Reed blinks open his eyes and looks up to the top of the vehicle. Seeing IM still sitting there on sentry duty makes him smile. But then he shakes his head and waves away the air around his ears.
"I always forget how much more energetic you all are after I sleep," Reed says quietly. "Any chance some of you will just stay here in Avernus when we leave?"
He hops down from his wrecking ball seat and looks over to the stirges and then to the group.
"They left us alone while we slept," Reed says. "Maybe they'll leave us alone if we don't get to close and just walk by."
A couple of hours before reed wakes he feels a tig at his bow. Upon waking he finds IronMaiden standing over him attempting to steal it, (rolled under your passive) when IM sees reed wake they back off a little, "I did not want to wake you, I wish to make arcane infused improvements if you will allow, your bow is statistically the most consistently used weapon within the group, the upgrade will improve our combat dynamic considerably"
If indeed Reed allows it he will wake to find his bow back in its normal place but with certain modifications, namely a small pulley system at the top of the bow which does not hinder the string from being pulled taught but does touch a node to a kinetic plate and vibrates the string at a frequency familiar to the him of IronMaiden's own arcane attacks. (+1 to attack and damage rolls)
The IronMaiden sits drawing complex diagrams in the ashen floor as the others awake, their sentry's rest and item infusions having taken a shorter time than it takes for others to get their 8 hours.
Seeing IM's intentions are good and how mechanically adapt she is, Reed lets go of the bow and goes back to sleep. Having forgotten about it by the time he wakes up, Reed almost doesn't notice the small pulley until it knocks against his pack as he jumps down from the wrecking ball chair.
He looks at it for a few moments, wondering where that came from then his eyes widen a little as he looks over at IM.
Reed tries out the modification, nocking an arrow and letting it fly at a target away from where the stirges are. He nods happily. After he retrieves his arrow he goes back to see IM.
Turning back and seeing the others all hunkering down to rest, Corlith decides not to mess any more with the stirges or the squirming knights, returning to his seat and resting himself as well.
He looks back over to the impaled knights, the part of him that felt like freeing them from their torment a little less prominent after another night it seems.
Virro turns his head, in the last few hours of his rest and meditation he was reviewing the fingers in his bag, cataloging them in his brain before returning them to his pouch. “Yes, quite so. Let’s press onward.” He stands and stretches, nibbling on a ration of a dried, nut filled cake, then cleaning the crumbs off himself. “Glad the little beastly things didn’t switch targets. Let’s go around them.” He fashions his shield in place on his arm, checks his gear, and gets ready to move.
Reed looks at his bow again and realizes that IM's modifications didn't actually do anything to make it more accurate or damaging. It was a bit of ornamentation at best. Maybe the magic already coursing through the yew bow was something that couldn't be tinkered with. But rather than point that out, Reed decides not to say anything.
He does look more closely at the hill when Virro mentions going around.
"It's going to be a tough climb," Reed says. "Where the stirges are is the only path. Everywhere else is just covered in those iron trees. We could probably make our way through but it could take a while."
The group secures the two infernal vehicles as much as possible for deciding to head up the trail lined with bodies and stirges. As you all get closer to the bodies, you notice inscriptions in the iron above their heads that name each body - and they are all knights. From here you can see the top of the hill, which at the peak is not a citadel as Lulu thought, but a very large iron tree that has another body impaled upon it. The stirges seem to head towards it before descending back down the hill.
At the moment, the flying beasts seem to ignore you.
"Not a citadel at all then. Does this mean this is not the location of the sword?", Corlith asks Lulu.
He approaches the large tree at the top enough to be able to see the body impaled on it and the name inscribed if there is one. He is also interested in what exactly the stirges are doing when they get to it.
"Sheesh. Hopefully they don't change course and target us.... I could see if ole HL wants to blow them to smithereens... but I thnk it would be best to just walk on by..." Virro holds his shield up and watches them for any change in flight plan.
