Chapter 1: Dropping in Under the Three Moons.
Eight people were walking on a road in the twilight hours.
One was a knight and had a stern expression on his face, he was wearing a full suite of platemail with the inscription of a kingfisher holding a sword and rose with a crown above its head an old sword hung at his hip.
The second man, who was leading the group, was a young looking bearded man. He was wearing ranger garb with finely tooled leather. His slightly pointed ears were listening for the sounds of pursuit, and his hand was kept ready to draw is sword when necessary.
The third that was kept in the center of the group looked like a cheerful child and wielded nothing but staff with a sling at the top, and he had many pouches adorning his small body.
The fourth was a short and stout man who was muttering complaints about kenders, lakes, boats, and whatever else he could think of at the time. Strapped to his back in easy reach, was a well worn battle axe.
The fifth man looked frail, and was being helped along by his brother the sixth. He wore a red robe, and held his dragon claw topped staff tightly in his hand. His hourglass shaped eyes peered out from his hood. His brother was a contrast, with bulging muscles and fairly glowing with health, the well used sword on his hip was his proof of a warrior.
The seventh man, who was dressed in the garb of the planes walked beside a beautiful young woman, with gold and silver hair, holding a staff with a tribal device at the top. The man was unusually tall, and showed signs of having recently recovered from an illness.
Suddenly a defining explosion rocks the calm night as bright flash came from over the eight figures. As suddenly at it appeared the light vanishes, but not before having some people 'drop in'.
"Oof," the armored man sounded out, as a man dressed in Chinese silks with a black pigtail landed on him, driving him face first into the ground. "GET OFF!" the armored man yelled futilely to the unconscious man who had used him for a landing pad.
At the same time as the male was landing on his armored landing pad, a woman with chocolate colored skin drove the tall man down to the ground in a similar manner. "What hit me?" he asked slightly dazed by the experience.
A small girl with what looked like small green wings flattened the short bearded man. "GET OFF OF ME!" he bellowed loudly.
The other five people in the party looked at the three pileups in shock; this lasted until the one that looked like a kid started laughing which triggered their sense of the ridiculous. The five nonflattened people started laughing uncontrollably. This lasted until a creepy sardonic laughter started up, which caused everybody stop laughing and look toward the sickly robed one.
The one with the pointed ears sighed, and said, "That's enough, we need to help Sturm, Flint, and Riverwind up. Then we need to find out who these people are, were they came from, and most importantly why they are here."
The big man walked over to the armored one and moved the pigtailed man off of him. He laid the man on his back gently. He then offered his hand to the slightly flattened man, and asked, "Are you alright Sturm?"
"I'm fine Carmon; my pride is a bit bruised though. What in Paladin's name hit me? All I heard was an explosion and then something fairly heavy hit me from above," Sturm replied.
"He fell on you after appearing in a flash of light," Carmon explained as he pointed at the pigtailed man. "Don't feel too bad, you weren't the only one that had someone, 'drop' in on them," Carmon added.
"Huh?" Sturm asked intelligently.
Carmon pointed at where the pointed ear man was helping the tall man up. The chocolate skinned woman was lying nearby. "See? Riverwind had a visitor as well, Tanis helped him get her off," he said before changing the target of his finger to point at where the young woman was helping the short bearded man up. A young girl was lying nearby. "And Flint had that young girl fall on him. I wonder if Goldmoon could use her staff to wake them earlier so we can find out who they are," he finished with a chuckle.
"Good idea, I want to know who they are, and why they fell on us," Tanis responded from behind Carmon. He then walked over to Goldmoon, and asked, "Goldmoon, would it be possible to use your staff to wake our guests? We need to find out whom they are and if they are a threat as soon as possible."
"I can try," she replied, but as she bent down to the little girl, and was about to touch her with her staff, the girl's eyes opened.
"Where's Diana?" the small girl cried out.
"Who's Diana?" Goldmoon asked gently.
