The Oasis

[greatcleavage]

What the heck was he doing here?

Beneath the shade of the palm fronds, Roy stared out at the desert that stretched out in every direction. Somehow he'd found himself here, against all logic. A weird sidequest? A dream? Maybe he was dead again and his spirit had been hijacked.

Well, what could he do but wait and see what came along? The oasis showed signs of being used by travelers, so he wouldn't be stuck here forever anyway...

Comments

[greatcleavage]

Wow, that was definitely a unique magical item. Roy maintained a polite and respectful tone of voice, even as he glanced to the girl again.

"I don't think she even heard me, so I suppose my reassurance was irrelevant one way or the other."

[najaran]

"It helped me," the thing said, moving the free side of its facial hair in a shrug.

The girl's head came out of the water with a huge gasp. She pushed over and rolled onto her back, letting the back of her head rest half in the water as she looked up at the sky. "Now if only this place had food...."

Someone still has failed her spot check to notice Roy...

[greatcleavage]

Roy cleared his throat, in the hopes that maybe she might catch on. "I have some rations in my pack. They're as terrible as they come, of course, but better than starvation."

[najaran]

She jumped, hearing his voice, and rolled to her feet. Or rather... she tried. She skidded into a crouch, water dripping from her hair. "Whoa! Hi, sorry, didn't see you... wait. Rations as in food?" you now have her full attention, though she did swoop in place to grab up the cane.

[greatcleavage]

Well. Points for reflexes, he supposed, if... not for execution.

"'Food' might be way too generous a term, but enough to keep someone going till -- something happens." Which had to happen soon, or else they'd be in trouble, but...

[najaran]

"Is there enough for everyone until we find a town or something?" She stood up straighter. "Oh, and thanks for not attacking or anything."

Now that she was standing properly it was clear this girl was a little younger than Julia.

[greatcleavage]

Wonderful. Like his little sister were Elan, from all appearances thus far. This was definitely going to be a terrific day.

"Given the traffic that seems to pass through here, judging by the footprints and wagon tracks near the water, someone should come by here soon. I think we can get by till then. Why would I attack, though?"

[najaran]

Najaran shrugged and dropped into a sitting position in the sand. "No one else seems to much need a reason to attack me. It just keeps happening. I just want to finish my mission for my Master, eat good foods, and go back home. Is that really so bad?" she flopped back and stared up at the sky.

"I never asked for all this adventure."

[greatcleavage]

"Mission?" Roy put two and two together -- a mission plus random attacks hinted at something of substantial importance. Add in the artifact she carried, and that all added up to something very important about this girl and what she was doing. Oh, speaking of: "Uh, you... dropped your staff?"

[najaran]

"Gooligan is more than just a staff," she said, defensively, sitting up and pulling him into her lap.

"Najaran..." he said, touched. He started to tear up.

"He's useful for way more than just walking! I'd never get my laundry done without him, and he is good at catching onto things with his teeth when I'm falling...."

"Najaran..." he was now depressed and droopy.

"And I can stir dinner with him, if I need to."

[greatcleavage]

"Huh." Oh yeah. Definite an Elan sort. Clearing his throat, Roy tried to take a different tack. "So he's a valuable companion and vital aid on your journey, you'd say?"

[najaran]

"And a friend," she did finally add. But Gooligan was determined not to get his hopes up this time.

[greatcleavage]

"Well, then you're pretty fortunate not to be alone out here," Roy said, determined to stay positive.

[najaran]

"Right! I've got Gooligan and everyone, and now you!"

Yes, she said 'and everyone'.

[greatcleavage]

Roy would be worried about being so quickly included in that circle, if not for the fact that he'd assumed it was inevitable as soon as he pegged her personality.

"...Everyone?"

I love Roy so much! :D

[najaran]

Najaran nodded and reached behind her back.

"Najaran, I don't think this is such a good idea."

"Nonsense, Gooligan! I bet everyone would like a drink, anyway!" She pulled her hand forward and there were several... cards???? In her hand. "Come on out, everyone!"

She threw the cards towards the desert, and each transformed in midair into a creature of some sort. There was a large knight in armor that was easily tall enough for Najran to stand on his shoulder like a parrot, and a stone golemn that was slightly larger than the knight. There were two creatures that looked like the Honeycombs cravings monster, a long eared tiny little gremlin, and what looked like an upright cat wearing a long red cloak wrapped completely around its middle, smirking at everything, as cats do.

She gave a bright smile. "Everyone!" she said happily, then she turned to them. "We found water! So drink up!" And so began the stampede....

[greatcleavage]

Oh, a Deck of Illusions --

NOPE! Roy hurried out of the way, one hand over his head to avoid the clearly nonillusory beings with the clearly nonillusory thirst.

"So you're a summoner," he said, rather flatly.

[najaran]

"Summoner?" She asked, confused, settling the gremlin on her shoulder when it chose to climb her rather than slake its thirst, "No, I'm a Cepter."

"Which was something that Master Horowitz SPECIFICALLY advised you not to tell people about..." Gooligan muttered.

"Oh calm down. Gooligan, this is clearly a good guy, he's not going to try to kill me to take my cards or anything."

[greatcleavage]

"Terrific, another wacky prestige class. I've never heard of a 'Cepter', so even setting my alignment aside I'm not certain what mischief I could do to you anyway..." So the cards were the focus for her magic, then? Huh.

[najaran]

They were both staring at him in shock.

Najaran recovered first. "Woooooow. Never been anyone's first cepter before. Well... ask me anything!" she said with a bright smile.


"Unless you actually want to learn about Cepters," Golligan muttered.

[greatcleavage]

Suppressing a tasteless joke, Roy gestured to the monster pile over by the oasis. "So you summoned those out of the cards?" As opposed to summoning them using the cards. Fine distinctions of language could be very important.

[najaran]

She nodded. "They are all parts of the Culdcept, the book of creation." Because that perfectly answered the question.

Except that if you already knew everything it did. For someone new to all this, it really just made things worse.

[greatcleavage]

"Uh... huh. Okay, let's pretend I don't know what that is." He could guess, and had already made a fair number of assumptions, but even so, this seemed like something he should be sure about.

[najaran]

Hey look, no crayons!

She dropped back onto the sand comfortably. "The Goddess Culdra created all things, by writing them into her book of creation," she said like she was reciting for a test. "She even created other gods. But then there was a big war. I don't think it was the one with the Dragons, since that didn't seem to be what that big dead Dragon told me..." she put a finger to her lips considering, then shook her head. "Anyway, there was a big war called the Gods war and they fought a lot and in the battle somehow the Culdcept got destroyed and pieces of it fell to the various worlds. Some people, mostly humans but I know at least one elf as well, have the power to use those cards to summon the creatures, things, and spells written into that part of the Culdcept. We're called Cepters." A bright smile, then back to the reciting for a test. "Cepters generally don't work well together," she said, then frowned. "Except... Except that's not true," Gooligan," she said to the staff, thinking. "The Master said that what makes the Black Cepters so dangerous is that they work together. But we've seen plenty of Cepters who work together. Like Kigi and I. And all those people in the second tournament."

She considered. "What the Black Cepters do is evil... but I don't think they're as unique as I was taught."

"That... is remarkably perceptive of you, Najaran...." The staff admitted.

[greatcleavage]

Well, as creation myths go, he'd heard worse ones. This one didn't even promise to doom creation, which was a point in its favor.

"Wait, hold on. The evil guys work together and the good guys don't?" That was extremely counterintuitive, running against normal divisions of morality and ethics as he understood them.