Ssej is a little put off by the old man but he trusts the instincts of his horse, animals are usually way more sensitive to the true nature of people. However, he does move away from the old man once his horse is done munching on the apple.
Yes, Kallandra can roll history. You can do so with advantage, thanks to who you serve.
The elderly sage looks up at Ssej as the lizardman moves his mount away. "Don't be hasty there lad." He informs Ssej, making sure the horse ate the entire apple. "You never know how much good a fine mount can make of a little apple." He gives a huff though, turning to pass another apple to another of the horses as it nudges him in the shoulder with its nose. "I've got enough for all of you, don't you worry." He says, giving a bit of a pat to the nose that bumped him.
The shadows are lengthening as you all watch this strange old scollar feed each of the horses one red apple apiece.
"So, about that camp." The old man says then, as if one of you had already mentioned the idea of making camp. "Well, are you coming, or are you going to lolligag around all day." He asks, moving to step on down the road. "Day's getting nearly done and we have a good bit of a walk yet before we reach that camp you know."
Kallandra History 27 26 The first originally came up "Dice rolls not yet available for this section so I redid it...and then it showed up...I hate the roller sometimes.
There is little doubt as to who this old sage is, and you fairly quiver with the knowledge. What would the ancient Elminster of Shadowdale be doing here?
“Sorry traveler, we been on the road for awhile trying to complete a mission. However, we been attack by a few groups coming here, so our guard is up from our travels,” says Brock.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ichika reins her horse to a halt and cocks her head, watching curiously as the old scholar feeds apples to their horses, wondering about his purpose. She looks around at her companions, then asks, "May we know your name, sir?"
Kallandra feels a thrill of excitement at seeing the old man, knowing instantly who he is. Without hesitation she brings Arroniel over to the man. "We are very pleased to have met you, sir," she says very respectfully. "And we thank you for the apples, and for any other assistance you may have to offer." Looking at her companions, she says, "We can trust this man and should hear him out. We serve the same goddess, he and I." She turns back to the man, beaming her full smile at him, not out of any desire to charm or beguile, but out of simple, excitement and happiness. For one such as her, the chance to meet such a man was...wonderful. She whistles and Weaver trots up. "May I have a second apple for this horse, as well?" Again, she speaks with great respect.
Brock The elderly man glances to you and shakes his head with a sigh. "Young folk always are so busy,, rushing here and there, and rarely taking time to learn the why of all of the rushing."
Ichika "As your companion likely will be telling you anyway, I am named Elminster." he narrows his eyes as he looks up at you. (You feel he is being honest.)
Kallandra "I have apples for all of the horses." Elminster says with a glance up at you. He holds your eyes for a long moment. "Mystra has been a might quick to send you on this mission, and I hope you do more than just rush about doing what your told, but think as to the why of what you do, and the how of it as well." With that cryptic remark he turns and starts to lead the way towards the camp he mentioned previously.
Traveling forward you find the elderly man easily able to keep pace with the horses, striding along casually, but, somehow able to move along as fast as a trotting horse even so. After an hour of travel, with night deepening around, you come to a slight break in the trees to one side of the road. without pausing Elminster turns and strides through that break in the trees, which would have been quite hard to notice if you didn't already know it was there. There is just enough room for the wagon to fit through, and, after a few dozen feet, the break opens up into a large clearing.
"Well, go ahead, set up your camp." Elminster says as he takes a seat on a boulder near an unlit campfire in the center of the clearing. A pile of wood has already been prepared in the fire circle, and, with a wave of a hand, the campfire bursts into flame. The elderly Elminster pulls a pipe out of the air and starts to smoke it as you move around setting up camp.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Trusting the group, Ssej follows along and when the fire is lit will go about rummaging around the area to see if he can find any food.
Survival: 19
With what game he does find he will make a meal for anyone that wants it, that is not all that fancy besides just cooked flesh. He sits a bit away from the old man mainly due to his mistrust of elderly wizards but at least this one does not have the stench of the undead on his person.
Kallandra forces herself to see to her horses. That task completed she assists the others in setting up the camp and preparing the meal, murmuring a thanks to Ssej for his offer, which she accepts. She didn't care for his...approach to their mission but he sure as hell knew how to cook up the game he caught. He was also strangely compelling. She valued honesty and he seemed just about as honest as they came.