IronMaiden walks confidently, assuming that their theory on the blood feast makes them no more a target for the stirges than the trees, they begin looking the names of the knights over with interest, but not recognising a single one, "are these men from the same army? Did they lose some holy war?" They ask out loud to the group but not directly at any single person specifically.
"Your shield friend has been rather quiet for some time, or at least you have not spoken about them in a while, has their influence changed?" IM asks Virro, regarding the shield and subconsciously adjusting a shield of their own, borrowed and modified from Virro whilst he slept.
Lulu turns around in a couple circles, ears drooped and trunk hanging down. If a small flying elephant could look down, this was it.
The stirges ignore the group as they walk past the dead and bloated knights. As you reach the big tree at the top of the hill, there is an impaled elf warrior. When Corlith breaks his field of vision, the man calls out... has a fit of coughing.. then, "Please... please help me." The stirges are swarming back and forth from the elf's body, preserving his existence by injecting him with the blood of this traitorous companions.
Corlith looks from the impaled elf to Lulu, "Jander Sunstar? What do you mean he betrayed Zariel? When was that, before she turned to evil or after?".
He looks back to the one named as Jander and cocks his head to the side considering. He does not engage in conversation with them just yet, wanting to get clarification from Lulu first as to which side he they were on when they betrayed Zariel.
"what happened, why are you here!?" IronMaiden shouts up at the impaled elf, in an unemotional rather tone deaf line of questioning given the surroundings and circumstances. "What did you do to deserve this? Are you just a soul like the knights or a living person? Why are these stirges giving you blood?"
"You betrayed Zariel before she fell into darkness", Corlith says to the knight, clearly after Lulu has told him. "Perhaps you are even a part of the reason she did fall from grace".
"It sounds to me like you are exactly where you deserve to be", he adds quite coldly.
"Your shield friend has been rather quiet for some time, or at least you have not spoken about them in a while, has their influence changed?" IM asks Virro, regarding the shield and subconsciously adjusting a shield of their own, borrowed and modified from Virro whilst he slept.
Virro looks over at Ironmaiden, saying merely "Sometimes he talks to me, mainly when I ask a question. But he's still there, nothing has changed." He stops for a second, looking down at the shield, concentrating. He looks back up at Ironmaiden, saying "I'm asking him if he knows about this Jander person. And this betrayal of Zariel. I would tend to think we should move on, but ... that's just me. Let me see what HL thinks."
The elf shudders a bit as another stirge injects blood into him. He coughs some more then answers, "What did I do? I betrayed the angel Zariel. Haruman and I were both part of a host of warriors to joined Zariel in her assault on the Nine Hells. I... I um.. well I panicked. Ok? I admit it! After we charged through the portal into Avernus, I panicked and fled back to Elturel. I betrayed Zariel and my braver comrades by sealing the portal behind them." He at least as the decency to hang his head as much as he can at this admission.
"Myself and my friends, we never revealed our retreat or betrayal. It was a badge of shame that us Hellriders, as we became known, would wear in secret until the grave. After years of quiet anguish, I chose to face the sun and threw myself on Lathander's mercy! You hear that? I tried to pray and make amends for my awful deed! But my prayers fell on deaf ears and my soul has been condemned to the Nine Hells to suffer for my sins."
"Please... please cut me down so that my soul can move on from this accursed place. These beasts, these blood suckers keep my vampire form alive with this tainted blood! I just want peace!!"
"You betrayed an angel and your comrades in arms. You didn't just abandon them, you trapped them. You lied to everyone about your actions. You beseeched a god for mercy and they declined. It seems to me I was right. You are where you are meant to be", he says coldly.
"It is not for us to alter your fate just because you regret what you did", he adds and starts to turn away but stops.
"What would be in it for us?".
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'Interesting", Corlith mumbles likely out of earshot of everyone else.
He returns to the others, "They seem totally disinterested in anything but feeding. It seems it should be safe to rest".
"I expect if I were to try and rob them of their food source, that would be different. It is tempting to find out though".
