Log:There and Back Again, Scene 2

There and Back Again 2019/06/21    Amelia Artemis Ascendant Eleanora Radical Thunder Bilbo Baggins Thaddeus Burge 2

Eleanora approached Radical, saying she though she had made a terrible mistake, and asked Radical to gather all the heroes he could to help rectify it. Once every was in the Library (which was entered via an inconspicuous door in Old Town), she explained that she had made the mistake of being charmed by a certain Thaddeus Burge, MagD, into taking him into the world of The Hobbit. (Some metaphysical discussion followed about whether this actually involves entering a fiction or if the "fictional" world is actually pre-existent, but in effect it hardly matters.)

Eleanora worked out, too late, that Burge's plan was to seize the One Ring for himself, at a point when it was relatively accessible: the scene at the arrival in Lake Town, when the Dwarves are all in barrels and Bilbo is left alone and starts freeing them. Eleanora took the heroes to the site before Burge had a chance to attack Bilbo. Unfortunately, Radical's magic 'ping', which allowed him to find both Bilbo and Burge, also alerted Burge to the heroes' presence. Burge pre-emptively attacked the heroes by opening a portal above the heroes through which posion gas emerged, stunning Eleanora. Eleanora has been rescued from the gas, and The Stranger and Radical have moved toward Burge, who is 50m from the main group of heroes. 

Union checks that Eleanora is alright before taking off toward Burge.

Eleanora seems to be ok, now she's coughed the gas from her lungs.

Ascendant stays low and arcs towards Burge before coming up short and then reaching out with his hand. He's still some good distance away- but Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx does not need to put hands on someone to acost them.

He attempts to grab Burge with his telekinetic might.

Unfortunately, it seems Burge doesn't need his arms to cast his spells. All it takes, it seems is for him to turn his head. His eyes flash, and then another portal opens: this one horizontal, and close in front of Radical.

Radical sees the portal open...and he takes a step sideways...though he covers a good four meters with that one step, disappearing from where he was and reappearing.

A sudden howling wind hurls Ascendant back into the cliff face above the shingle shore.

Nohrbor's plan backfires badly and he strikes the cliffside hard, stunning him.

Amelia gestures and speaks a word of power. Eagle wings form on her back and she flies low across the intervening distance between where she was and the mage, landing a few metres away from him. "You might as will give up now. You're out-numbered, out-classed, and running out of options." she tells him.

Burge sighs. "I see Miss Montagu saw through my plan sooner than expected. But it is of no matter. Outnumbered I may be, but hardly outclassed!" he says, preening his mustachioes.

Amelia snugs, "So what do you want this ring, whatever it's called, for anyway?" she asks. The comments "Never did get around to reading the book."

Thunder crouches, then leaps forward suddenly. The kid is a bit new to his powers, so the sight of a literal super leap is probably new. He twists in the air as he aims to come down behind Burge by a few meters. He takes a pair of steps on landing, but twists to take a more martial arts stance facing the mage. "Hi!" Well, recovering from the leap is keeping him from attacking at the moment, but the kid's definitely not in Burge's personal space on the opposite side of the other heroes.

Artemis flies out after the fiend in time to see Nohrbor cast away. With all the magic going around, discretion goes out the window and she draws her sword and raises her shield. Her arm draws back before swinging forward. The sword separates from a solid piece into several metal sections connected by blue arcing energy. The sword whip threatens to wrap around Burges' neck.

A portal opens up trying to intercept the blow, but isn't fast enough.

Burge struggles free of the choke, gasping for breath.

Eleanora opens the book she always carries to a bookmarked page, and reads, while narrating how a mist rises over part of the lake as the sun falls - which happens, just as she describes. It's not over a wide area, but just an 8m radius, roughly, around Burge. The mist muffles both sight and sound, making the combat less obvious to outsiders.

Union closes the distance quickly.

For all his bravado, Burge doesn't seem to like being surrounded by an increasing number of heroes. Quickly he opens a portal and hurries through!

Ascendant groans from his hole in the cliffside. He doesn't open his eyes but he realizes there is a great deal of resistance all around him.

As he moves against it, the cliffside crumbles and cracks causing a few pebbles to roll towards the heroes.

He opens his eyes with a start and a wry smirk slides across his face. He didn't think he'd enjoy a world of little Hobbitses, but he's beginning to enjoy himself.