Finally, she turns to Elminster. Her delay had partly been to allow some of her hero worship to fade. "Lo...um, Elminster. What did you mean by what you said to me? As to the why, as far as I know, it's to keep some massive evil from gaining dominion over this world. Is there more to it than that?"
One note, for all of you who were at the Yawning Portal, so everyone but Kallandra, you would recognize El minster as the elderly man that walked in on your meeting there.
"Lass, there is always more to it than that." Elminster says, as great puffs of smoke rise from his pipe. He takes it from his mouth and lets go, the pipe hovering in place. "Some years ago I had the task of destroying a young and up-coming young lady, who had done nothing more wrong than be born with a power called spellfire." He settles back onto the boulder, as if it were the most comfortable chair in a well-appointed study. "Many feared her power, many wanted to control that power, and, a lot of people, wanted that power destroyed before it could flurish or come under another control." The pipe continued to send out puffs of smoke, but now that smoke twisted into shapes, showing figures in it, those figures mirroring Elminster's words as he describes his time with the young Shandril. His story is that of a bard, with flourishes and the smoke showing the tail in vivid detail.
(For those who have not read the books about Shandril the story involves her learning of her ability to use spellfire, the harper's getting involved and the Zhents trying to capture her to control her. Elminster aids her, teaching her how to control her power, and seeing she is not taken by the Zhents. I would have to reread them myself for more details than that, but, in the end, she is allowed to live on without being destroyed and without the Zhents in control of her.)
Night has truly fallen by the time he has finished his telling of the tale. As his tale finishes you all, even those of elven blood, feel uncommonly tired. Many questions swirl through your heads, and you mean to ask them, but just are so flaming tired... This does not put those immune to sleep to sleep, but does entice them to start trances early, and does get the rest to settle down and sleep. Nothing bothers you through the night, the camp protected by swirling pipe smoke until the first rays of dawn.
When you wake the next morning Elminster is gone. The horses are all rested, as if having spent a week in a comfortable stall, all of the exertion from past travel seemingly washed away.
As you get going this morning, it is a fairly nice morning, with a partly cloudy sky. Your camp is dry, but, as you move beyond it to relieve yourself, or to do any foraging, you would notice the trees ringing the camp are sodden with rain. It is not raining currently, but looks to have done so overnight, though there is no sign of rain having fallen anywhere on your camp itself. Even as you are getting mounted up a thicker cloud cover moves in, with the clouds being blown by a stronger wind. As you move onto the road, and start South again, the wind is picking up in speed. It is blowing from the North and Northwest.
You know that the next stop will be at an historic inn named the Way Inn, what would normally be a 2 day ride from here, but, with your fast pace, you will likely arrive well into the evening hours today, if you ride hard.
Yashin pushes the horses driving the wagon to a fast past, trying to cover as much ground as they can throughout the day. Along the way, he answers Kallandra’s question from the day before on their past dealings with the forces of Bane. “Truthfully, we know very little about the forces arrayed against us. But we have been attacked along the road at least three to four times since we left Waterdeep. Forces of Bane, the Zhentarim, even Yuan-Ti. The group you met at the tavern was just the latest of a long list. Something wants to prevent us from reaching our goal in the south. My god does not tolerate failure or weakness.”
He rides in silence for a while before asking about their strange visitor from the night before “What do you think the old man meant by his story, and his talk of the why and how we do what we do? Why share the bedtime story of Shandril?”
Ichika listened to the story told by the old scholar that night. He was a very good storyteller, the story stayed with her, even as she closed her eyes for the night and drifted off, she could see the moving smoke retailing the story in front of her.
"I do not know." She shakes a her a little and answers Yashin, looking down at her hands holding reins. "When I had fought before, it was because my country needed me. We were at war, and there was no other choice but to stand and fight. I never thought about why I fight. Royalty, bravery and glory - that was what mattered the most to us."
Kallandra listened to Yashin's brief history of the group prior to her arrival, a history filled with violence and bloodshed. About what she'd expected, given the vision she'd had from Mystra. She nodded, "Yes, I agree. Whatever forces were defeated in that vision want their power back and we who stand in their way will be crushed...if they can. I don't crush easily, though, and neither do any of you, I can see."
