h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

#A crashing boom comes from above#
[Eric]Thunder?

[Wist]
*glances around nervously, then steps in close to the rockface for the little shelter it provides*

sulks. i've missed both battles, and a death! i either need more free periods, or a different gmt location!


the sky has turned an ugly black, and the runbling seems to roll around the mountains. fionchadd looks around for any shelter.

[Aituár, still in the distance]

*has now reached an open area with rocks here and there*

*squats to examine the ground and the grass*

*nods to herself as if having confirmed something*

*looks up at the darkening sky*

*starts looking for a shelter*

#There is a cavelet, or deep overhang of the cutting into the mountain side just arround the corner that Eric finds with great relief#

*Waves the group forward.*

Everyone under here!

*Wist slips under the shelter, and finds his gaze drawn to some faint markings near the back, images of ancient hunts, of creatures that have surely been depicted much to large*
*kicks aside a couple of old looking bones and finds a comfortable place to sit down*

*Outside, a fast-falling figure begins to wonder if jumping out of an Airship was really wise. He casts [[Stop]] on himself just before hitting the ground, and hovers. When the spell wears off, he drops down safely, just in time to see the adventurers disappearing into the caves. He follows them in, and they turn to face him.

He is dressed in Dragoon armour, that Eric and Lampwick will easily remember. He has a new scar on his left eye, and a streak of white hair that follows its direction.*
[Ma Chao] No Ribald? Things are looking up already...

#Eric jumps when he sees Ma Chao#

[Eric]Ma Chao!, I haven't seen you since all that Galyana bussines. What have you been doing?. What are you doing here?

*Raises an eyebrow.*

You know this one?

[Eric]We were part of a party charged with ending the sedge of Galyana by black legions, as was lampwick, although I haven't seen Ma Chao since the day after our victory. I had to head off home to bury a comrade before the body had decomposed too much

[Ma Chao] I've been doing all sorts. I was a part of the clearence operation in the Blade Mountains, earned a fair bit of cash doing it too. I decided to go home, but Wutai was a mess. Some punks called the Shinra. Lost my Bahamut Magicite. Nearly lost my eye...
*Guestures to the scar.*
[Ma Chao] I took up the life of a Merc. Earned the title "Hoard Dragon", as everyone believes I've got a vast cave of riches stashed away somewhere, with all the treasures of Wutai, plus my reward from Galyana, lurking within...

[Eric] do you?. I left most of mine in the bank of Galyana

[Lampwick] Ribald spent his money to start his own tavern, and I got twice as much money as I usually get, which is naturally just enough to keep me from starving.

[Armond] Heh. Ah, to be young and to have only experienced one adventure ...

[Lampwick] Actually, I've seen plenty.

[Armond] Have you, now?

[Lampwick] Yes. For instance, the fact that you're an overpowering character who /starts out/ with a Level 4 black magic spell means either that you'll turn out to be a bad guy or that you won't be a playable character by the time this is over.

[Ma Chao] So who's paying me for my services? I don't usually do "free," but sinse You (Eric) and Lampwick are here, I'll wait until after the adventure is over.

[Eric]We're presently going to the palace if the king of Malibu, we'll find out more then

[Armond] Yeah ... and if we can make it the next few days without breaking the Fourth Wall again ...

[Lampwick] Hey, nobody said you have to pay attention to a word I said.

[Ma Chao] Not likely. I broke the Fourth Wall so often they started suing me for property damage...

[Eric]What fourth wall?. Won't this continued damage make the house fall down?

#Eric takes a look outside the cave. Its well into midday and a fair amount of rubble has fallen onto the path. It is still walkable and only slightly more trecherous than before. The sun seems very bright after the gloom of the overhang. A cooling breeze washes over the area, rustling the impoverised grasses that grow at these altitudes and moving the dust that has barely settled on the area after the crash. A few hundred metres above the path the airship wreckage looks like the remains of a beached whale#