A thought occurs to Vilus, and he begins rooting through a few piles looking for something specific. Then he pulls out a small leather-bound book. A name is written inside the front cover: "Magda M."
The pages are covered in detailed illustrations of various plants, descriptions of their properties, and meditative prayers toward the Goddess of Flowers that she worshipped.
"here," Vilus takes the book he finds and offers it to Samir, "you have been sleeping in her workshop yes? Using her supplies for our cause, do you think her recipe book might help you? Give you a little more information on what purpose the plants and herbs we have access to have..."
He shrugs, seeming solemn, "she's here, by the way. Mother Magda. That's where I wanted to go next. Before we reach the hydaelym and the map. I don't want her body staying here, I watched her die, I was too late to save her, and the fact that we are using her house... I think it's the least we can do to thank her."
Vilus leads the way back out through the door and down the hallway. After a few more turns, the hallway opens up into a round room. Cells carved into the stone line the walls, each with a circle of runes under that manacles that would hold a prisoner upright. In the center of the room, a basin rests on a pedestal. Beside the pedestal is a large stain on the floor that Vilus recognizes from when he spilled it in his escape.
Vilus walks in, expecting the smell of death several days old, but instead he smells... roses? He walks over to Magda's cell and looks inside. There she is, right where Vilus left her. But though her flesh is shrunken and withered, it is not rotting Small vines seem to have grown under her skin, looking like veins, and have reached out and bloomed into a variety of spring flowers. Rose blossoms fill her eyes, and her hair is filled with foxglove.
It is a sight both ghastly and beautiful, for she was a worshipper of the goddess of small flowers
"hmmm. I wanted to move her to a suitable burial site, but it seems her god has her covered. Maybe it is for the best that she remains in the embrace of what she loved in life... Though the scenery could do with a change. Nature will reclaim this lair at some point soon." He walks over to the stain on the floor, if it is dry he wipes two fingers through the stone dust and remains and smells it. "This is why I knew not to get that concentrated arcana fluid on our skin" he clarifies to the group bit specifically more to Samir who had been gifted one of the vials to study, pointing at the stain he states quite abruptly, "this used to be a cultist."
Looking across the room, Vilus wordlessly pulls out a crowbar and moves over to an open cage cell, there he starts smacking at the stone under it, attempting to destroy the runes carved there as completely as possible, he enters a kind of rage filled fuge state and spends some time just smashing the floor up.
Samir looks up as Vilus offers the book, his eyebrows pushing up a bit behind the frames of his glasses. "Oh well, perhaps it might at that. If nothing else I am sure it will be a fascinating document." As Vilus speaks of the woman Magda, Samir stifles his own impatience to get to the map room. This seemed like something that Vilus needed to do, a spare glimpse of a more humane person behind the mask of unrelenting efficiency that so often characterized the goliath. When they reach the cells, he cannot help but draw parallels in his mind between the flowery repose of the dead woman to that of the cultist leader they had so recently vanquished. Perhaps some connection in whatever Ashley had done to Marigold? Keeping his thoughts to himself, he cannot only nod at Vilus' warning about the concentrate arcane liquid and watch as the man seemed to vent his own anger and frustrations on the stone floor.
Staring at what was Magda, Ashley is speechless. She doesn't know what to say but feels for Vilus, having been here when she died. She does hope that seeing her in her final resting place surrounded by what she loves gives Vilus at least a little peace.
As the goliath starts busting up the floor, she waits until it appears the runes have been justly demolished, then.. making sure he can see her, she slowly walks up to him. She puts her hand on his forearm on one of his hits, feeling the solidness of the floor reverberating up through them both. "Vilus. We're going to get them. We are already getting the upper hand."
At Ashley's touch, Vilus' crowbar stays on the ground, his arms tense and as his eyes meet hers. There is a rage and hate in his gaze, but as reality comes back to him, that begins to dissipate. He takes a moment and his body gives, as he falls to his knees breathing heavily, "...they are just a catalyst, this was alway coming... I... I don't know how to cope anymore, everything I knew has turned from me, they looked down on me when I was young, thought that nepotism gave me every privilege, but all I got was neglect and abuse... I don't know what I expected, now that it's gone I shouldn't miss it. But what do I have left.
