The Curious Kelvic and the Nosy Nuit (Completed)

[Anselm]

Anselm got up off the ground and watched the red-faced man walk hurriedly away from them. He looked back over his shoulder as he disappeared into the crowded marketplace. It struck Anselm that the man seemed more bewildered than anything else. And with reason. He had been poked in the eye by an invisible finger, compliments of Anselm's projected astral left hand, stabbed hard in the leg by a peahen, tripped by an invisible hand that grabbed his ankle, again compliments of Anselm's astral hand, and finally hit over the head with a chair by the peahen which had transformed itself into a naked woman. All-in-all, he was probably quite spooked by the whole episode. Anselm noticed a small book lying on the ground just inside the tent. Apparently it had fallen out of the big man's coat pocket. He hobbled over to it and picked it up. It was bound in a plain, reddish-brown leather cover, and carried the title: Birds of the Zeltiva Region By Professor Ima Tode He leafed through it. Each page contained a detailed drawing of a bird, along with accompanying text. A piece of paper dropped from one of the pages and floated to the ground. Anselm reached down and picked it up. Scribbled on it were several lines of numbers. 13-5-5-20 13-5 1-20 20-8-5 7-18-15-20-20-15 20-15-14-9-7-8-20 1-20 20-5-14 “Hmm,” said Anselm. “I wonder what this is?” He turned to the woman, who was putting her clothes on. “What do you make of this?” He handed the note to her.

[Ndale Soromund]

OOCI went ahead and posted this so that it could be graded but the bit about the Kontinese has not yet been confirmed. I am patiently waiting to know for sure. I just didn't want to leave the thread unended when it's just waiting on my post ^-^ I will make the adjustments necessary when I find out for sure! It took her quite a few moments to collect herself, her body rocking on the floor slightly and her clothes being clutched to her chest. Never before had she been attacked to directly! Even in her animal she had never truly suffered something like this! It made her heart beat strangely, the pounding drowning the what was happening with the Nuit and the man and she found her eyes was acting up, making it difficult to see properly. Focusing on that problem though seemed to calm her, the immediate threat gone, still when Anslem moved towards her and held out the paper her whole body tensed, only her right eye focusing on him and not the paper. She found her breath stopping and she pulled her clothes tighter towards her, a hiccup leaving her throat. Taking another breath she straightened herself out and began putting on her clothes, trying to keep her mind calm but every little noise that reached her ear made her flinch and she did not wish to be in her human guise but she was too tired to shift, the stress of the fight fraying her nerves. All the same she shakily turned to the Nuit and looked down to his hand, her hand still covering her eyes, now would not be the best time to read but anything to take her mind away was something she would not pass up. Her hands shook almost as much as her eye and she found herself moving awkwardly to the table, she was lucky the man had not taken her coin purse but it lay safely on the floor. Setting the paper on the table she stared at it for a few moments, her mind not understanding what her eye was showing her. Numbers? How could you read numbers? Shaking her head slightly she turned to the man to tell him to leave her be when an odd thought popped into her head, more of a memory really when a similar piece of paper had been shoved under her nose. “People overlook the obvious, so give them the obvious. Something right in front of their face that they won’t see unless they look.” Her gaze swung back to the paper, “A code.” Strained and scratchy probably from the chair earlier she wanted nothing more than to never speak again for the time being. Each breath was a pain, though she doubted she broke anything, for shifting was harder when bones where broken, near impossible really, but bruising or maybe a fracture wouldn’t be unheard of. The attention she had was minimal though and she had to slowly prod her mind to focus, ignore her injuries, think of happy human things. Think of codes. Taking another wheezing breath she once more stared at the paper, her knowledge was minimal, she knew only the basics if not less. Still it was a familiar coding, very similar to shift codes. But she knew it was no such things, numeric? It was the only other one she knew of and the only thing that made sense. Still the writing was in Common, not her forte and when at the library she tended to stick with the Konti written books it made it easier for her. Frowning she struggled through it, she could be wrong and numeric codes were as changing as shift codes, A did not necessarily mean B so 1 did not necessarily mean A. “Numeric…” her voice was soft, whispering hurt less but she wasn’t sure of herself and it made her grow louder towards the end, “1 might be…A?” She knew the first few basic letters of Common but speaking and reading it were different. One did not have to memorize the alphabet to say the word. Still with his help it shouldn’t be hard, she would just have to guide him through it. “Make numbers be the letters. In order.” She emphasized the in order, most simple codes were in order with the alphabets and it made sense. If not perhaps this venture would only give her a bit of knowledge in the alphabet. A bit happier now that her distraction was working she felt her shivers die down, her mind slowly being sucked into trying to correctly figure out what the numbers meant. "13-5-5-20...maybe..." she did not know all the letters, but she tentatively forced out the words, trying to to use her little knowledge of the alaphabet, "Eet?" She decided to simply toss him the words as what she knew and he could do the rest, "13-5...e...1-20...a...20-8-5...e?...7-18-15-20-20-15...is G? 20-15-14-9-7-8-20..." Their were so many numbers! "...something...igh and...something...1-20 is a and 20-5-14 is e?" Realizing it didn't make a lot of sense she sounded it out slowly as a sentence, attempting to let Anselm fill in the blanks with what she did not know. "Eet...e...a...e...g...igh...a...e." Is still wasn't much but it was all she knew.

[Anselm]

Anselm looked on as the young woman tried to work out the cypher. “1 might be A.” And “Make numbers be the letters, in order.” She struggled with it some more trying to sound it out but it was obvious that Common was a second language for her and that that was making it challenging. However, she had pointed Anselm in the right direction and he could see the cypher now. “Let me see that,” he said as he took the note out of her hand. “Meet me at the grotto tonight at ten.” He pondered that for a moment. “The Grotto … isn't that an inn here in Zeltiva? Yes … World's End Grotto. Hmm … I wonder what nefarious activities our red-faced friend is about tonight.” Anselm stood in silence for several minutes. Then he said to her, “My name is Anselm, as you already know. And yours is …?” She spoke her name. “Ndale Soromund,” Anselm said. “This note is a matter of no concern to us and I believe we have both had more than enough excitement for one day.” He handed her the small leather-bound book. “Perhaps you should have this. I'm sure it will be of more interest to you than it would be to me.” He led them both outside his tent, pulled down the flaps and tied them shut. He bowed slightly to her and said, “It has been most interesting. Perhaps our paths will cross again.” With that he set off down the street using his cane to offset his limp. THE END OOC : I hope you don't mind me modding your character to get her name but I want to end the thread and submit it for grading so we can carry the XP over into the Spring threads that are starting up. Once again I want to say that you have done an amazing job of getting inside your Kelvic's animal form. I would be happy to thread with you again sometime.

[Paragon]

Adventurer's Loot Anselm's Loot : Anselm Skill XP Reward Fortune Telling +3 Hypnotism +2 Auristics +2 Projection +2 Rhetoric +1 Investigation +1 Lore: Showing Your Face, Reading Kelvic's, N'dale Soromund (acquaintance) Items or Consequences: Nil N'Dale's Loot : N'Dale Skill XP Reward Cryptography +3 Rhetoric +1 Observation +1 Investigation +1 Lore: A Nuit's Face, Cracking the Code, Anselm (acquaintance) Items or Consequences: +1 Book: "Birds of the Zeltiva Region" Fun thread, I enjoyed reading the unusual dynamics between a Kelvic and a Nuit. I look forward to seeing more - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.