Curiosity did what, now?

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold's research cave is coming along nicely, after her previous adventure - the floor carefully flattened (by teleporting stone out) and softened (by teleporting sand in); the permanent portals to Deva and the cavern's exit, currently closed to anyone who doesn't know the passwords, but marked off, with spaces set aside for several more portals; her experimenting supplies tucked away behind further portals in her workspace; a small cache set up for her new translation necklace and any other magical items she might happen to find in her travels.

And, now, another portal, leading to another new world. She double-checks that she has her traveling gear - translation necklace, teleporting ring, twine - completes the spell, and peers through.

Comments

[last_one_out]

On the other side: a dim, sparse forest populated by unfamiliar plants. The trees are low and gnarled, with thick silver-grey trunks and broad black leaves; the grass between them looks like spiky black shadows on the ground, and the shrubs look like tangles of thorny white string.

There is someone in front of the portal - bigger than a kobold but not outrageously so; four limbs and a long tail; wearing clothing - who is experiencing an abrupt change in mood from 'out for a nice walk' to 'aaaaaa giant snake', probably because of the giant snake that just reared up and lunged at him out of a dense shadowy cluster of trees.

[lurkingkobold]

...well.

Step, grab, teleport, and the strange person can now have another abrupt change of mood. Scenery, too; her go-to emergency teleportation spot is a nice secluded bit of wilderness.

"Are you okay?"

[last_one_out]

He yelps with surprise. "What?!"

[lurkingkobold]

She steps away from him and does her best to look unthreatening. "Sorry, I, just - there was a monster, I didn't want to see someone get eaten. I can put you back, we'll just need to go back to my cave to use the portal."

[last_one_out]

He squints a little, shielding his eyes against the afternoon light, and starts calming down. "Hey, I'm not gonna argue with being rescued from a giant snake... where are we?"

[lurkingkobold]

"Oh," she chuckles a little, calming down some herself. "This is a different world. I have teleportation magic, I was looking for a new world to explore when I saw you. It doesn't have a name that I know of; there are only a few other people with teleportation so far, and I don't think any of them have tried going to other worlds yet."

[last_one_out]

"Well, my world's called Suranse. ...Are we on the outside of a planet right now? Is that why it's so bright?"

[lurkingkobold]

She nods. "It's a little safer coming out to the middle of nowhere like this than to a cave, if I'm teleporting blind; less chance someone will be camping out in my landing spot. We can go in if the light is bothering you, though."

[last_one_out]

"Eh, it's not that bad. So how'd you end up exploring new worlds, anyway? Bored with the one you've got?"

[lurkingkobold]

This gets a grin and a chuckle. "Something like that, yeah. Not that there isn't plenty to do here, but I like to keep busy. And other worlds have interesting things, sometimes." She touches the medallion hanging from her necklace, to indicate that that's what she's talking about.

[last_one_out]

"Sounds like fun. What's that?"

[lurkingkobold]

"Translator. The first world I found was some kind of gigantic trade place, they called it the Bazaar, and I traded some teleporting rings for it." She considers for a moment. "Does Suranse have kobolds? The Bazaar did, kind of, but I'm not sure how much context I should be giving you here."

[last_one_out]

"Well, what's a kobold?"

[lurkingkobold]

She chuckles. "That probably answers my question - I'm a kobold. This world has lots of different kinds of people; the ones around here are kobolds, tigerfolk, and elves, mostly. Kobolds mostly don't talk, and even if we do learn how we're not very good at it, which is why a translator is especially handy for me."

[last_one_out]

"Yeah, I don't think there's that many kinds of people in Suranse, and I'm pretty sure we don't have kobolds. How d'you manage the not talking thing? Can you all read minds, or are you really really good at body language, or what?"

[lurkingkobold]

"Really good at body language. And we live in tribes small enough that everyone knows everyone else, that helps; when people from two different tribes need to talk to each other, the tribes' Speakers help out."

[last_one_out]

"That makes sense."

[lurkingkobold]

She seems particularly pleased at this response.

"So, what's Suranse like?"

[last_one_out]

"The planet I live in has two kinds of people - Ceirene live on the outside, Aluvai on the inside. I'm Aluvai. Well, half Ceirene, but you wouldn't know it to look at me."

[lurkingkobold]

She nods. "I don't think we have either of those kinds of people here."

[last_one_out]

He shrugs. "Wouldn't surprise me. And the inside of the planet is where all the giant snakes and so forth are, and the outside of the planet is where there are invaders from who knows where trying to conquer it and kill everyone. ...When I put it like that, it makes my world sound a lot more exciting and terrible than it feels like."

[lurkingkobold]

This gets a wry grin. "I know how that goes. Here, most kinds of people don't think kobolds are people. Which can be terrible, when it comes up, but day to day it's not so hard to just stay to ourselves and not worry about it." She considers for a moment. "I wouldn't mind casting some things for you, if teleportation magic would help with your snakes and invaders problem."

[last_one_out]

"That sounds like it might help a lot with our snakes and invaders problem! Depending on what kind of teleportation magic, I guess."

[lurkingkobold]

"I'm still figuring out what kinds of things I can do, actually - I only discovered it about a year ago. The main limitation is that in order to aim at a particular place, I need to have been there and examined it, but once I know where to tell the spell to put someone or something, I can do that in a lot of different ways - so far I've done portals and jewelry and touch spots, and I can cast directly on a person so they can teleport to a particular place by wanting to go there." A brief pause. "I can teach people to cast this kind of magic, too, but that might cause more problems for you than it solves, if you don't have a way to make sure only trustworthy people learn it."

[last_one_out]

"...I can think of some ways to make sure that... well, I guess it depends on the definition of 'trustworthy'."