Reed blinks open his eyes and looks up to the top of the vehicle. Seeing IM still sitting there on sentry duty makes him smile. But then he shakes his head and waves away the air around his ears.
"I always forget how much more energetic you all are after I sleep," Reed says quietly. "Any chance some of you will just stay here in Avernus when we leave?"
He hops down from his wrecking ball seat and looks over to the stirges and then to the group.
"They left us alone while we slept," Reed says. "Maybe they'll leave us alone if we don't get to close and just walk by."
A couple of hours before reed wakes he feels a tig at his bow. Upon waking he finds IronMaiden standing over him attempting to steal it, (rolled under your passive) when IM sees reed wake they back off a little, "I did not want to wake you, I wish to make arcane infused improvements if you will allow, your bow is statistically the most consistently used weapon within the group, the upgrade will improve our combat dynamic considerably"
If indeed Reed allows it he will wake to find his bow back in its normal place but with certain modifications, namely a small pulley system at the top of the bow which does not hinder the string from being pulled taught but does touch a node to a kinetic plate and vibrates the string at a frequency familiar to the him of IronMaiden's own arcane attacks. (+1 to attack and damage rolls)
The IronMaiden sits drawing complex diagrams in the ashen floor as the others awake, their sentry's rest and item infusions having taken a shorter time than it takes for others to get their 8 hours.
Seeing IM's intentions are good and how mechanically adapt she is, Reed lets go of the bow and goes back to sleep. Having forgotten about it by the time he wakes up, Reed almost doesn't notice the small pulley until it knocks against his pack as he jumps down from the wrecking ball chair.
He looks at it for a few moments, wondering where that came from then his eyes widen a little as he looks over at IM.
Reed tries out the modification, nocking an arrow and letting it fly at a target away from where the stirges are. He nods happily. After he retrieves his arrow he goes back to see IM.
"Nice work," Reed says.
Turning back and seeing the others all hunkering down to rest, Corlith decides not to mess any more with the stirges or the squirming knights, returning to his seat and resting himself as well.
He looks back over to the impaled knights, the part of him that felt like freeing them from their torment a little less prominent after another night it seems.
"Shall we proceed?", he says simply.
Virro turns his head, in the last few hours of his rest and meditation he was reviewing the fingers in his bag, cataloging them in his brain before returning them to his pouch. “Yes, quite so. Let’s press onward.” He stands and stretches, nibbling on a ration of a dried, nut filled cake, then cleaning the crumbs off himself. “Glad the little beastly things didn’t switch targets. Let’s go around them.” He fashions his shield in place on his arm, checks his gear, and gets ready to move.
Reed looks at his bow again and realizes that IM's modifications didn't actually do anything to make it more accurate or damaging. It was a bit of ornamentation at best. Maybe the magic already coursing through the yew bow was something that couldn't be tinkered with. But rather than point that out, Reed decides not to say anything.
He does look more closely at the hill when Virro mentions going around.
"It's going to be a tough climb," Reed says. "Where the stirges are is the only path. Everywhere else is just covered in those iron trees. We could probably make our way through but it could take a while."
The group secures the two infernal vehicles as much as possible for deciding to head up the trail lined with bodies and stirges. As you all get closer to the bodies, you notice inscriptions in the iron above their heads that name each body - and they are all knights. From here you can see the top of the hill, which at the peak is not a citadel as Lulu thought, but a very large iron tree that has another body impaled upon it. The stirges seem to head towards it before descending back down the hill.
At the moment, the flying beasts seem to ignore you.
"Not a citadel at all then. Does this mean this is not the location of the sword?", Corlith asks Lulu.
He approaches the large tree at the top enough to be able to see the body impaled on it and the name inscribed if there is one. He is also interested in what exactly the stirges are doing when they get to it.
Reed keeps an arrow ready in his bow in case one of the stirges veers off course and comes towards the party as they get to the large tree at the top.
"Sheesh. Hopefully they don't change course and target us.... I could see if ole HL wants to blow them to smithereens... but I thnk it would be best to just walk on by..." Virro holds his shield up and watches them for any change in flight plan.
