Val shakes her head, trying to force the irritating ringing sound out as her senses are completely overloaded and feeling as if her head and ears was full of muddy water. She could hear a sound through the muffled garble and she turns to see Seid staring at his arms, screaming... The scene was oddly strange amid the shower of burning papers and embers. "...quiet..." her voice sounded like her mouth of full of marbles. She shook her head again and pounded her palm against her head a few times. Slowly the ringing dwindled and the feeling of vertigo burst away in a maddening rush. The sound of Seid's pain seemed to help steady her feet and focus her eyes as she now saw the burnt, blistered flesh all over and those perfect blue robes of his scorched and sticking to the melted skin. She looks around to see several of her friends rolling around and groaning in pain, but none seemed to be quiet as bad as the wizard. She drops her hammer to the ground, yanks her pack from her shoulder, and after a second of rummaging finds the small bundle that Dorno had taught her to use. She rushes over to Seid with the bundle. "Quiet. It will only hurt you more. Be still, Seid. This will help."
She takes a stoppered vial and puts it to his lips, pouring the bitter liquid into his mouth. "This will help ease your pain." She then looked through several of the small jars of ointment until she found the one she wanted. With shaking hands she opens the jar, dips two of her fingers into the unguent and begins to apply it liberally to the worst of the burns on Seid's face. Dorno had told her that wounds on the face and head were the most likely to end in death, treat them first then move down. Seid began to tremble and shake like a sapling in the face of a storm as the shock took over, he did not look good, but as Val spread the ointment he seemed to regain some control as she began to lightly wrap the gauze around the worst of the burns...
Seid stood there screaming in pain... his entire body felt as if he'd been plunged into a lake of lava; his nose and ears trickled blood from the concussive force of the explosion and he stared in shock at the raw, blistered skin on his forearms. His face hurt beyond any pain he could have imagined and wished he'd fallen unconscious or would just die already if that was his fate... the pain was beyond excruciating. Suddenly Val loomed in front of him and was shoving a vial to his lips, which stopped the screaming and he barely choked the liquid down, barely aware of the bitter flavor on the back of his tongue. He felt the burning began to lesson to a tolerable level as she began to spread some sort of ointment around his face and neck... at which point his body began to immediately shiver and shake as what he vaguely knew to be called "battle shock" began to take over and his mind became fuzzy as the medicine took effect. "...Val..." his tongue was thick and he couldn't seem to think about what he was going to say...
From outside, Dorno was helping gather the wounded into areas where he could work to bandage wounds and apply poultices as necessary. He was currently rubbing some dried herbs between his massive hands when a massive explosion ripped through the building behind them! Screams of shock filled the area around Dorno as he turned to look and realize it was the building in which his friends had gone. His eyes widen and he immediately runs into the building without another conscious thought. He rounds the corner a few moments later, seeing all his friends in agony and several wounded as they slowly got themselves to their feet. He spots Val administering to the funny wizard and immediately noticed him to be in the worst shape of all. "Big Lady! What happened?" Val turns to stare at Dorno and gestures towards the Magic Man, who was looking to be on the verge of falling. Dorno looks at the herbs still clinging to his palms and places them upon the wizard's shoulders and pushes the magic into him, which helps soothe the burns and ease his suffering a bit. Seid's shaking subsides a bit and Dorno looks to Thurston and Brundir who were also badly burned. "Big Lady take care of you, Magic Man. Dorno help other friends."
He walks over to Brundir and removes his own healer's kit and begins to spread some of his own ointment over Brundir's burned legs. "You need to be more careful, friend. If Dorno was not close by this would be very bad." He wraps clean bandages over top of the wound, now looking less like burnt flesh and more like a bad sunburn. He then moves over towards Thurston who was leaning against a desk nearby. "You too, come. Dorno take care of friends." He makes a tsk-tsk sound like a mother nursing an injured child.
Brynja comes storming up the stairs not far behind Dorno. She looks worried, but it quickly fades when she sees that everyone seems to be alive.
"Damn fool," the dwarven matron snaps at Bründir, cuffing him about the head, before spitting a little on her thumb and wiping some stray soot from his brow.
"Are ye tryin' t'finish the greenskins work for 'em?"
Bründir regains 1 wound and 3 vigour.
"Here, let me look," she adds, turning to Seid. Bryna starts to examine the wizard's arms and passes him a leather bound flask to distract him, while she takes the measure of his injuries.
"That'll set you straight," she tells him in a no-nonsense tone, nodding to the man to down the mixture.
Whatever it is, it burns all the way down and makes Seid's head spin, but when he looks back, his injuries don't seem half as bad as he first though.
