“It’ll be ok,” she says, as much to herself as to her companion.
At the mention of Titania, however, her ears prick up, and she briefly turns to Ben.
”Right, we could give them as gifts...” she murmurs, tracing the brands on her shoulder blade. “Not like such an elegant Queen would want that kind of a weapon, though. One thing’s for sure, he should NOT get his paws on them again.”
Distractedly, Horatio starts looking up at the giant tree stump. "Hey guys, what do you suppose is up there anyways? We still need supplies, and armor would be nice..." He rubs his wounds. "What about it Longscarf... what's up there? Who's up there? Are there traps? If you're really sorry about attacking us without any mercy and literally branding us, how about you make it up to us by not lying now?"
Meditating, Cad slowly determines the nature of the scarf:
It's a very strange item. The scarf can’t be removed, even if Agdon dies. It gives him 70 ft. movement. Since the item is so organically part of Longscarf, its hard to discern exactly which other of his abilities - like his lightning-fast dexterity and reflexes - are imbued by it. The non-removable aspect of it appears to be a powerful curse placed upon it, far beyond Cad's ability to remove.
Ben searches Longscarf's invisible body, and finds only a couple of items - like Cad's tankard - which he stole from the party during combat.
"That's our camp!" cries Longscarf, invisibly, responding to Horatio's questions. "You can have all our treasure! No traps! Take it all! Just let me go!"
As the others recover, Cad takes a slow, careful, and ritualized look, also, at the now-cold, and still quite invisible, poker.
Branding Iron.Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) fire damage, and the target is magically branded. Agdon is invisible to creatures branded in this way. The brand disappears after 24 hours, or it can be removed from a creature or object by any spell that ends a curse. His branding iron functions for him alone, and it ceases to be hot when it leaves his hand.
”I say we go up to the camp and discuss what we find there. I am not interested in taking anything that doesn’t belong to me, but I would be very interested in returning stolen possessions to their rightful owners,” suggests Ben, adding, “I would be happy to carry Longscarf as long as someone else—out of reach—carries the poker.”
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Matilda shot Titaani a wink and began to climb, slowly and painfully up the stump in search of treasure, " At least I might get something shiny out of being beaten black and blue."
Climbing up one of the rope ladders hanging off the 30-foot-high, 80-foot-wide tree stump, Matilda finds a recently-abandoned camp – a circle of twelve patchwork tents surrounding a carved wooden throne. Piled around the throne are scores of odd trinkets.
The trinkets are many. Looking through the heap in front of her, she finds:
A tiny wooden box containing a croquet set sized for pixies A tiny pair of sharp, iron scissors A chess piece shaped like a dancing satyr wearing a bishop’s hat and clutching a gnarled staff A saltshaker shaped like a wizard’s tower A crystal orb A pendant that shows the phases of the moon A large iron fingernail A tiny metal whistle A wooden jigsaw puzzle piece as big as a saucer, with a painted image of a jug on it A spool of glistening silver thread A large rotten tooth with a glyph etched into it A vitrified eye A small bag of truffles
...and many more strange items.
Looking over the edge of the big stump, she sees wooden skiffs moored among the cattails and grasses that poke up from the water surrounding what's left of the ancient tree.
Cad finishes his rituals delving the secrets of the two magical items. "Both are linked to Agdon, and only he can use them. The branding iron blinds us to him, but that should pass in a day or so. The scarf is more interesting. It does a lot for him: makes him faster, maybe quicker too. It would be useful for one of us, but it's attached to him somehow. Since I can't detect what's holding it there, it's probably a curse. And curses in these parts seem always to lead back to Bavlorna. But I could be wrong. Either way, they're both useless to us, but we shouldn't let this cretin have them back."
He notices Matilda climbing the stump just as she slips over the top. "Now what is she... I'd hoped we could take a rest, regather ourselves before facing any dangers up there, but it looks like the girl has beat us to it." With a heavy sigh he begins climbing up after her, his joints protesting the unfamiliar exercise. When he gets to the top and sees the treasure pile, he settles in to once again cast detect magic.
((OOC With Detect Magic up, Cad will walk all around the top of the stump, looking for any magical effects.))
Cad examines the pile of trinkets. A few items have very weak magical auras – the crystal orb and the whistle that Matilda found, and a few more things scattered about: a ball-and-cup game, a soot-stained sock, a tiny wooden stool, and a thimble all have subtle arcane signatures. Most of the items are non-magical, though. It looks like the contents of a back-alley curio shop.
Below, Horatio examines the harengon's gear: four sets of leather armor, one set of (currently invisible) studded leather armor, and one small (and invisible) shield. All would fit any medium humanoid. Plus slings and clubs and light crossbows.
