Mysterious Note

Hobbling along, staff still carrying a good bit of her weight, Akon glanced casually at the town post, not really seeing anything particularly unusual. Then a random blank paper caught her eye, and she quirked a brow slightly, studying it for a moment. 

Solas saunters up to the scene. He wears his standard garb, and a black expression. His blindfold covers his eyes.  He stops suddenly before Akon and briefly scowls, before his previous expression returns.
"Nivarian, What is it you are looking at?"

Akon glanced over to him, keen eyes settling upon his own hidden ones. "You, currently." She replied. 

Solas mutters an unkind word under his breath, away from the warlock then turns his head back toward her.
"I meant the paper, Akon."

"Which one?" Akon asked, looking flatly back at the town post, which was often covered with papers of various sorts. 

Nasher comes out of the tavern, holding a large bottle of what appears to be brandy. He was going to go back to the lake and take a little dip, but the sight of the Urodeq and the Emperyean standing around the paper covered post intrigued him. He made his way over, proclaiming as he arrived, "Yes townsfolk! Nasher has arrived and is accepting praise and giftses!" 

Solas pauses for a moment, staring from the Warlock to the Goblin. He lets out a soft growl, as he turns on his heels and marches down the road out of town, muttering swear words under his breath.

"No Eyes gift must be too big to lug around. He better hurry up," Nasher said impatiently. He looked to the post covered in festive paper decorations with ugly little pictures and weird scibblings that those that can read would accept as words. All accept one lone piece of paper that sat blank on the post. "Hey Dark Eyes! Why that papers blank and the others have pictures? That just doesn't make sense!" Nasher asked quizzically.

Akon watched Solas march away, then turned her attention just as flatly down to the goblin. "Perhaps it's some kind of joke? I mean, it sounds like quite an amusing idea to put a blank piece of paper right on a town post which is generally used for announcements in a town full of insatiously curious people, precisely so that they would ask the question you just asked. Having them muse and ponder, and rack their brains trying to figure it out, when really all it is, is a blank bit of parchment." She has a sly gaze about her, hinting at amusement. "Brilliant, don't you think?"

"Nasher thinks they just forgot to add their doodle. Nasher fixes it!" the goblin decreed as he dumped the bottle of brandy into the dirt to make a nice, alcoholic smelling mud. He then began sribbling characters that look like characters of a distant land onto the page. Ending with a quaint drawing of a goblin wearing a crown standing on a gnomish hat triumphantly. He stood back to admire his work. "Nasher thinks this is the best drawings on here! Nasher should improve the rest," the goblin thought outloud to himself, daydreaming the beauty that would come from reworking the rest of the pieces of paper that cover the post.

Elric jolted to the tavern to see the pale parchment solas was swearing about. As he arrived it had seamed Akon and the goblin king Nasher were conversing over the paper. They walked away soon after he had arrived. stalking towards the parchment he could see the kings poor writings on it. As Elric was about to walk away hey could see the ink start to flow, he waited and pondered till the ink dispersed on the to the ground. the parchment became blank again, Elric takes a second to look ... watch ... think. After the time he had spent with the parchment he smiled looked away and left for his cabin.

The drakna approached as the others had left, staring at the parchment for some time; a look of frustrated concentration across his face as he appeared to know the note contained something of import if he could but decipher and understand its origins. After a long period of silence he scowls and hugged, turning to head back to the tavern, his tail thrashing about in an agitated manner.

In the dark of the night, a lantern is seen swinging from the hand of Leofrick. He walks up to the town post to read up on anything of recent. He scans the borad and stops at the blank parchment. "This seems odd. why place a blank parchment on the board?" After a few minutes of scanning and thinking on his part, Leofrick turns and leaves the town post and heads to the Crack of Noon.

Several minutes after writing on the parchment, Nasher's scribblings fade from view, leaving the note blank and unmarred once again.

"What is this! Where Nasher's drawings go!" the goblin screached begin to become irritated. "How them dirty Cherry Cheeks steal my scribbles! Nasher won't stand for this!" he proclaimed, stomping into his slowly drying mug puddle. He grabbed a handful of the mud that was left and scribbled his unknown language back onto the parchment before drawing a picture of what could be seen as a goblin ripping a piece of paper in half. Nasher stood back, watching the paper intnetly incase any gnomes decided to try their tricks again. "Let's see those no good, dirty, rotten tomato faces steal Nasher's words now!" he proclaimed.

