Gyrfalcon

*signs up as well for a signed edition... please?*

*Gyrfalcon looks over the invoice and notices quite a few zeros written in, and a few sixes. After erasing the little 'additions' that Stick had added, he came out to: ----- Transportation from here to off-colour reality: 100 geld. Total receipts for food, lodging, and alcohol: 1,000 geld. The sight of little children being frightened nearly to death by my presence: Priceles... err, 43.78 geld. Bill subtotal: 1,143.78 geld BigPointyTaxes: 6% Total Billing: 1,212.41 geld Payment due upon receipt. Please send all cheques, large money sacks, small palaces, farmland, bank account numbers or family members directly to The Big Pointy One. Please. ----- Neatly underneath the invoice, Gyrfalcon began to write. Cost of reflooring the Pen's Keep after massive oak tree grown: 1,832 geld Back rent for 'Mr. Bunny Depot - All your Mr. Bunny needs!' storefront operation: 100,001 geld. Watching the blood drain from your face: priceless Replacing the invoice in its envelope, Gyrfalcon arranged for it to be returned to Stick and sat back, smiling.

Ozymandias, excellent work, it provides quite a bit of background on the crazy scholar we all know and love as Timothy. Congratulations on completing your first short story, it was well worth reading! It reads somewhere between a fable (Once upon a time...) and character development.

*laughs* That is a lot of Signes! Granted, 23 Mintas should count as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. O_o

I won't say take your time, Salinye, but will say we do understand. No worries, Daryl'll keep your spot by the fire warm for you.

Though belated, I wish Happy Birthday, Sorciere and Signe! And glad your birthday was happy, Signe.

Heh, why not? Happy one year anniversary, you great, big beautiful domain you! =D

Happy late birthday, Glass Willow.

slipping free of gravity's grasp throwing one's self at the ground and missing taking wing and soaring past the clouds and higher tasting the rain before it has fallen bursting from the empyrean white spinning and dancing on a floor insubstantial before turning and plunging back falling, soaring, mind blurring intensity letting the wind tease us away from the ground to flash over land and water to fast and breath deep of a freedom so blue.

Welcome back to the Pen, my friend, you've been gone from here too long. *hands Jonathan a mug of ale and small frog doll* The ale is for you, and the frog is for Roley. Try to be in a safe place when you drop it in his lap, will you? *grins and winks*

Heh, anyone else gotten the error "Installer has expired" when trying to install RealOne? Unfortuantly, work kept me too late to listen to your first show Wyvern, but I hope it went well.

Happy Birthday, Wrenwind, I hope you enjoyed it!

Wyvern, I'll try to tune in for the last half of the show when I can, though work will probably cut into that- I'll probably usually be catching the trailing end when I get home from work. Still, congrats on having your own radio show, and I'll try to tune in!

I sort of weaned myself away from Archmage years ago, and given my current time situation, I probably don't have time to go and try it again.

Heh, he might post this as well, but here is a report sent to the moderators: And he does have a point. If I were a wolfbaner, I'd just protect one of you per night just in case the werewolves took you up on your offers. ;P Also, Vahktang, the Report button is nowhere near the 'Reply to' button, so please don't use it unless there is something offensive found within a post. Thank you.

As it is now past Midnight here... Happy Birthday, Salinye! *Daryl bounces into her arms and plops a birthday hat on her head!*

Having finally acquired a working link to DSL (yay!), just tell me when and where, Wyv, and I'll be there.

Tralla, I'd be willing to write a couple story sections for you. I assume this would be along the lines of the Lone Wolf series, where the sections are fairly small, or would the sections be more substantial then a few small paragraphs?

Daryl peeked out the window at the seething undead below and grinned tightly, but there was no humor in that expression. He looked up at the night sky, the moon peeking from between clouds. “Bah, quarter moon.” he said, then without thinking about it, he willed his Change, flesh and bones flowing from human to the humanoid fox state between human and fox. “What the?” Jirah said, bringing his blade between himself and Daryl. “Oh quit it.” Daryl said, before clutching the broken-hafted halberd in his mouth and bounding onto the window sill. Eschewing the rope, he sprang into the air and caught the edge of the roof. An athletic pivot brought him vertical and he released to turn a summersault and land on the edge of the roof. “Quit showing off.” Ayshela whispered, as Daryl spat his new-made axe into his hand. “Of course.” the werefox whispered back, grinning. As he turned, a tile loosened by his movements slid under his feet. He recovered his balance easily, but the tile continued to accelerate its descent. Daryl’s eyes widened as he dove for the tile, but it slipped beyond his fingers and flew out over the edge. It whistled past Gyrfalcon to strike one of the undead in the back of the head. It snarled and whirled to look up. A hurled axe buried itself in its head, ending its warning movements. Daryl snarled as he dragged Gyrfalcon up and let the rope down again as soon as the half-elf was clear, using his strength to ease the passage of others. “I’m going to miss that weapon, I’m sure of it.” he grumbled to himself as he pulled Yui-chan up and over the edge of the roof. Her eyes widened as they took in grim, strange face before her expression relaxed. “Daryl, you don’t look nearly as cuddly as you normally do.” was all she said as she slipped up the roof, as silent as the shadows that enshrouded her. Daryl lowered the rope again and concentrated on looking less angry. It seemed to work, as Salinye only looked startled when he pulled her up. Jirah still looked unnerved, but he didn’t try to stab Daryl, which the werefox always counted as a plus. Adrynna came last and looked unsurprised as she stepped past the werefox. Daryl peered over the edge to make sure no one else was coming. The battle below drew his eyes, as Ozymandias cut a swath through the undead, rampaging here and there throughout the courtyard with no set plan, but instead trying to kill as many living dead as he could at one time. Daryl’s eyes widened as the mage took a crushing attack to the side that he didn’t react to in the slightest, beyond whipping his sword around to take the creature’s head off. A ghoul coming up behind raised something, and Daryl recognized it... the axe he himself had thrown. Without second thought, he wrenched a tile free and threw it at the ghoul. The ghoul’s head all but exploded under the weight of the thrown missile, and it wavered for a long moment. Ozymandias came around and tore the axe free, howling as he used it to smash a zombie to the ground before whirling on, axe in one hand, sword in the other. Daryl’s attack had not gone unnoticed though, and a ghoul whirled and snarled before another hurled missile blasted it back. Daryl whirled as a whispered cut through the night, to see Ayshela beckoning him on. “Daryl, come on!” Ayshela whispered harshly. Then her eyes widened as a pair of bony hands dragged a withered body up behind Daryl. “Behind you!” she shouted, whipping forth a knife. Daryl turned, sweeping his leg up in a kick that tumbled the ghoul a dozen feet into the air and down into the milling undead. “Damned undead!” he said, delivering a neck-snapping kick the zombie that slowly dragged itself over the edge of the roof. Its head lolled back, but the body kept coming until Daryl smashed it with his forearm, dropping it off the wall and scraping a skeleton away from the side of the building. Ayshela’s thrown dagger took a large skeleton in the head and knocked the creature’s skull away from the body. It waved for a long moment and then fell to pieces. Daryl turned and raced up the rooftop, flinching slightly as an arrow buzzed by to hit with a meaty thunk behind him. Arrows raced by in a steady stream as Gyrfalcon put his bow to work, knocking undead from the rooftop one after another. “Gyrfalcon-san get up here, we’re almost ready!” Yui-chan called urgently, and Gyrfalcon thrust his bow into Daryl’s hands, along with his quiver, half-full of arrows. “Try to aim down the arrow and for the gods sakes, don’t pull too hard.” he said before racing up to stand with the spell-casters. Daryl blinked and put arrow to bow, drawing to full reach smoothly before releasing. The arrow buried itself in the tiles at the feet of a ghoul that snarled and threw itself forward. Ayshela stepped forward and chopped it out of the air. “Thanks, I never did see the point of bows.” Daryl said, managing to stagger a stinking cadaver with his next shot. “Don’t mention it. Might want to hit that one to the left.” Ayshela said, tripping a zombie and kicking it back down the roof, its flailing roll taking several of its kin with it off the side of the roof. Daryl pegged the next zombie, and the next, until his fingers reached for an arrow to find none. A ghoul snarled at him from a few feet away and Daryl dropped the bow and snarled back, backing it up with a full arm slap as the ghoul sprang, knocking it flying. “I hope they get done soon.” he said, watching Jirah efficiently dispose of several zombies. “Watch that left.” Ayshela repeated, dropping a ghoul with a swift combination of sword thrusts and kicks. She kicked its twitching remains down the roof, smiling grimly as several zombies fell once again. “Yeah yeah.” Daryl said, swatting a zombie to the ground and repeating Ayshela’s tactic. A ghoul jumped over the rolling zombie, but instead got to get its head swatted around. It felt itself get lifted into the air and then the wind rushed past it. As it straightened its head, it hit another ghoul and blasted them into the seething crowd below. The rising wave coming over the edge of the roof wasn’t impressed as it flowed to meet the defenders.