Curious about the scarf and its curse, Ben asks, “How did you come to acquire this scarf and become the infamous Longscarf, Agdon?”
Since it seems that most of them are staying down here for the moment, he stands watch as well for any brigands that might be considering freeing their leader.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Horatio begins methodically stripping the Harengen of their gear, including the invisible gear upon Longscarf. To accomplish this, he places a length of rope around the neck of the one he is stripping, and stands behind them, knee into their back, them face down. If they resist, he pulls - harshly. He asks Ben to stand at the ready, and only does so one at a time. "If any of you even thinks about trying to escape, if I don't accidentally break your necks, I'll definitely break your hands and feet so you can't hurt anyone ever again! You're criminals and you're unbelievably evil people. You attacked a child!" His tone is scornful and his animosity is genuine. They hurt a little girl.
Assuming none try anything, he makes a pile of the armor and weapons, including any ammo and quivers, camping supplies, packs, and canteens or waterskins. Whatever would be most useful. (Does the studded leather become visible once removed from Longscarf?)
Horatio strips the brigands of their gear. They do not resist. Curiously, the studded leather armor continues to remain invisible even after being stripped from Longscarf. They don't have much in the way of camping gear and supplies, but they do have the leather armor, weapons, quivers, and ammo.
Longscarf brights up a little as he answers Ben. "Ah! My scarf! I wove it from lightning bolts I stole right out from under a dark cloud!"
Nodding at the explanation, Ben expected nothing less from this strange world. He asks, “What can you tell us of the Hag Bavlorna and her enchantment of the queen?”
Turning to Horatio, he says quietly, “Horatio, if we take from these folk their equipment, how are we any different than them? Perhaps we should focus on engaging them to return the items they have stolen instead. Jingle Jangle did mention some stolen truffles, and I just now recovered some items Longscarf actually stole during combat. I would wager their ‘treasure’ is just items they have stolen from others. I think holding Agdon’s brand as collateral until this task is done seems a reasonable approach.”
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Looking at Ben incredulously, Horatio begins to shake his head back and forth. "I don't begin to understand how you came to that conclusion. These idiots kill. How is that not obvious? You would really hand deadly weapons, and armor, back to killers? When his own people went face down in the water he did nothing to save them, didn't even look worried or try to allow us to save them." He points to Longscarf. "And these lickspittles..." He motions to the three tied up. "Attacked us from behind and fired tipped ammunition at us - including a child! You lot walked right up to parlay with hardly a weapon between you and no weapon drawn, and they tried to murder you in cold blood while their merry fool of a leader danced around playing like it was some kind of game. I'm sorry, I won't do them any harm so long as they play nice from here on, but I'll be damned if I'm leaving them the means to harm others more. Your idealist notion only works while you're here to enforce it. This isn't some game where they give their word and say their super double sorry. They're killers. They deserve imprisonment - or worse, and they're lucky we're not in a position to give it to them."
”Perhaps you are right, Horatio. Maybe I have led too sheltered a life to do what is necessary to survive in this untamed land. At the least, I concur that they should be deprived of the use of their weapons—given how they have most recently used them unprovoked as we approached peacefully to parley,” says Ben sadly.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Titaani has been listening to Horatio and Ben's argument somewhat half heartedly. She seems caught between looking through the trinkets that Matilda found and staying to help the humans make decisions. With a frustrated hum, she buts in.
"I agree with Horatio," she says, picking up a crossbow to examine it. "They were super mean! I don't trust them as far as I can throw them."
She lifts up her little gnomish arms. "And that's not very far!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight
Cad looks ruefully at the small pile of items with magical signatures. None so strong that they're likely to be useful for their quest, but he'll have to identify each of them. "At ten or fifteen minutes each, we'll be here for hours..." he mutters to himself. It occurs to him that he has quickly become so accustomed to being surrounded by magic that he finds the prospect of examining a pile of magical goods tedious. He calls down to those below, "There are quite a few faintly magical trinkets in their horde. I doubt they're very valuable, but what do I know? We can either rest up here and I can work on identifying their enchantments, or we can take the lot of them with us and move on. I assume we're done here? The brigands chastised and disarmed? Or should we haul Longscarf back to Jangle? I think her truffles are up here."
((OOC: With most of the party at 1 HP, we should at least take a short rest to bind up our injuries. But having just woken up from a long rest, they probably don't want to stay here for hours.))
Titaani smiles back at Matila.
“It’ll be ok,” she says, as much to herself as to her companion.
At the mention of Titania, however, her ears prick up, and she briefly turns to Ben.
”Right, we could give them as gifts...” she murmurs, tracing the brands on her shoulder blade. “Not like such an elegant Queen would want that kind of a weapon, though. One thing’s for sure, he should NOT get his paws on them again.”
Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight
Horatio:
Distractedly, Horatio starts looking up at the giant tree stump. "Hey guys, what do you suppose is up there anyways? We still need supplies, and armor would be nice..." He rubs his wounds. "What about it Longscarf... what's up there? Who's up there? Are there traps? If you're really sorry about attacking us without any mercy and literally branding us, how about you make it up to us by not lying now?"
Meditating, Cad slowly determines the nature of the scarf:
It's a very strange item. The scarf can’t be removed, even if Agdon dies. It gives him 70 ft. movement. Since the item is so organically part of Longscarf, its hard to discern exactly which other of his abilities - like his lightning-fast dexterity and reflexes - are imbued by it. The non-removable aspect of it appears to be a powerful curse placed upon it, far beyond Cad's ability to remove.
Ben searches Longscarf's invisible body, and finds only a couple of items - like Cad's tankard - which he stole from the party during combat.
"That's our camp!" cries Longscarf, invisibly, responding to Horatio's questions. "You can have all our treasure! No traps! Take it all! Just let me go!"
As the others recover, Cad takes a slow, careful, and ritualized look, also, at the now-cold, and still quite invisible, poker.
Branding Iron. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) fire damage, and the target is magically branded. Agdon is invisible to creatures branded in this way. The brand disappears after 24 hours, or it can be removed from a creature or object by any spell that ends a curse. His branding iron functions for him alone, and it ceases to be hot when it leaves his hand.
Ben:
”I say we go up to the camp and discuss what we find there. I am not interested in taking anything that doesn’t belong to me, but I would be very interested in returning stolen possessions to their rightful owners,” suggests Ben, adding, “I would be happy to carry Longscarf as long as someone else—out of reach—carries the poker.”
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Matilda shot Titaani a wink and began to climb, slowly and painfully up the stump in search of treasure, " At least I might get something shiny out of being beaten black and blue."
Second Wind: 10
Climbing up one of the rope ladders hanging off the 30-foot-high, 80-foot-wide tree stump, Matilda finds a recently-abandoned camp – a circle of twelve patchwork tents surrounding a carved wooden throne. Piled around the throne are scores of odd trinkets.
The trinkets are many. Looking through the heap in front of her, she finds:
A tiny wooden box containing a croquet set sized for pixies
A tiny pair of sharp, iron scissors
A chess piece shaped like a dancing satyr wearing a bishop’s hat and clutching a gnarled staff
A saltshaker shaped like a wizard’s tower
A crystal orb
A pendant that shows the phases of the moon
A large iron fingernail
A tiny metal whistle
A wooden jigsaw puzzle piece as big as a saucer, with a painted image of a jug on it
A spool of glistening silver thread
A large rotten tooth with a glyph etched into it
A vitrified eye
A small bag of truffles
...and many more strange items.
Looking over the edge of the big stump, she sees wooden skiffs moored among the cattails and grasses that poke up from the water surrounding what's left of the ancient tree.
Matilda begins collecting literally everything, this is a treasure horde of amazing value to her.
Cadwallader:
Cad finishes his rituals delving the secrets of the two magical items. "Both are linked to Agdon, and only he can use them. The branding iron blinds us to him, but that should pass in a day or so. The scarf is more interesting. It does a lot for him: makes him faster, maybe quicker too. It would be useful for one of us, but it's attached to him somehow. Since I can't detect what's holding it there, it's probably a curse. And curses in these parts seem always to lead back to Bavlorna. But I could be wrong. Either way, they're both useless to us, but we shouldn't let this cretin have them back."
He notices Matilda climbing the stump just as she slips over the top. "Now what is she... I'd hoped we could take a rest, regather ourselves before facing any dangers up there, but it looks like the girl has beat us to it." With a heavy sigh he begins climbing up after her, his joints protesting the unfamiliar exercise. When he gets to the top and sees the treasure pile, he settles in to once again cast detect magic.
((OOC With Detect Magic up, Cad will walk all around the top of the stump, looking for any magical effects.))
Cad examines the pile of trinkets. A few items have very weak magical auras – the crystal orb and the whistle that Matilda found, and a few more things scattered about: a ball-and-cup game, a soot-stained sock, a tiny wooden stool, and a thimble all have subtle arcane signatures. Most of the items are non-magical, though. It looks like the contents of a back-alley curio shop.
Below, Horatio examines the harengon's gear: four sets of leather armor, one set of (currently invisible) studded leather armor, and one small (and invisible) shield. All would fit any medium humanoid. Plus slings and clubs and light crossbows.
Ben:
Curious about the scarf and its curse, Ben asks, “How did you come to acquire this scarf and become the infamous Longscarf, Agdon?”
Since it seems that most of them are staying down here for the moment, he stands watch as well for any brigands that might be considering freeing their leader.