The small girl stood up and looked around, upon seeing the chocolate haired woman on the ground, she cried, "Diana!" and dashed to her side. With a small flash of light a staff nearly as big as her appeared in her hand. With a cry of "RES!" an aria of about six feet lit up. When the light cleared the chocolate skinned woman's eyes opened.
"Huh? I'm still alive?" Diana asked confused. As she took stock of her surroundings she muttered out loud, "Not a desert, so it can't be Moatoob and the plants are wrong for Neudaiz. We must be on Parum, Val contact Guardian HQ or see whether you can connect to a satellite to call for a pickup or find our position. "
"Umm, Diana?" Val said hesitantly.
"Yes?" the red eyed woman responded.
"We aren't on Parum; I don't think we are in the Gurhal system at all. I can't detect any com signals in use, or any satellites. The entire EM wave bands are mere background noise, and I can't detect any technology AT ALL!" Val said in a near panic.
"WHAT!" Diana screamed at the top of her lungs, her eyes wide in shock.
"Also no constellations match the recorded constellations in any of the three planets, so it's reasonable to assume…" Val began.
"That we aren't in the Gurhal system anymore," Diana finished dryly.
Just then Tanis walked up to them, and asked, "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to ask some questions. Who are you, where do you come from, and why did you land on my friends?"
"Apologies, I didn't notice that you were there. My name is Diana, and this is Val. My last known location was the Guardian Colony space station, and I have no clue on why I 'landed' on your friends. Do you know why Val?" Diana replied formally, before she stood up and dusted herself off.
Val thought a second before responding, "Umm, last thing I remember was getting knocked into you, and a white globe springing up a few feet around us just as the seed hit the generator."
"Maybe our other guest can answer my questions," Tanis said.
"If I may ask who are you people? I gave you are names, but you neglected to give us yours, and what other person? Me and Val would have been the only ones in range of the explosion that the generator would have made, or be in the white globe," Diana said in a slightly confused manner.
"Sorry, I'm Tanis, and these are my friends and companions, Sturm whom our other guest fell on, Flint who is who Val fell on, Riverwind is the one you flattened, Rastlin, Carmon, Goldmoon, and Tasslehoff. And the young man on the ground over there is our other faller," Tanis explained. "Goldmoon, could you wake our other guest?" he asked politely.
"I'll do it!" Val said before running over to the last figure on the ground and casting her healing technic on him. The technic not only hit the pigtailed man, but Sturm as well.
"What did you do to me?" Sturm yelled as he picked up Val, despite the fact that she was far heavier than she appeared, and started shaking her.
He quickly stopped, and let her go as a huge glowing white axe appeared next to his neck, and a cold voice said, "Drop her, that was only a healing technic."
Everyone looked in shock at the blue haired woman, they were in shock, not only because she moved extremely quickly, but also because she was easily wielding an axe nearly as large as she was. The fact that such a large weapon didn't seem to exist until she needed it was also a cause for surprise.
Val ran behind Diana, and said, "Meany, I was only trying to help!"
A Groan sounded from the recently healed pigtailed man, which brought everyone's attention to him.
The pigtailed man sat up, and said, "Damn, that mirror REALLY gives a rough ride." He then noticed that he was surrounded by strangers. "I'm Ranma, sorry 'bout this, but can you tell me where I am?"
"You're on the road from Solace. Now Ranma, what is this 'mirror' you mentioned and why did you drop in on my friend?" Tanis Replied.
"The Mirror of Balance was a magic mirror that can grant wishes, but there is always a price to be paid for them. I wished to be taken to someplace that my skills could be used to help others, and I'm guessing it transported me to land on your friend," Ranma answered.
"I think your wish dragged me along with you somehow," Diana said.
Ranma turned toward her, and stared. "Beautiful," he said. He then saw her expression which was a glare with a raised eyebrow, and he apologized, "Sorry, and sorry about dragging you here."
"I'll let the comment slide, for now. Don't apologize for bringing me along though, you probably saved my life by removing me prior to the A-photon reactor, which I was lying against, exploding," Diana said frostily at the beginning, but warming up near the end.
"Wait! Where's Kodatchi?" Ranma said in a panic.
Diana shook her head and responded, "If she was left where I was then she probably didn't make it."
"Damn," Ranma said. He took a deep breath, and started thinking about his situation, Okay, Kodatchi's not here, and I can't bear to think of my friend as dead, so until I find otherwise I'll assume she was left in the park. Now I'm in the middle of ten people, all strangers. The mirror granted my wish, so I must be somewhere where I can help others, it already helped me save her from a gener… hey wait! "Hey umm… Miss?" he said to Diana.
"Name's Diana, and yes?" she replied
"Where on earth were you? I can't imagine anyone starting a fight near a nuclear generator." Ranma asked.
"Nuclear? Earth? I can't recall any nuclear generators in existence, except in some old book I read, and where's earth?" Diana asked puzzled.
The robed man interrupted, "I have never heard of any of these places, and some of these words are unfamiliar. Where are Earth, Moatoob, Neudaiz, Guardians Colony, and Gurhal? What do the words generators, space stations, and Nuclear mean?"
"Before we answer who are you people?" Ranma asked.
Rastlin sighed, and made the introductions once again for the pigtailed man.
"Thanks, now earth is the planet that I was born on, and I know of the words, if not in a scientific way. Generators produce electricity, the same stuff that is in lightning bolts, nuclear generators do so by splitting tiny particles called atoms to make the energy, and a space station is a place for people to go and survive outside of the air envelope of a planet," Ranma explained, as he called upon his limited science courses.
Rastlin's eyes glazed over as he tried to take in the implications of the conversation, nor was he alone in this respect. All but Carmon and Tasslehoff was the same, and many of them were thinking that the three newcomers were slightly insane.
"That explains about Earth. I am from the planet Parum, In the Gurhal solar system, the other locations are also planets are also part of the same solar system, well except for the Colony of course as it's not a planet." Diana explained. "Now since we seem to be on a different planet, what is its name?"
"Krynn," said a dazed Rastlin.
Tanis shook his head to clear it as he replied, "I would normally ask you three to come with us both because you are strangers making it so we don't know whether you can be trusted not to give us away, and the fact that you are not local, but none of you seem to be properly equipped for the journey or any fights we might encounter…"
As Tanis said that, Ranma punched a nearby tree with a foot thick trunk, and to the surprise of the companions it fell, broken at the impact point. The result left Ranma looking at his hand in puzzlement.
As for Diana and Val they each summoned a weapon, Diane resummoned her axe and Val summoned her glowing green fist weapons. Diana also explains, "We are also shielded against most damage we could encounter here if your weapons are any indication.
"What about Val? You don't expect us to bring a child to battle do you?" Tanis reasoned.
"I'm not a child," Val yelled. "I'm Diana's partner machine, and I'm armed with healing technics, and my knuckle weapons, besides if you were going to complain about children why is Tas here, hmm?"
"I'm not a child," Tasslehoff yelled. "I'm over twenty years old!"
Tanis started rubbing his temples to ward off a headache while thinking about how complicated this journey was becoming, before he said in a commanding voice, "enough, we need to get moving to find a secure campsite. You three can come along for now, tomorrow we can discuss this further." He then turned down the road, and stared walking.
As they started walking the groups started to subdivide as to whom they wanted to talk to, and struck up soft conversations with them.
Sturm fell back to Diana's side, and said, "I'm sorry, about what happened with Val, I don't really trust magic, and suddenly getting hit like that…"
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and responded, "Apology accepted, but am I the one you really should be apologizing to?"
Sturm sighed, and said, "Your right, I'll apologize after we stop."
Just then a large human shape flew over head screaming.
"Who was that?" Diana asked curiously"
"I think Carmon, I wonder why and how he was flying. On second thought, Carmon, flying? We'll find out when we catch up with him I suppose," Sturm responded. "I'm curious about your world what's it like?"
