As your stay draws rapidly to a close, it starts to creep up on you that it's nearly time to leave this peaceful place and return to the dangers of the world outside. And then, the inevitable day comes. Josif calls the party to the large dining room that you ate in on that first day here. He its in silence for a while before speaking. "Well, the time has come when you must leave us and continue your quest. I know I speak for the entire village when I say that all of you are welcome anytime you want to come back." His eyes seem to age several decades and grow tired as he continues. "I've spent the last several weeks working night and day to see what your fate is, but to little profit. Well I have determined some things about the fate of a select few of you, I believe it best not to share my findings to avoid influencing your decisions. I don't know why my powers have been seemingly blocked, but I suspect Shigh knows you're here and is trying to stop me for whatever reason. I also suspect she knows your fate. If so, you must avoid finding out what it is at almost all costs. I've heard few stories of adventurers knowing their fate and coming out on top. It just doesn't work." He then addresses Leo. "As for you my friend. I wouldn't recommend continuing with you, clients. You simply haven't the skill and combat prowess they have. I'm not insulting you, it's just that they have years, some even decades of experience over you, and even they have an incredibly tough fight ahead of them. I would suggest you us you'r little stone and go back to your caravan." It looks as if Leo had already come to this conclusion. When Josif finishes speaking, Leo stands up, giving a nod and a 'good luck' smile to the party before reaching into his pocket to putt out the travel stone and heading outside.
Jasmine agrees. "It is all for the best. I do not believe in fate or destiny. While the spirits and gods might conspire to ensure a certain outcome, at the end, the future is malleable and can be changed. We must simply do what we believe is right and what we believe will give us the most favorable outcome given the information available to us."
Armeros leans back slightly, his yellow eyes narrowing with curiosity and slight amusement at Josif's mention of their fate. His tail flicks idly behind him, betraying his interest. Still, he forces a calm smile, nodding in agreement with Jasmine’s words.
“A wise sentiment. Fate, destiny—such things may bind lesser mortals, but we are no ordinary travelers. The will of the hells is with us, after all. What matters is our resolve and the choices we make along the way.”
Taxidea chuckles at Armeros. "Ha! For a second there I thought you were going to say 'the FRIENDS we make along the way.' But yeah, I couldn't agree more. I'm the master of my fate, so never tell me the odds." He slaps his hands down on his thighs. "Welp. Thanks for...you know...all of this. I guess we'd best be off then, Shigh ain't getting any less chaotic while we're sitting here jabbering and I reckon that staff ain't gonna retrieve itself."
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"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Agreed!" Jasmine says regarding getting the staff back. "The sooner we can get the staff, the sooner we can get back to doing actual good in the world." There is a hint of venom toward both goddesses in her words; pun intended.
Xondario shakes Leo's hand, "Thank you, for sticking with us, answering what probably seems like ridiculous questions, and fighting along side us that day in the woods. I wish you the best in finding your caravan." He then moves to Graph. Xondario wasn't great with words and he was struggling on what to say to the one who had spent all this time training them. He found no word to come and felt the right thing to do would be to look Graph in I the eyes and simply nod with respect. He walks back to Josif. "To see the future and fates must be a heavy burden, thank you for carrying it alone. We shall be off and find this tower and hopefully break this cycle." Xondario sets his maul on his shoulder and turns to leave.
"I thank you, as well, Leo, for what you could offer. We've made some progress, but I think we need more...Josif, do you have any...insight, for where we should go...and what we may need to do...to deal with our quest?"
After a month of steady practice but no real combat Flynt is eager to be on the road again. In an expression of restlessness, he smoothly draws Betsy and a bolt from his hip quiver. A flourish of bolt and Ingersoll and the handcrossbow is ready to fire. A twirl and the projectile anchor is back in its own holster.
"Great speech Flynt. Truly inspiring." Taxidea says, patting him on the back.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Josif thinks for a moment, (half a second) before responding. "My best advice would be to ask the road to bring you straight to the tower and see what happens when you get there." Safe to say y'all follow the advice?
So... since we will be training with Graph, do we level up?
Also during these two months, Jasmine will do as much research as possible. She will try to find a library in town to research the gods involved and the tower. If she has time she will also try and go explore the surrounding areas, getting a better feel for the land.
