The Glitch IV - Inversion (Ch. 1)

[Rukia]

"Well what a pleasant surprize this is, Sir Ottoman." She returned the bow as was the costom. "You know you're quite difficult to get ahold of? And why may I ask does His lordship need my assitance? Surely he has others who are quite morw adapt to bending to his wills. As for Leandra and the others, the were in her shop when I left them. I'll acompany you." With that she changed directions and headed to the Clerics shop. She had avoided the comment on the state of things in the town.

[Charon]

Ottoman followed after the young elf. "His lordship wants an item, and what his lordship wants his lordship shall have." Ottoman did not add what he had felt was an addition to that. 'Or heads will roll'.

[Rukia]

Sivri looked back at Ottoman. She smirked, "Anything you want to add to that? Just to get the point across? Something along the lines of a threat on my head if I deny his orders or fail?" She paused. "Oh we have personal matters to discuss before this little endevor." She came to a halt a few feet from the door to the shop.

[Charon]

Ottoman stopped behind her. "A threat upon all of our heads Sivri. As for personal matters, if it is about another job it shall have to wait, your last job should have paid you more than well enough to keep you living pretty."

Ottoman stepped into the cleric's shop, the bell on the door signaled the Noble's enterance. He almost smiled at what the reaction of those inside to seeing Ottoman would be, considering that seeing the noble on the street let alone entering a shop was almost unseen these days.

[LadyTevar]

Leandra turned towards the door, frowning since she had made sure the sign said closed... and felt her jaw drop open IC and IRL. "Ottoman?! You -never- step in here!"

She glanced to Thog, Elwyn, and Vadlenar the Necromancer. "I think we just got the answer... there is something bad going on in the Keep."

[SirNitram]

"Da keep is sinking!" Thog wailed in despair and fear. "Der rats is abandoning it!"

[Rukia]

"You obviously misunderstand. With all do respect, I haven't been paid for my last three jobs. Your men for lack of a better word, have stiffed me on my payments. I'll do you the favor of not dicussing this further, but I expect to revisit this at a later time." She glared at Ottoman.

It was all she could do to keep from laughing at the look on Le's face and Thog's remark as they walked in. "Le, dear," Siv cleared her throat, "Sir Ottoman has an extended invite from the Baron." She gestured to the group in the shop as she looked at Ottoman, "Please, inform them of the task at hand."

(this is my last post tonight, I'll trust ya'll to move me along. Thanks in advance)

[Charon]

Ottoman almost tripped when he heard that his men had stiffed Sivri three times. What the hell had they been thinking? Upsetting an assassin and your lord was possibly one of the stupidest things to ever do. His steps were not helped by Leandra's look, which was priceless. It was Thog's comment though that tripped up Matthew, and as such Ottoman as well. He caught himself on a table, trying to make it look as though he was still dealing with a battle wound of some sort. Matthew tried his very hardest not to laugh. As such Ottoman was silent for a few seconds.

Ottoman straightened himself and made certain the door was closed behind him. "The Baron has issued that I am to lead those who were involved in the fighting against the Black Riders to gain an item of power from Dwarven lands in the North. We are to do this by any means necessary."

[LadyTevar]

Ottoman's dignity was saved by the fact that everyone else in the shop was also tryng their damnest not to die laughing over Thog's hysterical comment. If there was a FUQ thread in the forums, Thog would be the most quoted contributor... and that one was a doozy.


Leandra, coughing to cover the laughter, finally managed to pull herself together. "Is it just those who fought the Dark Riders? Specifically us, Sir Ottoman?" She looked to the rest gathered, wondering if they were also getting suspicious over this. ".. and why would you come here yourself to offer us this job?"

[Rukia]

"I asked him the exact same thing. He's been very secretive, not that we had much time for romancing the issue on our short hike here but...." She stopped, still trying to recover from Thog's comment. "What I do know is that if we refuse or fail we will face dier consequences." She made a slashing movement at her throat to emphasize her point. A glare from Ottoman made her shut her trap and let him finish. She hadn't intended to be rude, but it was the only was she could show her enthusiasim and excitment over this new adventure.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"If I may beg your pardon, but I question the Baron's motives. Has he behavior...changed appreciably at all since we fought those riders? And... Did anything happen to you when you fought them? A mark on yoru body in real life, or feeling the effects of a curse cast upon you in your real body? That sort of thing has happened to several people I know of now, and... Leandra and Thog experienced something.... wierd, which I will leave it to them to explain"

"As for the Job, the Baron can make no real threats against me that I cannot escape. Unless there is something... more... going on"

[Charon]

Ottoman glanced behind him, out the windows, as if looking to see if something was there. "It was specifically us Leandra, and I came here personally because this is an important matter, and I do not leave important matters to my underlings." Ottoman stepped further into the building, still glancing behind him, there must be spies watching and listening now. The Baron wouldn't take a chance like that. He looked at Elwyn. "There is more going on, I do not feel comfortable discussing these matters in so open an area. Leandra, you have somewhere where we can all be safe from prying eyes and ears?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ottoman glanced behind him, out the windows, as if looking to see if something was there. "It was specifically us Leandra, and I came here personally because this is an important matter, and I do not leave important matters to my underlings." Ottoman stepped further into the building, still glancing behind him, there must be spies watching and listening now. The Baron wouldn't take a chance like that. He looked at Elwyn. "There is more going on, I do not feel comfortable discussing these matters in so open an area. Leandra, you have somewhere where we can all be safe from prying eyes and ears?"

