Game Posts

Everyone shush up and let me'n' Phineas look at the body! Billy says, somewhat harshly. Knowing the emotions that must be going through everyone, as they go through him, his face and tone soften. Really, boys. Let us finish up here and we'll tell ya what we know. He points to port (assuming Dirk went over starboard). You can best help by headin' over there'n' givin' us some space.

Ulfren scoffs at the wizard. "Maybe you've aged as much, but the lot of us haven't grown that much older." He raises his boot and steps onto the eel before kicking it to the side.

"Let him speak, Ulfren," Baern says calmly.

Phineas stood up and listened carefully to the Wizard. He had a great respect for the masters of the Arcane Arts.

Having already stepped back from the huddle before Billy's reprimand of the others, Gunnar leans on the rail squinting at the island in the distance. There was smoke rising from it just moments before the ice came. No smoke now.

Gunnar's eyes go wide at wizard's words. His own studies of the arcane have always been focused more on how things work rather than the more esoteric applications of magic. Trapped in magical ice for centuries! How does one achieve such an effect? Assuming this was done with intent.

Baern looks to the stars, attempting to ascertain something from their expanse.

Baern turns from the sky, his head downcast. "Oh gods..." he mutters.

Gunnar arches an eyebrow at the wizard's words. He immediately starts checking his magical gear: his gun & magazine, his goggles, the bag of holding. Is everything still functional?

Phineas approaches Baern, concerned. "Old friend, what is you see?"

Phineas tries to see what it is that Baern has discovered, turning his eyes to the heavens. He lets the sky and stars flow into his heart as much as see them with his eyes.

He realizes what Baern has seen.

"How ... how is this possible?"

Baern straightens at Phineas' touch. "The wizard speaks truth, friends. The sky has changed. Many night I have stood guard and watched, its patterns are as familiar to me as the lines on my palm. But tonight, the stars are dim. Many are missing--large areas of sky, once populated by teeming colonies of gleaming stars, are now empty. New, young stars have appeared." He shakes his head again. "We are far beyond our time."

"So what do we do now? The war's over for sure. Do we push on? Go home? Do we still have a home?"

"I say we push on. Could be the war still rages--and even if it does not, the source of the Icewave is our next question. Something with the power to produce that sort of wave--able to freeze us in time--must be investigated."

Ulfren strides over to the wizard to lift the man up by the lapel, which means the wizard is probably still on his knees. He growls, "You mean to suggest that our dear friend was stuck and drowned in the tail end of a tundra troll while we were busy for a hundred years?!" The barbarian's voice rises with each word, and he seems ready to headbutt some sense into the babbling magician.

With a near-bestial growl, Baern gets to his feet and strides towards Ulfren. Midstride, his dwarf form disappears, overgrown by vibrant green bark and vines. His next step rocks the ship as he stands now, over 10' tall. "Leave him be, Ulfren," Baern's voice booms, as if from a wooden drum. "He has done no harm." The next moment, Baern is standing before you all again. "That is what he means to say, yes," he says, his voice heavy. "Dirk was frozen for hundreds, perhaps a thousand years. There is nothing we could have done."

Ulfren briefly glances up at Baern's taller form, then his eyes follow the diminishing shape-change. "Lad," he growls, voice rumbling like the stone underground, "you be fair-warned about the razor-thin line you just stepped across." Ulfren's fists tighten their grip on the wizard's lapels, mostly on account of not having let go in the first place. "Don't think you can intimidate me with your mystical ways, and if you wanna have a go, all you gots to do is ask."