Seid regains 5 wounds and 3 vigour.
"See, right as rain," Brynja tells him with a wink and clap on the shoulder. "You'll be walkin' that off in no time."
Hurrig gets up off the ground slowly. Dusts himself off and puts out and lingering embers, make sure to check for his beard and braids. “Oi! Next time have the wizard loom ‘fore Ya go swingin around that hammer o’ yours.” He places a hand on Thurston, over the wound and says a prayer. Moradin’s symbol glows, “Aye, ya should be alright for now.”
He turns his attention to Seid who got the brunt of the blast, and notices that Brynja is already tending to him. “Ahh Brynja! It’s a good thing ya here! Brundir is causin all of trouble!” Hurrig snickers. Another prayer to Moradin and Hurrig places his hands over Seid. “There good as new, it’s best we look out for each other. You’ve been a big ‘elp in fixin ya wrong.”
Rolling to soften his landing, Jex avoids the worst of the blast. Rolling onto his front and spitting out some dust and soot he pushes himself to his knees before getting slowly to his feet, he looks around and staggers, almost losing his balance as he is still a little disoriented from the blast. He grins though. "Well, that was interesting. Certainly took it out of me." His vision finally coming into focus he claps eyes on his companions. "Seems to have taken a few pieces off of a few of you though." He shakes his head as his hearing comes back into focus and he frowns. "If you could at least suffer quietly wizard, my head is rather spinning from that blast." He smirks, clearly a level of jest in his comments, however inappropriate a time this may seem to anyone else, but Jex looks around the corner of the room to make sure it is empty before slumping down against a wall, out of breath himself evidently. "Perhaps we should collect ourselves here a moment before..." His fingers circle vaguely around him as he pants for breath, he clearly doesn't feel the need to complete the sentence though.
Bründir welcomes Dorno's aid, but Brynja's coddling was just embarassing. "Way back, 'fore we left, sure, I'd love fer this to be on me. Pullin' off somethin' like this is all well an' good till it's lookin' ye in th' face." Bründir catches sight of Jex slinking off and notes that everyone seems as well off as the room, "Yeah, I'm thinkin' yer right," he exits and meets with other volunteers from the townsfolk in the upper forked hallway, "We all jus' ate a nasty bit o' work from th' enemy wizards. Be on yer guards; if it don' move and i's s'posed to, don' touch it anymore, jus' come find us."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
When Brynja makes her appearance and looks to Seid, Valaith takes a moment to stand aside and check herself over as well. Her quick reflexes saved her from much of the explosion, although she did notice a bit of blood trickling from her nose and ears, but she wasn't sure why. As she retrieves her hammer, her keen eyes spot the glint of gold from within the room. As she locates the source, she begins to stride into the room, but when Jex mentions the possibility of more traps she immediately stops. "Jex, look," she points out the chest. "Maybe you should check that out? I'll... wait right here." She takes a cautious step backward with a slight smile.
Seid chokes down the strong drink with a gasp and watering eyes. He coughs strongly at the burn that works its way into his throat, but as the pain of his wounds begins to dwindle to nearly nothing he looks in amazement at the dwarven woman openly; he'd seen her fight, but never thought her to be capable of this kind of healing. Then Hurrig was next to him and sent even more healing power into the ravaged body. Once they were done he found the pain was nearly gone, his body still burned and ached, but it was tolerable now. He was winded and feeling weak in the knees after the experience, but alive. He looked over his arms and marveled at the lack of blisters, but noticed his skin was pink and still a bit raw like fresh skin. "Thank you... all of you." he fought to find his voice, choking through the words. "I thought I was dead just now. You all saved me, I do not know how the thank you more."
Jex grins again as he catches his breath against the wall. "You could cross that room and give the lid of that box a pull, let me know if it's trapped" He chuckles. "No? Very well. I suppose it us up to me again." He sits breathing heavily for a while longer before pulling himself to his feet.
He crosses the room very carefully, on the constant look out for traps or other treasure. When he reaches the box he pauses, again looking for any pressure switches or lock traps.Seeing none he examines the lock which appears to be damaged beyond functionality, but the twisted clasp will need prying open. He pulls out a crowbar from his pack to do the work but pauses a second dwarfing another magical rune.
Hurrig follows Jex through the room after catching his breath from the explosion. He quickly checks the condition of his armor and battleaxe after colliding with that beam, all seems fine .
