Secret Game

[Huitzil]

Finding nothing interesting to do in his room at the moment and sick of practicint lute, Paul leaves his room after seeing Ginrai is reading and begins to wander about the building with his hands in his pockets, just checking out what's going on.

[Brian]

The corridors are pretty big.  This place could accomodate a lot more people running around, if it had to.

It is, however, a bit drab.  Everything's made out of the same tired color of stone, what few tapestries there are on display all happen to be geometric patterns -- no guys in armor running across a battlefield or anything.

Other than servants scurrying around (how many servants does this place have, anyway?), it's also pretty deserted.  You eventually figure out that the reason this place is so empty is because even though you're evidently somehow north of the arctic circle (hence the never-yet-setting sun), it's everyone else's sleeping period right at the moment.

[Huitzil]

Paul decides to head outside then, to see if there's any kind of training area and to get a look at the scenery, now that he doesn't have Bjorn riding his ass every time he stops to glance about.

[Brian]

There's a training area behind the keep, about fifty to one hundred meters wide, depending on how far away from the keep you are.  It's a field that runs apparently the length of the shaft, and you can see men practicing with their weapons of choice -- the majority of soldiers seem to employ spears, though there are some using swords, as well.

[Huitzil]

Paul walks alongside the length of the field, watching the practices with a detached look on his face, hands still in pockets.

[Brian]

The field goes on as far as you can see -- presumably the length of the entire pass, but it curves downward a bit, and is hard to see over.  the majority of the practicing men ignore you, occasionally sparing you a glance, but that's about it.

After a while, when you glance back, you think you see Phil and Nathan behind you, somewhere in the crowds of practicing soldiers.

[Huitzil]

Paul stops on his heel, pivots, and walks back to where he thought he saw Nathan and Phil.

[Rezantis]

Rez gives Paul a wave, and yawns. Hey, it's still morning.

"Morning, Paul. Anything much happening?"

[Huitzil]

"Nothing. Just rambling around. You guys doing anything productive?"

[Rezantis]

"Got my ancestor's sword reforged by Ekim, the dwarf in the smithy, that took almost all of yesterday. Apart from that, we're kind of wondering what to do now."

[Huitzil]

"Well, welcome to the club.

"Wait, what's this about ancient reforgings?"

[Dracos]

"Nathan here picked up the world's coolest sword.  Formerly in pieces along the path we took to get here, now remade."  Dracos shrugged.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Oh. We found the evil that killed Hadrick Shuker waaay back in the day, and killed it.  Turned out to be a big nuclear-powered robotic mechaspider with automatic laser cannons, and no waterproofing.  And we found the pieces of his sword, so we got it reforged once we got here."

[Ginrai]

Having spent the morning walking around aimlessly, mind filled with thoughts on the spells written in Windmaster Banor books (at least, they supposedly were by him) and of the possibilities surrounding his other-self, Ginrai ends up walking into Phil, Paul and Nathan.

"Oh, hey, guys!  What's going on?"

[Rezantis]

"Hmm? Not much, we were just wondering what you guys were up to. We don't really have anything much to do right now, so . . ."