Jhaartael listens to all this discussion with quiet intent, knowing that it was his words which have created this situation for the sheriff. He is also similarly interested in the options presented to resolve the situation and cannot help making mental notes.
Breezy answers Tamryn, "We'll do what we can, we're not cruel. But the process is inherently invasive and traumatic, even when done voluntarily. I have never experienced it myself, at least not that I can remember, but I believe it to be akin to a nightmare: Unpleasant while it is occurring, but afterwards, the fear and pain fade quickly.
"The only other solution of which I'm aware would be to have the man join our organization. However, we haven't had time to vet him properly, so that is a risk as well. Percy might agree, if you all vouch for him. And, of course, you'd have to convince him to leave his home and friends and family, which seems a hard sell."
Akyan has mixed feelings. Logically, it would make more sense to just have Duncan take care of it. However, his experience with Duncan's skills had not been pleasant, he could only imagine what it would be like to have memories ripped from his mind. On top of that, there was the possibility that the process would damage even more of his memories. Akyan does not feel like he is in a position to vouch for the sheriff joining the Circle, he had not spoken to him very much, but he still doesn't feel like they should force anything on him without giving him a chance to comply.
"I...I think we should try to talk to him first." He speaks up, "If he refuses, we can always either knock him out, or have someone cast a sleep spell on him."
Kyrsa sighs, this wasn't making the decision any easier. "I would vouch for him, he seems like a very honorable man. However, I don't think he will be to keen on leaving his town behind him to join up with a group he just learned about. Especially since the only reason we would be trying to recruit him is because of an accident on our part."
She turns to Akyan, "I understand why you would want us to speak to him first. You of all of us know a little about what it is like to have someone invade your memories. I would like to speak to him as well, explain to him why we must do this--that it is for his own safety, and that we are sorry that it was something we let slip that brought this upon him. However, I must stand by my earlier judgement. It would be faster and probably easier to just allow Duncan to take care of it. He knows what he is doing, and I trust that he will be as gentle as possible."
The caravan stops on the outskirts of the village, by the abandoned building where you teleported in and out. Aldara reappears from wherever she was, and starts organizing the setup of cots and defenses inside the building. Spar and his team go to assist her. Breezy stops Duncan, and they converse for a few minutes, and then they both approach your party once more.
Duncan speaks up, "Miss Breezy here has explained the situation to me. What she asks is not simple, but neither is it overly difficult for me. However, I understand your concern about this man who seems to be a friend of yours. I have an idea. I haven't tried this before, but frankly, I haven't had the chance to work with other psi agents much. If Akyan is willing, he could enter the subject's mind with me. While I am performing the surgery, so to speak, he can try to calm and comfort the sheriff's psyche, which may lessen the trauma enough that I can avoid collateral damage to other memories. This is all theoretical, but it seems reasonable to me that it could only help, and I don't believe there would be any danger to Akyan."
Breezy adds, "We need to go take care of this now. If the sheriff shows up wondering what we are doing, Aldara will certainly become aware of it, and then the whole story will have to be told to her. I'm not trying to deceive her, but I think it best if we just take care of this on our own, and inform her later, like next week or something."
Jhaartael sighs, "If it would help, I could also attempt to hypnotize the sheriff before Akyan and Duncan go to work... it might make their jobs easier."
Akyan is quiet for a moment. He’s never considered himself to be good at comforting people. He’d never tried to before. What if he just makes things worse? He closes his eyes, but trying to help would be better than doing nothing. That’s what Elran would say. Opening his eyes he looks at Duncan. “I will try, but if it seems like I’m hurting more then helping, then I will leave… or you can force me out.”
Duncan looks at Breezy and nods, and she hands him a scroll of locate creature and another of sleep. He looks at Akyan and says, "Follow me", and then heads off to the center of town. Breezy comforts Jhaartael, and says, "Go get some rest, dear. All of you. You've been up all night and will be no good to anyone exhausted. Spar's team is fresh, and we will wake you if there's any trouble at all." (Long rest for all if you wish).
