Not a Vacation (Part 3)

There's a body in the water, floating further and further away by the moment as the little golden dragon wheels above you. She lands with delicate grace on the sand, seeming pleased in spite of your brief, vicious fight. The man that attacked you is dead, and the shark vanished without a trace. All and all, in spite of the relaxing scenery, it's been a bit of a day and the sun is beginning to set lower on the horizon and you're pretty sure that there are /three/ moons rising. Three.

Asmli's attention is arrested by the rising of the three moons, and his stomach, too, is starting to growl as the sun sets. Urgrosh still in hand, his jaw drops at the sight of three moons rising at once. "Great Smith's balls ... sure and this ain't home." He doesn't sound distressed, though, so much as impressed, and awed. He looks out after the body washing out to sea, not without a tinge of regret, but shrugs and limps a little further from the shoreline. "Thinkin' we oughta be makin' camp and seein' about some dinner, how about you?" He looks over at the Seer.

Elena, though, is quiet. She just continues staring out at the water, hand clenched into a fist. "We don't even know what he was trying to say," she offers quietly, looking out at the body in the waves. "Or why he came. He just --" The half-elven woman takes a deep breath, steeling herself as she turns to Asmli. "We were instructed to catch a fish," she says. "We caught one. What else is there to do?"

Lazily Tanitha (as you've been calling her) looks up from her spot on the beach. "Fish?" One of her little ears perks up at the word. "Thenot-fishwasveryangrythathissharkdisappeared. Hewasdemandingthatyougiveitback. Saidyouwereunderarrestuntilyoudid."

"Guess that answers that." Asmli looks over at the explanation, and seems satisfied by it. "Might get more of 'em later when they come looking for their friend, so maybe we oughta not stay here, yeah? Under arrest, huh?" He laughs heartily. "He poked at me first."

Elena looks over, jaw dropping a bit as she pieces together the tiny dragon's words. "So we -- killed some version of this world's guard." She reaches up, pinching at the bridge of her nose as her free hand just wraps around her waist, muttering some version of a prayer that's mixed with both angry tones and contrition. "Then yes, I would say that staying here is probably a poor idea. Clearly we can't communicate. And I would avoid slaughter. Ours, or theirs."

"Couldjustdrinkthepotion." Offers the little dragon helpfully as she peers at you from the sand. It's looking like she might take a nap.

Asmli turns, from where he's still looking at the sky, clearly impressed. "But we ain't got you any fish."

"Save for the entire shark which almost got us arrested had we not killed the man attempting to do so," Elena reminds Asmli. "That seems like quite the fish."

The dragon shifts subtly. "Yes, bigfish. Yummyfish. Youcancatchmemorefish?" She sounds hopeful, but also vaguely sleepy.

Asmli scratches behind one ear, Elena has a point. "Yeah. That fish. Think maybe that's enough fish, if we try for any more, we might get dragged off, and then you won't have us to fish for ya, Tanitha." He starts hunting around in his gear for that blue potion that will take them back.

Elena seems contented to drink her potion as well, rooting around in her bag. "A fish a hundred times the size of the one that ate it seems like sufficient work for one day." Assuming that they're actually getting paid for this. She pulls the potion out of her pocket, then turns to Asmli, considering. "He gave us potions. But -- we didn't get one for her." She nods to the dragon. "Just for --" A nod to the sleeping goblin, then.

The dragon laughs. She laughs and rolls around in the sand with her wings tucked tight, a playful giggle that ends with a little bit of a flop. "Thepotionsdon'tgoanywhere. Notpotionsforgoingplaces!" Tanitha snickers to herself and wiggles her way into a little depression of sand. "Sillypeoples!"

Very, very slowly, Asmli turns, all good humor gone, and he stares -daggers- at Tanitha. "What do you mean, the potions do not take us back? If not, then what do they do?"

GAME: Elena casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 3 DC: 14

Elena's face goes even whiter as the dragon comes out with her revelation. "They are -- not for travelling?" She glances down at the flask in her hand, holding it up to the light as if a careful inspection, drawing on that inner eye to try and figure out what manner of working lies within the bottles -- if any.

The dragon in question stares back at you with some confusion. "Don'tyouknow?" She huffs and looks away. "Don'tbemadatme. I/told/himitwasnotatravelingpotion." It seems that Asmli's discontent has upset her just a little.

"Tanitha, I ain't do magic. Not even a little bit. Ain't trust them as do, neither. Ain't do nothing but cause trouble." Asmli's quite plainly upset, but he at least tries to modulate his tone some. "If they ain't take us back, then are we stuck here?"