Several minutes after writing on the parchment, Nasher's scribblings fade from view, leaving the note blank and unmarred once again.

"Goblin. What in the pit are you squawking about?" Starling eyed the creature in question with disgust, as she hopped from the tavern rail over to the post. "You're disturbing the peace."
 
It was then that she noticed whatever had been scrawled on the page was disappearing before her eyes and that of the angry Nasher. She looked on with mild intrigue and stepped up to examine the sheet more closely. She raised an eyebrow, and a small smirk crossed her face as just enough realization to amuse her dawned "Well... That's interesting."

Nasher stood there in furious disbelief. As he watched the markings drip from the page, the goblin began to shake with unbridled rage. "HOW IN THE PIT THOSE NO GOOD, LOUSY, DOWN-RIGHT DIRTY, TRICKSY TOMATO CHEEKS STEALING NASHERS SCRIBBLES!" the goblin shrieked, his voice cracking from the anger. He stomped about for a bit, sending heated looks of disproval at the paper. After he had calmed down just a bit, he decided he must know HOW they were doing it. So he leaned in close, inspecting the whole page for any secret it may have.

Chuckling at Nasher's misery, Starling turns away from the post and heads on to the road out of town. Quietly, she hums to herself and toys with the chain hanging from her belt.

"Dem Cherry Cheeks cursed the papers with dark magics of stealing the Nasher's scribbles!" the goblin screached jumping up and down. "It's not fair! The Tomato Faces cheatses! It's not fair, its not fair!" the goblin shouted, very well on his way to a temper tantrum involving screaming and kicking on the ground.

Akon had watched the whole tirade with amusement licking at the edges of her lips. She snickered slightlty to herself as the goblin's temper grew. "Oh, it's not dark arts, I can assure you that..." She remarked bemusedly. 

"Well you obviously have been fooled by the Cherrycheeks then! Nasher won't be fooled though. Nasher will figure this out! For science!" the goblin screached as he began poke and prod the paper, causing more damge to his fingers than the paper itself.

A while after the note had been left, and hearing the commotion, a blue owl flew overhead of the crowd below, then swooped down, landing on the wooden post. Gripping it with its talons, it bends over and looks at the paper upside down, head tilting ever so slightly. After a moment of this, it stands straight up again and looks down on the group with watchful blue eyes.

::Tathar seeing the owl sitting on the message board, decides that something must be interesting up there to read. He walks up the the board and sees the note.::
 
"This is interesting," He says to himself. "Maybe it is comething worth looking into."
 
::Tathar walks off to ponder ideas that are forming::

"What interesting is the evil cherry cheeks using dark magics to steal Nashers scribbles! It's not fair!" Nasher screached, getting irritated that he wasn't finding nothing. Then a thought crossed his goblin brain. "Maybe.. Cherry Cheeks want it to LOOK like magics but really they usings science! Nasher can't be tricked this easy!" the goblin screeched, producing a screwdriver. He than began forcefull poking and prodding the note as if he was -Sabbotaging- a machine of somekind. 

The owl looked down on Nasher and seemed to give him an incredulous look as the goblin poked the paper with the screwdriver. A small "Hmmph" could be heard from the owl, like that of a small laugh.

The note continues to appear blank in clear mockery of Nasher's efforts. It flutters gently in the breeze, as if it were waggling its buttocks at him.

Nasher scratched his head with the screwdriver, very puzzled at why his latest attempt to divulge the mechanisms behind the paper were futile. Those Cherry Cheeks are very triksy," he said, holding back his impending rage to think as hard as he could. Then, one last and final thought crossed Nasher's mind. A devilish grin spread across his face. Nasher quickly ran towards the direction of the tavern, screaming "Nasher not giving up yets!" as he rounded around it's corner.