When we caught marigold and the buzz left, I was at a loss for what to do, it terrified me. It's like I have to have this purpose. Because once this is over and you all go on to better things, delirium will hunt me, I'll be on my own, slowly turning into whatever happened to Andra... I'm sorry... I'm being selfish... I just don't know what to do anymore... We should get moving, there's nothing else we can do here." The echo in the empty prison chamber makes it near impossible for everyone not to hear him, though it's not like he is trying to be quiet.
Ashley falls to his level and embraces him. The warmth coming from her is palpable and she doesn’t let go. She holds him until he gets it through his head that he isn’t alone.
There are a few moments of tender silence. Just a steady dripping of groundwater somewhere in the halls leading out from this room.
Then, there is a rattling breath from one of the other cells a little further in. Hanging almost silently, concealed by the shadows, another figure hangs from chains. Just a boy. Perhaps 11 years old. Stringy, unwashed black hair hangs down over his face, and his clothes are covered in stains and grime both old and new.
Joren recognizes the smell of stale sweat from him as he dangles unconscious. He must have been abducted sometime after Vilus' captivity, but before The cultists seemingly abandoned the hideout for either the Heart of Flame or the ship.
"Thinking you are wrong about one thing, Vilus," Joren adds quietly. "Not being alone, you. Or any of us after what we are having gone through as companions. As friends. I am for staying together. And perhaps there is something we can still be doing here. This young one is yet living."
Joren approaches the chained, unconscious youth, looking for a way to free him safely, whether by force against his chains, or other means.
Vilus lifts his hands and rests them on Ashley's arms around him, leaning into the embrace and acknowledging her message, "thank you...".
He then exhales quickly, a short sigh of acceptance of Jorens words, after all, the echo knight of aall people knows what it is really like to be exiled by ones own community, perhaps Vilus could learn a thing or two.
When attention is brought to the child still breathing in the cell further in, Vilus pipes up, "careful of the runes, if there are any beneath them, they are designed to draw out a person's magic, to weaken them, I might be able to read and destroy the circle in a controlled manner before we move anything."
If Vilus is able to, he does just that to any runes that the child may be caught in.
Using the crowbar a bit more methodically this time, Vilus pries free a couple of cracked chunks of stone from the floor, removing a small portion of the circle, and then passes it to Joren so he can hold up the boy's body. Joren uses the crowbar to pry the chains' brackets free from the wall, and the boys weight comes down fully in Vilus' arms, though the chains still hang from his limbs for now. He draws in another breath, and a rattling can be heard from his lungs. He is emaciated, likely dehydrated, and seems sick on top of it. With the cultists' departure, no one has seen to him for several days now.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Malachi stands silently and awkwardly at both the display of vulnerability from Vilus and compassion and support from Ashley, feelings that Malachi had spent a lifetime hiding before joining together with the others. He is saved from the situation by Joren’s discovery of a survivor. Malachi moves forward to help Joren and Vilus free the boy from his chains. He leans over, checking on the boy’s injuries. “It will be alright, you are safe now, we have you.”He attempts to calm the boy before turning to the others “Does anyone have a healing potion?”
"Here, let me." Samir moves forward, fishing a small vial from his bag. Pressing one end of the vial to the boy's arm, a tiny point on the end of the vial nicks the skin and the faint red liquid inside is injected into the frail figure's body and sets about trying to heal any wounds. The artificer glances at Vilus quickly, finding himself confused by the earlier display and honestly unsure of what to think anymore.
The sores and bruises from the manacles around the boy's wrists and ankles begin to fade, and some colour returns to his cheeks. His eyes flutter open and focus on the large Goliath.
He starts to panic and flail, weakly. "No, put me down! Let me out of here, you monsters!" Then he puts his hands together and utters a quick chant. A ray of frost shoots out from his pointed fingers. Vilus feels the chill as the ray shoots past his ear, missing him to crash into the ceiling.