Amelia points northward up along the shore, "The portal leads in that direction, about a 100m." she says turning in the direction she is pointing. Then she rushes forward trying to pass through the portal before it closes.

Amelia steps through the mage's portal just before it closes. "As I said, outclassed. Why, I doubt if you can even understand one of the simpliest exercises I was given when I was first training in the arts." Lifting a finger she draws in the air in front of him an animated illustration of how to 'square the circle'.

Amelia watches as the mage's eyes glaze over when he tries to utterly impossible self-conflicting 'logic' being shown by the animated image.

Radical recovers from his sidestep, and then teleports again to follow after Burge, using Amelia's directions as a guide.

Artemis crouches low before launching herself bodily into the sky and towards Burges.

The Battlemaiden is deadly silent as she swings her whipsword around in an arc.

Then with a sudden fury she slashes out towards Burges, attempting to wrangle the mage and begin pulling him back towards the others.

Union runs full speed in the direction indicated by Amelia.

With incredible poise the Godflora snaps the whipsword and begins pulling him back to her.

She smiles gleefully. Justice will be theirs this day! Her Bloodbound brother is not the only one with a long reach!

Thunder tilts his head as he notices the mage disappear through a portal, then turns as the comment on where the portal's destination is. The teen crouches, then leaps again. Seeing what Artemis is doing, he angles his jump to take him right by Burge as he brings a hand back and tries to just flat out punch the bad guy in passing! Sure it might not be much, but it's still going to hurt!

The outnumbered magician takes another solid blow.

Eleanora narrates the concealing mist into Burge's current location.

Union sees Burge fly past overhead, wrapped in Artemis' whipsword. She wheels about and runs to close the distance.

Ascendant with all the same fury as Artemis, he flings himself from the cliffside- straight into the air. His eyes burn wildly as he plans on more violence in the name of justice- his favorite kind.

He laughs ominously as he flies for Burges as well, closing the gap between he, his target and Artemis.

Burge resolves the confusing maths, and open a new portal directly by Bilbo (though only Amelia is aware of this). He tries to grab the surprised hobbit!

A surprised squeal comes from Bilbo. "Give me that ring....." says Burge, wrestling with the air.

Amelia reaches for the mage with spirit hand, grabbing at him and trying to pull him away from the habbit. "Run, you fool." she shouts to the halfling, pointing back towards the other heroes, "They are friends. Go to them."

Amelia forces the mage to release his grip of the diminutive habbit.

Bilbo runs toward the heroes at Amelia's suggestion - still invisible, of course.

Radical mutters to himself about increasing the range of his ability to fold space. But he can worry about heading to the drawing board later. He steps forward again, closing the distance. Normally, it might be fast enough. But not today.

Artemis flies back to the others as her eyes scan the area. "He seems to have escaped us," she murmurs before her keen ears catches Amelia's announcement. She flies at full speed to catch up.

Thunder crouches again, looking around, and using a bit of mystic awareness as he feels a lot of stuff going on. He leaps once more, legs coming up near him as his arms move in front. The trained leap is aimed straight to go by Burge one more time and this time the teenager lashes out with a hard hitting flying kick at the poor guy's chest to knock him out. Thunder shakes his head, "... I told the ancestors that people liked to move too much these days."

Ascendant flies to catch up with Artemis, but remains quiet since this is a (relative) stealth mission.

Artemis lands nearby and looks around as her sword restracts into a solid blade again. "Do you think anyone noticed?" she asks as if she seriously thinks they're that lucky.

Eleanora looks relieved as the rogue magician is taken down. "Let us make haste and leave this world before we are seen. But what of the hobbit? Is he safe?"

Radical looks around with his magic sight, just to confirm where Bilbo is...and that he still has the ring.

You seem in fact to have been extraordinarily lucky. Or maybe it's because Tolkien actually specified that the guards weren't alert.

Radical finds that Bilbo is indeed safe - but rather shocked. THere is one witness to events...

Amelia joins the gathering and goes to the halfling. Crouching down to be at his height she asks, "Who are you, little one, and what are you doing here?"

Bilbo swallows. "How can you see me?"

After the heroes manage to convince the hobbit that he was hallucinating - hardly surprising, it's been so long since he had a decent meal! - Eleanora takes them back to the Great Library. There she thanks them for their help, and offers them access to the library, should they wish it, in thanks. (Not that it's easy to get to if you don't have the ability to move between dimensions, but still, the library card could be useful some time!)