Elthana chuckles a bit as Sam states he isn't a dwarf or ground dweller but looks at him when he asks her a direct question, "Yes, the horse was a gift. Honestly, it was given to me the night before we left Marblestead."
As Vin pipes up and adds to the conversation, Elthana is quite surprised when Muir runs off and enters his tree without a word to the rest of them. She turns to Vin, "What did you say to him?"
As Vin gets increasingly uncomfortable, Elthana moves so she can be near the boy on the broom and in a voice with actual concern in it, "Vin, I can see this is difficult for you, and under most circumstances I would not push, I would not ask as I know you want to stay true to your word. But Vin? We need to know, our lives, hell even Northmorrah may depend on it. Please, tell us, they will understand."
As she pulls the pocketbook out of the bag, she flips through the yellowed pages, an amused look upon her face.
Vin sighs... he obviously feels bad. Like it's a betrayal, but his friends insist. He's never had such close friends before. Folks he feels he can open up to. Help him in ways he never though he could be helped. says "It's a scroll... one so powerful it can send me back in time 24 hours."
As lunch draws to a close, over begins clearing up, wincing every so often as his muscles ache in protest but he pushes through, until the point where vin tells of what hus scroll does, Iver stops in his tracks and looks at vin wide eyed, "ar... are you sure? That... Hm... That sounds like powerful magic, the dangerous kinda stuff."
Muir reappears and sits with the others. He does not wait for anyone to ask him about what Vin told him. In Muir fashion he gets right down to it. "Vin told me that he cast scrying on Ebb last night. He wanted to make sure that Ebb was okay because he seemed so nervous. Ebb was talking with someone that has problems with Master Gore being there looking over things and protecting the portal. The person speaking was shielded from Vin's scrying. He could not see them. This leads me to believe it was either High Priest Holm our Te'louim. Vin, you and Neferfox have heard them speak....Think which voice you heard. If I don't warn Gore he will be caught off guard and killed...I am hoping you now see the severity of the situation we are in. I need to warn Master Gore but cannot leave you. I must be with you all when you reach Marbelstead. I was going to send a bird with a message to Master Gore unless any of you have a better suggestion?"
Sam tenses up and takes a deep breath in preparation of, likely, bullying Vin into giving up the information he was withholding but Elthana starts talking first. She's soft and compassionate to the kid and it works... Sam is glad, after a moment or two, and eventually lets out the tension he had built up.
"Ok so Elthana and you and me, we got our things as a gift shortly before setting out, yes? But they're quite different from one another, what they do and how often they can do it. I mean if Vin's scroll opens a portal at least it can only do so once, right? And my acorns, also limited. Seems Elthana's horse is the only ongoing threat?" Sam says but then quickly looks over to Elthana and adds "I don't mean nothing personal by that, you know... Just sayin' Scroll and Acorns can only be used so many times..."
"Gewyn's mirror, again, vastly different than the other items... So perhaps there is not the connection to them all as Muir was suggesting?" Sam thinks aloud. "Only two seem to open portals, far as we can tell. And truthfully have we seen the horse open one? That seems speculative at best..."
"Speculative? That the right word? Like a guess...?"
With Muir reappearing Sam is put on his heals a bit and shuts up and listens for a bit. He does that from time to time... But when Muir is done it's not the message that he thinks of first (though he has been saying they need to message Ebb somehow) but rather "Just why must you be with us all when we reach Marblestead?"
"I mean sure, we have big news and all to bring, things to see about... but why MUST you be with us?" Sam asks curiously...
"If I am to alter my or your course it could cause a war. We all must arrive in Marblestead before the festival. The winter solstice approaches where everything aligns.....We all must be in Marblestead to prevent whatever is going to happen or aid where we must....That is all that I know"
"Somebody thinks a lot of themselves," Sam mutters.