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Horatio:
Horatio begins methodically stripping the Harengen of their gear, including the invisible gear upon Longscarf. To accomplish this, he places a length of rope around the neck of the one he is stripping, and stands behind them, knee into their back, them face down. If they resist, he pulls - harshly. He asks Ben to stand at the ready, and only does so one at a time. "If any of you even thinks about trying to escape, if I don't accidentally break your necks, I'll definitely break your hands and feet so you can't hurt anyone ever again! You're criminals and you're unbelievably evil people. You attacked a child!" His tone is scornful and his animosity is genuine. They hurt a little girl.
Assuming none try anything, he makes a pile of the armor and weapons, including any ammo and quivers, camping supplies, packs, and canteens or waterskins. Whatever would be most useful. (Does the studded leather become visible once removed from Longscarf?)
Horatio strips the brigands of their gear. They do not resist. Curiously, the studded leather armor continues to remain invisible even after being stripped from Longscarf. They don't have much in the way of camping gear and supplies, but they do have the leather armor, weapons, quivers, and ammo.
Longscarf brights up a little as he answers Ben. "Ah! My scarf! I wove it from lightning bolts I stole right out from under a dark cloud!"
Ben:
Nodding at the explanation, Ben expected nothing less from this strange world. He asks, “What can you tell us of the Hag Bavlorna and her enchantment of the queen?”
Turning to Horatio, he says quietly, “Horatio, if we take from these folk their equipment, how are we any different than them? Perhaps we should focus on engaging them to return the items they have stolen instead. Jingle Jangle did mention some stolen truffles, and I just now recovered some items Longscarf actually stole during combat. I would wager their ‘treasure’ is just items they have stolen from others. I think holding Agdon’s brand as collateral until this task is done seems a reasonable approach.”
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Horatio:
Looking at Ben incredulously, Horatio begins to shake his head back and forth. "I don't begin to understand how you came to that conclusion. These idiots kill. How is that not obvious? You would really hand deadly weapons, and armor, back to killers? When his own people went face down in the water he did nothing to save them, didn't even look worried or try to allow us to save them." He points to Longscarf. "And these lickspittles..." He motions to the three tied up. "Attacked us from behind and fired tipped ammunition at us - including a child! You lot walked right up to parlay with hardly a weapon between you and no weapon drawn, and they tried to murder you in cold blood while their merry fool of a leader danced around playing like it was some kind of game. I'm sorry, I won't do them any harm so long as they play nice from here on, but I'll be damned if I'm leaving them the means to harm others more. Your idealist notion only works while you're here to enforce it. This isn't some game where they give their word and say their super double sorry. They're killers. They deserve imprisonment - or worse, and they're lucky we're not in a position to give it to them."
Ben:
”Perhaps you are right, Horatio. Maybe I have led too sheltered a life to do what is necessary to survive in this untamed land. At the least, I concur that they should be deprived of the use of their weapons—given how they have most recently used them unprovoked as we approached peacefully to parley,” says Ben sadly.
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Titaani has been listening to Horatio and Ben's argument somewhat half heartedly. She seems caught between looking through the trinkets that Matilda found and staying to help the humans make decisions. With a frustrated hum, she buts in.
"I agree with Horatio," she says, picking up a crossbow to examine it. "They were super mean! I don't trust them as far as I can throw them."
She lifts up her little gnomish arms. "And that's not very far!"
Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight
Cadwallader:
Cad looks ruefully at the small pile of items with magical signatures. None so strong that they're likely to be useful for their quest, but he'll have to identify each of them. "At ten or fifteen minutes each, we'll be here for hours..." he mutters to himself. It occurs to him that he has quickly become so accustomed to being surrounded by magic that he finds the prospect of examining a pile of magical goods tedious. He calls down to those below, "There are quite a few faintly magical trinkets in their horde. I doubt they're very valuable, but what do I know? We can either rest up here and I can work on identifying their enchantments, or we can take the lot of them with us and move on. I assume we're done here? The brigands chastised and disarmed? Or should we haul Longscarf back to Jangle? I think her truffles are up here."
((OOC: With most of the party at 1 HP, we should at least take a short rest to bind up our injuries. But having just woken up from a long rest, they probably don't want to stay here for hours.))
Matilda nodded, " We should definitely return the truffles. But maybe we could keep some of the cool stuff! have you seen this tooth!"
( Matildas feeling great after her find....and Second Wind....so she's happy to take point on the way back to the Hill)
"A tooth?" Titaani is throughly and utterly distracted now. She scrambles up the ladder towards the trinket treasure trove. "Let me see!"
Once up there, she is going to cast her eyes around, searching amongst the trinkets for suitable gifts to bring home to her family. Perception: 6
Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight