You're laying in your ship, in a forrest, when a k-lunk lets you know that your ship has been reloaded with rockets.

You're not injured. In fact  your shirt is not even ripped.

PT

"Did I die?" I ask her this question. Sorry, I don't care how tough I think I am, or how much of a scrappy I fancy myself. The injuries I took would kill most men long before that final shot came along.

I move over the pilot's seat and sit down in it. Well, more of a slump, actually. The swing of sensations, from intense mindnumbing pain to a-okay is something that takes some getting used to. Maybe God has put me in some kind of cosmic video game machine. Oh, now that would be so stupid. I'm in a cross between the Matrix and Pac-Man.

Then again, this is all likely a vivid coma dream, so why not? I think...

I admit to myself I still haven't got the foggiest idea what's going on. Well, I look out through the front glass. I need to get my bearing and get ready for the next lesson. I'll just take this one step at a time. In time, I will understand this. I believe the conculsion of all of this is my death. But, if I'm going to die, I might as well go with as many lessons as insight can gleam.

Besides, it's not as if I'm walking it alone. I smile at this point.

Carmine pats you on the shoulder in response to your smile.

And then you hear a clunk again.

"Um, weird thing. We're here in a forrest, I look out. And then I hear our missiles being loaded. Except thats all of them. So what's that noise."

There's another klunk.

You look out the front window.

There's a fifteen foot tall, green-furred man-thing tapping on the front window glass with a finger as thick as a baseball bat.

PT

Looks like a troll. Shame I don't have any fire on me, otherwise I'd have an ace when it goes berserk on me. I figure, what the heck. Might as well go outside and see what it wants before it starts cracking open the metal case to see if there is candy inside. I check the pistol, and the two Spartha swords.

I open the back hatch and walk around, no weapons drawn, hands palm up. "Hello? Do you understand me?" If he does, I'm going to sound like an idiot, but I might as well think though any ideas.

Of course, if he comes for me, I am in serious trouble.

You open the belly door, and it opens down, and Carmine follows you with her knife ready in its sheathe as well.

"Oh, its a human, well two of them." The troll lumbers back to give you more space, and you see a dozen others, not all human, encased with you in a shimmering transluclent orange forcefield on some meadow grass.  A great forrest looms around you beyond the small meadow.

Across it is another similar filled enclosure. Next to each enclosure is a fabulously dressed person in a bamboo 'watchtower/viewing stand' with slaves to cool them with fronds.

"Welcome to the Game of Wizards, pal. It stinks." The troll grumbles.

PT
OOC: You know it, you love it...

"The Game of Wizards?" I have an odd feeling I should know what this is, but I don't. "What's going on? And who are those guys?"

The troll seems to be someone worth talking to, as it is my opinion that anyone being fanned by slaves is probably not someone I want to talk to unless I have to.

"Yeah, the Red Wizard over there is duelling the Blue Sorceress for the privilege of a night out. We're Reddies tokens in the game. We go over there and try to beat down the Blue Girl's tokens when he calls on one of us." The troll rumbles out, his voice at least contrabass.

"So, I say, no, I'm an American. No way." Dr. Carmine says with her hands on her hips.

"I like your spirit, for an Italian anyways." Drawls out a Germanic voice from across the forcefield enclosure. Its a man in a gray uniform with double lightning strokes on his shoulders. "Unfortunately, he has a very powerful pain spell along with several other protections."

He raises his right hand which ends in a hook.

"Caught a piece of burning magnesium once, and it was not nearly as bad as that illbred fop's Book of Runes."

PT

"Well, he didn't summon me, so he cannot force us to do anything." I think about this for a moment. "In fact..."

I walk over to the edge of the barrier and step out, if I can. I want to meet the wizard for myself. To be honest, the blue sorceress might be more sensible, but I suspect this action, if successful, will cause no small amount of contriversy. Indeed, she will certainly accuse him of cheating.

You bounce off the forcefield with an electrical jolt that sends you back several feet.

"I saw him summon you." The troll says. "And then he cast a 'rearm' rune on you. Or on your craft."

Carmine walks back on, and then calls out from inside.

"We do have rockets again. That's...bizzarre."

"Are you thinking to betray us, by talking to our master?" The gray uniformed man with the hook hand asks you.  You see several others pay attention at this point. One looks like a badger in farm clothes, and another is a man in a Starfleet uniform. With a feeling of creepiness, you see that a nine foot tall preying mantis with a pistol of some sort is standing on the roof of the timecraft.