"Whatever we do is what we do," Sam says more loudly, as if it is something wise. "If we make it home in time for the festival, or not... If we stop or cause a war... Life happens. All we can do is make our best decisions as the choices come to us. I'm certainly not hitching my britches all fancifully like MY decisions are the ones that will affect the whole world." Sam isn't so much arguing as he is just trying to keep things in perspective. He's just a Half Orc working man from the Shambles, afterall...
When Iver mentions how dangerous the magic is Vin looks to them and nods in agreement. "Yes. Very dangerous. It could be it opens a portal while sending me back. Hench... I don't want to use it. I would appreciate it if the scroll was kept a secret though. I trust all of you but if word got out about this? I don't think it would be good. I'll talk to Professor Wooswin when I get back about it. He probably knows more about it. Honestly, I think it shows how worried they were about Hokum. To send something like this as insurance to help the town. They really went all out to make sure we could help."
As Muir relays Vin's warning Vin corrects by saying "I didn't hear them. I only heard Ebb. They sounded really worried. You ran off so quickly I didn't get to elaborate. The other voice was all muffled and I couldn't hear it. I heard Ebb say "Useful how?" then the other voice talked for quite a bit like explaining something. Then Ebb said "Master Gore will not approve. He'll be a problem." The other voice said something and Ebb replied pleadingly "No. no. Let me try. I'll talk with him, please." When I told Nef what I heard and saw she gave me that warning but she didn't see it. I'm sure it just sounds bad. He's probably fine. It's not like the clerics are trying to destroy their own city after all. Might just be they want to study it a lot closer. Or maybe they are determined to close it. So, the high priest that was on the council from Marblestead that sent Ebb was there at hokum, right? I wasn't entirely sure who that was. I was told, they left Marblestead without telling anyone else on the council though."
When Muir explains that it's important they get back before the festival Vin seems a bit worried "Wait, you think something is going to happen in Marblestead? I thought something was happening on the coast? I guess either way we are heading back. We got a lot to figure out and a lot of questions. All seems to big for just us so... we just keep going forward and helping where we can right?" Vin looks to Iver and seeing that lunch is over helps him pack up the supplies for the continued journey.
Elthana smiles as she tucks away the little book into her pack for now, "Thanks Vin. Your secret is safe with us."
"This whole thing with the winter solstice. Very interesting to me, as my faction leader has not breathed a word of it as to the need for me to be back for it. Shoot, I should take my sweet time getting back, maybe do some more digging into this portal business, or hell, show Griff around." She smirks as she looks to Muir to see his reaction.
Her head snaps back towards Vin, "What do you mean something is happening on the coast?"
Then raising an eyebrow to Sam's words, "Ongoing threat eh? Well... suppose there is only one way to find out." Walking a bit away from the group, she pulls out her orb and whispers to it, calling forth her favorite possession.
Muir nods at the lack of understanding and naivety. He gets up to send a bird with a message for Gore. Upon returning he looks to the group "Alright are we ready to move on then to the next tree?" This time Muir rides on his own horse away from the carriage.
“The tortle at the high council, whatever his name was…” Sam pipes in when Elthana states get Patron didn’t mention the Winter Solstice. “He said we’d be introduced to all then, if all went well and we were back. Impression I got was we were to be back by then or we failed but.. “
“But yeah, my Patron has made a thing of reminding every time I use the damn stone to message him.”
Sam smirks when Elthana talks of taking Griff on a tour, and he tries to overhear the message Muir is sending via bird, if it’s not all whistles and tweets. Otherwise Sam is more than happy to drive the carriage again and reminds himself to find one of the men headed to Hokum and send a message with them as well…
As the group sets off, messages sent and discussions had, Elthana summons Gust from their orb, and nothing seems to happen. Griff jumps into the air in preparation to fly above the party, slightly behind the carriage so those inside can see him, and you all set off.