Akyan:
You follow the dwarf to the center of the village, where he hands you the scroll of locate creature and indicates for you to recite it, including the sheriff's name. As you say "Tymothy" during the incantation, you gradually become aware of the direction in which he is located, and you take the lead, trying not to be too obvious, passing through the buildings until you arrive at the town jail. There is a small cottage next to the jail, and you are sure that the sheriff is inside, which you whisper to Duncan.
He motions for you to be silent and keep a lookout, and creeps to the window and peers through. After a moment, he moves to the door, which is locked, and he signals for you to use your skills to open it, which you do easily.
You both enter a one-room shack, with the sheriff slumbering peacefully on a cot, probably having spent the rest of the night dealing with the arrest of Loris and the fallout that must have caused in the village. You close and lock the door, and Duncan recites the sleep scroll to assure Tymothy will not wake up.
Duncan says in a low voice, "I will make contact first, then join your mind to me, as you would to speak telepathically. I will lead you into the sheriff's mind. This will go a little differently than when you were the subject. At that time I was simply looking for information, so we just did a temporal rewind. This time, in order to remove memories, it will appear and feel different. Just try to keep him calm."
Duncan sits on the floor and closes his eyes, and after a few moments he points at you. You also sit, and reach out with your psionic energy, establishing contact with the dwarf. You close your physical eyes, and have the sense of following Duncan through a tunnel that ends in a door. The dwarf opens that door, which leads into a brightly lit room. You both enter, finding yourselves in a sparsely decorated chamber filled with white light. Looking down, you notice that both of you are dressed in loose white clothing, as is Tymothy the sheriff, who sits on a sofa in the middle of the room, looking at you. The chamber is large, you cannot seem to fix on the exact dimensions of it, and there are many other doors, other than the one you just entered.
"Who are you?" asks Tymothy. He does not seem to recognize either of you, although his eyes linger on Akyan. His voice is mostly curious, with a small amount of apprehension detectable. Duncan says, "We are friends," and motions for you to sit with the man. He then begins opening doors to see what is behind them. He notices one dark-colored door hidden in the back of the room, and opens that and passes through.
Meanwhile, you sit beside Tymothy, and reassure him that he is safe, and that you mean him no harm, which he seems to accept without question.
Duncan returns after a few seconds, and whispers to you, "Do not let him go through that door. He very likely will go mad if he does." The dwarf moves on to other doors, searching for the particular memories he wishes to remove.
Each time Duncan enters a new mental chamber, the sheriff gets a worried look, and turns to you questioningly. You do your best to calm him, touching his shoulder, speaking in a quiet, reassuring voice, which helps, somewhat.
After about ten minutes, Duncan reappears, and says, "I have found the relevant chamber. I will now begin. Do your best." He then passes back through the door.
A few seconds later, Tymothy stands up, alarm apparent in his eyes. "Something is wrong," he says. "What are you doing?"
Unsure what to say, you try to distract him, asking him about where he grew up. He seems uncertain, but sits back down, and begins to describe to you the village of Digby's Gulch, although in a dreamlike fashion, details blurry. As he does so, you notice that one of the doors, not the one Duncan went through, opens a little, and glows slightly.
Periodically, the sheriff pauses and starts to get agitated, but you are able to calm him by asking him about different parts of his life, enabling him to hang onto pleasant memories by reliving them.
At one point, however, you ask him what you think is an innocent question about his childhood, and he immediately gets a look of terror, and his eyes turn to look at the dark door. He starts to tremble, the door creaks open slightly, and he stands as if to go towards it.
Thinking quickly, not knowing what else to do, you stand and hug him tightly, and begin speaking of some of the other pleasant memories he has already recounted. After several seconds, his trembling quiets, the dark door closes, and you feel his body relax. You slowly release him, and the fear seems to be gone. A tear is trickling down his face.
After a few more minutes, Duncan reappears. The door he exits disappears behind him. He nods to you, and comes and puts a hand on Tymothy's shoulder. Squatting down, he looks into the sheriff's eyes for a few moments, and then he stands and walks to the dark door. He pulls a chain from somewhere and fastens it to the door as a barrier, keeping it closed.