"Why don't I tell all of you at once? This looks to be a long journey, and we could all use the opportunity to exchange stories, but I do need information about what's going on in the world now so I know how to react," Diana explained.
"I see," Sturm responds, and starts to fill her in on the situation as he knew it from his travels.
As the two had their conversation a second conversation was taking place with another set of people.
Carmon and Rastlin buttonholed Ranma, Carmon due to the strength Ranma displayed and Rastlin due to pure curiosity and the fact that it might be amusing to see his brother try and ferret out the facts from someone.
"Just how did you punch down that tree, Ranma?" Carmon asked.
"I just punched it," Ranma responded casually. He then thought, but the speed and strength of the punch seemed way lower than normal, almost to the point they were a month after I beat Herb.
"Impossible, I can't do that, so there is no way that someone with your build could do so!" Carmon declared.
"So, you don't believe what you just saw? Anyway, my build as you call it might not be as muscular and broad as yours, but by using my ki I can enhance my strength and speed far beyond what my 'build's' would seem capable of doing," Ranma responded slightly derisively.
Ah, new and potentially interesting information, Rastlin thought before asking, "What's ki?"
"My ki is the power of my life force, trained martial artists beyond a certain level can use it to enhance strength and speed, heal themselves and others, and even use it to perform various blasts of energy or other assorted long range attacks," Ranma explained.
"So it's a type of magic," Rastlin said thoughtfully, while putting what Ranma said into a context he could understand.
"NO, Magic is different. I know because I have run into enough magic crap that has screwed up my life. I landed on your friend due to a magic mirror for kami's sake. That mirror was the sole piece of magic that hasn't screwed up my life… yet. I just hope I won't come to regret using it, although I will probably regret it later…" Ranma said.
Rastlin glared at Ranma, then blinked and looked closer. His eyes, which normally show people, and objects as time acts upon them, showed three different images all super imposed on each other, and all seemed not to be ageing. He saw the Ranma in front of him, a shorter female form, and a flaming bird. As he shook his head to clear it he asked, "Why do you have such a low opinion of magic? And what types have you run into?"
"I have run into," Ranma paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "ancient Chinese curses, red string of fate, love potions of various types, hypnoses mushrooms, age reduction mushrooms, magic koi rod," Rastlin's eyebrow started to twitch as Ranma continued, "various other love magics, two magic weapons one used by me one by a kami in a battle to the death, magic cloning mirror, Nanban mirror, wishing sword, magic bra, and possibly a few dozen more I can't recall."
"I see, why you have your opinion on magic, I do have some questions though about that list. Magic bra? Curses?' Rastlin asked, but privately he was impressed, and concerned, about the amount of hostile magic the pigtailed man had run into.
"You will probably find out anyway, but due to a curse I turn into a girl with cold water and male with hot, as for the bra? Don't ask," Ranma explained.
"Bullshit," Carmon said. "There is no way you turn into a girl with cold water." In an effort to prove it he took his canteen and poured it on Ranma's head turning him into her.
"Was that really necessary?" an angry redhead ground out. She then grabbed Carmon and threw him over the group to land hundreds of yards ahead of the group.
"And that was?" Rastlin asked. Privately he was thinking, that's impossible, she tossed Carmon, who must be at least four times her mass like a child! The sheer power of the curse is amazing as well, a permanent curse that can be activated and deactivated an infinite amount of times. His thought stop for a second before his lips twitch in amusement, and finishing his thought, at least it explains the female form I see super imposed on him.
"He deserved it; I was planning on showing everyone at once. Ranma said irritably before taking a canteen out of a pocket a third its size, heating it up with her ki, and pouring it on her head, returning to his original gender.
"Want me to see if I can do anything about that curse?" Rastlin asked, intrigued by the strange magics.
"Why would you?" Ranma asked warily.
"I'm a mage, and such things interest me, curses as powerful, and as long lasting as yours are rare, and actually considered impossible," he replied, and them mumbled, "Besides, given what you said you already ran into makes me think you might have had a harder life than most, and could use a break."
