Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

[The PC's can all take a short rest.]

[Usin 2 Hit Die: 16]

[Actually, 1 is enough, it will give 8HP]

(Mica uses 2 hit die: 13.).

Quote from LAXGunner >>

(Mica uses 2 hit die: 13.).

 Mica squats down in the shade and catches his breath, tightening his bandages and gathering his equipment while preparing to move. "We should head back to the village before too long, Nanny owes us some answers." 

Before settling down for his rest, Ran centers himself and looks out over the valley below, channeling his energies for what may come when they return to the hag.

(Uses Second Wind prior to short rest: 6  )

Once everyone is ready to head back, Ran tells the bird they're going back to see the hag then shoulders his pack and will take the lead if no one else does. If Mica takes the lead, Ran will slip to the back of the group in case something unpleasant tries to come up behind them.

[Danica can still take a long rest before we continue...]

An hour passes as the party binds their wounds and regroups before going back to the ruins of M'bala to question Nanny.  The sun has now set and the stars are out in a clear sky.  A warm breeze is blowing in from the south.

"Let's go," says Hew, still shivering but looking better than he did after the fight, having regained some of his vigor and composure.  "If there are other Pterafolk who avoided our cull, we're lucky they still haven't returned."  He joins who ever takes the lead at the front of the group.

It is dark, and those without nightvision must decide whether to light torches or not.  There is a shrill cry from somewhere far below the plateau, but Hew waves it off.  "Not our concern right now."  He looks nervous, perhaps finally admitting to himself that his condition has left him compromised.

The walk back to the ruins are tense but uneventful.  

Entering the ruins, all is quiet.  A single torch is lit, planted into a cracked brick in the side of the abandoned well.  On the lip of the well, illuminated by the torch glow, is a steaming cup inside a giant acorn.

From somewhere in the darkness, Nanny speaks.  "Six you left and five you return.  A costly endeavor, true... but Nanny knows you were successful.  The terrorfolk will trouble me no more this season."

There is silence for several seconds and then from the opposite side of the clearing, "We struck a bargain, and Nanny's words are silver and gold.  First, the cure your dwarf requires... absent any strings... as promised."  The torch flares a little brighter around the steaming acorn cup.

"And you have three questions more to ask of me.  If I know the answer, I shall tell it true.  If I don't know the answer, I will share as much... and since I am feeling tickled knowing those bird-brains are kaput, I'll sweeten the deal.  You can either ask me to give you my best guess if I don't know the truth for certain, or the question won't count and you can ask another.  See?  Hope springs eternal that we can all get along."

"And last, you are welcome to camp here until you have sufficiently recovered and resume your journey."

There is another long pause and then, from somewhere very near, and quieter... "What shall your first query be?"

Ran looks to Danica to ask the question but nods and says "Inete" quietly.

Mica looks around the darkness, unnerved by the changing location of Nanny’s voice.  He nods at Ran’s comment and whispers his agreement “Inete, then your sister Ran, if that parrot is her.”  Not trusting himself not to stumble with the questions, he leaves the others to speak with the hag.

Ran slides back to join Mica.

"Maybe we just ask how to change the bird back to a person," Ran says. "Whether they're my sister or not, we should probably do that."

Meili also looked at Danica but did not fall back waiting for her to speak. The first question, the one burning in everyone's mind right now was about Inete. And Meili spent the group's first attempt on that very question. She squinted in the darkness through the mask (stumbling in the dark on the way here made her to don it again) and asked. "Can you tell us how can we get Inete back?"

There is a pregnant pause, where even the jungle breeze holds its breathe and waits silently for an answer.

...

...

"No."

...

