Word: residuum

residuum

\ ri-ZIJ-oo-uhm \  , noun;

1. the residue, remainder, or rest of something.

2. Also, residue. Chemistry.  a quantity or body of matter remaining after evaporation, combustion, distillation, etc.

3. any residual product.

4. Law.  the residue of an estate.

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“Think we’ve gone far enough?” Jill asked as the two of them continued their running bounce through the cave.

               “I guess so.  It didn’t look like it was interested in us at any rate.”  Kyle said, looking behind him for any signs of the large creature. 

               “Thank god for small miracles.”  Jill said as she came to a stop.  Kyle nodded as he came to rest next to her.

               “Yeah, but now I’m wishing one of us brought something other than a pocket knife to defend ourselves with.”

               “Can’t be helped.  It’s not like we knew this was going to happen.”

               The two sat down on the soft, springy moss to rest, each looking around them.  As she looked at one of the colonies of glowing butterflies, a random thought crossed Jill’s mind.

               “What do you think they eat?”

               “What?” Kyle asked, looking confused.

               “The butterflies.  They hang out on those rocks, so what do they eat?”

               “No idea.  Maybe there’s something growing on, or even in, the rocks.  Why?”

               “No reason.  Just kind of wondering, you know.  I mean, so far, we’ve seen two animals eating something.  But there’s two others that we don’t know anything about.  The butterflies are just more common, so I guess I was just thinking about them more.”

               “I see.  Are you sure it’s not something else you’re thinking about?”  Kyle asked.  He was figuring she was hungry herself.  He had to admit, he was starting to feel some hunger pangs himself.  They hadn’t brought much to eat, so they would soon have to find something edible.

               “Er, maybe.”  Jill admitted.  “Guess it has been awhile since we ate, hasn’t it?”

               “Yeah.  Hopefully what we have will last until someone comes to find us.”  He was already taking his bag of trail mix from his backpack. 

He had intended it as a snack, but since it was about to become his only meal, he would have to ration it out carefully, as would Jill with her bag of the same mix.  The two carefully nibbled on the nuts and raisins while keeping an eye open for more of the carnivorous creatures.  When they both agreed that they had enough to keep them going, they got up and resumed their aimless journey through the cavern.

“Do you smell something?”  Kyle asked suddenly.  Jill took a deep breath before replying in agreement.  There was an odd smell in the air.  Something like paint residue left out in the sun.  It wasn’t a strong smell, but it was there.

They followed it as best they could, and soon found themselves at the wall of the cavern.  There, about two feet off the ground was what looked like some kind of crude painting.  It was a small spiral with a single vertical line through it, painted in the same color as the butterflies, although not as bright.  The mark was faded, like it had been painted a long time ago.  Probably the remnants of some kind of long forgotten civilization.  Kyle knelt down to take another look at the simple painting. 

“What do you think it mean?”  He asked.

“No idea, but there’s more of them.”  Jill said.  Kyle looked.  There were indeed several more of the simple paintings scattered along the wall, each one slightly different.  All were the same color, but the patterns varied.  Most had a spiral incorporated in them somewhere, and for most it was the main aspect.  They were also nearly level with each other, forming a ring around the cavern wall.

They followed the rows of paintings, trying to find some kind of pattern or purpose to them.  Neither was able to figure anything out though.  There was something about them though that nagged at both their minds.  When they started, the paintings were faded and dull.  Mere remnants of something else.  But as they went, they became brighter, and seemed to have been done more recently.  They looked at each other, both coming to the same realization.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”  Jill said nervously.

“Yeah, I think I am.  There’s something intelligent down here.” 

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Hm, what could it be?  Sorry, but you'll have to wait to find that out.  

Word: sidle

 

sidle

\ SAHYD-l \  , verb;

1. to move sideways or obliquely.

2. to edge along furtively.

noun:

1. a sidling movement.

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The midday sun beat down hard on the two hikers as they sidled along the narrow rock ledge, one moving slowly but calmly, the other moved even slower and clung to any handhold possible with a white knuckle grip.  The rapidly moving river below them roared menacingly, as if it was just waiting for one of them to fall into it.   