"They're for -- breathing water." Elena sighs, looking down at the bottle once more. "Helpful. But not overly so." She looks down at the little dragon, raising an eyebrow. "You told the wizard that the potions weren't for travelling? And he gave them to us anyway?" A glance up at Asmli then, her features darkening.

GAME: Asmli rolls perception: (16)+4: 20
GAME: Elena rolls Perception: (17)+6: 23

Tanitha grumbles something under her breath unhappily before nodding at Elena's question. She seems entirely put out by the fact that Asmli is upset (with her). The words she mumbles aren't meant to be heard, but your keen ears pick them up anyways. "Idomagic."

Asmli folds his arms, but at the words, he sighs, and looks between Tanitha and Elena. "Look. I'm sorry. I guess you two are all right. This ain't the first time a wizard's gotten me in a pickle an' ain't care, is all. Last time I spent two months in a bed 'cause of it. Yer still pretty." He smiles, just a little. "Guess it ain't yer fault. You tried."

Elena winces a bit at the dragon's words, looking to Asmli as he starts in on his apology. But before he's even done, she seems to have pieced a few things together. "You do magic," she repeats. Kneeling down by the dragon, she asks, "Do you know how to get us back to the wizard?" (And she's not even wearing silver slippers or anything!)

One ear waggles at Asmli's words, and then the other. Her posture shifting to something more alert when he utters the word 'pretty'. "Idid! Hejustwouldn'tlisten!" She snorts a little irritably, then blinks up at Elena as the woman settles down by her. "Yes." Her reply is simple and to the point, but perhaps lacking in detail.

"So what we gotta do, Tanitha?" Asmli limps heavily over towards the dragon, ignoring the sleeping gobber and stretching his legs out in front of him with a muttered phrase in khazad that probably is not intended for polite company. "How do we get out of here?"

Elena nods. "If he didn't listen, then no one can hold you to blame. But if he -didn't- listen, that means that he knew that he was sending us here with no way back. He tried to hurt us," she tells the little gold dragon. "And he might try and hurt someone else. So we need to get back as quickly as possible." No mention, of course, that the only one hurt so far is the dead merman floating in the water.

The little dragon sighs and grumbles. Not anything that's real words, just discontent. "Dowehavetoleave? There'sverynicefishhere." She looks at you hopefully. Yet when it seems that you're not particularly keen to stick around she sighs again and wiggles out of her comfy sand-nest. Tanitha makes it /perfectly/ clear with every line of her body that she is not happy to have to leave her comfortable resting spot. She drags her tail, moves slowly as if to give you plenty of time to change your minds before settling down onto the goblin's chest. "Everyonetouching! Itakeyou, wego!"

Asmli looks over at Elena uncertainly, but grabs all his gear and puts his urgrosh in his lap, then puts a meaty, callused hand on Tanitha's back. "Gonna have so much sand to get out of my armor," he grouses. "But if we ain't go, we're just two an' a half of us," he toes the gobber none too gently, "an' we ain't gonna be able to stand against an entire city o' sea whatever-the-hell-that-thing-was, an' that potion won't last long. We're goners if we ain't go, Tanitha, an' then who's gonna get you fish?"

Elena nods to Asmli. "He's right," she tells the little dragon, though she kneels down beside the goblin, making sure that they're all touching as best as possible -- even if it's a bit awkward. "We are clearly not wanted here -- and he does not seem to appreciate you eating the fish. Best to find other places."

Tanitha eyes Asmli suspiciously for a long moment, then glances at his leg and seems to decide something. "Youhavemetalleg. Youaren'thalfbit." She grins with all her teeth showing, her tail wagging softly back and forth.

There's no more time to chit-chat with the dragon because quite suddenly you're back where you started. In the mage's disarrayed quarters. He startles as you appear, eyes widening in surprise. "What are you doing back... so soon?" His voice is almost a squeak.

For answer, Asmli, wearing a rather spectacular scowl, removes his armored boot from his flesh-and-blood foot, and takes a step forward, menacingly. "You knew those potions weren't going to bring us back, wizard," he snarls. "I said something I shouldn't have to a friend, and now I'm deciding whether you're a fool, or a bastard son of a goat."

"You also sent us there," Elena notes, "with no warning that it was already inhabited by a sentient race who take offense to their waters being poached. A confrontation that ended in a needless death, because we were ill-equipped to communicate." She fixes her eyes on him, making it clear that she holds him personally responsible for such an event.