PT

"Betray you?" Now I'm offically confused. "How on earth would talking to him affect you in the slightest?"

I might as well answer it, but if push comes to shove, I can play along.

"I'm well familar with how prisoners in camps behave. Some try to kiss up to their guards in order to get special favors.  Often, they promise to inform on their fellow prisoners, sometimes for only a small square of chocolate someone will betray an old friend to death."

"You have no cause to accuse him. You see the wickedness in your own heart, and imagine its in the world." A tiny creature, perhaps three inches long buzzes past him,a nd shrilly yells at him.  He waves it off. "You're worse than Captain Hook even if you both share a loss."

"I do not know any Captain Hook, you impertinent elfling." He snaps back as Tinkerbelle comes and lands on your shoulder with a 'mmmmph' and a 'phibblllttl' as she sticks out her tongue at the uniformed man.

"Let the Human Worldwalker defend himself. If he is not guilty, there is little harm. If he is guilty, I will terminate his existence in this frame of reference." The Preying Mantis says with with cold precision. "Unfortunately, he is an immortal, but at the least, he will...be out of my hair."

You suspect a joke as the Mantis doesn't seem to have any hair.

PT

"Okay, you are all prisoners. Got that part. You are apparently a pirate, and she is a fairy. Judging from the presence of the troll and the mantis man, a Nantuko I believe, I'd say our 'master' is a green mage with a side in red, maybe black and red with you around, if my surprising fairy ally has sized you up without prejudice." This last I say to the man with the hook hand.

I look at Carmine. "I think we are in a game. Don't ask why I think that, it's just that somehow, everything is adding up to that. It's an intuitive conculsion, not one founded in reasoning, but it makes sense so far. I need to test something. Nobody interrupt me, because I might be able to get us out of here."

I move towards the edge of the field, look at the mage, and wait for his next spell. When he casts it, I'm going to try and think of the open fields, the vision of open skies and golden grasses, of green rolling meadows and land meant for living off of.

In short, I'm going to try to draw White Mana, using the novelizations I've read as my blueprint of technique. This will set up whether this is the setting I think it is, or not. If so, I know how I will use it, or at least I think I do. If not, well, I'm going to feel like an idiot, but at least I'll have done something.

OOC: Of course, this could easily be Heroscape, or any number of competitive games I've played.

"I am Tinkerbelle." The fairy on your shoulder announces proudly.

The man in the gray uniform with the hook for a hand and the double lightning bolts on his shoulder tab laughs coldly.

"Waffen SS, boy. I eat pirates for lunch."

"I am indeed a member of the Nantuko species, human worldwalker. I am an emmissary of the Thousand Planets Coalition. We just let your species enter it, and I have to say, so far I think we should eject your species from the coalition, and from space/time."

The next spell is cast by the mage looking at his notepad, and studying it for a half minute.  And then an axe materializes in the troll's hands.

You reach at the same time, and suddenly an infusion of energy races through you like Christmas carols and sunlight on your face. White magic dribbles off your fingers as you feel like you're about to burst.

Summon White Mana 1@3.

PT

Crap. This one word is rolling in my mind, burning out all other thoughts about this situation, eliminating any snark I might otherwise direct to the Nazi or the Nantuko. I had considered my plan up to this point, and failed to plan for one thing:

It would actually work.

That feeling that I'm going to burst is not far off the mark. You see, one thing hammered into all players of the game, is a nasty little thing called Mana Burn. If you don't use it fast, it starts killing you and goes away. Most don't trouble themselves with this element, because it usually doesn't come up.

Of course, most don't have their actual friggin' lives depending on them getting the invocation of Demystify correctly either.  Which I honestly don't know, which leads me to my only solution: Make something up.

"Shatter the illusions and destroy the mists that bind the world." Geez, is that really the best I can do on short notice? "Demystify!"

It is a low level White spell, cheap, limited use (I prefer Disenchant), but it will hopefully get me out of this mess. Provided I don't end up going boom or splat first.

OOC: By the way, I'm attempting to break the barrier containing me.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Tue 16 Dec 2008.

The forcefield flickers. On. Off. On. Very quickly.

The male mage changes from young, handsome and lecherous to old, fat, toad-ugly, but still lecherous. He turns to you in surprise, which rapidly begins to change to fury as the lady mage begins to snort laughter.

PT

Oops. I targeted the wrong enchantment appearently. Instead of shattering the barrier caging me, I accidentally blew away his illusions of beauty.