Vilus attempts to lower the boys hands, not restraining him but attempting to divert any more spells and calm the child "Calm, Calm, we aren't here to hurt you, in fact I was a prisoner here too, I spent a long time caged up, same as you, right over there..." he points over to the cage with the now smashed up floor where the rune circle once was. "those who did this to you are dead, they can't hurt you anymore. My name is Vilus, what is yours?"
His panicked eyes take a moment to focus, but then they take in Vilus' face, and the state of the cells around him. He starts coughing a wet, hacking cough, but when it settles, he seems a little calmer. Still trembling, but no longer thrashing. "M-Mikael," he says. "You're here to save me?" Hope fills his bloodshot eyes as he looks around at everyone.
Tactlessly blunt as always, Joren responds in an accented growl that is intended to be kindly as his echo stands alongside, stone-faced.
"Being honest, we were not coming here to save you, kiddo. More going after those that were doing this to you, really. But saving you would be a bonus, so let us be agreeing to make that happen, yes? Nice little cold blast you were going to give mygoliath friend frostbite with. Not bad."
Joren pauses, realizing that perhaps his phrasing could be slightly more comforting given what Mikael has been through, which he supposes he is still not exactly sure of... but then he plows ahead anyway, attempting a toothy smile that probably ends up being at least as unsettling as it is comforting.
"Not to be bringing up bad memories, which I am no stranger to, but can you be telling us anything you recall before you were passing out?"
"Oh thank you, thank you," the boy says, coughing again. Tears come to his eyes, though either from relief or the coughing fit. "I was captured and brought down here... I don't know. Maybe a few days ago? Once they put me in here, I started to feel so weak, even though they occasionally fed me. And then something happened. There was a lot of scrambling, and talk of someone making a speech in the arena, forcing them to act early. Then everyone was gone. I've been in and out since then. I thought..." He chokes on a brief sob but fights to keep it down. "I thought I was going to die, left alone cold and forgotten down here in the dark."
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A thought occurs to Vilus, and he begins rooting through a few piles looking for something specific. Then he pulls out a small leather-bound book. A name is written inside the front cover: "Magda M."
The pages are covered in detailed illustrations of various plants, descriptions of their properties, and meditative prayers toward the Goddess of Flowers that she worshipped.
"here," Vilus takes the book he finds and offers it to Samir, "you have been sleeping in her workshop yes? Using her supplies for our cause, do you think her recipe book might help you? Give you a little more information on what purpose the plants and herbs we have access to have..."
He shrugs, seeming solemn, "she's here, by the way. Mother Magda. That's where I wanted to go next. Before we reach the hydaelym and the map. I don't want her body staying here, I watched her die, I was too late to save her, and the fact that we are using her house... I think it's the least we can do to thank her."
Vilus leads the way back out through the door and down the hallway. After a few more turns, the hallway opens up into a round room. Cells carved into the stone line the walls, each with a circle of runes under that manacles that would hold a prisoner upright. In the center of the room, a basin rests on a pedestal. Beside the pedestal is a large stain on the floor that Vilus recognizes from when he spilled it in his escape.
Vilus walks in, expecting the smell of death several days old, but instead he smells... roses? He walks over to Magda's cell and looks inside. There she is, right where Vilus left her. But though her flesh is shrunken and withered, it is not rotting Small vines seem to have grown under her skin, looking like veins, and have reached out and bloomed into a variety of spring flowers. Rose blossoms fill her eyes, and her hair is filled with foxglove.
It is a sight both ghastly and beautiful, for she was a worshipper of the goddess of small flowers
"hmmm. I wanted to move her to a suitable burial site, but it seems her god has her covered. Maybe it is for the best that she remains in the embrace of what she loved in life... Though the scenery could do with a change. Nature will reclaim this lair at some point soon." He walks over to the stain on the floor, if it is dry he wipes two fingers through the stone dust and remains and smells it. "This is why I knew not to get that concentrated arcana fluid on our skin" he clarifies to the group bit specifically more to Samir who had been gifted one of the vials to study, pointing at the stain he states quite abruptly, "this used to be a cultist."