Happy Birthday to Madoka, Happy Birthday to Madoka, Happy Birthday dear Samurai Shepherdess, Happy Birthday to Ewe!

Happy birthday, Soaring Icarus.

Happy Christmas to one and all, and enjoy your holiday off.

The half-elf restrained a gasp of pain as knelt, and saw Kaleyra wince as well. But he was more focused on Timothy, reaching out with a gentle hand to touch the young scholar’s brow. Throwing caution to the winds, the half-elf sought the mana flows that would bring relief to his companion. But exhausted and wounded, the half-elf could not summon the white magic, instead only creating a star fall of useless lights around his hand. Gritting his teeth, the half-elf instead checked Timothy’s pulse before pulling out more bandages, wrapping the back of Timothy’s head to help stop the blood loss there. “He has some broken ribs.” Kaleyra whispered, blotting her eyes unsuccessfully with the edge of her sleeve. Gyrfalcon nodded, doing his best to bandage the scholar’s ribs as well, ignoring his own wounds, so minor compared to all that Timothy has suffered. As the two companions worked over Timothy, Myth took the opportunity to extract her dagger from Jagon’s back, wiping it contemptuously on a wing that shed its last feathers as she did so. Stepping past Jagon’s body, she looked around the chamber for the Pool of Eternal Reflection, certain that while her companions are distracted with Timothy, she could make use of the Pool without interference. Her steps slow immediately though, for the chamber has changed much during the battle. Myth called to mind how it had looked when she had first entered, placed where the pool has to be… and staring straight at what looked to be a new wall to the cave. She growled softly to herself and stepped towards the wall anyway, moving some of the smaller stones and inspecting the cave-in, seeking to determine if it could ever be removed safely to allow access to the Pool again. She darted backwards as the rocks groan and shift, a massive boulder falling forward to land where she had been standing. As more rocks follow, the room is filled with dust as a smaller cave-in occurs. Gyrfalcon coughed and stood as the dust finally settled, his cloak shedding dust as it slid away from Timothy’s ravaged body. “What?” he began, then coughed again, before spitting to the side to clear his mouth of dust. “What was that all about?” he asked. Myth stood and brushed at the dust that layered her clothing. “That was about the fact that the Pool of Eternal Reflection is now buried, probably forever. Unless you can undo that collapse, Gyrfalcon.” She said flatly, angry and disappointed. Gyrfalcon shook his head. “It’s not within my abilities, unfortunately. Many of my spells are meant for combat, and I could collapse the rest of the cavern fairly easily, but I possess no means of unsealing the Pool.” Myth glares at him for a moment, then huffs and walks away, muttering to herself. “All this way for nothing…” Kaleyra stared at the cave-in for a long moment, her eyes filled with loss. “All that knowledge…” she whispered. Gyrfalcon shook his head, then turned sharply as Timothy moaned. Kaleyra turned as well and leaned close as Timothy whispered something, before gently giving him a drink of water from her canteen. Timothy lapsed into silence again, and Gyrfalcon and Kaleyra exchange long looks. “Well? Let’s get going.” Myth said from near the entrance, her face locked in a grim expression. “And let’s hope that ship’s crew decided to stay.” Gyrfalcon bent and gently tried to lift Timothy, but the movement sent lances of pain burning through his chest. Kaleyra touched his arm, then gestured to Timothy’s right-hand side. “Between us, I believe we can carry him. If you would take that side, it should be easier and less painful for you to help move him.” The two gently lifted Timothy, draping his arms across their shoulders. Myth led the way, her torch throwing shadows against the walls, but providing them a beacon to guide their way.

Happy Birthday, Fin! May you take joy in day, and enjoy many haiku Happy Birthday, Finnius!

Congratulations, Vlad.