One day, the General had decided to take Lady Talia on a private trip to a nearby island known for its romantic vistas. Knowing that the three girls could handle themselves for a couple of days, they left at sunrise. For the first time in years, the girls had time to do what they wanted without parental supervision and they weren't going to waste it. Standing on the dock as the ship sailed off, they discussed what they were going to do.
The estate was well guarded with a high wall and guards posted about every twenty feet atop of it. If you were a normal thief, it might seem impossible, but you aren’t, you have some magic on your side.
Pharnox gazes out at the sun from the covered wagon and studies it carefully, he is largely indifferent to it seeing as there is no way to remove it... Pharnox calmly scans the trail and so forth for bandits, trolls and other probelms.
I do not mind this "sun" too much, I prefer the night though... Especially when it is cloudless, there is something about the full moon and the stars in the ceiling that makes one thirst for exploration and knowledge under the cover of the en-wrapping night...
I would love to my mate, alas Cadranite is not as safe as it appears... Especially in the swamps, someone needs to keep an eye out back here. Once we are in Swampwood proper however we can relax for an hour or two, we can also feast on the fruit they grow... Remember the watermelon and grapes I brought back to the Lone Spider?
So my love how do think the settling of the Lone Spider is going for our people?
My thoughts as well, although I believe that the Lone Spider will always be a Drow settlement I don't believe it will be the main settlement in the future... I remember reading a massive but battered technical manual that one outcast from the other city states brought with him to Phelthon. Within was described a new form of transportation, the author posited that one could use the same "steam engines" that power some golems to power a vehicle so that it would be self powered...
The author's research posited that this "vehicle" would travel along a set of parallel steel "rails" and that it would be able to transport massive amounts of goods and Drow between the city states... From the notes contained within the book the author brought the idea before a council who rejected it sighting the problems with it.
Their main critique of the "steam engine" was that it would not be worth building the "rails" on which it would have to run, as it would require a straight line between cities which would have to be carved out of sheer rock walls...
However here in this "new" world such a straight line would not be an impossibility... If my theories concerning the geography of this land and of the Deeps are correct and if a few of the remaining Vorns can be persuaded we will all be set to "survive and prosper" indeed...
Flynt turns around to face her. She was probably the only one he trusted here that wasn't four-legged. "How long have you known? About what this circus was really about? And I don't mean ripping off people. I mean the real purpose of the circus." He asks hoping for a certain answer. He would hate to leave here with hate for her. Leyla was kind and smart. She also had the same sense of humor he did. And she was an acrobat, so there was that. The young archer also looks around for any possible spies.
Flynt is wary of her, but decides to take a chance. "I saw it. The ringmaster sacrificed some innocent guy to someone named Darjuu. It was a few nights ago. I was walking back after giving the elephants their nightly feeding. I heard a scream and went to check it out. It was like a scene from a terrible play. He was standing there chanting some gibberish and then stabbed the man. He then said something about a storm coming. I booked it and I've been trying to figure out the best time to leave. And tonight is it. The last time I saw something like this, I was just a kid. I hoped I wouldn't ever have to deal with this again. Please tell me you didn't know this was going on. Petty crime is one thing, but I'm not going to be a part of a cult."
The local settlements will be a start but I am seeing something more in the works... A route between the surface and the Deeps and we the exiles of the Deeps sitting right on top of all that beautiful and plentiful trade... As for our "strange technology" I believe they will grow accustomed to it, once they see the bullet pierce that plate helmet I recovered from the swamps they will be eager to acquire guns... Even those who cannot afford them will still want to see what else we possess that is more in their price range...
You continue your way through the marsh and after about three hours, you reach Swampwood. Pulling into the village square, you're greeted by a familiar face. Caelin, the Elven Herbalist whom you meet that fateful night. Knowing your distaste for common, he greets you in Elvish. "Hail friend, I see you've aquired a wagon. Have you started that business you were telling me about? And whom is this lovely creature with you?"