“Well the last trap was magic and when ya bust done the door ya almost killed us. Let me see if there’s any magic in the room and on the chest first. Then we can open it.” Hurrig stands in the center of the room with his eyes closed, and utters a prayer in Dwarven. His holy symbol lights up around his neck and when he opens his eyes, for a brief second they glow, before returning to their normal blue color.
Jex waits patiently as Hurrig checks for traps and smirks in amusement as he slips on the crowbar without cracking the lid open even a little.
"Here it's all about technique, not just brawn." He chuckles as he slides his own crowbar into the gap and leans down on the end. "Can't just be putting all your weight through it." There is a satisfying crunch as the lid pops open. "Don't worry, I'm sure you loosened it for me. Now what do we have here?" He grins broadly as he snacks Hurrig on the back. He lets out a whistle as he looks through the contents of the chest, especially as he runs his hands through the coin, spilling from the now open chest and rwalises they fill it top to bottom. "Now what do you think of these other things? Must be valuable to keep them in here, they seem magical to you?" He holds up the circlet and the pearl to inspect.
Val remains nearby watching over the party as they turn their attention to the chest, while Seid begins moving around the room examining objects and compiling everything into an orderly pile.
He examines the objects but does not recognize anything, he then turns his attention to the book sitting before him and all manner of thoughts go through his mind. Could this be a spellbook from one of his companions? Greedily he tries to open the bindings, but the only thing he receives is a jolt of electricity that shoots through his hands and up his forearms! He lets out involuntary cry of pain and drops the tome with a heavy thud! Wisps of smoke drift from his fingertips as his hair begins to stand out a bit. He shakes his head to clear it and turns towards Hurrig in frustration. "I thought you said there was nothing else magical in the this room?! Must I do everythingmyself?" He mutters something else beneath his breath. Valaith chuckles at Seid from her position near the door.
Seid turns away before Hurrig could reply and removes his spellbook, plops it down on the table and begins to work the rituals of detecting magic, ignoring everyone for the next 10 minutes... only to frown in confusion as the book gives off no magical aura. He glances over at Hurrig sheepishly. "Sorry, Hurrig... I was rash and came to a foolish conclusion before knowing all the facts. There is something about this tome. It has no magical aura, but clearly there is some enchantment at work here. It shocked me when I tried to open it and it will not open."
Val cracks her knuckles and begins striding toward Seid. "Let me try! I bet I could get it open."
"No! No, Valaith, thank you very much!" Valaith stops short of grabbing the book. "I need to examine it more thoroughly before we do anything else with it. In fact, if you would like I can take the next 30 minutes to examine the book and these other two items to determine their magical properties if we want?"
While Seid is speaking Valaith cocks her side to one side as something on the table catches her eye. "...that tower... It looks familiar..." she turns to look at the others. "The one we found at the basilisk camp! Where is it?! Quickly!"
"May that cowards lay in Hel for all eternity!"curses Thurston as he stands and stumbles a little bit, still dizzy and charred from the explosion.
He looks to the others and try to help them with their injuries.
"In my defense" he says to the dwarf " At least this time I only started to wave my hammer when they told me to do so..." he smiles and looks to his wounded arm. That nasty burn will take time to heal, time that they don't really got.
"At least it wasn't a twonsfolk trying to clean this place or find some clue about the wizards who set the trap..." he mumbles seeing the others taking care of the things that weren't damaged by the explosion.
Jex rummages around in his pack for a moment and eventually produces the long forgotten figure of the tower that he had hidden away there, holding it out for Val.
Val takes the figurine from Jex and holds it up to the other as she begins to examine them closely. "What do you all think? Do these look alike?"
Unable to make out anything from the book beyond recalling he'd seen it with one of the Mabinogi, Seid's attention is drawn to the strange objects that Val was examining. "What do you have there, Valaith?"
Val looks up in surprise. "Oh, well... we found this one at a camp that had been a part of some cult which we found had been harassing the elves. I thought maybe it might be the same as this tower or maybe they looked like they go together, but I don't think they do."
Seid glances over, but the two objects seem to different from one another that he doesn't see anything that could link them. "Tell me more about this cult?"
Brynja walks over to the empty frame of the big circular window behind the governor's desk and looks out over Quenlan Row. Many of the villagers are still gathered on the marketplace outside, talking with concern amongst themselves after the shock of the sudden explosion. Ringrut seems to be calming the situation by organising them into groups and putting them to task. It is, in fact, not even midday, although so much has happened in the last few hours that it feels like much more time has passed.
"They're not 'ere..." she muses, absentmindedly. "They packed up and left the moment they realised things weren't goin' their way."
She turns and surveys Sheercleft's unlikely group of heroes.
"One of ye was down in the mines, right? That's what they're sayin' anyhow."