"I do. My grove, I control what goes on there"

[Shark Bait]

Vadlenar had stood silently in the back of the room through most of the conversation till finally he felt he had something to contribute. “HDD is basically and advanced neuro-feed back unit, it works on the basic principle that the brain uses electro chemical signals. These signals are for all intents and purposes our reality, everything we perceive is sent through these signals, the HDD is supposed to have control systems both simple and complex to keep the artificial signals from getting to strong. However I am reminded of a paper from the early days of VR about how lower ‘safety’ regulations lead to some fairly serious side effects in brain chemistry, and actually to this day there is a link between certain conditions and the prolonged use off the HDD.

Now on a side note I’m also reminded of a separate paper I glanced at that was about 30 years old about ‘gremlins’ in computer systems. It seems that a princton professor was trying to find a cause for malfunctions that apparently had neither a software nor hardware issue causing it. He could never actually prove his work but the evidence seems to be everywhere around us.

Now what if we were to combine these little tidbits of information, perhaps there is something at work here, some ‘gremlin’ which is bypassing the safety protocols on our HDDs. This glitch in the system could cause all manner of side effects, ranging from El’s pain to my bruise, and so on. What is truly chilling about this is the question of how far can the safety measures be bypassed, in other words could we or someone else die from this?â€

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Indeed. I think that is probably the most likely explanation for the physcal side effects actually. On the other hand, what would cause such massive differences in the behavior of multiple individuals. It bears investigation to make sure this is not a local phonomenon. Even if it is some sort of suprise plot device by the Admingods, It is worth investigation"

[Shark Bait]

“Very trueâ€

[Charon]

Matthew rubbed his forehead. Sometimes doing good deeds just wasn't worth it. Vadlenar and Elwyn apparently needed a good hit with the reality crowbar, and neither seemed to understand the concept of discussing things in a secure location that wouldn't arouse suspicion.

Matthew activated his OOC "Are you guys insane? People dying in a game? I can see something weird occasionally happening. But this is a game, obviously there were a few bugs and now they're fixing it as best they can."

Right Matt, keep saying it because that's the only thing that makes sense. The Baron obviously had a change of heart after the attacks, completely understandable. Maybe those Dark Riders got in contact with him and he agreed to their ideas to liven things up a bit. Ignore the feeling in your gut that says it's something much much worse.

Matthew turned the OOC off. "I will tell you my thoughts on this matter as soon as we are in a secure location that will not arouse suspicion. As for your offer Elywn, you'll excuse me if I pass but those Dark Riders must have passed through your grove to get to this town, which in and of itself says many things of it's security."

[Shark Bait]

"Would you feel more secure if we chose to meet in my house?" Vadlenar offered "Very few people ever dare to set foot on my land, even wild beasts stay away."

[Agent Fisher]

Decimus reached the stables and mounted his horse. He started trotting off towards town.

It took a few minutes but he finally reached the center of town.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Are you guys insane? People dying in a game? I can see something weird occasionally happening. But this is a game, obviously there were a few bugs and now they're fixing it as best they can."

in OOC
"Physical effects have happened to people from things in game. And it is highly imporbable that psychosomatic responses would occur to so many people in so specific a stretch of time. As for my grove, they teleported in"

[LadyTevar]

"Enough." Leandra said. "We're going off on tangets, here." She looked straight to Otto. "Sir Ottoman, we will need a few days to get things together for the trip."

Over her head, the OOC commented "This is something best done on a weekend, when we dont' have to worry about IRL. Tomorrow's Friday."

Leandra continued speaking IC-ly. "I want to try to make a few strong antidotes and healing potions, and I suggest we take whatever time we have to stock up on those items we've wanted but never gotten around to buying. It's a long way to the dwarven hold, and the last thing we need is to die from a bandit or goblin attack."

[Charon]

Ottoman smiled. Someone who seemed to understand him. "It is good that I shall be leading this in name only m'lady." Ottoman bowed to Leandra. "I suggest following her advice, we do not know when we shall be returning. I assume you can all afford your own horses for the trip?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ottoman smiled. Someone who seemed to understand him. "It is good that I shall be leading this in name only m'lady." Ottoman bowed to Leandra. "I suggest following her advice, we do not know when we shall be returning. I assume you can all afford your own horses for the trip?"

"I wont be needing one. Seeing as I can transform into an animal much faster than a horse whenever I choose..."

(Just so you guys know, a horse can run at 35-40 mph. Many birds can reach 80)

[SirNitram]

Thog spoke up at last. His thoughts had been slow, so he had been quiet. "Me have steed. Not horsie. Horsies too small. Me got dragon. Just little one dough. It good trained." He sidled over to the nearest person. "Between me am you, me think it smarter den me." The swamp dragon probably was. It would explain why it was chronically bad tempered around Thog.

[LadyTevar]

"I think I'm the only one who will need help with a mount," Leandra told Otto, after mentally agreeing with Thog about his swamp dragon. She'd met the poor dragon. "I've been far too busy with my shop to purchase my own... I usually just rent one when I need to go out adventuring, or go on foot."

She turned away, looking over the potions she has available right now. "Do you still want that one potion you'd asked me for, Sir Ottoman? Here it is..." she handed it over to him as she absently catelogued all the potions she had available at the moment.
"... is it weird that I feel we're going to need every one of them?" she asked after a long moment.