She ponders his question about Elminster, and then Ichika's answer, considering her own. She realized she had been much like Ichika, in her own way. Elminster, though, clearly had a different approach and wanted her...them...to give a little more thought. "I think he means we should not be the arrow loosed from the bow, going where we're aimed without thought, but should instead be the hand guiding the bow and aiming the arrow. We should considered not only the objective we've been aimed at but the best way to achieve it. Like his story, the real objective was to stop Shandril becoming a threat, not kill her. Sure, killing her achieved that objective but so did his solution. I think he wants us to consider our real objective and decide for ourselves the best way to get there." She pauses, then, "So what is our objective? Is it stopping these creatures from regaining their power? Is it destroying the artifacts?"
Ssej absentmindedly listens to the old man's story and then find himself entirely enthralled when he starts talking about Shandril and Starfire. Ssej would love to get his hands on Strarfire as the amount of damage he could do to the Thayans would be glorious.
Hearing the other talk about the events of last night Ssej chimes in, "I lissten to Haor'ss ssuggestions but by no meanss do I follow him blindly. It iss more that our dessiress align well and I am good at what I do. Ass for what we do with the artifactss when we get them will depend on what they are and what iss going on at the time. If we can usse them for our own purpossess in attaining more of them and keeping them out of otherss hand sso be it, if they are of no help to us in gaining more, then no reasson to keep them around and they musst be desstroyed before they can possssibly land in the handss of our enemiess. Until we know more, we can not make ssuch a decission. Either way I am making a mental lisst of the wrongss being made and will exact vengeance on thosse that crossss our path."
“It is a story to explain our task, power is not necessarily evil. We are preventing beings from obtaining that power because the gods fear the ones who trying to gain it will throw the world out of balance. They can’t control it. But it is a possibility that they may improve the world, or maybe they won’t do anything at all. I think the fellow was trying to say it may be a possibility these dragon lords may not be our enemies. Doesn’t mean we don’t continue our course, but we need to keep a open mind about who we consider our opponents,” Brock says climbing into what has become his customary seat.
Ssej is a little put off by the old man but he trusts the instincts of his horse, animals are usually way more sensitive to the true nature of people. However, he does move away from the old man once his horse is done munching on the apple.
ooc: Can Kallandra get a roll to see if she knows or at least suspect who this old man is?
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
Yes, Kallandra can roll history. You can do so with advantage, thanks to who you serve.
The elderly sage looks up at Ssej as the lizardman moves his mount away. "Don't be hasty there lad." He informs Ssej, making sure the horse ate the entire apple. "You never know how much good a fine mount can make of a little apple." He gives a huff though, turning to pass another apple to another of the horses as it nudges him in the shoulder with its nose. "I've got enough for all of you, don't you worry." He says, giving a bit of a pat to the nose that bumped him.
The shadows are lengthening as you all watch this strange old scollar feed each of the horses one red apple apiece.
"So, about that camp." The old man says then, as if one of you had already mentioned the idea of making camp. "Well, are you coming, or are you going to lolligag around all day." He asks, moving to step on down the road. "Day's getting nearly done and we have a good bit of a walk yet before we reach that camp you know."
Kallandra History 27
26
The first originally came up "Dice rolls not yet available for this section so I redid it...and then it showed up...I hate the roller sometimes.Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
Kallandra...
There is little doubt as to who this old sage is, and you fairly quiver with the knowledge. What would the ancient Elminster of Shadowdale be doing here?
“Sorry traveler, we been on the road for awhile trying to complete a mission. However, we been attack by a few groups coming here, so our guard is up from our travels,” says Brock.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4
Ichika reins her horse to a halt and cocks her head, watching curiously as the old scholar feeds apples to their horses, wondering about his purpose. She looks around at her companions, then asks, "May we know your name, sir?"
Insight: 20
Kallandra feels a thrill of excitement at seeing the old man, knowing instantly who he is. Without hesitation she brings Arroniel over to the man. "We are very pleased to have met you, sir," she says very respectfully. "And we thank you for the apples, and for any other assistance you may have to offer." Looking at her companions, she says, "We can trust this man and should hear him out. We serve the same goddess, he and I." She turns back to the man, beaming her full smile at him, not out of any desire to charm or beguile, but out of simple, excitement and happiness. For one such as her, the chance to meet such a man was...wonderful. She whistles and Weaver trots up. "May I have a second apple for this horse, as well?" Again, she speaks with great respect.
