One Curious Kobold

[lurkingkobold]

It's winter, and all is well with the tribe. Their new magic, an ability to make portals from one place to another, which was found by one of their members during the early-summer trip to meet with the other tribes in the area, let them both build up a decadent food stockpile and move to a much deeper part of the cave system without the worry of being unable to find their way back out. No-one has had to go hungry, and even the fiercest ice storm doesn't reach them; they are as content as kobolds can be.

Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.

Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...

She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.

Comments

[calescent]

All right.

They reach the Ardelay Chialto house and put the carriage and horses away. Aleko shoos a staffperson and the way is cleared for the kobold to be unobserved entering the house proper.

[lurkingkobold]

And in she goes.

[calescent]

"Tomorrow Aleko will go buy me a belt so this house can be put on it. I need a way for someone in this house to ask me to come here if there's a fire, too."

[lurkingkobold]

Sure, that makes sense. Where exactly in this house does Kiri want the belt to bring her? Also, she can make a portal from here to the other house - just a little one might be fine for communication purposes; it's not possible to speak through a portal, but someone could pass notes through or pass a bell through and ring it or something - or a bigger one would let someone just walk through.

[calescent]

A bell would be perfect. One bellpull per emergency landing location. Kiri picks a spot in the kierten where she would like to appear, and she obtains a servant-calling bell from a disused room to thread back into the country house.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold examines the specified landing spot, and then asks for more information about the mini-portal when Kiri returns with the bell: she didn't have a chance to examine very many places in the country house, so their options for the other side of the portal right now are the library nook or the room she slept in last night, or she can teleport back to one of those spots and go have a look at a different location if that's safe to do. (Kiri can come, too.)

[calescent]

Kiri would like to teleport back and show her a spot in the house kierten there too, where a bell will be more clearly audible.

[lurkingkobold]

Easily enough done. Let's see. Tie a string to the banister here, make sure Kiri is out of range, put a portal to the library in the wall under the stairs, step back into range to explain: untying the string will break this portal; the kobold will do that after Kiri goes through, then teleport herself directly there.

[calescent]

Okay. Through Kiri steps.

[lurkingkobold]

And a few seconds later, the kobold joins her.

[calescent]

And Kiri giggles and then shows her the kierten, after making sure no warm person-shaped spots are in the path.

[lurkingkobold]

Teleportation magic is super convenient like that, isn't it?

The kobold follows along, makes sure she understands exactly where Kiri wants the portals to let out, and carefully examines that area. Then they can go back to Chialto - or not, if Kiri would rather spend the night here and teleport back in the morning.

[calescent]

They should at least get Aleko. He will be confused if he is left there all alone.

[lurkingkobold]

True. What would Kiri prefer to do? The kobold doesn't care very much one way or the other.

[calescent]

Kiri would prefer to go back to Chialto.

[lurkingkobold]

Back to Chialto it is, then. This time the portal lets out in the kierten - the spot the kobold is planning on having the belt put her, if she'd like to tweak that at all.

[calescent]

Seems to work pretty well.

Hmm. She is sometimes in this house for extended periods of time. Can there be a double-belled portal in each target location, which rings one bell here and one in the country house? Or maybe two ropes braided together which split at the portal location?

[lurkingkobold]

Hm. The kobold is not actually familiar with the kind of bells-on-ropes setup Kiri is using, but, on examination, it seems straightforward enough; sure.

[calescent]

Kiri makes a shopping list - more bells, more ropes, materials to make little signs that say ring bell for Ardelay prime in case of fire - and then yawns enormously. Bedtime.

[lurkingkobold]

Huh, okay. The kobold isn't quite sleepy yet, but, sure, it's getting late.

[calescent]

Kiri shows her a little room. And gives her a few simple books.

[lurkingkobold]

This is an entirely acceptable way to handle this discrepancy.

[calescent]

Of course.

Kiri goes to bed.

[lurkingkobold]

Eventually, the kobold does too. She's awake and ready to go when Kiri comes to check on her in the morning.

[calescent]

"Do kobolds sleep less than humans?" wonders Kiri.