The Planning Area
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 40221
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The walls in the planning area were mostly covered with chalkboards, with
chalk and erasers on the table in the middle of the room. Only one of the
chalkboards had anything written on it, a message from Gnome-boy. "Each
one of you has an attribute unique to the group that will prove useful in
your quest. I can feel it now; this is the group that’s going to finally
get that silver ring. Don’t let me down, baby. –Gnome-boy."
"Well," said Astra, "I guess we better first figure out what those unique attributes are." Carola started. "I’m the youngest of the group, but I’m also the smartest." Astra glared at her. "I’m wearing a shirt of light mail, athletic shorts, and running shoes with built in-springs. My weapons are a wristwatch with a laser, a canister of sleeping gas, some exploding milk bottles, and a rubber chicken." "Thank you, Carola," Astra said. "Really, most of that was completely unnecessary, and the part about being the smartest was just wrong. I’m older than you, I have much more experience than you, and I’m just as smart as if not smarter than you. I’m also better suited for combat, and my Sword of Flame and trusty dagger are much better weapons than your gimmicks." "I’m blonde," volunteered Belinda, carrying the Bow of Precision and a quiver of arrows. "Yes," said Astra, growing impatient. "We can see that." "And she has deadly accuracy with a bow at distances of up to several hundred meters," Carola chimed in. "Fred?" asked Astra. "Fred’s a"—Carola giggled—"man." "What’s wrong with being a man?" asked Fred. "Men are generally hotheaded, loud and boisterous, they always have to have their way, they need everything explained to them down to the smallest detail, and then there’s that little problem of judging women by their looks instead of by their fighting ability," explained Carola. "Well, you don’t know, maybe there’s something in the quest that they need a man for. You don’t know that. And as much as you’d like to think it, I’m not expendable." "ENOUGH!" yelled Astra. "It looks like we’re not going to find out what those unique abilities are until we actually need them, so why don’t we concentrate on what we know about the area of great peril?" "It’s an area of great peril," Fred remarked sarcastically. Astra glared at him. "Qundarian said that beyond the area of great peril is a shrine with a silver ring (15887). Our quest is to get that ring, and bring it back to him," Belinda said, taking a piece of chalk and going to one of the walls to write down the facts brought up by others. "He also said that we weren’t to touch any other artifacts or precious items (15887)," Carola added. "Well, he also said that my enemies were closer than I knew, and he gave me this charm to protect me, so I’m inclined to believe that one of you is trying to sabotage this mission," exclaimed Fred. "Oh, please. That can be easily explained. Remember when Qundarian said that the dragon could cast powerful illusions that were seemingly indiscernible from reality (15890)? Wouldn’t those qualify as your enemies, and if you didn’t know where they were, wouldn’t they always be closer than you know?" Carola was doing her best to prove she was smarter than Astra. "That’s another thing she forgot to say about men," Astra mumbled under her breath. "They have the least trust of any being I’ve ever encountered." "Yeah, I guess," said Fred. "I’m still going to have to remain suspicious about everyone, but that will keep me more alert, so it’s a good thing." Astra tried to find a flaw in Carola’s logic. "But didn’t Qundarian say that before we had to go on this quest?" Fred responded, "Somehow, I think we were predestined to go on this quest anyway." "What about the two-meter-tall giants and the chamber of gold (40216)?" Astra asked. "Can I get that in Allarian units, please?" Fred asked, somewhat condescendingly. Astra did some quick estimation and conversion. "That would be about six foot seven, in your units." She mumbled under her breath again. "Carola certainly got the part about always having to have things their way right about this one." "Well, I’m about one hundred seventy centimeters," Carola said (note: the heights in Episode 15670 were as estimated by Fred), "so they’re only about thirty centimeters taller than me, and I’m by far the smallest. Fred, you and Astra might almost be looking eye-to-eye with them." "We’re not that tall,” said Astra, "but from Gnome-boy’s viewpoint, they truly would have appeared to be giants. Even you, Carola, seemed to have appeared to be a giant to him. Despite our size, I think they’re going to be bigger than we expected, and a big nuisance." Belinda switched the topic. "Qundarian also said something about there being tests of strength and agility (15890)." "I know," Astra said, "but I'm not too worried about those. All of us, except for maybe Carola, are decently strong. Everyone but Fred is fast, especially with the two of you in those athletic shorts, and agile, but Fred is likely the strongest of all of us, so that makes up for his lack of agility." Belinda had finished writing everything down on the chalkboard. "Okay, I think that’s about all that anyone told us regarding the obstacles we would be facing. Everything else, it seems, is up to us. Now, what do we have to combat all of this?" "I have a rubber chicken," said Carola. "How is that going to help us at all?" roared Fred. "How am I supposed to know? You’re the one who said that your masculinity was going to help us." "Silence, both of you!" Astra acted like the big sister again. "Now, we have our weapons, or in Carola’s case, gimmicks. We have a way to communicate with each other at all times. We have our intelligence and our ability to respond quickly to any problem that comes up. We have superior physical abilities, and we have our faith in each other, unless the events in this room have caused permanent rifts. We have whatever unique attributes Gnome-boy is referring to that we haven't discovered yet. We have a desire to stay alive, and a desire to keep each other alive. Am I missing anything?" "My charm." "And we have Fred’s charm. Are we ready to start this quest?"
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unknown adventurer
3/21/2004 10:11:29 PM
Extending Enabled
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