He then returns and says, "Goodbye friend," to Tymothy, who lays down on the couch and closes his eyes. You follow the dwarf out through the original door, and soon find yourself opening your physical eyes, sitting on the floor of the sheriff's cottage, drenched in sweat.
"The procedure was successful, and you did very well at calming him," whispers Duncan. "The dark place was not the reason we entered, so I didn't think it right to remove it, but I did strengthen his ability to keep that part closed off. He is able to remove the barrier if he really wants to, though. Poor man." The two of you leave Tymothy sleeping peacefully, and make your way circuitously back to the rest of the group, taking care to avoid observation or being followed.
(Akyan may now also take a long rest. At the end of the rest, everyone levels up.)
Jhaartael retreats to what seclusion is available to him in this refugee encampment. He examines the day. He is thankful that they were able to succeed so thoroughly in their second mission. He is thankful for the survivors of the attack on the Farm. He is sorry for the complications imposed upon the others, especially the sheriff, by his rash words. Words! So easily misconstrued or mischievous when let loose to others. More silence from him... let others prattle. Observe, calculate and strategize. Use words like a filet knife.
Turning this over in his head, he enters the trance, remembering back, his present, near present and distant past dancing and swirling to form new connections of experience in his mind.
After four hours he comes slowly out of the trance, refreshed and with new resolve.
He examines his spellbook, the book he still carries from the Farm and the lovely pearl he took as his reward. Its luminous sheen is captivating. Rolling it over in his hand the deeply embedded swirls remind him of his time at the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the graceful movements of the Alu'Tel'Quessir. He thinks of Mina and her good work on the mission.
Placing the pearl on the ground, he touches his ring, and with an incantation and gesture of his hand, he casts Detect Magic to understand the flow of the weave about the pearl.
He sees strands of the weave being drawn in eddies into and flowing from the pearl. Interesting.
Touching the pearl now, he begins to manipulating the weave in relation to the Pearl. Over time, it echoes back at him and alters the weave about HIM - gaining back a bit of his reservoir of ability to interact with the weave. Ah! It can rejuvenate some of a caster's ability to manipulate the weave. That could certainly be useful.
Taking the now attuned Pearl of Power he places it in his component pouch.
Having spent so much time with the weave directly coming out of his trance, he feels an awkward expansion, as of the weave both wrapping about him and expanding out at the same time. He becomes aware of a few new elements of the weave that he can now manipulate. Interesting. What is Mystra guiding him to? He pulls his spellbook to him and captures these new manipulation therein - three new spells - and one of them a cantrip. Thank Mystra for her generosity!
In formulating these spells, he also realizes that he seems to have a clearer memory of more of his spells than he has previously been able to. How can this be possible? Another gift of the weave. What does it mean?
One of these new strands of the weave intrigues him... it is unlike many he is more acquainted with. Following the weaves lure as well as his own intuition, he seeks out some simple items: 10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs. He finds some of the camp using a brazier to warm themselves and asks if he might use it as well.
His third incantation of these words is met by a throaty caw. Looking up, Jhaartael and the others about him see a dark raven perched in a near tree. The bird flaps its wings twice and alights, coming to rest on Jhaartael's shoulder. He now sees that the only hint of color about the animal is a slight bluish hue to its feathers and a glint of amber in its eyes. The bird tilts its head intelligently and sits, watching all.
Jhaartael smiles grimly as he loosens his touch upon the weave. New gifts, to be sure, but to be used wisely.
He redoubles his resolve to silently observe more and speak with greater reserve.
Akyan follows Duncan back to wherever they are staying. He looks extremely tired. “I’m glad the sheriff won’t remember that.” He thinks to himself. He looks down at Duncan. “I wonder if he could use that skill to help me remember how my brother and I ended up on the streets.” He puts his hand to his forehead the rubs his eye. “I’m too tired to think about that right now… besides if it would be anything like last time.” He shudders, “Yes better to wait.”
He doesn’t speak to anyone about his experience, he just heads straight to someplace he can rest.
Kyrsa waited up until Akyan returned. She can tell by his expression that he is in no mood to talk. Perhaps tomorrow she will have a chance to ask him--or not, if he seems touchy about it.
