The Ballad of Adler Young, Canto 2.5

Show Content

SpoilerSee it with pictures at https://adleryoung.tumblr.com
or https://www.patreon.com/posts/21987407 where Ballad posts are free but Elf-gold donations are accepted.

if you can put some of that renowned charisma of yours to work and make friends with them, they can help you out for no other reason than they like you. Armies cost fortunes, friends cost nothing. Hmmm... With that in mind, you probably shouldn't have shot them.
>Do you think you could do that bowly-dreamy thing Estvan showed you? Maybe influence their dreams?
Adler, remember your previous encounters with lowfolk. You couldn't read the minds of Percy, the lamb or the yew-man without resorting to elf-mind, so, what changed?
Did the stone circle somehow amplify your powers? Did the massive reduction in elf population somehow concentrate all the elfness into you?
Or perhaps, are these lowfolk simply more feeble minded than the ones you've met before...

1010what2do.gif

With my belly pleasantly full, I turned my attention to the two elf-shot and dreaming lowfolk. The more I thought about it, the more I began to suspect that shooting them and stealing their lunch was perhaps not the best tactic, especially if I was going to have to rely on them to bring me provisions. It was too late to undo what I had done, but perhaps I could salvage the situation. I just needed to think of a way.

If only I had a bowl and some water, I might be able to use that dream-scrying trick Estvan had taught me, to influence their dreams. But, not knowing where a bowl of water might be located made it practically impossible to apport one. Transmogrifying something else into a bowl of water could be done, if I had time to figure it out ... but these lowfolk were not going to stay down for much longer.

Thinking of ways to influence their dreams reminded me: I had been able to hear the male lowfolk's thoughts earlier. How was that possible? Every time before, I'd had to concentrate really hard to use Elfmind, yet this came effortlessly. Was the stone circle amplifying my powers? Or ... it pained me to think of it, but ... had I somehow absorbed all of the power of those countless elves I had killed outside of Albric Tor?

I focused my attention on the male lowfolk and immediately got visions of some extremely devout Mephitist daydreams he was having, involving his female companion. Maybe with the right persuasion he would believe this is what really happened - but it would require the female to play along with the same story. I concentrated on her, but all I got was a swirling bluish cloud.

That could mean two things: Either she was actually dreaming of a swirling bluish cloud, or she was somehow blocking me.

I decided not to try to plant any suggestions into their dreams, since even if they concocted the story themselves, it seemed awfully close to lying - and this was a thing that Elves do not do!

>Adler: You need to recruit lowfolk agents to do your bidding. Fill the picnic basket with elf-gold to establish a precedent.
The lowfolk you've elf-shot could rationalize the theft of their basket as the work of simple bandits, but what about next time? You do something like that again and they WILL take notice. You need a plan, and you need to start implementing it before hunger forces you into another rash decision.

I mulled over the traditional pranks which Estmere and I used to pull on the lowfolk when we were young.

I wiped a tear from my eye, as recollections of Estmere reminded me of his sad fate..

None of the pranks seemed like they would be any kind of incentive for these lowfolk to return. Plus, I didn't have any of the necessary props.

Ultimately, all I could think of was the old Elf-gold routine. I was running out of time, so I quickly gathered a few handfuls of rocks and sticks from the ground inside the circle, and Gramaryed them into gold coins, which I dumped into the picnic basket. Hopefully the lowfolk would presume that I had traded a small fortune for their picnic, and spend the gold quickly, before the spell wore off and it turned back into forest litter.

With that task done, I hurried back into the dolmen and through the Gate.

1010liberation.gif

I noticed a strange tugging at my Elfintory as I passed through.

A quick check revealed that the Percy le Gobelet book was missing! I stepped back through the Gate, and saw the book lying on the ground underneath the dolmen.

I picked it up and stepped through the Gate again, but as I passed the threshold, the book was pulled out of my hand.

Apparently this Gate was attuned in such a way that nothing from the lowfolk world could pass through it. I scratched my head in annoyance, and whispered a prayer of thanks to Fuma that the rule didn't apply to all the food I had recently eaten.

I turned my attention to the trap door at the top of the spiral stairs. Would the Plague-infected crows still be outside? Or perhaps, had the temporal discrepancy between the worlds worked in my favor? With luck, the fumes of the Plague of Battles might have dissipated, and the irritable birds be long-dead by now!

1010sprint.gif

I slithered out from under the trap door, and was immediately greeted with a chorus of angry cawing. I sprinted frantically for the door of the tower.

>Adler: Return to the tower and start learning how the scrying orb works from the books.

As I darted inside and slammed the door shut behind me, I remembered that someone (was it Estvan?) had explained to me once that the temporal shift was related to distance traveled ... so if I was confined to a very small area on either side of the Gate, there was little chance of jumping ahead in the timeline of either world.

1010books.gif

This meant that I had plenty of time to study the workings of this scrying tower.