Old News for Some, New News for Others

Later, night falls back on the trail the Champions are on.....

They have hobbled their horses (gotten quickly and with minimal haggling earlier today at Walant's markets) and put up the tents. They have gathered the wood and other fuel for tonights cooking fires.

Yes, they are retiring for the night. Despite the unexpected (and unwanted) interruptions by both demifox hunters (re: 38071) and Aqualarian rangers (re: 38448), the group has still made good time. Food is cooked and a bit of "small talk" is talked before most retire for the night. Inside the shelter of the tents, the illusions upon those like Astra 9 soon fade while they sleep. The spells (differentiated from yesterday to throw off any pursuers) will be done again in the morning.

Meanwhile, those still awake are having a small talk about events of the day.

Mage stuff.

Namely, Synizn the native is speaking with his brother on the Crystallic. Yeah, what he witnessed had been very much a surprise and the dragon mage was understandably curious.

"So . . . the Crystallic not only can transform a person's. . . . Matrix, manipulating it so it changes the victim's form," Synizn asks, "But you tell me that it's ability to teleport is just a permutation of this Matrix alteration? How?"

"Just how exactly we do not know," Dragon Synizn sighs, holding Dragoness Astra's hand fondly while answering, "Since the Matrix dictates just how a person manifests, as it were, on the mortal planes, according to recovered records from the time of Atlantis says that when teleport is done, the part that kind of tells where the mortal shell is manifested in one place is just changed, making the manifestation in another spot. Kind of like some sorts of strange mathematical philosophies I've . . . read of recent times in my land, really."

"Very strange math," the dragoness mutters, half dreading immersing herself into such eldritch business (magic) and half thrilled.

Magic is the hallmark of wyrms, you know.

"Uh, right." sighs Synizn, wishing he could have more time with his brother and his new friends, just learning. But he knew that it was fated that his time with them was limited. After this Quest business of theirs was done, they would be taken back to their mysterious, far off lands. Somehow, he feared that he would not be allowed to follow.

So be it, if it was his goddess' will. She'd been kind enough to send them to return him to his rightful form (in one way or another), so he had no right to complain. So, for the limited time he had with them he'd aid them as he could and learn from them what they would be able to give him.

Being that he was going to inherit the Crystallic (powerful though it was) after this Quest was done because they (the Champions) said the device could not be brought to their land. Just why they would not say, but it was his, the Crystallic (soon enough).

And to be honest, now that he was realistically going to get it....he wasn't sure he was thrilled with that idea.

It was more powerful than he had anticipated and to be frank, it was more powerful than he wanted! He'd rather grown fond of interacting with others again, now that he was cured of his curse. It was partly the return to being a dragon and part a byproduct of having been human (left a mark on him). The only successful strategy he knew of to keep the d*mn thing (if he didn't feel like killing everyone who came at him) was to use the same strategy his old nemesis used.

Minestus had buffered the outside world from his little toy by being reclusive, in part. Whatever business he did with the outside world was through a few trusted (and controllable) henchmen, mostly. What he couldn't get through henchmen while hidden away in the Southern Caverns (with only a few breaks for recreational mayhem) he got through a fellow dragon, Moreau.

The other part of his strategy, basically, was a threat that scared all would be mage thieves away. Threats substantiated by victims who'd been changed. The threat had been vague on exactly how Minestus managed it (could have been one of many magical means), but the basics of the threat was this: trespass and be transformed into whatever Minestus willed (at whatever his whim). Synizn had known Minestus had changed him, but only had learned the exact details much later, see.

....

Some victims were now rather vapid but lovely nymphs who....

Nevermind...

Well, the Crystallic was dangerous. Too dangerous to just toss aside to let someone else grab but....

No, Synizn didn't want it and wanted to know if his new friends could tell him how to get the hell rid of this thing safely!

And while the who are still awake Champions speak with Synizn, one of Moreau's "snitches" is looking over the spell bound Moreau.

The man, some time in the past, had bespelled secretly this dragoness without her knowledge. He'd done it on a whim, figuring that later on it might prove to be fun (and profitable). The man is the son of a now defunct (at his own hands) Atlantian mage. Junior (exact name for later) stepped into his fathers shoes, and while perhaps not as knowledgable and powerful as Zerm the Unspeakable, he was very much his father's son!

One guise he had was the ruler of the underworld of Walants, the Crimson King.

1. This particular one was a lesser member of the Blackmarket Cult and sometime "snitch" for the Dragoness Moreau (who got more from the exchange than what the dragoness got from him, by far)....

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