               “Why are we doing this again?”  Said the hiker in the rear over the sound of the river.

               “I told you, because it’s there.”  Said the other, equally loud.

               “That’s not a reason, and you know it.”

               “Sure it is.  You know, it’s an adventure.”

               “My idea of adventure is going to the mall and getting something I didn’t plan on.  This is what I call crazy and suicidal.”

               “Oh come on, Deb, live a little.” The first hiker said, trying to stifle a laugh at his companion’s expense.

               “Frank, I swear, if I fall and die, I’m going to kill you!”  Deb shouted.

               “It’s fine.  Even if you fall, we’re not high enough for you to get hurt, and there are plenty of things in the water to grab onto to keep you from getting too far away.” 

               Deb didn’t answer, preferring to shoot Frank an icy glare that was completely lost on him, as he was looking where he was going, and not at her.  When she saw that her look went unnoticed, she went back to clinging to the rock.  She moved her hand only when she was sure she saw a stable handhold within reach, and then she moved with lighting speed to get it.  Frank moved with much more surety, taking hold of the nearest outcropping of rock, and trusting it not to break, allowing him to progress much quicker than she did.   He even had to stop and wait for her to catch up a few times. 

               “Come on Frank, I know there’s a reason for this.  You never do anything crazy without reason.”  She said eventually.

               “You’re right, I do have a reason.  But you’ll have to wait to find out what.”

               “Oh come on!  You owe it to me for dragging me out here in the first place.”

               “No I don’t.  Don’t worry, you’ll like it, I promise.”

               “Uh huh.  Can you at least tell me if it’ll take much longer?”

               “It will, but we won’t be on this ledge the entire time if that helps.”

               “A bit, yes.”  Deb said.  It was a bit of a comfort, but since she didn’t know how long they would be up there, it wasn’t much of one.  She kept quite though, since she didn’t know how much he was willing to divulge, and didn’t want to waste her time asking things that wouldn’t get a proper answer.

               After another half hour of inching their way along the narrow ledge, they finally came to a notch in the rock big enough for the two of them to sit on.  Deb collapsed, panting and grateful for the stable ground.  Frank sat with his legs dangling over the edge while he waited for her to recover.

               “So, where to next?”  She asked.

               “Down that way.”  He said.  He pointed into the notch. When she looked, she saw that it led into a cave.  Where it went, she didn’t really want to know.  All she knew was that it was small and narrow, which meant more crawling along sideways. 

               “This had better be good.”  She said. 

               Once both of them were on their feet, Frank led the way into the mouth of the cave.  Deb had been right.  It was a very tight fit.  She had to press up against the cold, damp wall of the cave just to avoid the other.  She was a little grateful that they were out of the sun, and that she wasn’t in any danger of falling to her death, but she still wasn’t too happy about their current trek.  The fact that they seemed to be going up didn’t make it any better either. 

               “So, there’s no poisonous spiders of scorpions in here, are there?”  She asked nervously.

               “Probably not.  But if you feel something crawling on you, hold real still and let me know.” He said.  She couldn’t tell if he was joking, but was desperately hoping he was.  She slowed down a bit, just to be on the safe side.

               The two made their way through the tunnel slowly because of the awkward way they needed to move.  Because of this, it took them the better part of two hours to get through it.  By the time Deb saw light up ahead, she was so miserable she was about ready to collapse right there and not move an inch.  But, Frank excitedly spurred her on.

               She followed him out of the tunnel and found herself on a wide outcropping of rock.  She blinked a few times when the light hit her eyes, but they soon adjusted.  When she looked around though, she immediately understood hen Frank had taken her there.

               All around them, the mountains rose up majestically.  The red, yellow and orange rock weaving patterns in the air like they came from a painters brush.  The sound of the river below them echoed among the great mountains.  She looked down a bit and saw the arches and pillars that the river had carved out over the eons, like some ancient sculptor.  Far off in the distance, she could see a wide field of various shades of green that came from the fields and forests that bordered the mountain range.  The sky was clear blue, with only a few wispy clouds the mar its mirror like surface.  Just on the horizon, she could even see a few smatterings of reds, golds, and oranges that came from the late afternoon sun that had only just started to set, but still with several hours of good light left in it.  The screech of a bird came to her ears, and she looked for the source, soon finding a large eagle soaring overhead.  The large bird landed on a nearby pillar of stone and rested there.  Deb couldn’t tell if it was sitting on some eggs or not though.

               “So, glad you came now?”  Frank asked.

               “Ok, yeah, it is pretty neat.”  Deb said.

               “Just wait though, it gets better?”

               “How?”

               “Wait till you see the sunset once it really kicks in.”  He sat down, folding his legs under him to make himself as comfortable as possible.

               “Er, sunset?  But that’s still a few hours away, isn’t it?”

               “Oh sure.”

               “And after that, it’ll be dark.”

               “Yup.”

               “So does that mean what I think it means?”

               “Sure does.  It’s too bad that we won’t be able to see the sun rise from here though, isn’t it?”

               Deb groaned in frustration as she slumped down on the rock.  This was going to be a long night.

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Everyone should be a little adventurous sometimes, even if it's only once in a lifetime.  There's some things that you just can't see on a screen after all. 

Word: scabrous

scabrous

\ SKAB-ruhs \  , adjective;

1. full of difficulties.

2. having a rough surface because of minute points or projections.

3. indecent or scandalous; risqué; obscene: scabrous books.

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“Ok, so is everyone ready to begin?” Jerry asked from behind the thin cardboard screen.  Three of the four others gathered around the round table nodded and said they were.  The last one disagreed though.

                “Not yet, we’re still waiting for one more.  Remember, I told you I invited a new player.”  Said Henry, the dissenter. 

                “You did?  I don’t remember that.”  Chris said.  Most of the others agreed, not having been paying attention during that particular conversation.  It was as much Henry’s fault as it was any other theirs, really.  He had brought it up while they were eating, and so nobody was paying attention to anything other than the slice of pizza currently being stuffed into their mouths.  Henry sighed, but accepted the fact that it was news to the others.

                “Well, I did.  And there’s someone else coming for the game today.  Anyone have any problems with that?”

                “Nah.  We need another player anyway.”  Chris said, readily willing to let another person into the fold. 

                “I don’t, but it does mean I get to be a little ‘creative’ as to how he joins to party.”  Jerry said.  He already had several ideas on how to make his player’s lives difficult while also introducing the newbie.  For him, it was win-win.

                “She.”  Henry said.

                “What?”  Jerry asked in response.

                “She.  The new player’s a girl.” 

                Everyone looked at him with wonder in their eyes.  Girls were foreign territory to the group, and so it was amazing that any of them had managed to talk to one, let alone convince her to join their game.

                “A girl, really?  She hot?”  Isaac said hopefully while fingering his dice in anticipation.  Henry wiggled his hand in a so-so gesture.

                “I don’t like it.”  Jake said between mouthfuls of Chex-Mix.  “Girls shouldn’t play D&D.  It’s scandalous.”

                “It’s not scandalous.”  Chris said.  That was Jake’s new favorite word, and he was trying to apply it to everything, even if it didn’t quite fit.

                “Yeah, really.”  Henry said, “Girls are into all kinds of nerdy stuff these days.“

                “That doesn’t make it any less of a scandal.”  Jake said defiantly.

                “Dude, learn what a word means before using it, ok?”  Jerry said.

                Just then, the door to the brightly lit room burst open and the girl Henry had invited burst in, panting and gasping for breath.  The girl in question was a bit on the short and plump side, with dirty black hair that clearly wasn’t that important to her.  She had a bright green satchel slung over her shoulder that she clung to like her life depended on it.

                “Sorry I’m late.  You didn’t start yet, did you?”  She asked in a panic.

                “No, you’re good.”  Henry said.  “Guys, this is Heather.  Heather, this is Chris, our rogue; Jake, our paladin; Isaac, our wizard; and Jerry, our DM.”

                “Hi.”  She said, looking around at the gathering.  The others all welcomed her to sit down.  Except for Jake, who just huffed that it wasn’t right that she was even there.

                Jerry pulled up a chair for Heather in the nearest open space, which was between Isaac and himself.  She sat down and started rummaging through her satchel.

                “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought all my own stuff.”  She said. The others didn’t mind. From out of the bag she pulled a sheet of paper, a few small plastic figurines, and a dice bag.  She opened the leather bag and let the dice spill out.  The small black objects made a loud clatter as they hit the rough table.  All eyes widened when they saw them.

                “Are those…” Chris began.

                “Obsidian, yeah.”  Heather said proudly.  Chris whistled in appreciation.  The black stone made his blue plastic set look pathetic.

                “Damn girl, you’re hardcore to have a set like that.”  He said.

                “Yeah well, I like them.  Plus, they fit my character.”

                “Er, you already have a character made?”  Jerry asked.

                “Technically no.  At least not for this game.  But I have one that I like to use.  Hold on a sec, let me roll his stats and stuff for this game and you can see for yourself.”

                “Bet it’s a cleric or mage or something.”  Jerry whispered into Henry’s ear as the newcomer rolled her dice for stats.  When she was done, she began to furiously scribble on her character sheet, asking a few questions about what level she should be, and if she could have any items of note. 

                “Done.”  She said proudly after she was finished.  Jerry motioned for her to hand the sheet over to her, which she did gladly.  He looked over what she had done, and then up at her.

                “You’re kidding, right?”  He asked

                “Nope.  Why, what’s the problem?”

                “A Half-Celestial necromancer?  I mean really?  I can’t really accept that.”  The others looked at her oddly as well. 

                “Why not?  All my other DMs did.”

                “Well, other than the obvious alignment problems, it’s just too crazy.”

                “It’s just plain wrong is what it is.” Jake said. 

                “Oh come on!” She exclaimed.  “I always use this character.  Here, look.  I even drew a picture of him.”  She reached into her bag and pulled out a hand drawn image of the character in question.

                The picture showed a man with bright golden skin and large white wings dressed in a black robe.  The man was tall and slender, drawn up in the style of a Japanese pretty-boy.  Heather showed it proudly, eyeing the drawing with a lascivious gleam in her eyes.  “See, pretty hot, right?”  She said after everyone had seen it.

                “I guess if you’re into bishies, it’s nice.”  Henry said, almost regretting telling Heather about the game.

                “There, you see, so there’s no reason to not let me play the character.”  She said, as if the affirmation of her artistic ability made it more reasonable.

                “Look, if you just change the class, then its fine.”  Jerry said.

                “No way, it works.  Ready his back story, you’ll find out why it makes sense.”  She said, taking out another sheet of paper and handing it to Jerry.  He read it and sighed.

                “Well, other than being insanely convoluted, poorly written, and full of grammar errors that a fifth grader wouldn’t make, I guess it kind of does make some kind of weird sense.  I still don’t like it though.”

                “Hold on, let me see it.” Jake said, snatching the paper before anything could be said.  He read it over for a few minutes before slamming it down.  “It’s all kind of scandalous, but I can kind of see it.”

                The others read what was on the paper as well, each in turn.  And each of them agreed it worked with the way she had set up her character’s abilities and personality traits.  So they grudgingly accepted the mismatched character.  Jerry made a mental note to be particularly rough on her though, and make things much more difficult.  He hoped if he killed that character off early, she would be forced to make a more reasonable one that made sense without having to rely on a back story. 

                “Ok, now that everything’s taken care of, we can get started.”  He said after coming up with a few possible plans.  “Is everyone ready?”  He asked.  This time everyone agreed that they were.  “Alright then, let’s play.”

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Ok then, let me first say that these characters are entirely fictional, and any resemblance to any actual people is purely coincidental.  Also, for those of you who don't know what half of the things I said in this story are:  Obsidian dice tend to look something  like this.  Here's a few things about the Half-Celestial race and the Necromancer class.  See if you can find why they aren't compatible from a rules point of view.  Oh, and here's a bishie for good measure.  Have fun!