-Disguise with Description- A gnome began suantering towards the post from the direction of the tavern no more than 5 minutes after the goblin had ran off. He was quite a funny looking gnome as his very pale complexion, almost flour white, was very patchy with green spots here and there as if he had the plague. His rosy cheeks almost seemed rotten and smelled strangely of ketchup. He walked with an awkward shuffle, his top hat tilting to oneside. He reached the post, offering a disdainful jerk of his chin towards the Urodeq and put his hands on his hips. "What is this! A blanks's paper! Looks like Nas- erghm.. Natter, yes. Natter has to fixses this!" He stooped over and grabbed a rock that was in the now dry mud and began marking the paper with the same strange scribbles that the goblin had applied before. He then included a nice little picture of a goblin proclaiming victory on the bottom half of the page. "Much better!" the gnome proclaimed as he watched the paper.

Several minutes after writing on the parchment, "Natter's" scribblings fade from view, leaving the note blank and unmarred once again.

The gnome bursts into a fit of rage. "No! NO! This not fair! Nasher play you's stupid game, paper! You's and you's cherry cheeks are cheaters and liars and miscreants!" the gnome screached at the paper. He then proceeded to wipe his face off with said paper, revieling more of his green skin and staining the paper with ketchup and flour. He then scribbled some more lines through the mess and then spat on the paper, as if daring it to do something about it. "Stupid paper being all ugly and nonsense. Nasher wants nothing to do with it!" he screeched at the paper, seeming to have a good argument with the parchment.

Several minutes after defiling the parchment, Nasher's markings fade from view, leaving the note blank and unmarred once again.

Strange words then begin to appear on the paper. "You look good as a gnome," it reads. An artistic rendering of Nasher as a gnome with his tongue sticking out is included beneath the words. They fade from view a moment later.

The owl then burst into a fit of laughter at Nasher, almost falling off of the pole in the process. The merriment subsiding, it spoke, "You havent changed a bit, goblin. It's a wonder you're still alive with all of these silly tricks you try to pull off."

The goblin cocked his head sideways as the parchment began to fill itself with scribbles. "HA! NAsher wins! Nasher knew the papers was based on sight! Nasher knew it! Nasher is vic-" He stopped as he noticed the picture of the gnome-clad goblin faded from view along with the rest of the scribbles, leaving a blank page. "NO, NO, NO, NO!" Nasher screeched at the parchment, about to send a flurry of punching and kicks against the poles. The sound of the owl threw him off guard. "Stupid bird! You's no supposed to talk! Birds supposed to make bird noises and fly off! So fly off! Shoo!" the goblin shouted at the owl, still agitated from the post.

"Oh, and you would be right... If i were a real owl," it said with another small chuckle. Gliding down fromt he top of the pole, the owl shifted into his biped form, that of Cail the Empyrean, landing on the ground lightly for his size. "Happy now, Nasher?"

Nasher watched as the owl transformed from the owl to a towering Emperyean before him. He was startled at first, but then went right back into full rage mode.  "Does it look like I'm happy, stupid white-haired bird-man!" Nasher fumed at the shape shifting Emperyean. "How can Nasher be happy with evil Tomato Faces running amuck postings ugly posties on the Scribble Pole! Nasher says it's nonsense!" he screeched, dropping his foot down in protest.

More words began to appear on the paper, and Nasher was surprised he could actually understand what they said. "He's one of them," it read, then faded before more words appeared in sequence. "They all are. And so are you."The surface of the paper suddenly became reflective. Nasher saw his own face, then felt a slight tingling sensation as his goblinoid features began to fade. His green skin became pink and his cheeks became rosy red. Before he could react, the paper had turned him into a gnome.

The paper flutters silently in the breeze, as if amused by Nasher's tirade.

Cail raised an eyebrow and put on a half smirk. "Perhaps it's just one of those things that you arent -meant- to figure out. Not everything can be figured out using scientific knowledge, you know. As for the 'tomato faces' I'll assume you mean Gnomes and, in addition, it wasn't posted by one either." 

Nasher read the note, not thinking about how he understood it but more of what was written on it and the reflection that followed. He watched in horror as his face transformed from his original green beauty to a horrible and ugly pink monstrosity with two huge blood boils for cheeks. Nasher let out a shriek of panic. "WHAT HAS THE CHERRY CHEEKS'S DONE! WHAT THEY DO'S TO NASHER!" the goblin shrieked in pure horror. He began scratching at his head, "The tomato cheeks are trying to steal Nasher's soul! NOO!" he shrieked as he quickly ran off in the direction of the lake to purge himself of his affliction.