Looking across the room, Vilus wordlessly pulls out a crowbar and moves over to an open cage cell, there he starts smacking at the stone under it, attempting to destroy the runes carved there as completely as possible, he enters a kind of rage filled fuge state and spends some time just smashing the floor up.
Samir looks up as Vilus offers the book, his eyebrows pushing up a bit behind the frames of his glasses. "Oh well, perhaps it might at that. If nothing else I am sure it will be a fascinating document." As Vilus speaks of the woman Magda, Samir stifles his own impatience to get to the map room. This seemed like something that Vilus needed to do, a spare glimpse of a more humane person behind the mask of unrelenting efficiency that so often characterized the goliath. When they reach the cells, he cannot help but draw parallels in his mind between the flowery repose of the dead woman to that of the cultist leader they had so recently vanquished. Perhaps some connection in whatever Ashley had done to Marigold? Keeping his thoughts to himself, he cannot only nod at Vilus' warning about the concentrate arcane liquid and watch as the man seemed to vent his own anger and frustrations on the stone floor.
Joren glances as Vilus vents his fury on what remains, then nods slowly, but says nothing. Nor does he insult the goliath by offering to help.
This anger I am knowing all too well. Anger dovetailing with helplessness. Yet helpless we are not. Fixing what we can and enduring the rest...
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Staring at what was Magda, Ashley is speechless. She doesn't know what to say but feels for Vilus, having been here when she died. She does hope that seeing her in her final resting place surrounded by what she loves gives Vilus at least a little peace.
As the goliath starts busting up the floor, she waits until it appears the runes have been justly demolished, then.. making sure he can see her, she slowly walks up to him. She puts her hand on his forearm on one of his hits, feeling the solidness of the floor reverberating up through them both. "Vilus. We're going to get them. We are already getting the upper hand."
At Ashley's touch, Vilus' crowbar stays on the ground, his arms tense and as his eyes meet hers. There is a rage and hate in his gaze, but as reality comes back to him, that begins to dissipate. He takes a moment and his body gives, as he falls to his knees breathing heavily, "...they are just a catalyst, this was alway coming... I... I don't know how to cope anymore, everything I knew has turned from me, they looked down on me when I was young, thought that nepotism gave me every privilege, but all I got was neglect and abuse... I don't know what I expected, now that it's gone I shouldn't miss it. But what do I have left.
When we caught marigold and the buzz left, I was at a loss for what to do, it terrified me. It's like I have to have this purpose. Because once this is over and you all go on to better things, delirium will hunt me, I'll be on my own, slowly turning into whatever happened to Andra... I'm sorry... I'm being selfish... I just don't know what to do anymore... We should get moving, there's nothing else we can do here." The echo in the empty prison chamber makes it near impossible for everyone not to hear him, though it's not like he is trying to be quiet.
Ashley falls to his level and embraces him. The warmth coming from her is palpable and she doesn’t let go. She holds him until he gets it through his head that he isn’t alone.
There are a few moments of tender silence. Just a steady dripping of groundwater somewhere in the halls leading out from this room.
Then, there is a rattling breath from one of the other cells a little further in. Hanging almost silently, concealed by the shadows, another figure hangs from chains. Just a boy. Perhaps 11 years old. Stringy, unwashed black hair hangs down over his face, and his clothes are covered in stains and grime both old and new.
Joren recognizes the smell of stale sweat from him as he dangles unconscious. He must have been abducted sometime after Vilus' captivity, but before The cultists seemingly abandoned the hideout for either the Heart of Flame or the ship.
"Thinking you are wrong about one thing, Vilus," Joren adds quietly. "Not being alone, you. Or any of us after what we are having gone through as companions. As friends. I am for staying together. And perhaps there is something we can still be doing here. This young one is yet living."
Joren approaches the chained, unconscious youth, looking for a way to free him safely, whether by force against his chains, or other means.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Vilus lifts his hands and rests them on Ashley's arms around him, leaning into the embrace and acknowledging her message, "thank you...".
He then exhales quickly, a short sigh of acceptance of Jorens words, after all, the echo knight of aall people knows what it is really like to be exiled by ones own community, perhaps Vilus could learn a thing or two.