Ranma caught that last part, and shook his head. "You have no idea of how hard my life was before I used that mirror, and I doubt you could understand. As to the curse? I gave up on a cure long ago, after over a dozen fake cures, and run-ins with curse locking artifacts posing as cures. I'm no mage but I imagine that fooling around with unknown magics is a bad idea," he replied.
Rastlin blinked at the frank reply, and responded thoughtfully, "I wasn't going to suggest simply winging it, as your correct about trying to alter unknown magics, instead I would only try something if I had a reasonable chance at success considering that the curse seems to be able to be locked so easily. Too bad you don't have a sample of the water that I could send to the council to study for me," Rastlin said the last part regretfully.
"I do have some samples, including one from the spring I fell in. If you think you might be able to do something about my curse, go ahead and try, but please tell me before you try anything to give me time to think about it.
"I'll try my best, and I'll send the water to the conclave as soon as possible, but please hold onto it for now.
At the same time the other two conversations were going on Goldmoon was inquiring about Val's healing abilities.
"Is that staff what allows you to heal Val?" Goldmoon asked politely.
"Not quite, I loaded a technic onto the staff so I could use it," Val replied while watching Sturm, and Diana carefully.
Goldmoon sighed and commented, "So it's different than my staff."
"Your staff?" Val asked curiously.
"It's called the blue crystal staff, and it can heal at a touch," Goldmoon responded.
Val cocks an eyebrow at that and muses, "I wonder if it would work on me? My healing technics do…"
"Why wouldn't it?" Goldmoon asked while cocking her head to the side.
Val looked at Goldmoon for a second as if she was stupid before remembering the apparently primitive technology. "I'm a machine, not a living being," after she said this, a large yelling figure flew over head.
"That looked like Carmon, no I must be mistaken," Goldmoon said. "What do you mean you're not alive, you seem to be."
That stopped Val for a second, before she responded, "In some ways, yes I'm considered alive, in some ways no I'm not. This world lacks the technical terms I need to describe what I am. Quite simply your technology is too low"
"Why do you say that?" Riverwind asked from behind the two.
"What do the words Photon, computer, or electron mean?" Val responded.
"I don't know, but what does that have to do with anything?" Riverwind grumped.
"These are things ten year olds learn back home, and they are the basis for all the hard sciences, or are tools used in them. I would have to spend almost every one of your waking minutes teaching you for the next week until you could grasp what I am, and even then I'm hampered by the lack of demonstrations and equipment to fully tech you. The fact that you don't know what an electron is puts you at least one thousand years behind us technologically, probably much more," Val explained.
"That far?" Goldmoon asked, while Riverwind was silent in shock.
"Yes," Val simply said.
"I see," Goldmoon said in a troubled tone.
At that point the companions walked away from the road into a small clearing, a small clearing with a large man named Carmon unconscious in the middle of it.
"This looks like a good place as any to set up camp. Besides we need to wait for carmon to wake up," Tanis said to the group.
The group, at least those used to roughing it quickly set up camp. Soon a fire with a large pot (courtesy of Ranma) of soup was sitting on a fire, and the companions including a now conscious Carmon, Diana, Val, and Ranma were sitting around the fire.
"Maybe we should introduce ourselves better," Ranma said. "My name is Ranma, and I am a martial artist. I used a magical artifact to arrive were you found me. Lastly I turn into a red haired woman with cold water, ask Rastlin for confirmation."
Everyone looked at Rastlin who nodded an affirmative.
"Diana, Newman guardian, Fortfighter Class out of Parum."
"Val, Diana's partner machine."
"Val are you some sort of AI?" Ranma asked.
"Yes, how did you know?" Val asked.
"Your description of yourself coupled with how you act, reminded me of some sci-fi books I read," Ranma answered.
"Carmon, I thought I saw you flying overhead earlier, why was that, and are you okay?" Goldmoon asked.
"I'm a bit bruised, but I learned not to purposely splash Ranma with cold water. She can throw a person quite hard," he responded embarrassed.