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
Brock
The elderly man glances to you and shakes his head with a sigh. "Young folk always are so busy,, rushing here and there, and rarely taking time to learn the why of all of the rushing."
Ichika
"As your companion likely will be telling you anyway, I am named Elminster." he narrows his eyes as he looks up at you. (You feel he is being honest.)
Kallandra
"I have apples for all of the horses." Elminster says with a glance up at you. He holds your eyes for a long moment. "Mystra has been a might quick to send you on this mission, and I hope you do more than just rush about doing what your told, but think as to the why of what you do, and the how of it as well." With that cryptic remark he turns and starts to lead the way towards the camp he mentioned previously.
Traveling forward you find the elderly man easily able to keep pace with the horses, striding along casually, but, somehow able to move along as fast as a trotting horse even so. After an hour of travel, with night deepening around, you come to a slight break in the trees to one side of the road. without pausing Elminster turns and strides through that break in the trees, which would have been quite hard to notice if you didn't already know it was there. There is just enough room for the wagon to fit through, and, after a few dozen feet, the break opens up into a large clearing.
"Well, go ahead, set up your camp." Elminster says as he takes a seat on a boulder near an unlit campfire in the center of the clearing. A pile of wood has already been prepared in the fire circle, and, with a wave of a hand, the campfire bursts into flame. The elderly Elminster pulls a pipe out of the air and starts to smoke it as you move around setting up camp.
Trusting the group, Ssej follows along and when the fire is lit will go about rummaging around the area to see if he can find any food.
Survival: 19
With what game he does find he will make a meal for anyone that wants it, that is not all that fancy besides just cooked flesh. He sits a bit away from the old man mainly due to his mistrust of elderly wizards but at least this one does not have the stench of the undead on his person.
Kallandra forces herself to see to her horses. That task completed she assists the others in setting up the camp and preparing the meal, murmuring a thanks to Ssej for his offer, which she accepts. She didn't care for his...approach to their mission but he sure as hell knew how to cook up the game he caught. He was also strangely compelling. She valued honesty and he seemed just about as honest as they came.
Finally, she turns to Elminster. Her delay had partly been to allow some of her hero worship to fade. "Lo...um, Elminster. What did you mean by what you said to me? As to the why, as far as I know, it's to keep some massive evil from gaining dominion over this world. Is there more to it than that?"
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
One note, for all of you who were at the Yawning Portal, so everyone but Kallandra, you would recognize El minster as the elderly man that walked in on your meeting there.
"Lass, there is always more to it than that." Elminster says, as great puffs of smoke rise from his pipe. He takes it from his mouth and lets go, the pipe hovering in place. "Some years ago I had the task of destroying a young and up-coming young lady, who had done nothing more wrong than be born with a power called spellfire." He settles back onto the boulder, as if it were the most comfortable chair in a well-appointed study. "Many feared her power, many wanted to control that power, and, a lot of people, wanted that power destroyed before it could flurish or come under another control." The pipe continued to send out puffs of smoke, but now that smoke twisted into shapes, showing figures in it, those figures mirroring Elminster's words as he describes his time with the young Shandril. His story is that of a bard, with flourishes and the smoke showing the tail in vivid detail.
(For those who have not read the books about Shandril the story involves her learning of her ability to use spellfire, the harper's getting involved and the Zhents trying to capture her to control her. Elminster aids her, teaching her how to control her power, and seeing she is not taken by the Zhents. I would have to reread them myself for more details than that, but, in the end, she is allowed to live on without being destroyed and without the Zhents in control of her.)
Night has truly fallen by the time he has finished his telling of the tale. As his tale finishes you all, even those of elven blood, feel uncommonly tired. Many questions swirl through your heads, and you mean to ask them, but just are so flaming tired... This does not put those immune to sleep to sleep, but does entice them to start trances early, and does get the rest to settle down and sleep. Nothing bothers you through the night, the camp protected by swirling pipe smoke until the first rays of dawn.
When you wake the next morning Elminster is gone. The horses are all rested, as if having spent a week in a comfortable stall, all of the exertion from past travel seemingly washed away.