Gashka stands on the docks watching the ship sail off in disbelief. Is this really happening? We get to be totally free...do anything we want?
Slipping an arm around each of her sisters, she smiles. "So girls, what are we gonna do today? There's a whole town out there to explore, so what shall it be first? I haven't been here since I lived here as a child, it should be...interesting to see old friends." She gets an impish smile as she starts to giggle.
Indeed this business is ready and hopefully I fill find many eager customers, this would be Tehanna my mate.
"I know. But unless he has a cliche evil twin, then it was Madrick. He even had this strange crazed look in his eye. I've never seen him like that. It was like he was a different person." Flynt says strapping his bow to his back as he finalizes his packing. "I can't be a part of this anymore. I'm sorry."
"I'm going home." Flynt takes her hand when she asks the second question. "Of course you can. You can meet my folks, my little brother, and even all my friends from growing up. I think you'd like the Fates. You have a lot in common with them. It's probably why I like you so much."
He then looks her over. "Not the only reason but still." He grins as he runs to look out from his tent.
If your wanting a firearm your going to have to be prepared to shell out some gold, with the chaos of the retreat from the Deeps combined with having to adjust to making guns with new materials they will be expensive... However we do have cheaper things to available, like grenades , acid and Everlasting Fire ()... I'll be showing what a good firearm can do in the market square.
We have plague cures, bodybalm, bloodblock and we can make antitoxin. If your wanting say Troll Septic though it isn't going to be cheap... What you looking for exactly?
"Just taking a walk. Gonna spend the night out. You know?" Flynt says nodding to Leyla.
Pharnox calmly lifts two items from the wagons compartments, one is a small vial containing a yellow liquid and the other is glass syringe...
Fifty gold for the plague cure and five for the syringe, you can reuse the syringe provided you clean it thoroughly with cleansing chemicals and scalding water... I will show you how to use the syringe...
Where is the patient?
"Look, just let us go. We won't tell anyone. I just want to go home."
Terra looks in Gashka's direction really? seeing old friends isn't all that it's cracked up to be. trust me
Come on we are wasting valuable time, besides I can hardly feel anything on this wooden dock. Terra starts to head off...right towards the edge of the pier and the water.
"Right this way." With Tehanna staying at the wagon, Caelin leads you back to his house. Upon entering, you see a young woman twitching sporadically in her sleep, her skin burning to the touch.
Pharnox calmly crouches beside the woman on the bed and finds a vein in the arm. Pharnox takes the bottle and uses the syringe to suck the yellow medicine out of it, then he calmly positions the syringe to make the injection and speaks.
One must note two things concerning the body and medicine, the first is that after a certain point it becomes useless to boost a chemical's "purity" if it is be administered orally. The reason for this is stomach acids, while the stomach can absorb much of what one drinks and consumes some of that will inevitably be converted into waste. To solve this problem one must after a certain point of chemical "purity" find a different way to administer a chemical medicine, lest one make it about as effective as it's "impure" cousin. The ideal way to do this and completely preserve the medicine's chemical potency is to inject is directly into the blood stream, to do this one must find a vein preferably on the arms or legs and do the following...
Pharnox stabs the syringe into the vein and then presses down upon the syringe to make it release it's disease combating chemicals... Pharnox calmly waits to see the results of his "new fangled" medicine.
Laughing loudly she easily catches Terra around the waste and turns her around, "Well...first I was being sarcastic, and secondly if you kept going that way the only thing you would have felt is....well, wet." She stifles her laughter and speaks in a more quiet tone, "I never had any friends here....that's why I said it that way. I just meant it might be interesting to see what's become of the ones that use to pick on me for fun." Noticing that certain look from her sisters she puts up her hands and smiles, "Don't worry....I wasn't gonna start anything. Let's go see what this place has....wouldn't it be great if we could find someone to do that tattoo for us we've been talkin about?"