Once the young drow has gone somewhere to meditate, Kyrsa lets out a long breath. It was done, no use worrying about it now. Hopefully the lack of memory doesn't cause any problems for Tymothy...it would be awkward if others brought up the strange elves at Donegalls party and he just didn't remember them. ...yes, that would be very awkward... Still, it was done, she'd just have to trust that Duncan already thought about that and worked around any potential issues.
(So, has everyone meditated and leveled? Tamryn, was it your intention to not meditate?)
The rest of the morning passes uneventfully, and between the resting and the ministrations of the healers, the wounded are all well enough to teleport by late afternoon. It does not appear that your group was observed, or if you were, nobody bothered to investigate. The sheriff was probably sleeping most of the morning, and then dealing with Loris, you assume. In groups of 4 or 5, the survivors begin teleporting out, and when the wounded have all been evacuated, Aldara, looking more composed, gathers your group together.
"Breezy told me that she had informed you all about the nature of the attack. I am sorry you had to find out in this way. You would have been told eventually, but I wanted your minds focused on the training and not worrying about our adversaries. Perhaps that was a mistake.
"Thank you for coming back to assist with the evacuation, it was very brave. Also a bit foolish, but I probably would have done the same in your shoes. This does not give you leave to ignore my orders in the future, however." She looks at each of you individually. "There are still things you do not know, and hopefully you will be able to trust me enough to follow instructions without understanding all the reasons why. However, as you have been read in, and as you have demonstrated loyalty and bravery under fire, your security clearances have been upgraded to level 2, with the pass phrase, 'How goes the harvest this year?' and answered with 'Weeds aplenty, the fields must be burned'. Now, I'm sure you all have questions. When those are done, I would like you to return to Athkatla with Spar's team and await further instructions there."
After the very long day, Mina is more than ready to rest. She meditates some, but also just sleeps. Her skin crawled after everything she did with Loris and at the time she knew he was a creep, but didn't know how bad until she read the documents. She shudders to think about it. She truly hopes Tymothy can act against him especially after the disappearance the miner. A thought occurs and it jolts her awake. She hopes the memory operation doesn't erase what he has on Loris and the man goes free? At least the documents are still there, hope they don't get pushed aside.
Knowing they had a LOT of other worries with the farm being attacked, she pushed it all out of her mind as they all gathered with Aldara. Mina is glad the leader isn't going to punish them for disobeying and as she asks for any questions, her mind goes blank. She's sure she had a ton, but at the moment? Mina decides to wait for the others to start asking and maybe that would trigger something...
(I forgot to write this in, but Aldara or Breezy would let you know that unless someone has Clearance level 1 ("Bad weather") you cannot mention or acknowledge even the existence of the DCL. You must come up with a cover story if someone questions your actions or associations. i.e. instead of a "team of agents" you might refer to yourselves as mercenaries to anyone who asked.
People who do not have level 2 ("Harvest") are not allowed to know the location of the farm or of safe houses in the various cities. Operational details, such as targets, objectives, team members, details about other teams, etc. should not be discussed with anyone who does not have level 2 clearance.
Violation of security protocol, depending on the details, can result in severe consequences.)
Akyan arises later than he normally does, the events of the previous day had left him exhausted. He had definitely done more sleeping than meditating and it appears to have done him some good. He looks a lot less tired, but he still looks a bit distracted.
He listens to Aldara, and is a bit surprised when she grants them level 2 clearance. He does not feel like he earned it, he had only been on one real mission after all, but he is glad for it. Maybe they'll be let in on a few more things this way.
"This sounds pretty strait forward to me. Are we going to be continuing our training in Athkatla?"
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Tamryn asks Breezy, "Is there a way to soothe the man's subconscious? Some sort of elixir or spell that could be administered to him?"
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Jhaartael listens to all this discussion with quiet intent, knowing that it was his words which have created this situation for the sheriff. He is also similarly interested in the options presented to resolve the situation and cannot help making mental notes.
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Breezy answers Tamryn, "We'll do what we can, we're not cruel. But the process is inherently invasive and traumatic, even when done voluntarily. I have never experienced it myself, at least not that I can remember, but I believe it to be akin to a nightmare: Unpleasant while it is occurring, but afterwards, the fear and pain fade quickly.