Vark stands among the wreckage awkwardly as his friends inspect the room. He shuffles to the side as Brynja walks past him and follows her gaze from behind. "Oh uhm... yes I was uh... down in the mines. There were mages down there. They were doing some kind of ritual on this b-big metallic slab and I uh..." he looks around for support in his retelling. "W-we think they're trying to release something. Something buried or-or locked under the town."
"Then we better make sure they don't release nothing... or then we will be busy destroying whatever they release. Do you know what they are up to Seid?"
Seid listens intently to Val's explanation and he muses over the name Morrigan for a time. "...I have heard that name before. The Morrigan is a dark deity; a force of chaos and war, thriving on anarchy and lawlessness. It would make sense why this fanatics were drawn to her worship given what they do. I feel there is something connecting them to this of the Mabinogi. It feels too coincidental for this all to be occurring simultaneously." He ponders furiously for a time. "I do wonder if these dark forces are working together towards something more... something clearly sinister, but what... I cannot seem to make the connection yet."
He glances over to Thurston with a shrug. "I only know that they wanted to find something that was hidden beneath Sheercleft. I do not know the specifics, Thurston, I am sorry. Up until very recently I was very naive about the true nature of the Mabinogi. I just thought we were a secret cabal that sometimes delved into restricted knowledge for betterment, little did I know that they---" he stops and shakes his head. "How foolish I was. Whatever they are or were doing, we should attempt to stop or delay them. Vark, can you recall anything else from the tunnels? Did you see or hear anything else that could possibly give some insight?"
"You don't worry Seid! "Thurston palms the wizard's shoulder " We all can be fooled. I remember the time that my cousin Herrigard introduced me that girl... Believe me my friend, too much mead can cloud your eyes... even make you blind! She had pretty legs to be a half-orc though.... " he seems lost in his own thoughts for a second. "These Maginobi" he tries to pronounce the name correctly but fails " are to be stopped. But after this fight we should recover our strength or we will be beaten like my aunt Freyjda beated my cousin after that half-orc incident... she was the daughter of a nearby clan you know... "
He turns and adress the others
"Let's take all of this to the inn. Where we can toast for the fallen. Only one, for our fight is not over yet. Then we can rest and go to the mines with Vark as our guide. " he looks towards the window " It's not over, but you all should be proud of what you've helped to do here today. "
He takes the chest over his shoulder and says to Brynja
"After you Madam..."
Once they are at the inn and while the wizards do their stuff with the objects, Thurson is alone in a big table, with the chest of coins open at one bench in one side. He seems very busy. When someone approaches to see what he is doing, they can see that most of the coins are on the table, disposed in small groups of eight coins, each group in a small square of two rows and four columns. Every ten of this small groups seems to be a little bit appart from the others. Each group of ten has three more coins on top and a fourth one over all of them. The pattern repeats itself over an over along the table.
" Five centurias and half " he mutters " One more and we'll have a full cohort... that will make... 500 pieces... "
Jex slips off after clearing the hall to check on his stash, securing it under some floorboards. A few moments later he is back at the bar, and slides into the booth opposite Thurston. He looks over the piles taking quick note of the method and nods with a slightly surprised appreciation.
"Looks like a tidy payment. If that were all we had it would almost still have been worth it."
“No... no I was mostly focused on getting out.” Vark responds quietly. As the party picks their way through the rest of the building before moving on, Vark finds himself in the library. Wizards had magic books right? Maybe they’d left something here. He had seen how the other casters could sense magical auras, and this seems like the perfect opportunity to try. He takes a moment and focuses, opening up his senses. At first it’s hard to concentrate, maybe it’s the residual effects of the blast but all he can think about is the low buzzing sound in his head, which grows louder as he focuses. He leans his head down against the top of his staff in frustration, and to his surprise the sound grows louder. In fact, it’s almost as if the staff is producing the sound! He tests this by moving the weapon farther away and then closer again. Then he checks the silver raven figurine, which also has the same static hum, though at a different frequency. With excitement, Vark now turns to the room around him, hoping to put this new sense to good use.
