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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
the Connecticut Yankee summons Demon Cam
from_scratch
from_scratch
"Feel free to plagiarize Monty Python, they're some awkward combination of not yet born and already dead and either way cannot complain."
connecticut_yankee
"Then let's try it. Once we're in front of whoever sits in the big chair, I'll demand to see his boss. If he claims not to have one, he's our guy."
from_scratch
"Right. Would you like a glowy rock to hold so it looks more like you're magic than me and I can knock people over without it looking like I'm doing it more freely?"
connecticut_yankee
"Glowy rock, good idea. Not sure how that lets you knock people over more, but it'd help draw their attention."
from_scratch
"Glowy rock provides a focus for ambient magical effects which is clearly in your possession." Hank gets a piece of quartz with a blue LED in the middle of it. The color of the light shifts slowly to green.
connecticut_yankee
It is very obviously magical. Even to Hank, who knows how light bulbs work.
"Perfect. Here's hoping it goes better than last time."
"Perfect. Here's hoping it goes better than last time."
connecticut_yankee
"Even the worst-case scenario is that that they end up knowing the magician is the one in the hood, and that's no so bad."
Hank knocks on the door. It's common knowledge that a knight in black armor means Adventure and should be let in. That goes double if it's scary-looking armor. The door opens.
Hank knocks on the door. It's common knowledge that a knight in black armor means Adventure and should be let in. That goes double if it's scary-looking armor. The door opens.
connecticut_yankee
Hank tries to match his voice to the armor. "We have a message for your master. Where can we find the king you answer to?"
The answer he gets is "I am Muirchertach mac Muiredaig of the Goidels, High King of Ireland, and I answer to no one," so they're in the right place.
"You will soon." Hank raises the Glowy Rock and gestures toward Muirchertach mac Unpronounceable.
The answer he gets is "I am Muirchertach mac Muiredaig of the Goidels, High King of Ireland, and I answer to no one," so they're in the right place.
"You will soon." Hank raises the Glowy Rock and gestures toward Muirchertach mac Unpronounceable.
from_scratch
And Muirchertach collapses.
And then abruptly both Hank and Cam are thrown hard into the nearest wall.
And then abruptly both Hank and Cam are thrown hard into the nearest wall.
connecticut_yankee
Hank is stunned in multiple meanings of the word. The next thing he knows is that his vision is swimming and at least this helmet is pretty cushioned, by armor standards. After what seems to be no time at all, he finds himself on the ground wondering whether anything happened while he was out.
from_scratch
The ensuing fight happens very fast. Everyone else in the room collapses except for one nut-brown woman in a cloak, who Cam blindfolds. That doesn't last long, but next the glowy rock and the windows are all covered in tar; the fires and candles in the hall are snuffed out with a hiss of steam. There's a squeak as the fairy's weighed down to the floor and then glued before she can simply pick up the weight, and then Cam roars, "POISON -"
The fairy shrieks.
"If the king's your summoner and you like him enough to work for him," Cam tells the fairy, "you do not want me unsummoned, right now. You want me to denature the poison in the capsule in his stomach before it dissolves. It is too big for you to get it out through his throat without killing him. Are you calmed down? Can we talk?"
"Y-yes," says the fairy. "Oh, please put the lights back on."
Cam reignites one of the fires.
The fairy shrieks.
"If the king's your summoner and you like him enough to work for him," Cam tells the fairy, "you do not want me unsummoned, right now. You want me to denature the poison in the capsule in his stomach before it dissolves. It is too big for you to get it out through his throat without killing him. Are you calmed down? Can we talk?"
"Y-yes," says the fairy. "Oh, please put the lights back on."
Cam reignites one of the fires.
connecticut_yankee
Hank is gradually regaining his senses. Once he's pretty sure the room is darker because the windows are blocked and not because of the head injury, he checks that the thing that hit him was in fact just a wall and not any kind of train.
"If he's her— she's a— a mover?"
"If he's her— she's a— a mover?"
from_scratch
"Evidently," says Cam. "This king summoned you?"
The fairy, still glued to the floor, nods unhappily.
"He's completely safe unless I am unsummoned or I decide to stop adding layers to the capsule," Cam tells her.
The fairy, still glued to the floor, nods unhappily.
"He's completely safe unless I am unsummoned or I decide to stop adding layers to the capsule," Cam tells her.
connecticut_yankee
Everyone asleep, good. Mover captured, better. They're not in any immediate danger then. "But," Hank asks her, "if the king of Ireland can summon daeva, why is he only king of Ireland?" His entire plan for international relations depended on being unassailably more powerful than everyone else. Muirchertach could be a problem.
from_scratch
"Answer him," Cam says, when the fairy doesn't reply at once.
"He - he only knows how to get me," says the fairy. "And only with a binding that requires me to stay near him. Neither of us knows the language the circle's written in so I can't teach him to change it..."
"He wouldn't trust you unbound?" asks Cam.
"Not yet..."
"He - he only knows how to get me," says the fairy. "And only with a binding that requires me to stay near him. Neither of us knows the language the circle's written in so I can't teach him to change it..."
"He wouldn't trust you unbound?" asks Cam.
"Not yet..."
from_scratch
"His father knew how to get ahold of me. I think I must have been summoned to this - time, well, general time period, before, and someone must have taught him, but I didn't notice the difference, they didn't keep me long and it's not like I know enough about human languages to tell I'd got an old one."
"Met any other daeva?" Cam asks her.
"Just you. How did you -?"
"Ah-ah. What all have you been doing here?"
"I helped his father become king. He paid all right, no tech, obviously, but meals and trinkets. I'm mostly a bodyguard."
"Met any other daeva?" Cam asks her.
"Just you. How did you -?"
"Ah-ah. What all have you been doing here?"
"I helped his father become king. He paid all right, no tech, obviously, but meals and trinkets. I'm mostly a bodyguard."
connecticut_yankee
"Does that mean that if we take him as a prisoner to Ca— to Catraeth you'll try to destroy our beautiful Anglian castles until you find him?"
from_scratch
"Your demon will kill him if I cause trouble," says the fairy. "Won't he."
"It's definitely an option. We didn't come here to do him any permanent harm, but if he won't dismiss you and you're a major problem? It's an option."
The fairy nods glumly.
"It's definitely an option. We didn't come here to do him any permanent harm, but if he won't dismiss you and you're a major problem? It's an option."
The fairy nods glumly.
connecticut_yankee
"Assuming we prefer not to kill him, do you think you can convince him to never war against anyone outside Ireland again? We might not know if he breaks a promise like that, but if we do find out you know we have more firepower."
connecticut_yankee
"I guess we can do the threatening ourselves. Cam, can you wake him up early or does the drug need to wear off?"