Big oops. The only spell like that I know of is a barrier between death. An illusion so convincing the wielder actually lives longer. Kinda like mind over matter. And really twisted to. I didn't know Black could pull that off, but the ones they have usually kill them when broken...

Oh, boy. I might have killed the caster. Or made it so the woman could smoke him, if she felt like it.

Or I could have done nothing more than humilate him. I'm praying for that last

"Uh, guys..." I'm speaking to everyone behind me. "I think I messed up the attempt to break out." Not an enchantment. A rule? Am I actually in his hand, or his play zone? Likely the play zone. Confound it, these rules abstractions are so hard to translate to real life.

"Carmine, get a weapon out of the ship. Get two, actually." I look at Tinkerbelle, probably still pirched on my shoulder. "I don't know what your angle in this is, but I'm in serious trouble. Just thought you should know."

Yeah, or I could fight him. A veteran magus. I have nothing to lose. I draw more mana if I can, White, just like last time. Not much, but I have another spell in mind. Let's hope I word it better than the last.

Carmine hurries back onto the ship.  She lifts it up, and spins it about so that it faces the old mage. And then she hurries off to give you a rifle and your spatha sword. She's also armed.

"Now we're getting to it." The Waffen SS man says with a shark-like smile.  He reaches down to his boot, and pulls out a Luger.

"My goal is to get back to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, and deal with that nasty Wendy." Tinkerbelle says. "Your spell, magi, your spell broke the enchantment on our slavemaster, but only interrupted the spell on the forcefield. I'd say its backed up by something powerful."

"Yes." The trolls rumbles. "Even worse than losing to the other mage would be to let their slaves out."

"YOU FOOL!!" The woman mage screams from across the field. She begins casting aiming her spell at your group. "You summoned a magician!"

An elephant with archers appears in the midst of the field, and instead of attacking the old mage, it turns toward your group and begins to slowwalk toward you.

Fire lances through your guts, and for a second you see the Glory hidden behind ever leaf.  Those around you leap back as white fire rains down around you.

"Slaves, huh? Well, he didn't take me by war, nor though purchase. I am nobody's slave, got it?" I use my next spell. "Wounds close and pain ends. Heal!"

Confound it all. That's a cantrip, a low end spell with a mental boost attached to it. I wanted to cast something that would help, but with WHITE FIRE raining around me and whatnot, my concentration is a little off. I'm amazed I manage to do more than scream like a girl. Besides, I'm a little new to this whole "I can actually cast real spells" idea.

I try moving towards Carmine, and hope I don't get either of us killed. "Can the rest of you buy me some time? The prize is freedom!"

Small wounds all about you heal, and you all feel good except the Waffen SS man who sneers at you in obvious pain.

"Can you bring down the forcefield again, even for a second, love? I've got two new rockets in the timeship, I should be able to launch them at the elephant..." Dr. Carmine asks.

"Fire at the mage." The Nazi and Tinkerbelle say at the same time.

"Did you say you had a time ship?" The Nantuko asks with some excitement.

Arrows begin to rain down in your enclosure. Evidently the forcefield is permeable from the outside which means you're stuck on a big, fat target.

PT

Okay...I've never seen a spell that prevents to all non-black creatures before. Figures. I'm probably in a new expansion. This means I'm now subject to Cloud Cookoolander logic.

Right, another volley of arrows. Save myself or break the field?

Eh, what the heck. Works in Hollywood.

I chant the same spell again, Demystify, in an effort to shatter the force field. Maybe it has some kind of ridiculous effect on it that requires multiple castings to break down.

You cast and you feel the old mage fighting back. You see him ripping pages out of his spellbook, and the pages burst into flame. Each time, one flames, you feel a jolt through the spell.

And then Carmine fires a rocket.

The mage looks up with a startled look on his face as the rocket passes through the flickering forcefield. He opens his mouth, and the rocket impacts on his chest.

There is a flash of red fire, and smoke, and the top of the tower falls off flaming into the ground.

The forcefield breaks like very thin glass under your magic now that no one is resisting you.

Tinkerbelle is laying at your feet, an arrow several times longer than she is through her stomach. The troll is roaring in pain.

The Nazi is laughing cheerfully as he unloads his luger at the archers.

"Stupid savages." He says.

You feel power in the air as the female mage on the far end of the field winds up to go for a homerun with your head as the baseball.

PT

This is too much. Everyone is getting hurt on me and it is my fault this time.