Val shakes her head, trying to force the irritating ringing sound out as her senses are completely overloaded and feeling as if her head and ears was full of muddy water. She could hear a sound through the muffled garble and she turns to see Seid staring at his arms, screaming... The scene was oddly strange amid the shower of burning papers and embers. "...quiet..." her voice sounded like her mouth of full of marbles. She shook her head again and pounded her palm against her head a few times. Slowly the ringing dwindled and the feeling of vertigo burst away in a maddening rush. The sound of Seid's pain seemed to help steady her feet and focus her eyes as she now saw the burnt, blistered flesh all over and those perfect blue robes of his scorched and sticking to the melted skin. She looks around to see several of her friends rolling around and groaning in pain, but none seemed to be quiet as bad as the wizard. She drops her hammer to the ground, yanks her pack from her shoulder, and after a second of rummaging finds the small bundle that Dorno had taught her to use. She rushes over to Seid with the bundle. "Quiet. It will only hurt you more. Be still, Seid. This will help."
She takes a stoppered vial and puts it to his lips, pouring the bitter liquid into his mouth. "This will help ease your pain." She then looked through several of the small jars of ointment until she found the one she wanted. With shaking hands she opens the jar, dips two of her fingers into the unguent and begins to apply it liberally to the worst of the burns on Seid's face. Dorno had told her that wounds on the face and head were the most likely to end in death, treat them first then move down. Seid began to tremble and shake like a sapling in the face of a storm as the shock took over, he did not look good, but as Val spread the ointment he seemed to regain some control as she began to lightly wrap the gauze around the worst of the burns...
Seid stood there screaming in pain... his entire body felt as if he'd been plunged into a lake of lava; his nose and ears trickled blood from the concussive force of the explosion and he stared in shock at the raw, blistered skin on his forearms. His face hurt beyond any pain he could have imagined and wished he'd fallen unconscious or would just die already if that was his fate... the pain was beyond excruciating. Suddenly Val loomed in front of him and was shoving a vial to his lips, which stopped the screaming and he barely choked the liquid down, barely aware of the bitter flavor on the back of his tongue. He felt the burning began to lesson to a tolerable level as she began to spread some sort of ointment around his face and neck... at which point his body began to immediately shiver and shake as what he vaguely knew to be called "battle shock" began to take over and his mind became fuzzy as the medicine took effect. "...Val..." his tongue was thick and he couldn't seem to think about what he was going to say...
From outside, Dorno was helping gather the wounded into areas where he could work to bandage wounds and apply poultices as necessary. He was currently rubbing some dried herbs between his massive hands when a massive explosion ripped through the building behind them! Screams of shock filled the area around Dorno as he turned to look and realize it was the building in which his friends had gone. His eyes widen and he immediately runs into the building without another conscious thought. He rounds the corner a few moments later, seeing all his friends in agony and several wounded as they slowly got themselves to their feet. He spots Val administering to the funny wizard and immediately noticed him to be in the worst shape of all. "Big Lady! What happened?" Val turns to stare at Dorno and gestures towards the Magic Man, who was looking to be on the verge of falling. Dorno looks at the herbs still clinging to his palms and places them upon the wizard's shoulders and pushes the magic into him, which helps soothe the burns and ease his suffering a bit. Seid's shaking subsides a bit and Dorno looks to Thurston and Brundir who were also badly burned. "Big Lady take care of you, Magic Man. Dorno help other friends."
He walks over to Brundir and removes his own healer's kit and begins to spread some of his own ointment over Brundir's burned legs. "You need to be more careful, friend. If Dorno was not close by this would be very bad." He wraps clean bandages over top of the wound, now looking less like burnt flesh and more like a bad sunburn. He then moves over towards Thurston who was leaning against a desk nearby. "You too, come. Dorno take care of friends." He makes a tsk-tsk sound like a mother nursing an injured child.
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Brynja comes storming up the stairs not far behind Dorno. She looks worried, but it quickly fades when she sees that everyone seems to be alive.
"Damn fool," the dwarven matron snaps at Bründir, cuffing him about the head, before spitting a little on her thumb and wiping some stray soot from his brow.
"Are ye tryin' t'finish the greenskins work for 'em?"
Bründir regains 1 wound and 3 vigour.
"Here, let me look," she adds, turning to Seid. Bryna starts to examine the wizard's arms and passes him a leather bound flask to distract him, while she takes the measure of his injuries.
"That'll set you straight," she tells him in a no-nonsense tone, nodding to the man to down the mixture.
Whatever it is, it burns all the way down and makes Seid's head spin, but when he looks back, his injuries don't seem half as bad as he first though.
Seid regains 5 wounds and 3 vigour.
"See, right as rain," Brynja tells him with a wink and clap on the shoulder. "You'll be walkin' that off in no time."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
Hurrig gets up off the ground slowly. Dusts himself off and puts out and lingering embers, make sure to check for his beard and braids. “Oi! Next time have the wizard loom ‘fore Ya go swingin around that hammer o’ yours.” He places a hand on Thurston, over the wound and says a prayer. Moradin’s symbol glows, “Aye, ya should be alright for now.”
He turns his attention to Seid who got the brunt of the blast, and notices that Brynja is already tending to him. “Ahh Brynja! It’s a good thing ya here! Brundir is causin all of trouble!” Hurrig snickers. Another prayer to Moradin and Hurrig places his hands over Seid. “There good as new, it’s best we look out for each other. You’ve been a big ‘elp in fixin ya wrong.”
Mavi Göz Mal - Half Orc Monk Level 1 Not Another Lost Mine of Phandelver
Drita - Aasimar Hexblade Warlock Lvl 3 Tomb of Annhilation
Iznik Sylnithas - Half Drow Blood Hunter Level 2 Precipice of Voids
Rolling to soften his landing, Jex avoids the worst of the blast. Rolling onto his front and spitting out some dust and soot he pushes himself to his knees before getting slowly to his feet, he looks around and staggers, almost losing his balance as he is still a little disoriented from the blast. He grins though. "Well, that was interesting. Certainly took it out of me." His vision finally coming into focus he claps eyes on his companions. "Seems to have taken a few pieces off of a few of you though." He shakes his head as his hearing comes back into focus and he frowns. "If you could at least suffer quietly wizard, my head is rather spinning from that blast." He smirks, clearly a level of jest in his comments, however inappropriate a time this may seem to anyone else, but Jex looks around the corner of the room to make sure it is empty before slumping down against a wall, out of breath himself evidently. "Perhaps we should collect ourselves here a moment before..." His fingers circle vaguely around him as he pants for breath, he clearly doesn't feel the need to complete the sentence though.
Bründir welcomes Dorno's aid, but Brynja's coddling was just embarassing. "Way back, 'fore we left, sure, I'd love fer this to be on me. Pullin' off somethin' like this is all well an' good till it's lookin' ye in th' face." Bründir catches sight of Jex slinking off and notes that everyone seems as well off as the room, "Yeah, I'm thinkin' yer right," he exits and meets with other volunteers from the townsfolk in the upper forked hallway, "We all jus' ate a nasty bit o' work from th' enemy wizards. Be on yer guards; if it don' move and i's s'posed to, don' touch it anymore, jus' come find us."
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
When Brynja makes her appearance and looks to Seid, Valaith takes a moment to stand aside and check herself over as well. Her quick reflexes saved her from much of the explosion, although she did notice a bit of blood trickling from her nose and ears, but she wasn't sure why. As she retrieves her hammer, her keen eyes spot the glint of gold from within the room. As she locates the source, she begins to stride into the room, but when Jex mentions the possibility of more traps she immediately stops. "Jex, look," she points out the chest. "Maybe you should check that out? I'll... wait right here." She takes a cautious step backward with a slight smile.
Seid chokes down the strong drink with a gasp and watering eyes. He coughs strongly at the burn that works its way into his throat, but as the pain of his wounds begins to dwindle to nearly nothing he looks in amazement at the dwarven woman openly; he'd seen her fight, but never thought her to be capable of this kind of healing. Then Hurrig was next to him and sent even more healing power into the ravaged body. Once they were done he found the pain was nearly gone, his body still burned and ached, but it was tolerable now. He was winded and feeling weak in the knees after the experience, but alive. He looked over his arms and marveled at the lack of blisters, but noticed his skin was pink and still a bit raw like fresh skin. "Thank you... all of you." he fought to find his voice, choking through the words. "I thought I was dead just now. You all saved me, I do not know how the thank you more."
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Jex grins again as he catches his breath against the wall. "You could cross that room and give the lid of that box a pull, let me know if it's trapped" He chuckles. "No? Very well. I suppose it us up to me again." He sits breathing heavily for a while longer before pulling himself to his feet.
He crosses the room very carefully, on the constant look out for traps or other treasure. When he reaches the box he pauses, again looking for any pressure switches or lock traps.Seeing none he examines the lock which appears to be damaged beyond functionality, but the twisted clasp will need prying open. He pulls out a crowbar from his pack to do the work but pauses a second dwarfing another magical rune.
Hurrig follows Jex through the room after catching his breath from the explosion. He quickly checks the condition of his armor and battleaxe after colliding with that beam, all seems fine .
“Well the last trap was magic and when ya bust done the door ya almost killed us. Let me see if there’s any magic in the room and on the chest first. Then we can open it.” Hurrig stands in the center of the room with his eyes closed, and utters a prayer in Dwarven. His holy symbol lights up around his neck and when he opens his eyes, for a brief second they glow, before returning to their normal blue color.
Mavi Göz Mal - Half Orc Monk Level 1 Not Another Lost Mine of Phandelver
Drita - Aasimar Hexblade Warlock Lvl 3 Tomb of Annhilation
Iznik Sylnithas - Half Drow Blood Hunter Level 2 Precipice of Voids
Jex waits patiently as Hurrig checks for traps and smirks in amusement as he slips on the crowbar without cracking the lid open even a little.
"Here it's all about technique, not just brawn." He chuckles as he slides his own crowbar into the gap and leans down on the end. "Can't just be putting all your weight through it." There is a satisfying crunch as the lid pops open. "Don't worry, I'm sure you loosened it for me. Now what do we have here?" He grins broadly as he snacks Hurrig on the back. He lets out a whistle as he looks through the contents of the chest, especially as he runs his hands through the coin, spilling from the now open chest and rwalises they fill it top to bottom. "Now what do you think of these other things? Must be valuable to keep them in here, they seem magical to you?" He holds up the circlet and the pearl to inspect.
Val remains nearby watching over the party as they turn their attention to the chest, while Seid begins moving around the room examining objects and compiling everything into an orderly pile.
He examines the objects but does not recognize anything, he then turns his attention to the book sitting before him and all manner of thoughts go through his mind. Could this be a spellbook from one of his companions? Greedily he tries to open the bindings, but the only thing he receives is a jolt of electricity that shoots through his hands and up his forearms! He lets out involuntary cry of pain and drops the tome with a heavy thud! Wisps of smoke drift from his fingertips as his hair begins to stand out a bit. He shakes his head to clear it and turns towards Hurrig in frustration. "I thought you said there was nothing else magical in the this room?! Must I do everything myself?" He mutters something else beneath his breath. Valaith chuckles at Seid from her position near the door.
Seid turns away before Hurrig could reply and removes his spellbook, plops it down on the table and begins to work the rituals of detecting magic, ignoring everyone for the next 10 minutes... only to frown in confusion as the book gives off no magical aura. He glances over at Hurrig sheepishly. "Sorry, Hurrig... I was rash and came to a foolish conclusion before knowing all the facts. There is something about this tome. It has no magical aura, but clearly there is some enchantment at work here. It shocked me when I tried to open it and it will not open."
Val cracks her knuckles and begins striding toward Seid. "Let me try! I bet I could get it open."
"No! No, Valaith, thank you very much!" Valaith stops short of grabbing the book. "I need to examine it more thoroughly before we do anything else with it. In fact, if you would like I can take the next 30 minutes to examine the book and these other two items to determine their magical properties if we want?"
While Seid is speaking Valaith cocks her side to one side as something on the table catches her eye. "...that tower... It looks familiar..." she turns to look at the others. "The one we found at the basilisk camp! Where is it?! Quickly!"
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
"May that cowards lay in Hel for all eternity!" curses Thurston as he stands and stumbles a little bit, still dizzy and charred from the explosion.
He looks to the others and try to help them with their injuries.
"In my defense" he says to the dwarf " At least this time I only started to wave my hammer when they told me to do so..." he smiles and looks to his wounded arm. That nasty burn will take time to heal, time that they don't really got.
"At least it wasn't a twonsfolk trying to clean this place or find some clue about the wizards who set the trap..." he mumbles seeing the others taking care of the things that weren't damaged by the explosion.
PbP Character: A few ;)
Jex rummages around in his pack for a moment and eventually produces the long forgotten figure of the tower that he had hidden away there, holding it out for Val.
Val takes the figurine from Jex and holds it up to the other as she begins to examine them closely. "What do you all think? Do these look alike?"
Unable to make out anything from the book beyond recalling he'd seen it with one of the Mabinogi, Seid's attention is drawn to the strange objects that Val was examining. "What do you have there, Valaith?"
Val looks up in surprise. "Oh, well... we found this one at a camp that had been a part of some cult which we found had been harassing the elves. I thought maybe it might be the same as this tower or maybe they looked like they go together, but I don't think they do."
Seid glances over, but the two objects seem to different from one another that he doesn't see anything that could link them. "Tell me more about this cult?"
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Brynja walks over to the empty frame of the big circular window behind the governor's desk and looks out over Quenlan Row. Many of the villagers are still gathered on the marketplace outside, talking with concern amongst themselves after the shock of the sudden explosion. Ringrut seems to be calming the situation by organising them into groups and putting them to task. It is, in fact, not even midday, although so much has happened in the last few hours that it feels like much more time has passed.
"They're not 'ere..." she muses, absentmindedly. "They packed up and left the moment they realised things weren't goin' their way."
She turns and surveys Sheercleft's unlikely group of heroes.
"One of ye was down in the mines, right? That's what they're sayin' anyhow."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
Vark stands among the wreckage awkwardly as his friends inspect the room. He shuffles to the side as Brynja walks past him and follows her gaze from behind. "Oh uhm... yes I was uh... down in the mines. There were mages down there. They were doing some kind of ritual on this b-big metallic slab and I uh..." he looks around for support in his retelling. "W-we think they're trying to release something. Something buried or-or locked under the town."
Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - Vark Galestone | Half-Orc | Storm Sorcerer
Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - Caio Cypherien | Shadar-Kai | Inquisitor Ranger
"Then we better make sure they don't release nothing... or then we will be busy destroying whatever they release. Do you know what they are up to Seid?"
PbP Character: A few ;)
Seid listens intently to Val's explanation and he muses over the name Morrigan for a time. "...I have heard that name before. The Morrigan is a dark deity; a force of chaos and war, thriving on anarchy and lawlessness. It would make sense why this fanatics were drawn to her worship given what they do. I feel there is something connecting them to this of the Mabinogi. It feels too coincidental for this all to be occurring simultaneously." He ponders furiously for a time. "I do wonder if these dark forces are working together towards something more... something clearly sinister, but what... I cannot seem to make the connection yet."
He glances over to Thurston with a shrug. "I only know that they wanted to find something that was hidden beneath Sheercleft. I do not know the specifics, Thurston, I am sorry. Up until very recently I was very naive about the true nature of the Mabinogi. I just thought we were a secret cabal that sometimes delved into restricted knowledge for betterment, little did I know that they---" he stops and shakes his head. "How foolish I was. Whatever they are or were doing, we should attempt to stop or delay them. Vark, can you recall anything else from the tunnels? Did you see or hear anything else that could possibly give some insight?"
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
"You don't worry Seid! " Thurston palms the wizard's shoulder " We all can be fooled. I remember the time that my cousin Herrigard introduced me that girl... Believe me my friend, too much mead can cloud your eyes... even make you blind! She had pretty legs to be a half-orc though.... " he seems lost in his own thoughts for a second. "These Maginobi" he tries to pronounce the name correctly but fails " are to be stopped. But after this fight we should recover our strength or we will be beaten like my aunt Freyjda beated my cousin after that half-orc incident... she was the daughter of a nearby clan you know... "
He turns and adress the others
"Let's take all of this to the inn. Where we can toast for the fallen. Only one, for our fight is not over yet. Then we can rest and go to the mines with Vark as our guide. " he looks towards the window " It's not over, but you all should be proud of what you've helped to do here today. "
He takes the chest over his shoulder and says to Brynja
"After you Madam..."
Once they are at the inn and while the wizards do their stuff with the objects, Thurson is alone in a big table, with the chest of coins open at one bench in one side. He seems very busy. When someone approaches to see what he is doing, they can see that most of the coins are on the table, disposed in small groups of eight coins, each group in a small square of two rows and four columns. Every ten of this small groups seems to be a little bit appart from the others. Each group of ten has three more coins on top and a fourth one over all of them. The pattern repeats itself over an over along the table.
" Five centurias and half " he mutters " One more and we'll have a full cohort... that will make... 500 pieces... "
PbP Character: A few ;)
Jex slips off after clearing the hall to check on his stash, securing it under some floorboards. A few moments later he is back at the bar, and slides into the booth opposite Thurston. He looks over the piles taking quick note of the method and nods with a slightly surprised appreciation.
"Looks like a tidy payment. If that were all we had it would almost still have been worth it."
“No... no I was mostly focused on getting out.” Vark responds quietly. As the party picks their way through the rest of the building before moving on, Vark finds himself in the library. Wizards had magic books right? Maybe they’d left something here. He had seen how the other casters could sense magical auras, and this seems like the perfect opportunity to try. He takes a moment and focuses, opening up his senses. At first it’s hard to concentrate, maybe it’s the residual effects of the blast but all he can think about is the low buzzing sound in his head, which grows louder as he focuses. He leans his head down against the top of his staff in frustration, and to his surprise the sound grows louder. In fact, it’s almost as if the staff is producing the sound! He tests this by moving the weapon farther away and then closer again. Then he checks the silver raven figurine, which also has the same static hum, though at a different frequency. With excitement, Vark now turns to the room around him, hoping to put this new sense to good use.
Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - Vark Galestone | Half-Orc | Storm Sorcerer
Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - Caio Cypherien | Shadar-Kai | Inquisitor Ranger