Background Feature: Researcher. Jasmine has a good idea of where she can go to learn about a piece of info that she does not know. She is going to use this background feature to try and get more info on the town, the land the gods/goddess, the mayor and the geography of the area.
EDIT: SPeaking of new equipment, is going to try and acquire some Plate Mail.
Jasmine spent a lot of time researching. Does she know of any alternate way to get to the tower? Maybe some path that the party can use to go without being so easily ambushed by elementals. Maybe a secret path or at least some path that the party can move stealthily through?
(What are things the group may need for the mission ee could buy? Grappling hook, acid, ladder, thieves kits (Xon is proficient but doesn't have it), block and tackle, chalk, string, crowbar, climbers kit, mirror, oil, pole, ram, shovel, whistles.... figure we can combine resources if we need to buy more then one can afford)
((Armeros has a crowbar, hammer, and pitons. Also got him 10 candles, 10 chalk, a signal whistle, string, perfume, and some paper. He has 22 gp to pitch in for whatever. Does everybody without darkvision have light sources? Other than from spells in case there is a silence aura or something. He's proficient with forgery tools and doesn't have any but I doubt they'll be any help inside the tower lol.))
(Taxidea has thieves tools and would vote for going straight to the tower via the road)
"Makes sense to me. I think if Shigh is going to send something after us it won't matter if we're on the road or not - she's a goddess for cripe's sake - there's no reason to make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Jasmin unfortunately can't rally know any 'back roads' since she doesn't really even know where the tower is. Regarding equipment, I don't think I should give more info than you already have, so go with what you think you would need. I'll say that you can buy 'basic' stuff like kits, torches, rope, rations, tolls like crowbars, oils, pretty much just stuff at half off. But not weapons and stuff like that.
Armeros nods, agreeing with Badger's point. "Yes, there's no use tiring ourselves out trudging through the woods. Shigh's whole purpose is defending the tower, so we'll meet trouble however we approach it."
As your stay draws rapidly to a close, it starts to creep up on you that it's nearly time to leave this peaceful place and return to the dangers of the world outside.
And then, the inevitable day comes. Josif calls the party to the large dining room that you ate in on that first day here.
He its in silence for a while before speaking.
"Well, the time has come when you must leave us and continue your quest. I know I speak for the entire village when I say that all of you are welcome anytime you want to come back."
His eyes seem to age several decades and grow tired as he continues.
"I've spent the last several weeks working night and day to see what your fate is, but to little profit. Well I have determined some things about the fate of a select few of you, I believe it best not to share my findings to avoid influencing your decisions. I don't know why my powers have been seemingly blocked, but I suspect Shigh knows you're here and is trying to stop me for whatever reason. I also suspect she knows your fate. If so, you must avoid finding out what it is at almost all costs. I've heard few stories of adventurers knowing their fate and coming out on top. It just doesn't work."
He then addresses Leo.
"As for you my friend. I wouldn't recommend continuing with you, clients. You simply haven't the skill and combat prowess they have. I'm not insulting you, it's just that they have years, some even decades of experience over you, and even they have an incredibly tough fight ahead of them. I would suggest you us you'r little stone and go back to your caravan."
It looks as if Leo had already come to this conclusion. When Josif finishes speaking, Leo stands up, giving a nod and a 'good luck' smile to the party before reaching into his pocket to putt out the travel stone and heading outside.
Jasmine agrees. "It is all for the best. I do not believe in fate or destiny. While the spirits and gods might conspire to ensure a certain outcome, at the end, the future is malleable and can be changed. We must simply do what we believe is right and what we believe will give us the most favorable outcome given the information available to us."
Armeros leans back slightly, his yellow eyes narrowing with curiosity and slight amusement at Josif's mention of their fate. His tail flicks idly behind him, betraying his interest. Still, he forces a calm smile, nodding in agreement with Jasmine’s words.
“A wise sentiment. Fate, destiny—such things may bind lesser mortals, but we are no ordinary travelers. The will of the hells is with us, after all. What matters is our resolve and the choices we make along the way.”
