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]

"That kind of trustworthy. Yeah, okay. That shouldn't be too hard to arrange."

[lurkingkobold]

Nod. "And anyone who knows this kind of magic can teach other people, so you'll need to make sure they have good judgement about that, too. And learning it is a little bit dangerous, but it's safe enough if you're careful."

[last_one_out]

"Yeah. If it's just my immediate family that learns it at first, I think we'll be fine."

[lurkingkobold]

"I hope you don't mind if I want to get to know you a little better first. I can't un-teach you, after all." She pauses to consider. "The snake might have gone to hide someplace else after it attacked you; we can go check if you'd like."

[last_one_out]

"Sure," he says agreeably.

[lurkingkobold]

"Okay, hold on and I'll make us a portal back to the cave."

This is a slightly complicated process - first she takes a loop of twine out of her belt pouch and casts on it, then she pulls a longer rope out of the resulting portal and uses it to climb up a nearby tree, where she ties one end to a low branch before sliding down the rope to the ground again. She then pulls a wooden peg out of the twine portal and uses it to tack the rope to the ground before settling in to cast, and after another minute, a portal appears between the tree and the rope, showing firelit dimness.

She peers into the portal and swears, holding up one hand to warn her companion not to go through it. "Tigerfolk, and not a tribe I recognize. They don't usually go in caves, especially if there are traps - they must have a mage with them - I'd guess they're hiding from something? Probably not a good idea to suddenly appear in the middle of them."

[last_one_out]

He's curious about the portal construction process, but stays a few steps away from it even before she gestures. "What sorts of things would they be hiding from? Do you have giant snakes around here?"

[lurkingkobold]

"We have monsters here, I don't know if any of them are snake shaped but there are dragons and titans and things. Those are pretty rare, though." She keeps watching the dimness on the other side of the portal. "I think these tigerfolk aren't from around here; maybe they didn't realize we have elves. That's a little more likely than a dragon."

[last_one_out]

"Elves are scary?" he guesses.

[lurkingkobold]

"...yes." She shudders, just slightly, and visibly pulls herself together. "They have a ...thing, with trees. I don't know why, but if you hurt one and they find out about it..." she shudders again.

[last_one_out]

"Elves are scary. Got it."

[lurkingkobold]

She nods. "And if that's the case, they might be there for a while. I may or may not be able to talk my way in to see the portal; tigerfolk tend not to like kobolds very much, but I can try, anyway. Let me see if I can figure out what's going on there first though." She starts casting more twine portals to look in on different parts of the cave and its surroundings, looking up occasionally in a way that suggests she wouldn't mind being talked to if he wants to.

[last_one_out]

"If only my brother was here," he says, amused. "If only either of my brothers was here, actually. Ashras is amazingly good at talking people into things and Inlaith is amazingly good at sneaking around."

[lurkingkobold]

She grins slightly. "Well, I'm sure we can figure something out."

Portals, portals, portals.

"Yeah, I don't think they've got a monster problem, they seem to be expecting person-type enemies. If we're lucky, they'll talk to me and I can offer them a portal to someplace else - if we're not lucky, what do you want to do? I can set you up with food and firewood while we try to wait them out, but I'm not sure how long that might take, and anything else is pretty risky - I can get to the portal, probably, but if that snake is still on the other side, that doesn't help anyone."

[last_one_out]

"...Well... what would get the tigerfolk out of the cave?" he wonders.

[lurkingkobold]

"If it is elves? They'll have trackers checking for signs of them; if they go long enough without seeing any signs they'll assume they're safe. Or if they run out of food, then they might try for it even if they're not." She seems genuinely distressed about this latter prospect.

[last_one_out]

"So... can't get the tigerfolk to go away without getting the elves to go away. And I'm guessing that getting elves to go away is difficult. Hm. I hope you're lucky talking to them, then."

[lurkingkobold]

She nods. "You should probably stay here while I do that - you don't look a lot like an elf, but more like one of them than like anything else around here." She considers for a moment, then pulls up the stake holding the big portal's rope down, which breaks it, and then casts a new spell in its place, showing the mouth of the cave from a few yards away. "So you can watch," she explains, and then asks, "anything else before I go?"

[last_one_out]

He thinks about it, then shakes his head. "Can't think of anything. Good luck."

[lurkingkobold]

She grins, and nods, and then disappears.

A few moments later, she steps out of the underbrush on the other side of the portal and walks into the cave, and a moment after that, there's shouting, and a spear comes flying out of the cave mouth, and then she appears back in the clearing.

"Well," she says, when she's gotten her bearings again, "I guess not."

[last_one_out]

"...guess not," he agrees. "So. How would we get the elves to go away, if there's elves?"

[lurkingkobold]

She makes a face, but sits and thinks about it.

"I wouldn't, I'd just wait them out. But that's - I have more than just myself to think about, there; if they see me and decide they don't like what I'm doing, they'll go after my whole tribe." She goes quiet and distant for a moment before pulling herself back to the present. "I don't know a lot about elves, beyond what I need to know to stay out of their way."

[last_one_out]

"So, okay," he says, thinking about it. "You can't get back to your cave and I can't get back to my world until the tigerfolk go away. The tigerfolk won't go away until they think there's no elves around or they're desperate enough to leave anyway, and we probably don't want to make the tigerfolk desperate to leave, that seems like a generally bad idea. You can't mess with the elves because they'll go after your tribe; I don't have a tribe to worry about, but I also don't have the fancy magic necklace so I wouldn't get much of anywhere if I tried talking to the elves about any of this... you might not know a lot about elves but you probably still know more than me; what else is there?"

[lurkingkobold]

"You can use the necklace, if that helps anything," she offers without hesitation. "And I know where the elves live - not well enough to open a portal there, but I can get us to within a couple hours' walking distance, anyway. I know something about the kinds of magic they use - they have fire, and something that's like tiny lightning, and a kind of magic that can push people around, and something that lets them control animals. They like to use magic traps - I can give you a magic effect that will protect you from that, but I'm not sure it's a good idea, their mages can probably tell if you have magic on you, and I'm not sure how they'd react to that. Other than that - there's the tree thing; like I said, I don't know why, but they get really upset if anyone hurts a tree; I'm guessing those tigerfolk cut one down for firewood or something, and if that's the case and the elves know about it, they'll kill all of them if they can - they're not actually that good at fighting, but they have their animals, and they don't stop."

[last_one_out]

"If I can use the necklace then I might at least be able to go find out whether tigerfolk cutting down a tree was actually the problem or if it's something else," he says. "And even if I can't do anything about it I probably won't make things much worse."