GIFTS 3/3/109 Dear Father, Some of the people that I met previously, which I wrote about in my last letter about, and I gathered in Refuge City, just outside of Castle Refuge. We met in the oddly named bar named Embrace, and the group of us- ThorFrid, Jad, Rex, and my good friends Keegan and Valdus, because we had decided we worked well together. Embrace is where the job boards are posted, so we were very familiar with the place. Rex surprised us all with an announcement that he had "come into a lot of coin" and was building a custom house for all of us! I will have my own room! It is very generous- I did not even know that he even liked any of us. He had been in the hospital, and I did not know! Jad seems to love towels- Turkish towels specifically. Rex had a floor plan, and everyone picked their space. Then Valdus surprised us by offering to buy the group a vehicle! I knew that Loraine, the TW builder/operator, had settled here in Refuge from our home in Stormspire, so we went there. Loraine has not changed at all, gruff exterior with a generous heart. She seemed pleased, and surprised, to see me, and I introduced the group to the Elf. She hesitantly offered to sell us a Zone Ranger! Valdus suggested adding hover to the vehicle so that Rex could use his considerable flying skill. Loraine said she needed to find the anti-grav unit, but she would add it later after it was acquired. We added 2 fireball launchers as well. Loraine added a cell in the back for prisoners, as Keegan is a judge, and a place for Rex' flyer. She charged us just over a million, which Valdus paid in advance! We named the vehicle the Unfixed Dog, in honor of a friend. While Loraine was working on the vehicle, explaining to me each spell and device, a small human child, smelling almost as bad as Jad does, came up to Rex. "He is just one of the overlooked," Rex said, as suddenly Thorfrid freaked out. "Take those freakin' purple things off," she yelled at the purple suspender clad urchin, "Or I will cut them off with your balls." It seemed that all of the others froze at the lack of logic in the statement. The child ran through a hole in the fence, and ThorFrid ran the other way, fully freaked out, saying that the purple was attacking her, and ran face first into the fence on the other side. She landed on her back, staring at the sky. Keegan made sure she was ok, which thankfully she was. Rex returned from the restroom with a strangely timely job- a contact had the anti-grav unit we needed to make Unfixed Dog a fully fixed vehicle. We agreed that this was fortuitous, and decided to move on. Valdus was the pilot, and Jad, after using cargo webbing to secure his stool, was the navigator. ThorFrid was a gunner, along with Rex. We made camp, and settled in. Keegan told a story about the fact that not cheating in judge school helped him become a judge, as the cheaters got caught. Jad told story of befriending prairie pugs and then taking one home to Castle Refuge and ate it with lots of bbq sauce. ThorFrid practiced with the turret, while I contemplated what Loraine had done to making the Unfixed Dog vehicle. Valdus told a crazy story of being in other galaxies and killing people. He shot a friend for waking him up from a dream. He regrets this terribly. He states bluntly that war is a fool's errand, but if people participate he will help bring them home. Keegan mentions that the two of them working together will save lives. Suddenly we saw a pack of wild dogs, and things got crazy. ThorFrid started by firing the Fireball turret at them, but forgot that Rex and Jad were in the blast area! ThorFrid killed all the dogs but one, which ran away. Valdus goes over to Jad, who has collapsed, and heals Jad with green energy, completely. "I don't want to drag your ass back home," says Valdus. Jad gets up, grabs his "stool", and runs to the non-firing side of the Unfixed Dog. Keegan runs up to the escaping dog, and slices the dog with his psi-claymore. ThorFrid jumps out of the turret, and Valdus offers a silver sharpie for her to mark her Ace kills, dog paws on the turret. I walk over to Rex, having attached a healing barrel to the revolver, shooting him with green healing injury. The poor man flinched, but is grateful for the healing. We note to each other that we have, as a group, a green theme. Valdus complements my usage of the TW item, and I remind him that he is an awesome healer. Keegan uses his sword a second time, and kills the dog, separating its head from the body- the head ends up becoming a hat. He seems very attached to the hat, even asking Jad to preserve it- Jad puts some lace on it instead. The next day we arrive at our destination, Al' T y arn. It is a strange circular asphalt area with part of a building on it. I tell everyone that this place is not of this Earth, warning them all to use caution. ThorFrid pulls out a pair of weapons, I armor up, Jad grabs his stool, and we all go in. It seems to be a toy store, and each of us grab some strange figurines from some place named "Heroes of the Century." Rex grabs what he came for, and we leave the building. Valdus finds a ley line close by, and we head towards it to recharge the vehicle and our powers. I get out Lennata, my wing board, and head off to inspect, and find that the ley line is being fed upon by a powerful being. I rush quickly back to the group, and shortly thereafter a dragon appears and lands! "What are you doing on my ley line," it growls. Before we answer a group of dogs also appear out of the brush. The dogs attack, and luckily the dragon decides that they needed to go away. Jad drove over some of the dogs, Valdus healed my injuries from the dog attack, and cast a defensive spell on me. The rest of the group and I took care of the rest of the dogs, and now it was just us and the dragon. Velma, who is Valdus' girlfriend and an Atlantean Tattoo Warior, drags Keegan into the vehicle screaming, "Drive." Valdus punches it, and Keegan begs Valdus to pull over. We drive back to Refuge, with Jad making a giant sandwich. The Dragon crushed the hood on the way out, but we make it away. At Refuge City Rex got our anti-grav in exchange for completing his mission, and we were minor heroes for "defeating" the dragon- somehow I have a feeling it will come back to haunt us. We seem to work well together, although obviously need to work out some kinks. Soon we will be running like a finely tuned engine. Will write again soon! Love, Turag Author note- I will be adding a video that relates to most logs, usually the subtitle of the log. This one is from INXS. The Gift