The mage in question takes a hurried step back, lifting his hands defensively. "I... I have no idea what you're talking about! Ah! I mean. I didn't know that there was anyone there! And ah..." He has paled spectacularly, and Tanitha lifts off of her perch to land neatly on the edge of one his tables for a better vantage point on the current ongoings. "I just really wanted her out of my hair okay? She's driving me /crazy/. I can't take it anymore!"

It's... really the wrong thing to say. Tanitha screeches at his words, puffing up angrily. "Iamnot!" There's smoke rising dangerously from her nostrils.

GAME: Elena rolls Sense Motive: (12)+10: 22
GAME: Asmli rolls sense motive: (1)+1: 2 (EPIC FAIL)

It's a good thing that Asmli had had to set down the urgrosh in order to remove the boot now in his hand. "Let me get this right. You sent three people off to die ... on a far plane. To get rid of -her?-" He takes another step forward, boot in hand - and dashes the contents of said boot - a whole lot of red sand - at the wizard's face. "You're a bastard son of a goat, and a cackhanded sheepfucker at that. I ain't give a gobber's arse if you pay us or not, I ain't want yer gold, you useless little canker!"

Elena shakes her head. "Of course, you're lying," she sighs. "And not even very well. You knew exactly who and what was there. You just wanted her gone." A glance out of the side of her eye at the dragon, and then back to the wizard. "I'm sure that you could explain it to us. But frankly, I think that you'd be better explaining your actions to the guard."

If possible the mage pales even more. "Please!" He coughs and sneezes at the sand suddenly thrust into his face, barely managing to block the sand from getting into his eyes. "I'll pay you extra! I really didn't think you'd /die/. You're adventurers! I just..." He puts his hands down slowly. "Thought she'd get stuck there."

"You didn't think we'd die?!" Boot still in hand, Asmli's scowl is now a twisted mask of open, unbridled fury. "By the Adamant Tower's bearded balls, you're an -idiot- on top of it! She's the one who got us back so we -didn't- die there! Do you -see- me with any magic? Do we look like the sort of people who can hop the multiverse by thinking about it? You're so stupid it's amazing you figured out how to draw breath."

Elena raises her head. "And us as well." She holds up the potion. "To breathe the water. That you knew we'd need, once they caught us trespassing, and eating the fish that they protect." She's apparently holding on to that particular potion. In case evidence is needed. "You sent three people into a realm they had no way to return from because you couldn't tell a dragon that you tired of her company. That is -- well. Fortunately, criminal." She gives him a smile that never reaches her eyes.

The mage sinks a little. "It's a nice island. Really... You could have... survived there." He rubs his hands over his face and looks at Elena. "Please. You don't understand how /annoying/ she is!"

Which is enough to launch Tanitha off her perch. With a low growl - low for her anyway - she moves across the room and a little gout of fire sets the mage's robes on fire. He shrieks, batting at his robes to stop them from catching fire.

"Not when we got pulled under, you son of a digger puke." Asmli's snarl is barely understandable, and he mutters something else in khazad that is -definitely- not fit for sensitive ears. He fairly throws his boot to the ground at his feet and jams his foot hard into it, which elicits a wince, which helps the khazad-mornir's mood not one single, solitary iota. "Come on, Elena, let's take the gobber and have a word with the Guild. And the guard, if you want to." He clearly cares less about the second than the first. "If it wouldn't be my arse before the court, I'd kill him where he stands."

GAME: Elena casts Resist Energy. Caster Level: 3 DC: 16

Elena watches as the dragon darts in, catching the man's robes on fire. She steps forward, muttering a quick prayer as she reaches out to touch the man, briefly -- but makes no move to put the fire out. Whatever she did, though, she seems satisfied with it, that smile broadening a bit. "A word with the guild is certainly in order," she agrees. She watches a moment longer, and simply turns her back on him. "It seems that our friend wants a word with you as well," she says. Turning over her shoulder, she says, "Tanith? Try and leave him at least -mostly- alive, yes?" But she makes no move to interfere, outside of what she already did. "He might still be able to learn a lesson."

Tanith chirps at Elena. "Idon'tkillpeoples." She eyes the mage though, dangerously. "Butmaybesmallfire. Meanpeoples." He's already quickly putting the fire out, but the little dragon is darting around, making him uncomfortable. Threatening to set fire to his robes again. Little puffs of fire that don't actually do anything but drive the mage crazy. That's the last thing you see before you head out the door.

-End