"Is now the time for that? Oh the other trick. I'll follow your lead. Just say when."
"Alls I can smell is that bilgewater on yer breath, featherhead!" Tikkle loved giving the Tengu a hard time about his terrible taste in ale. He wasn't wrong either, the pungent grog could make a grown Orc dizzy. Tikkle took a swig from a brown bottle and scanned the horizon. "looks like a good spot to catch lunch just starboard. I'm gonna tell the cap, get the boys on the net. Keep an eye out." With his trademark toothy grin, Tikkle jumped over the side of the crow's nest, making his usual daring dive for the deck.
The Drow have been using syringes... I cannot remember the exact date, suffice it to say we came up with the long time ago... We didn't have the advantage of these "priests' and "clerics" capable of healing with a hand motion in the Deeps, as a result our scientific and medical knowledge has accelerated to pick up the slack. Some of the more well off city states in the Deeps are even capable of crafting functioning artificial limbs that function just as well as yours or mine do... In the "Maw" it is said almost every Drow possess an artificial limb or enhancement of some sort, often they will have an eye or hand removed and replaced with a better prosthetic to give them a much needed edge...
"Now that's an idea!" Anyka says with a grin, "Although I wouldn't mind meeting these old friends of yours, it might be fun introducing them to the new you."
Putting an arm around each of the girls, Anyka heads towards the busiest area of the city.
"Noo!!" Flynt, tears in his eyes, raises his bow and fires off shot after shot into Madrick until his quiver was empty. The ringmaster staggers looking like a pin cushion before he falls over. Flynt drops his bow and holds Leyla in his arms. "No..." He picks his bow up and straps it to his back and picks her up onto his shoulder. Despite her sacrifice, he still wasn't safe.
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As the girls made their way to the market square, they kept their eyes peeled for a tattoo shop. The trio came upon a rather interesting tavern during their search. A place called Flagon and Song. From the outside it seemed a quiet place, opening the door it turned out not to be the case. In one corner of the establishment, there stood a raised platform with three rings of rope placed similarly like a fence around the edge. From the look of it, many contests were held upon much to the enjoyment of its patrons who were cheering as one took place. Making their way to the bar, there stood a grizzled old man that had a scar from the center of his forehead, across his right eye, and to his jawbone. On the wall behind him, mounted over the bottles, was a large, well-used battleaxe. Giving the girls a once over, he asked, "What can I get you three?"
"What? You're alive? I..I...How? He shot you and I saw you stop moving." Flynt stammers almost speechless.
For a Drow suffering her symptoms I would say about ten to twenty minutes... Human physiology is similar to Drow, heart, lungs and so forth however it is rarely as resilient as our own form... Evolution chose the toughest and the smartest Drow to survive in the Deeps, here however on the surface evolution has not been as "forceful" in choosing desirable traits and weeding out weakness... While she is out it is time to show you how to properly clean a syringe, get some water boiling on that stove...
Giving him her most winning smile Gashka asks, "What would you suggest?"
The Barkeep looked over the girls once more with a slightly more critical eye. "This is your first time drinkin, isn't it?"
"Maybe, well other than a bit of wine at dinner, but we're looking to branch out. Any suggestions?" Anyka asks flashing the bartender a grin.
Gashka just continues to smile sweetly at the barkeep.
"Well, since you're new to this, let's start you on something light." Reaching under the bar, he pulls out a dark green bottle with a slightly bent neck. Pouring some into three separate glasses, he explains the beverage. "This is an Elven wine from the Golden Isles to the south. Aged thirty years. Enjoy." Before tasting it, you notice the smell is like the forest after a spring rain. Tasting the beverage, there came a perfectly blended explosion of mint and berries on your tongue.
Gashka's eyes go wide with shock and something akin to pleasure, she closes her eyes and licks her lips. "MMmmmm, I like that one. The flavor is so refreshing....light and crisp."