When attention is brought to the child still breathing in the cell further in, Vilus pipes up, "careful of the runes, if there are any beneath them, they are designed to draw out a person's magic, to weaken them, I might be able to read and destroy the circle in a controlled manner before we move anything."
If Vilus is able to, he does just that to any runes that the child may be caught in.
Using the crowbar a bit more methodically this time, Vilus pries free a couple of cracked chunks of stone from the floor, removing a small portion of the circle, and then passes it to Joren so he can hold up the boy's body. Joren uses the crowbar to pry the chains' brackets free from the wall, and the boys weight comes down fully in Vilus' arms, though the chains still hang from his limbs for now. He draws in another breath, and a rattling can be heard from his lungs. He is emaciated, likely dehydrated, and seems sick on top of it. With the cultists' departure, no one has seen to him for several days now.
Malachi stands silently and awkwardly at both the display of vulnerability from Vilus and compassion and support from Ashley, feelings that Malachi had spent a lifetime hiding before joining together with the others. He is saved from the situation by Joren’s discovery of a survivor. Malachi moves forward to help Joren and Vilus free the boy from his chains. He leans over, checking on the boy’s injuries. “It will be alright, you are safe now, we have you.” He attempts to calm the boy before turning to the others “Does anyone have a healing potion?”
Medicine: 22.
.
"Here, let me." Samir moves forward, fishing a small vial from his bag. Pressing one end of the vial to the boy's arm, a tiny point on the end of the vial nicks the skin and the faint red liquid inside is injected into the frail figure's body and sets about trying to heal any wounds. The artificer glances at Vilus quickly, finding himself confused by the earlier display and honestly unsure of what to think anymore.
Cure wounds for 10 points (2nd level)
The sores and bruises from the manacles around the boy's wrists and ankles begin to fade, and some colour returns to his cheeks. His eyes flutter open and focus on the large Goliath.
He starts to panic and flail, weakly. "No, put me down! Let me out of here, you monsters!" Then he puts his hands together and utters a quick chant. A ray of frost shoots out from his pointed fingers. Vilus feels the chill as the ray shoots past his ear, missing him to crash into the ceiling.
(Ray of Frost: 13 to hit)
Vilus attempts to lower the boys hands, not restraining him but attempting to divert any more spells and calm the child "Calm, Calm, we aren't here to hurt you, in fact I was a prisoner here too, I spent a long time caged up, same as you, right over there..." he points over to the cage with the now smashed up floor where the rune circle once was. "those who did this to you are dead, they can't hurt you anymore. My name is Vilus, what is yours?"
(16 persuasion if needed)
His panicked eyes take a moment to focus, but then they take in Vilus' face, and the state of the cells around him. He starts coughing a wet, hacking cough, but when it settles, he seems a little calmer. Still trembling, but no longer thrashing. "M-Mikael," he says. "You're here to save me?" Hope fills his bloodshot eyes as he looks around at everyone.
Tactlessly blunt as always, Joren responds in an accented growl that is intended to be kindly as his echo stands alongside, stone-faced.
"Being honest, we were not coming here to save you, kiddo. More going after those that were doing this to you, really. But saving you would be a bonus, so let us be agreeing to make that happen, yes? Nice little cold blast you were going to give my goliath friend frostbite with. Not bad."
Joren pauses, realizing that perhaps his phrasing could be slightly more comforting given what Mikael has been through, which he supposes he is still not exactly sure of... but then he plows ahead anyway, attempting a toothy smile that probably ends up being at least as unsettling as it is comforting.
"Not to be bringing up bad memories, which I am no stranger to, but can you be telling us anything you recall before you were passing out?"
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
"Oh thank you, thank you," the boy says, coughing again. Tears come to his eyes, though either from relief or the coughing fit. "I was captured and brought down here... I don't know. Maybe a few days ago? Once they put me in here, I started to feel so weak, even though they occasionally fed me. And then something happened. There was a lot of scrambling, and talk of someone making a speech in the arena, forcing them to act early. Then everyone was gone. I've been in and out since then. I thought..." He chokes on a brief sob but fights to keep it down. "I thought I was going to die, left alone cold and forgotten down here in the dark."