Solo Warrior 7: Sitting on a Fence

[Bungleau]

Back to Chapter 6 - - - Back to the Beginning

Missy Hissy rested on top of the broken stone wall, waiting patiently for dawn to come. The blocks that made up the wall were ice cold, long-removed from the warming effects of the sun; fortunately, an old skull made a relatively comfortable seat.

She tossed a pebble over the side, watched it disappear quickly into darkness, and after a long time, heard the faint *ploop* as it hit the water below.

"How did I get into this mess?" she muttered, softly so as not to draw attention.

It had seemed so easy. After leaving Scanthril, she jumped back to ask him about a job she heard one of the other rats mention. He offered her the opportunity to fulfill an assassin's contract. She accepted, although she had another contract on her mind. She ran back to the clearing where she'd seen the signs of a huge beast, and found a raptor laden with egg. Killing it, she'd brought the egg (and another one she'd seen) back to the armory, where the guildmaster promoted her into the studies of the ranger. She'd run into a nuimber of beasties fairly quickly that caused her to go back and train repeatedly, until she was finally a fairly skilled and polished ranger.

Then, disaster had struck. She'd headed out to the western part of the lands outside Ishad N'ha when she ran across a band of ratlings. These weren't members of any group like the Black Hand or Hidden Circle, just a batch of independents. Rather than face them immediately, she had decided that with night coming on, she wanted to have her back to a wall or a thick stand of trees. Running, she made her way to the Shurugeon Castle wall, where she was beset upon by the ratlings and some fish with lots of sharp teeth and a hungry attitude.

As she was disposing of the fish, she spied a green shape shambling into the clearing. Peering out, she detected a strange beast, more plant than animal, standing nearly two meters high with a large pod-shaped head. As she watched, the beast opened its head and breathed some greenish mist towards her. She watched as the scoundrels, regardless of their skills, began to hack and cough in the sick greenish fog. As the fog rolled toward her, she panicked and tried to run, but the world froze....

... and stayed frozen. No one could do anything. She prayed to the gods for a reverse time spell, but nothing was happening. Finally she felt the unholy squeal of the alter time spell, the one that rebuilt the universe, and faded to black....

... only to return, back at the gates of Ishad N'ha. Wanting to avoid the plant creatures, she stopped in and asked quickly about them at the guild. Mantraps, they were called, fierce vicious beasties that had been the death of more than one group of adventurers. The only thing known to bring them down was the steel of a good blade. Stocking up on magical scrolls, she headed back out to the Gael Serran.

She tried her blade when the mantrap reappeared, but then there was another one... and between them, they easily overpowered her. The sky shimmered from another reverse time spell, and another, and another... her head was growing dizzy, her stomach getting upset from all the pulling and shifting of time. She even tried running away, forgetting the castle entirely and going elsewhere; this time, she stumbled on their nest, and the sky shimmered again.

Finally, she decided that the walls of the castle presented the best opportunity for a strong defense, and hopefully a good offense as well. Running around the castle, she spied a small hole, and then another. She found an underwater passageway that led her to a section of the castle that was protected from the wilds of the Gael.

Wandering in, she found several undead spirits and quickly slew them, saying a brief prayer to guide them to the afterworld. She found an entrance into the castle keep, and soon discovered several of the items she was after, including a powerful wizard who help slay yet another undead spirit. The wizard asked to meet her outside, and after a few minutes of treasure collecting, she went out to meet him.

He was lying, mortally wounded, in a field near the castle. With his dying breath, he gave her a mummified paw and told her of a ritual to cleanse the castle of the demon that lived there. Shortly he passed, and after muttering the ancient ritual, she climbed on the broken wall that surrounded the castle.

And here she was, waiting for dawn to arrive so she could see exactly what, in the brush and trees that surrounded the moat, was waiting for her. Frustrated, she threw another pebble into the water.

As the sun slowly rose, she could see the pack of rattling thieves searching for her trail. She lobbed poison bombs at them, and they quickly succumbed. She then saw a mantrap, and lobbed a poison bomb at it. No effect. She searched through her pack for offensive spells, and tried each one. No effect. No impact. Nothing. The things were immune to everything she had to offer.

She noticed that the mantraps had separated, one wandering away toward the side of the castle. Perhaps it was to track down the noise that the dying rats had made, or perhaps the glint of swords in the water attracted it. Or perhaps it was simply hungry, and looking for food... in any case, it was by itself.

Perhaps she could take on one at a time. At this point, with the two mantraps blocking her way to Ishad N'ha, she had plenty of time to think about it.

She hurled a knife, then two at the mantrap, but it was too far away. She looked through her pack, and spied a reddish vial. Pulling the stopper, she realized it was a fire bomb, one of the few things she hadn't tried. Putting the stopper back in loosely, she hurled it at the mantrap.

Happily, the mantrap began to groan and writhe in the burning flames. Apparently, flame was a problem for mantraps, as it was for any creature not from the elemental plain of fire. She watched as the magical fire ate away at its leafy fronds, charring them; and then it burned out.

Scrounging through her pack, she had no more. But there it was, alone, injured, and woozy. Taking her courage in her hands, she leapt from the tall stone wall, jumping feet-first into the moat. She slipped, twisting her ankle slightly, and climbed out, hoping to catch the mantrap before it saw her.

She hacked with sword as fast as she could, stopping only to quaff an extra-healing potion. After a few short minutes, the crispy mass of leaves lay dead at her feet... and she immediately ran back to the safety of the keep.

Walking around the wall again, she spied the other mantrap. She noticed that it moved fairly slowly, and thought she could actually outrun it. Perhaps she could pick up a couple more firebombs in Ishad N'ha -- then she'd be able to handle the mantrap without a problem.

Jumping off the wall into the moat once again, she ran past the surprised mantrap and hurried through the Gael Serran, outrunning Worgurs and Swampflies alike. She made it back to Ishad N'ha, trained, sold, ...and discovered that no one else carried fire bombs! Apparently, there'd been a problem when some of the local youngsters had opened a case of them, and the smoldering house where she'd met Scanthril was the result. Frustrated, she decided to trust in the blade of her sword, and set out to find the remaining mantrap.

After a short while, she did... twice over! There was yet another one, and as she gasped for breath, the sky shimmered and she found herself back on the stone wall. She'd forgotten the magic ritual once again! Ah, the frustration...

She headed back to Ishad N'ha again, selling her excess goods, and immediately upon leaving the gate, recited the magic incantation: "Save early, save often." She decided to run back to the castle, in the hopes of getting the two mantraps separated again, when she discovered they had separated themselves! She ran into one in the woods north of Ishad N'ha and west of the castle, and quickly dispatched it with her sword.

Gulping down a great healing potion, she ran around again, looking for the last mantrap. She found the samurai Torin, to whom she gave the dragon arrow; he then let her buy it back. Poor guy - so much time in the woods had affected his brain. She also found Jathil, the wanderer the temple had asked her to help. He told her about the Gezurite way, something that was apparently important to him; he also showed her some mind tricks that helped defend her from magical spells. Now *that*, she could use...

She finally found the last mantrap and quickly dispatched it. Interestingly, Jathil's tricks seemed to work; she took much less damage than previously, only needing a couple of healing potions to feel better.

She ran back to Ishad N'ha, liberating another horse along the way and training some more. Next stop: Shurugeon Castle, to finish what she'd started.

On to Chapter 8

[ 02-26-2003, 10:50 PM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

[Packrat]

Bungleau;

For Missy sake ...as well as yours...I hope that she soon learns , (as I did) that there is a caviate..to the magical incantation..Save Early...Save Often.
It's ...Save After... [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img]

[ 09-13-2002, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Packrat ]

[Bungleau]

There are two additional lines that momma always told me. One is Save After, and the other is Save Before.

I usually remember Before. It's that darned After....

Well, got a new soundcard installed this evening, and I'm about to see if I can explore the Gael Serran without choppy sound bites. Of course, that may also remove the tell-tale pause when a new random monster has just joined the game...

[LiOnHe@rT]

YAHOO!!! another interesting adventure by Missy Hissy! how about more???

[macoati]

Ahh... now that I've caught up on the trials and tribulations of Missy I can return to my gaming!

Great job Bungleau!

[kev]

Well done Missy,
Coleslaw for all.