View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
It's winter, and all is well with the tribe. Their new magic, an ability to make portals from one place to another, which was found by one of their members during the early-summer trip to meet with the other tribes in the area, let them both build up a decadent food stockpile and move to a much deeper part of the cave system without the worry of being unable to find their way back out. No-one has had to go hungry, and even the fiercest ice storm doesn't reach them; they are as content as kobolds can be.
Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.
Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...
She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.
+ Show First Post
lurkingkobold
calescent
And Kiri shows her how they're spelled in Welchin.
Reading lessons and vocabulary additions occupy the rest of the trip to Welce, by which time the sun has set and Kiri is lighting the way for the horses with an overhead fireball and keeping everybody warm against night chill.
"Chialto," Kiri says when they approach the city.
Even at night, it's busy.
Reading lessons and vocabulary additions occupy the rest of the trip to Welce, by which time the sun has set and Kiri is lighting the way for the horses with an overhead fireball and keeping everybody warm against night chill.
"Chialto," Kiri says when they approach the city.
Even at night, it's busy.
lurkingkobold
The kobold peeks out of the carriage.
The kobold regrets this decision.
Good grief that's a lot of humans.
The kobold regrets this decision.
Good grief that's a lot of humans.
calescent
"You can hide in the carriage," Kiri assures her. "And then in my house."
lurkingkobold
That is a much more viable plan than anything else Kiri might ask of her, yes.
Good grief.
Good grief.
calescent
It's a lot of humans, talking, shopping, laughing, singing. There are a million smells, varyingly pleasant - spices and food, horse dung and garbage.
"Can you look at some places in Chialto other than my house to put them on the belt?" Kiri asks. "From inside the carriage?"
(She's no longer checking to make sure that every single word she uses is on the list. If she uses one the kobold can't figure out from context, she can go back and explain it with the foundation they have.)
"Can you look at some places in Chialto other than my house to put them on the belt?" Kiri asks. "From inside the carriage?"
(She's no longer checking to make sure that every single word she uses is on the list. If she uses one the kobold can't figure out from context, she can go back and explain it with the foundation they have.)
lurkingkobold
(The kobold is quite good at figuring out words from context, yes, and only getting better as she figures out the details of Kiri's personal body language.)
She doesn't have to be right on top of the location she's trying to observe, but she has to be pretty close, and more importantly she needs to be out of Kiri's mindreading range while she does it - she's not sure that'd give Kiri her kind of magic, but she's nervous about what would happen if it did.
She doesn't have to be right on top of the location she's trying to observe, but she has to be pretty close, and more importantly she needs to be out of Kiri's mindreading range while she does it - she's not sure that'd give Kiri her kind of magic, but she's nervous about what would happen if it did.
calescent
Kiri is not totally thrilled about not being invited to receive contagious magic, but she's not going to do nonconsensual mindreading to get it. "We can take the carriage there, you can stay inside, I can get out?"
lurkingkobold
The kobold notices this displeasure, and takes a moment to explain - her kind of magic is dangerous to learn; a new mage's first several spells will be miscasts, and even once they start getting the hang of casting properly, they'll get occasional miscasts for a while. A miscast spell is sometimes dangerous in and of itself, and the mage who cast it will die if it's not broken within a day of starting to act strange. This isn't very dangerous, if the new mage is thoughtful about what they do while they're learning - don't cast on people, don't cast on anything that's difficult to break, keep close track of anything you've cast on and not broken yet - but she still doesn't want to take the risk; if it does go bad, it's very bad indeed.
Anyway, her staying in the carriage while Kiri gets out should work fine.
Anyway, her staying in the carriage while Kiri gets out should work fine.
calescent
All right.
They reach the Ardelay Chialto house and put the carriage and horses away. Aleko shoos a staffperson and the way is cleared for the kobold to be unobserved entering the house proper.
They reach the Ardelay Chialto house and put the carriage and horses away. Aleko shoos a staffperson and the way is cleared for the kobold to be unobserved entering the house proper.
calescent
"Tomorrow Aleko will go buy me a belt so this house can be put on it. I need a way for someone in this house to ask me to come here if there's a fire, too."
lurkingkobold
Sure, that makes sense. Where exactly in this house does Kiri want the belt to bring her? Also, she can make a portal from here to the other house - just a little one might be fine for communication purposes; it's not possible to speak through a portal, but someone could pass notes through or pass a bell through and ring it or something - or a bigger one would let someone just walk through.
calescent
A bell would be perfect. One bellpull per emergency landing location. Kiri picks a spot in the kierten where she would like to appear, and she obtains a servant-calling bell from a disused room to thread back into the country house.
lurkingkobold
The kobold examines the specified landing spot, and then asks for more information about the mini-portal when Kiri returns with the bell: she didn't have a chance to examine very many places in the country house, so their options for the other side of the portal right now are the library nook or the room she slept in last night, or she can teleport back to one of those spots and go have a look at a different location if that's safe to do. (Kiri can come, too.)
calescent
Kiri would like to teleport back and show her a spot in the house kierten there too, where a bell will be more clearly audible.
lurkingkobold
Easily enough done. Let's see. Tie a string to the banister here, make sure Kiri is out of range, put a portal to the library in the wall under the stairs, step back into range to explain: untying the string will break this portal; the kobold will do that after Kiri goes through, then teleport herself directly there.
calescent
And Kiri giggles and then shows her the kierten, after making sure no warm person-shaped spots are in the path.
lurkingkobold
Teleportation magic is super convenient like that, isn't it?
The kobold follows along, makes sure she understands exactly where Kiri wants the portals to let out, and carefully examines that area. Then they can go back to Chialto - or not, if Kiri would rather spend the night here and teleport back in the morning.
The kobold follows along, makes sure she understands exactly where Kiri wants the portals to let out, and carefully examines that area. Then they can go back to Chialto - or not, if Kiri would rather spend the night here and teleport back in the morning.
calescent
They should at least get Aleko. He will be confused if he is left there all alone.
lurkingkobold
True. What would Kiri prefer to do? The kobold doesn't care very much one way or the other.
lurkingkobold
Back to Chialto it is, then. This time the portal lets out in the kierten - the spot the kobold is planning on having the belt put her, if she'd like to tweak that at all.
calescent
Seems to work pretty well.
Hmm. She is sometimes in this house for extended periods of time. Can there be a double-belled portal in each target location, which rings one bell here and one in the country house? Or maybe two ropes braided together which split at the portal location?
Hmm. She is sometimes in this house for extended periods of time. Can there be a double-belled portal in each target location, which rings one bell here and one in the country house? Or maybe two ropes braided together which split at the portal location?