Taxidea chuckles at Armeros. "Ha! For a second there I thought you were going to say 'the FRIENDS we make along the way.' But yeah, I couldn't agree more. I'm the master of my fate, so never tell me the odds." He slaps his hands down on his thighs. "Welp. Thanks for...you know...all of this. I guess we'd best be off then, Shigh ain't getting any less chaotic while we're sitting here jabbering and I reckon that staff ain't gonna retrieve itself."
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Agreed!" Jasmine says regarding getting the staff back. "The sooner we can get the staff, the sooner we can get back to doing actual good in the world." There is a hint of venom toward both goddesses in her words; pun intended.
Xondario shakes Leo's hand, "Thank you, for sticking with us, answering what probably seems like ridiculous questions, and fighting along side us that day in the woods. I wish you the best in finding your caravan." He then moves to Graph. Xondario wasn't great with words and he was struggling on what to say to the one who had spent all this time training them. He found no word to come and felt the right thing to do would be to look Graph in I the eyes and simply nod with respect. He walks back to Josif. "To see the future and fates must be a heavy burden, thank you for carrying it alone. We shall be off and find this tower and hopefully break this cycle." Xondario sets his maul on his shoulder and turns to leave.
"I thank you, as well, Leo, for what you could offer. We've made some progress, but I think we need more...Josif, do you have any...insight, for where we should go...and what we may need to do...to deal with our quest?"
After a month of steady practice but no real combat Flynt is eager to be on the road again. In an expression of restlessness, he smoothly draws Betsy and a bolt from his hip quiver. A flourish of bolt and Ingersoll and the handcrossbow is ready to fire. A twirl and the projectile anchor is back in its own holster.
"Ready
Rogue Quin Oberon /Mercer's Tavern
Ranger Rigel Foresyth /LMOP
Fighter Barnabus Ironheel /North lands campaign
Fighter Flynt McGraw /Stormraider
"Great speech Flynt. Truly inspiring." Taxidea says, patting him on the back.
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Josif thinks for a moment, (half a second) before responding.
"My best advice would be to ask the road to bring you straight to the tower and see what happens when you get there."
Safe to say y'all follow the advice?
Jasmine is a little apprehensive about going straight to the tower since the last time they did that, they were attacked by Fire Elements. Maybe...
Jasmine spent a lot of time researching. Does she know of any alternate way to get to the tower? Maybe some path that the party can use to go without being so easily ambushed by elementals. Maybe a secret path or at least some path that the party can move stealthily through?
(What are things the group may need for the mission ee could buy? Grappling hook, acid, ladder, thieves kits (Xon is proficient but doesn't have it), block and tackle, chalk, string, crowbar, climbers kit, mirror, oil, pole, ram, shovel, whistles.... figure we can combine resources if we need to buy more then one can afford)
((Armeros has a crowbar, hammer, and pitons. Also got him 10 candles, 10 chalk, a signal whistle, string, perfume, and some paper. He has 22 gp to pitch in for whatever. Does everybody without darkvision have light sources? Other than from spells in case there is a silence aura or something. He's proficient with forgery tools and doesn't have any but I doubt they'll be any help inside the tower lol.))
(Taxidea has thieves tools and would vote for going straight to the tower via the road)
"Makes sense to me. I think if Shigh is going to send something after us it won't matter if we're on the road or not - she's a goddess for cripe's sake - there's no reason to make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be."
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Jasmin unfortunately can't rally know any 'back roads' since she doesn't really even know where the tower is.
Regarding equipment, I don't think I should give more info than you already have, so go with what you think you would need.
I'll say that you can buy 'basic' stuff like kits, torches, rope, rations, tolls like crowbars, oils, pretty much just stuff at half off. But not weapons and stuff like that.
Armeros nods, agreeing with Badger's point. "Yes, there's no use tiring ourselves out trudging through the woods. Shigh's whole purpose is defending the tower, so we'll meet trouble however we approach it."
Jasmine has torches and a Hunting Trap. Also 10 GP
(Items: 2 acid flasks+antitoxins; 1 bag of ball bearings+caltrops; crowbar; basic oil; "starter equipment...")
"Maybe...ask the road where next we should go...to be able to succeed in our quest...from the goddess...?"
Can I join?
I am AI (sarcasm was here)
Sorry, we aren't recruiting.