"The only other solution of which I'm aware would be to have the man join our organization. However, we haven't had time to vet him properly, so that is a risk as well. Percy might agree, if you all vouch for him. And, of course, you'd have to convince him to leave his home and friends and family, which seems a hard sell."
Akyan has mixed feelings. Logically, it would make more sense to just have Duncan take care of it. However, his experience with Duncan's skills had not been pleasant, he could only imagine what it would be like to have memories ripped from his mind. On top of that, there was the possibility that the process would damage even more of his memories. Akyan does not feel like he is in a position to vouch for the sheriff joining the Circle, he had not spoken to him very much, but he still doesn't feel like they should force anything on him without giving him a chance to comply.
"I...I think we should try to talk to him first." He speaks up, "If he refuses, we can always either knock him out, or have someone cast a sleep spell on him."
Kyrsa sighs, this wasn't making the decision any easier. "I would vouch for him, he seems like a very honorable man. However, I don't think he will be to keen on leaving his town behind him to join up with a group he just learned about. Especially since the only reason we would be trying to recruit him is because of an accident on our part."
She turns to Akyan, "I understand why you would want us to speak to him first. You of all of us know a little about what it is like to have someone invade your memories. I would like to speak to him as well, explain to him why we must do this--that it is for his own safety, and that we are sorry that it was something we let slip that brought this upon him. However, I must stand by my earlier judgement. It would be faster and probably easier to just allow Duncan to take care of it. He knows what he is doing, and I trust that he will be as gentle as possible."
The caravan stops on the outskirts of the village, by the abandoned building where you teleported in and out. Aldara reappears from wherever she was, and starts organizing the setup of cots and defenses inside the building. Spar and his team go to assist her. Breezy stops Duncan, and they converse for a few minutes, and then they both approach your party once more.
Duncan speaks up, "Miss Breezy here has explained the situation to me. What she asks is not simple, but neither is it overly difficult for me. However, I understand your concern about this man who seems to be a friend of yours. I have an idea. I haven't tried this before, but frankly, I haven't had the chance to work with other psi agents much. If Akyan is willing, he could enter the subject's mind with me. While I am performing the surgery, so to speak, he can try to calm and comfort the sheriff's psyche, which may lessen the trauma enough that I can avoid collateral damage to other memories. This is all theoretical, but it seems reasonable to me that it could only help, and I don't believe there would be any danger to Akyan."
Breezy adds, "We need to go take care of this now. If the sheriff shows up wondering what we are doing, Aldara will certainly become aware of it, and then the whole story will have to be told to her. I'm not trying to deceive her, but I think it best if we just take care of this on our own, and inform her later, like next week or something."
Jhaartael sighs, "If it would help, I could also attempt to hypnotize the sheriff before Akyan and Duncan go to work... it might make their jobs easier."
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Akyan is quiet for a moment. He’s never considered himself to be good at comforting people. He’d never tried to before. What if he just makes things worse? He closes his eyes, but trying to help would be better than doing nothing. That’s what Elran would say. Opening his eyes he looks at Duncan. “I will try, but if it seems like I’m hurting more then helping, then I will leave… or you can force me out.”
Duncan looks at Breezy and nods, and she hands him a scroll of locate creature and another of sleep. He looks at Akyan and says, "Follow me", and then heads off to the center of town. Breezy comforts Jhaartael, and says, "Go get some rest, dear. All of you. You've been up all night and will be no good to anyone exhausted. Spar's team is fresh, and we will wake you if there's any trouble at all."
(Long rest for all if you wish).
Akyan:
You follow the dwarf to the center of the village, where he hands you the scroll of locate creature and indicates for you to recite it, including the sheriff's name.
As you say "Tymothy" during the incantation, you gradually become aware of the direction in which he is located, and you take the lead, trying not to be too obvious, passing through the buildings until you arrive at the town jail. There is a small cottage next to the jail, and you are sure that the sheriff is inside, which you whisper to Duncan.