"How vexing.  I do very much want to help, but I must adhere to the terms of our agreement.  What I suspect you meant to ask was 'How do we get Inete back?'  - [When she says this, the words are a perfect mimicry of Meili's voice] - and the answer to that would have been 'I don't know, ask again.' "

"Unfortunately, you asked "Can you tell us how can we get Inete back?"... and that is a question I do know the answer to.  The answer is 'no, I can't tell you, because I don't know.'  A subtle difference, to be sure, but one that I'm sure you can understand.  Please now, you're making me feel just awful about this.  With your last two questions, do try to be more careful.  You're making Nanny feel like she is taking advantage of you, and that is not the intent at all."

Meanwhile, as Ran comments about asking how to fix the bird, the scarlet avian whistles softly and taps the end of its beak with a foot again.

At the hag's response to Meili, Hew steps forward, hand on his rapier.  "Enough nonsense, witch!  We killed your foes, bloodied ourselves (cough) while you kept your claws clean.  One of ours was taken, and for all we know you had a hand in it.  I've stood up to far worse than you, hag!  None of this chicanery!  These folk deserve the answers and we will see that girl rescued!  You'll answer the lass's question rightly; no more games!"

...

"I'm sorry, was there another question in there?  All I heard was the mumbling of an old ghost."

Mica replies to Ran “Aye, that’s a good call, but I believe it is your sister, have faith.”  But he loses his composure at the hag’s mocking impression of Meili and her question, and with the diminishing chances to get Inete back.  He strides forward, placing a hand on Hew’s shoulder to pull him back and growls into the darkness “No more tricks, witch.  Where is Inete?”

Meili patiently and silently listened to Nanny's unnecessary lengthy explanations. Before stepping back in admitted defeat, though, she did say one more thing. "One could argue, that the "no" in this case very much means "I do not know" because this is exactly what it means - you were incapable to answer, you failed to provide the answer to the question and hence, you still owe us a question. We did not sign any contracts to talk about the letter of agreement, yet you do so. So be it. Legend talks about the dishonesty of hags. I did not want to believe them, I was wrong. Thank you for the valuable lesson."

Meili joined the others behind the lines now in full silence.

The hag ignores Meili's objection.  After another long pause, her voice answers Mica, this time from somewhere closer to her hut.

...

"A direct question.  Excellent."

"But Nanny doesn't know where your little Diviner is now... not for certain.  On this topic I could make a very educated guess, but without guarantee my guess is correct.  If you'd like, I can try my best to speculate in exchange for your second question.  Otherwise, you can withdraw that one and ask me something different."

Ran blinks a couple of times at the word game going on between the old hag and the others and decides that keeping his mouth shut might be the best bet.

Mica spits on the ground and curses at Nanny’s answer, then turns to whisper to the others “I am not sure we want to trade a question for a guess, but it would be the only lead we have on where we can find Inete. I do not want to leave her.”

Ran watches the others then sighs and steps forward. 

He nods at the hag and smiles.

"We suspect this bird here may have been a person once," Ran begins. He pauses, trying to make sure he has a very direct, very specific question in his head that the hag can't play games with before speaking.

"Please tell us the exact, step by step, way to restore this bird to the person they were." Ran says, his eyes narrowing as he wonders what mistake he's made in the question.

Ran nods at the location where the hag's voice is coming from and asks his question.

...

"It would be my pleasure.  The little bird is the target of a powerful curse.  Someone took great pains to craft this curse and it is not an easy thing to dispel.  But Nanny knows the way...".  The hag dissertates for some time on the precise incantations and spells necessary and under what conditions they will be effective in lifting the curse.

[In mechanical terms, the hag informs you that the bird must be the target of the spell remove curse , or the spell dispel magic upcast to level 5,  to break the curse.  Alternately, greater restoration will also work but this spell must be cast each morning at dawn for three days as part of a vigil held by the caster over the bird.]

...

"Of course, whoever cursed the bird could always lift the hex voluntarily, but you would first need to identify them and then convince them to do so."

...

...

After another pause, the voice returns, back nearer to the well.  "By my count, you have one question still to ask.  What shall it be?  Don't keep old Nanny in suspense."