IronMaiden walks confidently, assuming that their theory on the blood feast makes them no more a target for the stirges than the trees, they begin looking the names of the knights over with interest, but not recognising a single one, "are these men from the same army? Did they lose some holy war?" They ask out loud to the group but not directly at any single person specifically.
"Your shield friend has been rather quiet for some time, or at least you have not spoken about them in a while, has their influence changed?" IM asks Virro, regarding the shield and subconsciously adjusting a shield of their own, borrowed and modified from Virro whilst he slept.
Lulu turns around in a couple circles, ears drooped and trunk hanging down. If a small flying elephant could look down, this was it.
The stirges ignore the group as they walk past the dead and bloated knights. As you reach the big tree at the top of the hill, there is an impaled elf warrior. When Corlith breaks his field of vision, the man calls out... has a fit of coughing.. then, "Please... please help me." The stirges are swarming back and forth from the elf's body, preserving his existence by injecting him with the blood of this traitorous companions.
Corlith looks from the impaled elf to Lulu, "Jander Sunstar? What do you mean he betrayed Zariel? When was that, before she turned to evil or after?".
He looks back to the one named as Jander and cocks his head to the side considering. He does not engage in conversation with them just yet, wanting to get clarification from Lulu first as to which side he they were on when they betrayed Zariel.
"what happened, why are you here!?" IronMaiden shouts up at the impaled elf, in an unemotional rather tone deaf line of questioning given the surroundings and circumstances. "What did you do to deserve this? Are you just a soul like the knights or a living person? Why are these stirges giving you blood?"
"You betrayed Zariel before she fell into darkness", Corlith says to the knight, clearly after Lulu has told him. "Perhaps you are even a part of the reason she did fall from grace".
"It sounds to me like you are exactly where you deserve to be", he adds quite coldly.
Reed looks at the knight hanging on the tree and listens to the talk of betrayal and everything else.
"So, Jander is it? Know anything about a citadel or where Zariel's sword is?" Reed asks.
At the same time he looks over at Lulu and smiles.
"Guess the citadel isn't here. But that means we know where not to look," Reed says happily. "Any other ideas where the citadel is?"
Virro looks over at Ironmaiden, saying merely "Sometimes he talks to me, mainly when I ask a question. But he's still there, nothing has changed." He stops for a second, looking down at the shield, concentrating. He looks back up at Ironmaiden, saying "I'm asking him if he knows about this Jander person. And this betrayal of Zariel. I would tend to think we should move on, but ... that's just me. Let me see what HL thinks."
The elf shudders a bit as another stirge injects blood into him. He coughs some more then answers, "What did I do? I betrayed the angel Zariel. Haruman and I were both part of a host of warriors to joined Zariel in her assault on the Nine Hells. I... I um.. well I panicked. Ok? I admit it! After we charged through the portal into Avernus, I panicked and fled back to Elturel. I betrayed Zariel and my braver comrades by sealing the portal behind them." He at least as the decency to hang his head as much as he can at this admission.
"Myself and my friends, we never revealed our retreat or betrayal. It was a badge of shame that us Hellriders, as we became known, would wear in secret until the grave. After years of quiet anguish, I chose to face the sun and threw myself on Lathander's mercy! You hear that? I tried to pray and make amends for my awful deed! But my prayers fell on deaf ears and my soul has been condemned to the Nine Hells to suffer for my sins."
"Please... please cut me down so that my soul can move on from this accursed place. These beasts, these blood suckers keep my vampire form alive with this tainted blood! I just want peace!!"
Corlith looks up at Jander and shakes his head.
"You betrayed an angel and your comrades in arms. You didn't just abandon them, you trapped them. You lied to everyone about your actions. You beseeched a god for mercy and they declined. It seems to me I was right. You are where you are meant to be", he says coldly.
"It is not for us to alter your fate just because you regret what you did", he adds and starts to turn away but stops.
"What would be in it for us?".