He motions for you to be silent and keep a lookout, and creeps to the window and peers through. After a moment, he moves to the door, which is locked, and he signals for you to use your skills to open it, which you do easily.
You both enter a one-room shack, with the sheriff slumbering peacefully on a cot, probably having spent the rest of the night dealing with the arrest of Loris and the fallout that must have caused in the village. You close and lock the door, and Duncan recites the sleep scroll to assure Tymothy will not wake up.
Duncan says in a low voice, "I will make contact first, then join your mind to me, as you would to speak telepathically. I will lead you into the sheriff's mind. This will go a little differently than when you were the subject. At that time I was simply looking for information, so we just did a temporal rewind. This time, in order to remove memories, it will appear and feel different. Just try to keep him calm."
Duncan sits on the floor and closes his eyes, and after a few moments he points at you. You also sit, and reach out with your psionic energy, establishing contact with the dwarf. You close your physical eyes, and have the sense of following Duncan through a tunnel that ends in a door. The dwarf opens that door, which leads into a brightly lit room. You both enter, finding yourselves in a sparsely decorated chamber filled with white light. Looking down, you notice that both of you are dressed in loose white clothing, as is Tymothy the sheriff, who sits on a sofa in the middle of the room, looking at you. The chamber is large, you cannot seem to fix on the exact dimensions of it, and there are many other doors, other than the one you just entered.
"Who are you?" asks Tymothy. He does not seem to recognize either of you, although his eyes linger on Akyan. His voice is mostly curious, with a small amount of apprehension detectable. Duncan says, "We are friends," and motions for you to sit with the man. He then begins opening doors to see what is behind them. He notices one dark-colored door hidden in the back of the room, and opens that and passes through.
Meanwhile, you sit beside Tymothy, and reassure him that he is safe, and that you mean him no harm, which he seems to accept without question.
Duncan returns after a few seconds, and whispers to you, "Do not let him go through that door. He very likely will go mad if he does." The dwarf moves on to other doors, searching for the particular memories he wishes to remove.
Each time Duncan enters a new mental chamber, the sheriff gets a worried look, and turns to you questioningly. You do your best to calm him, touching his shoulder, speaking in a quiet, reassuring voice, which helps, somewhat.
After about ten minutes, Duncan reappears, and says, "I have found the relevant chamber. I will now begin. Do your best." He then passes back through the door.
A few seconds later, Tymothy stands up, alarm apparent in his eyes. "Something is wrong," he says. "What are you doing?"
Unsure what to say, you try to distract him, asking him about where he grew up. He seems uncertain, but sits back down, and begins to describe to you the village of Digby's Gulch, although in a dreamlike fashion, details blurry. As he does so, you notice that one of the doors, not the one Duncan went through, opens a little, and glows slightly.
Periodically, the sheriff pauses and starts to get agitated, but you are able to calm him by asking him about different parts of his life, enabling him to hang onto pleasant memories by reliving them.
At one point, however, you ask him what you think is an innocent question about his childhood, and he immediately gets a look of terror, and his eyes turn to look at the dark door. He starts to tremble, the door creaks open slightly, and he stands as if to go towards it.
Thinking quickly, not knowing what else to do, you stand and hug him tightly, and begin speaking of some of the other pleasant memories he has already recounted. After several seconds, his trembling quiets, the dark door closes, and you feel his body relax. You slowly release him, and the fear seems to be gone. A tear is trickling down his face.
After a few more minutes, Duncan reappears. The door he exits disappears behind him. He nods to you, and comes and puts a hand on Tymothy's shoulder. Squatting down, he looks into the sheriff's eyes for a few moments, and then he stands and walks to the dark door. He pulls a chain from somewhere and fastens it to the door as a barrier, keeping it closed.
He then returns and says, "Goodbye friend," to Tymothy, who lays down on the couch and closes his eyes. You follow the dwarf out through the original door, and soon find yourself opening your physical eyes, sitting on the floor of the sheriff's cottage, drenched in sweat.