"I'm Tasslehoff Burrfoot, call me Tas!" Tas said cheerfully
"Watch out or he'll steal you blind. I'm Flint Fireforge."
"Tanis half-Elf."
"Goldmoon of the Que Shu."
"Riverwind also of the Que Shu"
"Sturm Brightblade of Solamnia."
"Carmon Majere."
"And I'm Rastlin Majere. I would like to talk about the magic you two seem to be using."
Goldmoon shook her head, and responded, "I'm not sure that they are using magic."
"This is probably an example of Clarks third law 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic' basically if the technology gap is too big between the technology and the observer they will probably think its magic. My ki techniques might fall under something similar if this world doesn't know of ki." Ranma explained.
"Correct," Diana said. "My weapon storage is based off state of the art technology for us, this world apparently has no analogs I can make for it."
"Odd, I thought it was a flashy version of the hidden weapons," Ranma said as he pulled a Chinese saber out of his pocket that he 'borrowed' from Mousse after a battle.
Diana blinked and asked, "How the…"
"It's a ki technique that allows someone to pack a great deal of Items in a relatively small space. The primary advantages are that the items can't be stolen, and that a person doesn't have to carry a bulky pack to carry what they need." Ranma explained.
Diana pulled her eyes back into her head, and replied, "That works, although I have never seen anyone do that type of thing before."
Rastlin, let out a frustraited groan, and said, "I'm starting to get confused as to what's magic and whats not, and I'm a mage!"
Ranma flinched at the outcry and responded, "Sorry."
Rastlin's eyes caught Ranma's in a unguarded moment, and what he saw shocked him. They were the eyes of someone teetering over a pit of despair due to hurt and sadness, with only a spark of hope as a lifeline. He shook his head and replied softly, "it's not your fault; I just need to get my head on straight. I think I've had too many strange things happen today, and need some time to assimilate it all. I'm going to sleep, wake me when it's my watch."
Sturm turned toward Diana, and asked, "What's a guardian?"
"An organization dedicated to protecting the civilian populace. Most recently it involves destroying monsters called seed," Diana answered. She then yawned and said, "Val keep watch, and wake me at six am local time." She then pulled out a sleeping bag from her nanotransformer, set it up, and quickly went to sleep.
Shouldn't she have stayed awake until we set up the watch?" Tanis asked Val.
"No problem, I'll take the night watch!" Val said cheerfully.
Tanis raised an eyebrow and curious asked, "All night? What will you do for sleep?"
"I don't sleep!" she exclaimed cheerfully.
"I'll join you for the first watch; it is never good to have only one watch especially when the watch is a relative stranger." Riverwind said.
"I'll take the second," Tanis said.
"And I the third, I wanted to talk more with Val anyway," Goldmoon said.
The remaining members bedded down into sleep leaving only Riverwind and Val awake.
An hour into the watch Riverwind heard a cheerful humming. "What in the abyss?" he said softly, and started tracking the noise to its source. He found it; it was Val sitting on a log humming.
She stopped as she heard Riverwind approaching, and asked, "Can I help you?"
Doesn't it ever occur to you to be quite when you are being pursued?" Riverwind hissed angrily.
Val cocked her head and replied, "Who told us we were being pursued?"
Riverwind blinked as he realized that the issue never came up in conversation, with everyone curious about the newcomers. "Sorry, we recently got in trouble with some goblins; we probably got away, but it's better to be safe than sorry," he said softly.
"Why were you being chased?" Val asked.
"We have an artifact of the true gods, and the high theocrat in solace proclaimed us heretics and sent the goblins after us," Riverwind replied.
Val shrugged and said, "I was never programmed to believe in gods, so true or false, it's all the same to me. On the other hand you should have told us we were being pursued, I would have been on maximum alert immediately. Go back to your position, while I step up my surveillance." She then goes quite.
"Val?" Riverwind said, and upon getting no response he turned and went back to his position.
All through the night Val remained silent, concentrating all her effort on discovering hostiles in the area.
End chapter 1