I use that. I use my hate for myself, and for this woman who attacks me without cause. I think of sewers, of mires, of moors, of mass graves and places of decay.

"Stop this now!" I attempt to draw the power of Black mana into myself, and I intend to send it to her in a wave of insecurities and nightmare visions of her own deeds. "Guilty secrets and fear of the light. Blackmail! Now desist your attack!"

You reach for the dark magics, and they slip through your hands. She raises her right hand to the sky, and ....

K-krrackkca-booom....

Suddenly you're flying head over heels, and you're caught by the Nantuko out of the air.

You can't hear anything although people are obviously shouting at you. Your clothes, what is left of them are charred and in pieces.

Down below you see the troll's axe looks melted, and that underneath it there is a black spot on the grass with two clear footpints in the midst of the burnt carbonized grass.

PT

"That...does it." I have no idea what I was thinking trying to use fickle magics when I have a rifle on me. Dee dee dee.

"Looks like Carmine's the one to get us out." I smirk. Guess it's her turn now. But I'm not out yet. I cast that healing spell again, aiming to focus through the pain. Apparently, she's used her start well, and has no intention of stopping. The SS will be fine. He doesn't need my help. The others, though...

"Keep me up on my feet." I am half-asking, half-commanding the Nantako. "I will not let them die today."

I can actually say such Narmtastic lines with a straight face? More likely my brain has just entered babble mode out of sheer stress.

The healing spell brings you back up to normal. Carmine fires her rocket at the lady mage who shrieks, and vanishes.  The rocket plows into the dirt near the stand and explodes, but does little more damage than throwing some dirt up in the air.

Your enemies stop fighting.

PT

So, they don't understand technology? They summon those who do, but they themselves are ignorant of it? This theory will merit testing. But for now, there is work to be done.

I give Carmine a thumbs up and a weary smile.

I look at Tink. At some risk to her, I break the arrow at one end, and attempt to remove it. If I succeed, I'll attempt a casting of the Heal spell, since I seem to be able to pull this off with some consistancy.

You cast the spell, and its enough to wake Tink up.  She moans in agony.

"I'm tore up inside bad. Just let me go." Tinkerbelle pleads for a chance to die, and then Carmine mutters.

"Yes, I do believe in fairies." And Carmine hits the ground as pain sweat breaks out on her forehead. Tinkerbelle sits up, and buzzes into the air.

Meanwhile, in the background, the Waffen SS, the troll, and the Nantuko are taking charge of the 'prisoners', or more accurately informing them 'you're free, the wicked witch got chased away'.


PT

"Carmine?" I hold her to me and start looking for an injury. "Carmine, are you okay?" There is more than a hint of panic to my now-rising voice, because apparently I missed the part where I saw her get hurt. Does it have something to do with the magic I cast?

"She healed me, manling. She took my pain into herself. A fair trade, a faerie for a human. Quite a bargain actually." Tinkerbelle says.

"And now you know why we pulled off all the wings of all the faeries, pixies, and every weird flying thing in the world." The Waffen SS man snarls. "Selfish little snots have no concern for the greater good. Its all, me, me, me."

PT

The truth is, I actually agree with the SS operative. As tempting as it would be to see if I can't use the faerie as a test for the Black Mana spells I was attempting to draw earlier, now is a bad time for this.

"You shredded my...my only source of sanity?" My eyes narrow at Tink. "Be grateful she made it clear she wanted you alive, fey." I force myself to half-calm. "Why don't you make yourself useful at check..." Noting everyone else to be fine, I growl in frustration.

I attempt a Black Mana draw again, but this time, I mix it with White. Perhaps a trick beyond me, but I have an idea.

"Honor the lives of those before, and memory of the lives before. Martyrdom!" I am doing what Tink did at a whim. I am channeling some of my life into Carmine, mostly because I think Heal is becoming insufficent at this point.

She heals. You die.

You see your fingers crumble away to dust even as Carmine gets up glowing with health, and then she's panicking, and....

===================

Its a new world.

1@2 Complete Heal with Self Sacrifice "Black/White Mana Heal"

Oops. A little too much that time. And yet, I live. I've wondered about this. Perhaps I don't actually die, and I never have. Maybe I'm just saved at the last minute and sent elsewhere.

"That was a remarkable short tenure. Note to self: watch the spellcasting, because it can kill you." I look around. "Carmine? You here?"

A remarkably stupid question if she is right in front of me...