"The procedure was successful, and you did very well at calming him," whispers Duncan. "The dark place was not the reason we entered, so I didn't think it right to remove it, but I did strengthen his ability to keep that part closed off. He is able to remove the barrier if he really wants to, though. Poor man." The two of you leave Tymothy sleeping peacefully, and make your way circuitously back to the rest of the group, taking care to avoid observation or being followed.
(Akyan may now also take a long rest. At the end of the rest, everyone levels up.)
Tamryn goes to find Aldara and works to help her until she or he keels over from exhaustion.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Jhaartael retreats to what seclusion is available to him in this refugee encampment. He examines the day. He is thankful that they were able to succeed so thoroughly in their second mission. He is thankful for the survivors of the attack on the Farm. He is sorry for the complications imposed upon the others, especially the sheriff, by his rash words. Words! So easily misconstrued or mischievous when let loose to others. More silence from him... let others prattle. Observe, calculate and strategize. Use words like a filet knife.
Turning this over in his head, he enters the trance, remembering back, his present, near present and distant past dancing and swirling to form new connections of experience in his mind.
After four hours he comes slowly out of the trance, refreshed and with new resolve.
He examines his spellbook, the book he still carries from the Farm and the lovely pearl he took as his reward. Its luminous sheen is captivating. Rolling it over in his hand the deeply embedded swirls remind him of his time at the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the graceful movements of the Alu'Tel'Quessir. He thinks of Mina and her good work on the mission.
Placing the pearl on the ground, he touches his ring, and with an incantation and gesture of his hand, he casts Detect Magic to understand the flow of the weave about the pearl.
He sees strands of the weave being drawn in eddies into and flowing from the pearl. Interesting.
Touching the pearl now, he begins to manipulating the weave in relation to the Pearl. Over time, it echoes back at him and alters the weave about HIM - gaining back a bit of his reservoir of ability to interact with the weave. Ah! It can rejuvenate some of a caster's ability to manipulate the weave. That could certainly be useful.
Taking the now attuned Pearl of Power he places it in his component pouch.
Having spent so much time with the weave directly coming out of his trance, he feels an awkward expansion, as of the weave both wrapping about him and expanding out at the same time. He becomes aware of a few new elements of the weave that he can now manipulate. Interesting. What is Mystra guiding him to? He pulls his spellbook to him and captures these new manipulation therein - three new spells - and one of them a cantrip. Thank Mystra for her generosity!
In formulating these spells, he also realizes that he seems to have a clearer memory of more of his spells than he has previously been able to. How can this be possible? Another gift of the weave. What does it mean?
One of these new strands of the weave intrigues him... it is unlike many he is more acquainted with. Following the weaves lure as well as his own intuition, he seeks out some simple items: 10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs. He finds some of the camp using a brazier to warm themselves and asks if he might use it as well.
He adds the coals to the dwindling supply and slowly the heat about the brazier expands. He then casts the incense and herbs into the fire. A sweet smell enshrouds a thick smoke which rises from within the plant material. Those about the brazier draw closer but not too close - both lured by the scent and dissuaded by the smoke. Keeping his mind fixed on the image of the strands revealed to him, he gestures with his hands over the plumes of intoxicating scent wafting from the coals muttering words that come to him in Elven from the weave.
His third incantation of these words is met by a throaty caw. Looking up, Jhaartael and the others about him see a dark raven perched in a near tree. The bird flaps its wings twice and alights, coming to rest on Jhaartael's shoulder. He now sees that the only hint of color about the animal is a slight bluish hue to its feathers and a glint of amber in its eyes. The bird tilts its head intelligently and sits, watching all.
Jhaartael smiles grimly as he loosens his touch upon the weave. New gifts, to be sure, but to be used wisely.
He redoubles his resolve to silently observe more and speak with greater reserve.
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Akyan follows Duncan back to wherever they are staying. He looks extremely tired. “I’m glad the sheriff won’t remember that.” He thinks to himself. He looks down at Duncan. “I wonder if he could use that skill to help me remember how my brother and I ended up on the streets.” He puts his hand to his forehead the rubs his eye. “I’m too tired to think about that right now… besides if it would be anything like last time.” He shudders, “Yes better to wait.”
He doesn’t speak to anyone about his experience, he just heads straight to someplace he can rest.