No more than a minute after setting off, a glint can be seen over head, reflecting through Griff's crystalline armour and alerting several members of the group. Though Sam up on the drivers box, at this time joined by Iver, seem too concentrated on the snow covered road to notice. As for the rest of the group, looking up you see a crack appear in the sky, only about 2ft across but at least 100ft above the ground, shedding light and wind from inside of it, it looks like a tear in the actual fabric of space.
Griff spots it too and points it out, "look is light in sky, perhaps I can be going back!?" and without even waiting to hear advice or input from the group he flaps his wings and gains altitude fast.
Before he can get there though a blue bubble begins to appear, being sucked through the crack like a balloon being forced through a small hole, after a moment the entire thing is through and the group watch as a gargantuan translucent creature begins floating upward and the crack in space closes once more. Looking at the creature it appears to have no internal organs, and is comprised of a large bowl-like head which inverts back and forth propelling it upward as it drags wispy blue tendrils after it, those familiar with the sea could liken it to a jellyfish had it not been so odd and giant. It seems completely unaware of its change in location as it harmlessly begins ascending up further and further 120ft, 140ft, 160 ft up and up and up. Griff angrily swears in a language none below understand and continues a slew of yelling and fist shaking at the giant creature.
Elthana isn't sure how she feels about the rift opening up in the sky. It seems as though Muir's theory has been proven, so at least there is that. She watches as Griff attempts to go home and fails.
What emerges... she stares in wonder at the giant creature. It doesn't seem to be harming anything, but yet.. it doesn't belong here. She turns towards Muir on his horse and leans over in the carriage so he can hear her, "So, what do we do now? At least Griff should be able to tell us if this is a creature we should be worried about, but probably not a good thing that it is here? Even if it is peaceful? Though... we did leave the genoids."
When the yelling commences Sam hands the reins over to Iver and turns to look at what all the hubbub is about. Seeing the... air blobby thing... Sam reaches for his bow and cocks an arrow. But it is just bloofy and floppy and... seems harmless?
"Umm... Should I shoot it?" Sam calls out to the others. He doesn't really want to but most the portal stuff did deserve a killing. Likely they're feathered pet as well, though they've not gotten around to that yet.
"They were goofy and helpful!" Sam answers Elthana when she brings up the little rock dudes. "Is this?"
Muir looks up at this creature which reminds him of a sea creature he's read about. Not being one for the oceans, he's never experienced one. Before shouting to Griff "Let's not shoot it yet. You can ready yourself if need be, but let's ask Griff what it is." Muir shouts "GRIFF! WHAT IS THIS CREATURE? IS IT DANGEROUS?
"it is stream glider, harmless beast which flying around, it feed on wind vibration or something, I not knowing the correct science about it." Griff responds after he has calmed down a bit. As he explains, the creature simply gains more height, it must be more than 200ft up at this point and way out of the range of most bows or spears.
"yes, stream glider very common in air, useful for capture and using as collection device for stream, more uncommon is sky whale, they are magnificent beast maybe ten times bigger!" It seems Griff is all too happy to be asked questions of his world by vin who seems to be in awe of it all.
Seeing that there was no apparent danger, Elthana's attention shifts from the giant creature to Griff, and her eyebrows knit together in a frown. As he returns to the group, she speaks up, "Griff... you feeling alright? I've seen you look better, you're looking pretty haggard."
...it must be more than 200ft up at this point and way out of the range of most bows or spears.
((Actually a long bow has a long range of 600ft. So shots taken past 150ft are at disadvantage but still within range... Just to be nitpicky. lol))
Sam slowly relaxes his pull and unreadies his arrow, though keeps it in hand in case it is needed. Perhaps it is harmless but this creature is as uninvited as the rest and Sam is uneasy about letting it just roam free. He wonders just how tolerant these creatures from other worlds would be if people from this one showed up unexpectedly...
"Well if we're not killing it then we should keep on moving, I guess," Sam calls out after a few minutes gruffly. Putting his arrow and bow away, he retakes his seat alongside Iver at the steering of the carriage and motions for Iver to kick the team into gear again.
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Elthana chuckles a bit as Sam states he isn't a dwarf or ground dweller but looks at him when he asks her a direct question, "Yes, the horse was a gift. Honestly, it was given to me the night before we left Marblestead."
As Vin pipes up and adds to the conversation, Elthana is quite surprised when Muir runs off and enters his tree without a word to the rest of them. She turns to Vin, "What did you say to him?"
As Vin gets increasingly uncomfortable, Elthana moves so she can be near the boy on the broom and in a voice with actual concern in it, "Vin, I can see this is difficult for you, and under most circumstances I would not push, I would not ask as I know you want to stay true to your word. But Vin? We need to know, our lives, hell even Northmorrah may depend on it. Please, tell us, they will understand."
As she pulls the pocketbook out of the bag, she flips through the yellowed pages, an amused look upon her face.
Vin sighs... he obviously feels bad. Like it's a betrayal, but his friends insist. He's never had such close friends before. Folks he feels he can open up to. Help him in ways he never though he could be helped. says "It's a scroll... one so powerful it can send me back in time 24 hours."
As lunch draws to a close, over begins clearing up, wincing every so often as his muscles ache in protest but he pushes through, until the point where vin tells of what hus scroll does, Iver stops in his tracks and looks at vin wide eyed, "ar... are you sure? That... Hm... That sounds like powerful magic, the dangerous kinda stuff."
Muir reappears and sits with the others. He does not wait for anyone to ask him about what Vin told him. In Muir fashion he gets right down to it. "Vin told me that he cast scrying on Ebb last night. He wanted to make sure that Ebb was okay because he seemed so nervous. Ebb was talking with someone that has problems with Master Gore being there looking over things and protecting the portal. The person speaking was shielded from Vin's scrying. He could not see them. This leads me to believe it was either High Priest Holm our Te'louim. Vin, you and Neferfox have heard them speak....Think which voice you heard. If I don't warn Gore he will be caught off guard and killed...I am hoping you now see the severity of the situation we are in. I need to warn Master Gore but cannot leave you. I must be with you all when you reach Marbelstead. I was going to send a bird with a message to Master Gore unless any of you have a better suggestion?"
Sam tenses up and takes a deep breath in preparation of, likely, bullying Vin into giving up the information he was withholding but Elthana starts talking first. She's soft and compassionate to the kid and it works... Sam is glad, after a moment or two, and eventually lets out the tension he had built up.
"Ok so Elthana and you and me, we got our things as a gift shortly before setting out, yes? But they're quite different from one another, what they do and how often they can do it. I mean if Vin's scroll opens a portal at least it can only do so once, right? And my acorns, also limited. Seems Elthana's horse is the only ongoing threat?" Sam says but then quickly looks over to Elthana and adds "I don't mean nothing personal by that, you know... Just sayin' Scroll and Acorns can only be used so many times..."
"Gewyn's mirror, again, vastly different than the other items... So perhaps there is not the connection to them all as Muir was suggesting?" Sam thinks aloud. "Only two seem to open portals, far as we can tell. And truthfully have we seen the horse open one? That seems speculative at best..."
"Speculative? That the right word? Like a guess...?"
With Muir reappearing Sam is put on his heals a bit and shuts up and listens for a bit. He does that from time to time... But when Muir is done it's not the message that he thinks of first (though he has been saying they need to message Ebb somehow) but rather "Just why must you be with us all when we reach Marblestead?"
"I mean sure, we have big news and all to bring, things to see about... but why MUST you be with us?" Sam asks curiously...
"If I am to alter my or your course it could cause a war. We all must arrive in Marblestead before the festival. The winter solstice approaches where everything aligns.....We all must be in Marblestead to prevent whatever is going to happen or aid where we must....That is all that I know"
"Somebody thinks a lot of themselves," Sam mutters.
"Whatever we do is what we do," Sam says more loudly, as if it is something wise. "If we make it home in time for the festival, or not... If we stop or cause a war... Life happens. All we can do is make our best decisions as the choices come to us. I'm certainly not hitching my britches all fancifully like MY decisions are the ones that will affect the whole world." Sam isn't so much arguing as he is just trying to keep things in perspective. He's just a Half Orc working man from the Shambles, afterall...
When Iver mentions how dangerous the magic is Vin looks to them and nods in agreement. "Yes. Very dangerous. It could be it opens a portal while sending me back. Hench... I don't want to use it. I would appreciate it if the scroll was kept a secret though. I trust all of you but if word got out about this? I don't think it would be good. I'll talk to Professor Wooswin when I get back about it. He probably knows more about it. Honestly, I think it shows how worried they were about Hokum. To send something like this as insurance to help the town. They really went all out to make sure we could help."
As Muir relays Vin's warning Vin corrects by saying "I didn't hear them. I only heard Ebb. They sounded really worried. You ran off so quickly I didn't get to elaborate. The other voice was all muffled and I couldn't hear it. I heard Ebb say "Useful how?" then the other voice talked for quite a bit like explaining something. Then Ebb said "Master Gore will not approve. He'll be a problem." The other voice said something and Ebb replied pleadingly "No. no. Let me try. I'll talk with him, please." When I told Nef what I heard and saw she gave me that warning but she didn't see it. I'm sure it just sounds bad. He's probably fine. It's not like the clerics are trying to destroy their own city after all. Might just be they want to study it a lot closer. Or maybe they are determined to close it. So, the high priest that was on the council from Marblestead that sent Ebb was there at hokum, right? I wasn't entirely sure who that was. I was told, they left Marblestead without telling anyone else on the council though."
When Muir explains that it's important they get back before the festival Vin seems a bit worried "Wait, you think something is going to happen in Marblestead? I thought something was happening on the coast? I guess either way we are heading back. We got a lot to figure out and a lot of questions. All seems to big for just us so... we just keep going forward and helping where we can right?" Vin looks to Iver and seeing that lunch is over helps him pack up the supplies for the continued journey.
Elthana smiles as she tucks away the little book into her pack for now, "Thanks Vin. Your secret is safe with us."
"This whole thing with the winter solstice. Very interesting to me, as my faction leader has not breathed a word of it as to the need for me to be back for it. Shoot, I should take my sweet time getting back, maybe do some more digging into this portal business, or hell, show Griff around." She smirks as she looks to Muir to see his reaction.
Her head snaps back towards Vin, "What do you mean something is happening on the coast?"
Then raising an eyebrow to Sam's words, "Ongoing threat eh? Well... suppose there is only one way to find out." Walking a bit away from the group, she pulls out her orb and whispers to it, calling forth her favorite possession.
Muir nods at the lack of understanding and naivety. He gets up to send a bird with a message for Gore. Upon returning he looks to the group "Alright are we ready to move on then to the next tree?" This time Muir rides on his own horse away from the carriage.
“The tortle at the high council, whatever his name was…” Sam pipes in when Elthana states get Patron didn’t mention the Winter Solstice. “He said we’d be introduced to all then, if all went well and we were back. Impression I got was we were to be back by then or we failed but.. “
“But yeah, my Patron has made a thing of reminding every time I use the damn stone to message him.”
Sam smirks when Elthana talks of taking Griff on a tour, and he tries to overhear the message Muir is sending via bird, if it’s not all whistles and tweets. Otherwise Sam is more than happy to drive the carriage again and reminds himself to find one of the men headed to Hokum and send a message with them as well…
As the group sets off, messages sent and discussions had, Elthana summons Gust from their orb, and nothing seems to happen. Griff jumps into the air in preparation to fly above the party, slightly behind the carriage so those inside can see him, and you all set off.
No more than a minute after setting off, a glint can be seen over head, reflecting through Griff's crystalline armour and alerting several members of the group. Though Sam up on the drivers box, at this time joined by Iver, seem too concentrated on the snow covered road to notice. As for the rest of the group, looking up you see a crack appear in the sky, only about 2ft across but at least 100ft above the ground, shedding light and wind from inside of it, it looks like a tear in the actual fabric of space.
Griff spots it too and points it out, "look is light in sky, perhaps I can be going back!?" and without even waiting to hear advice or input from the group he flaps his wings and gains altitude fast.
Before he can get there though a blue bubble begins to appear, being sucked through the crack like a balloon being forced through a small hole, after a moment the entire thing is through and the group watch as a gargantuan translucent creature begins floating upward and the crack in space closes once more. Looking at the creature it appears to have no internal organs, and is comprised of a large bowl-like head which inverts back and forth propelling it upward as it drags wispy blue tendrils after it, those familiar with the sea could liken it to a jellyfish had it not been so odd and giant. It seems completely unaware of its change in location as it harmlessly begins ascending up further and further 120ft, 140ft, 160 ft up and up and up. Griff angrily swears in a language none below understand and continues a slew of yelling and fist shaking at the giant creature.
Elthana isn't sure how she feels about the rift opening up in the sky. It seems as though Muir's theory has been proven, so at least there is that. She watches as Griff attempts to go home and fails.
What emerges... she stares in wonder at the giant creature. It doesn't seem to be harming anything, but yet.. it doesn't belong here. She turns towards Muir on his horse and leans over in the carriage so he can hear her, "So, what do we do now? At least Griff should be able to tell us if this is a creature we should be worried about, but probably not a good thing that it is here? Even if it is peaceful? Though... we did leave the genoids."
When the yelling commences Sam hands the reins over to Iver and turns to look at what all the hubbub is about. Seeing the... air blobby thing... Sam reaches for his bow and cocks an arrow. But it is just bloofy and floppy and... seems harmless?
"Umm... Should I shoot it?" Sam calls out to the others. He doesn't really want to but most the portal stuff did deserve a killing. Likely they're feathered pet as well, though they've not gotten around to that yet.
"They were goofy and helpful!" Sam answers Elthana when she brings up the little rock dudes. "Is this?"
Muir looks up at this creature which reminds him of a sea creature he's read about. Not being one for the oceans, he's never experienced one. Before shouting to Griff "Let's not shoot it yet. You can ready yourself if need be, but let's ask Griff what it is." Muir shouts "GRIFF! WHAT IS THIS CREATURE? IS IT DANGEROUS?
"it is stream glider, harmless beast which flying around, it feed on wind vibration or something, I not knowing the correct science about it." Griff responds after he has calmed down a bit. As he explains, the creature simply gains more height, it must be more than 200ft up at this point and way out of the range of most bows or spears.
"It's beautiful Griff. Is your world filled with such colorful creature?" Vin watches as it floats into the sky.
"yes, stream glider very common in air, useful for capture and using as collection device for stream, more uncommon is sky whale, they are magnificent beast maybe ten times bigger!" It seems Griff is all too happy to be asked questions of his world by vin who seems to be in awe of it all.
Seeing that there was no apparent danger, Elthana's attention shifts from the giant creature to Griff, and her eyebrows knit together in a frown. As he returns to the group, she speaks up, "Griff... you feeling alright? I've seen you look better, you're looking pretty haggard."
((Actually a long bow has a long range of 600ft. So shots taken past 150ft are at disadvantage but still within range... Just to be nitpicky. lol))
Sam slowly relaxes his pull and unreadies his arrow, though keeps it in hand in case it is needed. Perhaps it is harmless but this creature is as uninvited as the rest and Sam is uneasy about letting it just roam free. He wonders just how tolerant these creatures from other worlds would be if people from this one showed up unexpectedly...
"Well if we're not killing it then we should keep on moving, I guess," Sam calls out after a few minutes gruffly. Putting his arrow and bow away, he retakes his seat alongside Iver at the steering of the carriage and motions for Iver to kick the team into gear again.