Thalenir strolls up to the town post as Nasher is screaming and fleeing. "My word," he says. "What's gotten into him?"

Cail watches as Nasher runs off, eyebrow still raised. As Thalenir arrives Cail shakes his head slightly and says, "I have no idea. He's had quite a frustrating time with that note, though."

"What? Mine?" Thalenir seems surprised, then chuckles. "Oh yes. Well, it was the only good way I could think of to get the right word to the right people. I can't imagine why he'd be reacting in such a way, though…" He stopped mid-sentence and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "He didn't, by any chance, put the note close to his face, did he?"

"Uh, quite close as a matter of fact. 'Used it as a towel' would be a closer description of what he did. What exactly... did you do to it?"

"Nothing, nothing," Thalenir waved a hand dismissively. "The note is perfectly safe." He paused. "Well, mostly, anyway. The ink I used for the enchantment comes from a mushroom with mildly hallucinogenic properties. But then, I never would have guessed anybody would put the parchment on their face."

Thalenir chuckles again. "I wonder what it was he saw that got him so worked up."

"Apparently gnomes are trying to steal his soul," said Cail with a laugh. "He'll have a vendetta for sure, now. But the note itself is fantastic work, if you don't mind me saying."

"Thank you," Thalenir said with a slight bow. "I may use it again some time, though apparently I'll need to find a different ink." He gazes down the road to where Nasher vanished from sight. "No accounting for the good sense of goblins. Or their paranoia, it seems. The effects should wear off in a day or two… at least I think so."

"You're most welcome, but if goblins are the only ones to act foolishly around notes such as this one, well let's just say that Jastrey could use a good bit of entertainment, so no need for a change in ink, I think. Maybe the experience will teach him a thing or two about messing with things he doesn't understand. Though with his track record, it doesn't seem likely."

Morzoth walks up to the small group surrounding the boardand with a slight tilt of the horns.  
"Good day madam and sirs. What...."
He stops as the parchment catches his eye. He walks over and begins to read the aura and then turns abruptley to Thalenir.
"Would there be room for an Angori scorcerer in your little gathering?

Thalenir smirks. "If you can read the note, that's credential enough in my book. Besides, if I were doing this just for wizards, it'd be a lonely gathering indeed." 

"Even if the credentials are had from the study of the Dark Arts, Thalenir?" The quiet, thickly accented voice of Katri drifted from beneath the shade of a dark hood. She had approached quietly from the direction of the tavern, watching the green skinned menace run off shrieking, curious as to what drew the small crowd to the town post that day. She had spotted the note once she had drawn near enough, reading it with a touch of interest.

"Katri! It's good to see you back in Jastrey. Been awhile hasn't it," said Cail with a cheerful tone and a slight smile.

Thalenir turned toward Katri, his expression and tone serious. "There are many facets to magic. Whether or not I care for some of them doesn't change that. What I have in mind requires, shall we say, a pragmatic approach. If we are to accomplish anything of substance, turning a blind eye to the dark arts would be counterproductive."

He shakes his head. "But here I've gone and said too much. Suffice to say, yes, warlocks are welcome. As are sorcerers, seers, and even dabblers. This is about magic as a whole, not just one school."

"I see," was all the young woman responded, nodding her head slightly. She then turned to Cail, a smile evident in her words, "Good is in the eye of the beholder, in that case my friend. It has been a while, though. Yes."

"Well, I meant what I said, none the less. What brings you back," he asked with some intrigue.

"If only I knew." Katri chuckled. "It wasn't my own will that brought me back here.... I simply... woke up outside my old cabin a couple days ago."

"Strange," he mused. "Of course, it shouldn't be too far fetched. 'All roads lead to Jastrey' after all. Even the ones that go in the opposite direction, but... there's a reason for everything."

"I'm sure. I'll find a way to use this... sudden side trip to my advantage, one way or another." She nodded. "Like you said, there's a reason for everything. I'll find the purpose for this if I look hard enough."