Kyrsa waited up until Akyan returned. She can tell by his expression that he is in no mood to talk. Perhaps tomorrow she will have a chance to ask him--or not, if he seems touchy about it.
Once the young drow has gone somewhere to meditate, Kyrsa lets out a long breath. It was done, no use worrying about it now. Hopefully the lack of memory doesn't cause any problems for Tymothy...it would be awkward if others brought up the strange elves at Donegalls party and he just didn't remember them. ...yes, that would be very awkward... Still, it was done, she'd just have to trust that Duncan already thought about that and worked around any potential issues.
(So, has everyone meditated and leveled? Tamryn, was it your intention to not meditate?)
The rest of the morning passes uneventfully, and between the resting and the ministrations of the healers, the wounded are all well enough to teleport by late afternoon. It does not appear that your group was observed, or if you were, nobody bothered to investigate. The sheriff was probably sleeping most of the morning, and then dealing with Loris, you assume. In groups of 4 or 5, the survivors begin teleporting out, and when the wounded have all been evacuated, Aldara, looking more composed, gathers your group together.
"Breezy told me that she had informed you all about the nature of the attack. I am sorry you had to find out in this way. You would have been told eventually, but I wanted your minds focused on the training and not worrying about our adversaries. Perhaps that was a mistake.
"Thank you for coming back to assist with the evacuation, it was very brave. Also a bit foolish, but I probably would have done the same in your shoes. This does not give you leave to ignore my orders in the future, however." She looks at each of you individually. "There are still things you do not know, and hopefully you will be able to trust me enough to follow instructions without understanding all the reasons why. However, as you have been read in, and as you have demonstrated loyalty and bravery under fire, your security clearances have been upgraded to level 2, with the pass phrase, 'How goes the harvest this year?' and answered with 'Weeds aplenty, the fields must be burned'. Now, I'm sure you all have questions. When those are done, I would like you to return to Athkatla with Spar's team and await further instructions there."
(OOC: I would have meditated but after the work with the wounded was done)
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
After the very long day, Mina is more than ready to rest. She meditates some, but also just sleeps. Her skin crawled after everything she did with Loris and at the time she knew he was a creep, but didn't know how bad until she read the documents. She shudders to think about it. She truly hopes Tymothy can act against him especially after the disappearance the miner. A thought occurs and it jolts her awake. She hopes the memory operation doesn't erase what he has on Loris and the man goes free? At least the documents are still there, hope they don't get pushed aside.
Knowing they had a LOT of other worries with the farm being attacked, she pushed it all out of her mind as they all gathered with Aldara. Mina is glad the leader isn't going to punish them for disobeying and as she asks for any questions, her mind goes blank. She's sure she had a ton, but at the moment? Mina decides to wait for the others to start asking and maybe that would trigger something...
(I forgot to write this in, but Aldara or Breezy would let you know that unless someone has Clearance level 1 ("Bad weather") you cannot mention or acknowledge even the existence of the DCL. You must come up with a cover story if someone questions your actions or associations. i.e. instead of a "team of agents" you might refer to yourselves as mercenaries to anyone who asked.
People who do not have level 2 ("Harvest") are not allowed to know the location of the farm or of safe houses in the various cities. Operational details, such as targets, objectives, team members, details about other teams, etc. should not be discussed with anyone who does not have level 2 clearance.
Violation of security protocol, depending on the details, can result in severe consequences.)
Upon receiving their heightened clearance guideline, Jhaartael smirks.
But he keeps these thoughts to himself:
"Would anyone actually believe us to be mercenaries? More likely that trade guild, or perhaps a circus troupe."
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Akyan arises later than he normally does, the events of the previous day had left him exhausted. He had definitely done more sleeping than meditating and it appears to have done him some good. He looks a lot less tired, but he still looks a bit distracted.
He listens to Aldara, and is a bit surprised when she grants them level 2 clearance. He does not feel like he earned it, he had only been on one real mission after all, but he is glad for it. Maybe they'll be let in on a few more things this way.
"This sounds pretty strait forward to me. Are we going to be continuing our training in Athkatla?"