"Alright friends, we should get back on the road, but I've been kinda bored for the past bit. Anybody know any good road games," asks Brock.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4
As you get going this morning, it is a fairly nice morning, with a partly cloudy sky. Your camp is dry, but, as you move beyond it to relieve yourself, or to do any foraging, you would notice the trees ringing the camp are sodden with rain. It is not raining currently, but looks to have done so overnight, though there is no sign of rain having fallen anywhere on your camp itself. Even as you are getting mounted up a thicker cloud cover moves in, with the clouds being blown by a stronger wind. As you move onto the road, and start South again, the wind is picking up in speed. It is blowing from the North and Northwest.
You know that the next stop will be at an historic inn named the Way Inn, what would normally be a 2 day ride from here, but, with your fast pace, you will likely arrive well into the evening hours today, if you ride hard.
Yashin pushes the horses driving the wagon to a fast past, trying to cover as much ground as they can throughout the day. Along the way, he answers Kallandra’s question from the day before on their past dealings with the forces of Bane. “Truthfully, we know very little about the forces arrayed against us. But we have been attacked along the road at least three to four times since we left Waterdeep. Forces of Bane, the Zhentarim, even Yuan-Ti. The group you met at the tavern was just the latest of a long list. Something wants to prevent us from reaching our goal in the south. My god does not tolerate failure or weakness.”
He rides in silence for a while before asking about their strange visitor from the night before “What do you think the old man meant by his story, and his talk of the why and how we do what we do? Why share the bedtime story of Shandril?”
Ichika listened to the story told by the old scholar that night. He was a very good storyteller, the story stayed with her, even as she closed her eyes for the night and drifted off, she could see the moving smoke retailing the story in front of her.
"I do not know." She shakes a her a little and answers Yashin, looking down at her hands holding reins. "When I had fought before, it was because my country needed me. We were at war, and there was no other choice but to stand and fight. I never thought about why I fight. Royalty, bravery and glory - that was what mattered the most to us."
Kallandra listened to Yashin's brief history of the group prior to her arrival, a history filled with violence and bloodshed. About what she'd expected, given the vision she'd had from Mystra. She nodded, "Yes, I agree. Whatever forces were defeated in that vision want their power back and we who stand in their way will be crushed...if they can. I don't crush easily, though, and neither do any of you, I can see."
She ponders his question about Elminster, and then Ichika's answer, considering her own. She realized she had been much like Ichika, in her own way. Elminster, though, clearly had a different approach and wanted her...them...to give a little more thought. "I think he means we should not be the arrow loosed from the bow, going where we're aimed without thought, but should instead be the hand guiding the bow and aiming the arrow. We should considered not only the objective we've been aimed at but the best way to achieve it. Like his story, the real objective was to stop Shandril becoming a threat, not kill her. Sure, killing her achieved that objective but so did his solution. I think he wants us to consider our real objective and decide for ourselves the best way to get there." She pauses, then, "So what is our objective? Is it stopping these creatures from regaining their power? Is it destroying the artifacts?"
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
Ssej absentmindedly listens to the old man's story and then find himself entirely enthralled when he starts talking about Shandril and Starfire. Ssej would love to get his hands on Strarfire as the amount of damage he could do to the Thayans would be glorious.
Hearing the other talk about the events of last night Ssej chimes in, "I lissten to Haor'ss ssuggestions but by no meanss do I follow him blindly. It iss more that our dessiress align well and I am good at what I do. Ass for what we do with the artifactss when we get them will depend on what they are and what iss going on at the time. If we can usse them for our own purpossess in attaining more of them and keeping them out of otherss hand sso be it, if they are of no help to us in gaining more, then no reasson to keep them around and they musst be desstroyed before they can possssibly land in the handss of our enemiess. Until we know more, we can not make ssuch a decission. Either way I am making a mental lisst of the wrongss being made and will exact vengeance on thosse that crossss our path."
“It is a story to explain our task, power is not necessarily evil. We are preventing beings from obtaining that power because the gods fear the ones who trying to gain it will throw the world out of balance. They can’t control it. But it is a possibility that they may improve the world, or maybe they won’t do anything at all. I think the fellow was trying to say it may be a possibility these dragon lords may not be our enemies. Doesn’t mean we don’t continue our course, but we need to keep a open mind about who we consider our opponents,” Brock says climbing into what has become his customary seat.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4