Blitukus stepped onto the bridge, and felt as if the only force keeping him from plummeting a rather long distance was a strange force repulsing against his feet. It was a bit hard to move on it at first as it behaved differently than a solid bridge, but eventually he got used to it and was able to move upon it with more ease. When he reached the other side, he found that a heavy mithril door stood in his way. Suddenly there was a loud beeping to his right, he looked to his right and upward, seeing a crystalline optical device focusing its attention at him. He waved at it. It seemed inexpressive toward him. Blitukus thought for a while... he had to get through and speak to this Arkus. Then, he remembered... he had figured out the essentials of teleportation from his preexisting knowledge of particles and energy. Now was a good time to put it to formal use. He sat down, and focused himself, driving his mana to pull him through the astral plane. While in the astral plane, he phased through the mithril door, then willed himself to rematerialize. He fell to the floor, inside of a hall, the mithril door behind him. He continued through the hall, keeping an eye out for any possible threats. He ascended some steps, and continued forward, finding himself near a window. Suddenly, tentacles sprung from the wall, grabbed him, then pulled him against the wall, pinning him there. A few moments later, a snakeman approached. The snakeman was much different than anything he had seen or heard of before... it had blue scales, much of its cranium and some of its body was adamantine plate rather than flesh, it had a crystal replacing one of its eyeballs, and it didn't seem very amused by Blitukus' presence. It walked up to Blitukus, grabbed him by the neck, tore him from the tentacles, then threw him towards the window. Blitukus seemed to phase through the window, fell a short distance, then slammed into the mithril floor by the energy bridge. He found himself stunned and a bit sore, but otherwise uninjured. He stood up. He was once again outside of the mithril door. Blitukus walked up to it again, and this time tried to teleport directly into a room at the top of the tower... but found a barrier of aetherial energy blocked him. He found himself back where he started... he would need to physically go there. Blitukus wondered... was the snakeman raised there or taken from somewhere else? Was the snakeman willing to undergo such changes... or was it forced upon him? Blitukus felt a bit nervous. He might make it through the tower, and meet Arkus, despite these test subjects being on patrol... but he would have to be careful... for there was the chance he could end up a 'test subject' himself.
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I get the feeling I might've left some typos behind.
[ December 09, 2007: Message edited by: AlanL ]
Author
Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76145 times)