... Then to Rel ”What are you doing hiding in shadows?”
Rel brow furrows and she looks momentarily puzzled. "The... shadows?" She looks around, clearly not thinking of this place as particularly dark. Yet as her black earrings glint, she turns back to the goliath, thinking she understands his deeper meaning (she doesn't, since he likely has no deeper meaning).
"Ah, you mean... yes, sharp eyes and keen mind you have, giant-kin." She touches her black warhammer. "There is power in shadow. And also a price."
All eyes turn to the newcomer. Sildar picks up the scimitar from the ground where he had left it next to Mara, and steps across to place himself protectively between her and the dark-skinned arrival.
Mara rolls her eyes and places a firm hand on his arm to guide him back out of the way.
"Now, now, Sildar," she says, like a mother scolding a child, "there is no need for that, I'm sure."
Turning her attention to Rel, she says, "Hello! I'm Mara. It's, um, nice to meet you, though somewhat odd, I have to say. We had only really expected to find goblins in here. And this big lump of course." She smiles sweetly at Sildar to dull the insult, before turning her attention back to Rel "Are you alone?"
Meanwhile, Erk, the captured goblin leader, remains quiet and looks more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment, shifting from foot to foot and looking around all over the cave as if looking for a hole to disappear into.
Rel continues in her strangely accented Common. "I believe the... knight? The knight, Sildar, is right to take precaution, Mara. I know well the perils of strange tunnels. I can only tell you that I intend no threat to you. These goblins, or ones similar enough that I cannot discern the difference, waylaid us, my friend and me, and..." (Rel's voice comes close to breaking, but she continues doggedly). "... And slew her while I could only flee. Later, hiding by a nearby section of road, through the thick trees and leaves, I believe I witnessed them ambush the knight and his companion, perhaps a... dwarf?"
"I stalked them to the cave entrance, remaining hidden, my eyes seeing blood and wanting revenge." Her irises seem to strobe black momentarily. "Yet I dared not enter alone. I waited long, and then... I saw all of you arrive and enter. Well, except the knight. And this other goblin here. Who still lives..."
Her face loses expression and she gazes at Erk for a long moment. "Why does he still live?"
... Then to Rel ”What are you doing hiding in shadows?”
Rel brow furrows and she looks momentarily puzzled. "The... shadows?" She looks around, clearly not thinking of this place as particularly dark. Yet as her black earrings glint, she turns back to the goliath, thinking she understands his deeper meaning (she doesn't, since he likely has no deeper meaning).
"Ah, you mean... yes, sharp eyes and keen mind you have, giant-kin." She touches her black warhammer. "There is power in shadow. And also a price."
All eyes turn to the newcomer. Sildar picks up the scimitar from the ground where he had left it next to Mara, and steps across to place himself protectively between her and the dark-skinned arrival.
Mara rolls her eyes and places a firm hand on his arm to guide him back out of the way.
"Now, now, Sildar," she says, like a mother scolding a child, "there is no need for that, I'm sure."
Turning her attention to Rel, she says, "Hello! I'm Mara. It's, um, nice to meet you, though somewhat odd, I have to say. We had only really expected to find goblins in here. And this big lump of course." She smiles sweetly at Sildar to dull the insult, before turning her attention back to Rel "Are you alone?"
Meanwhile, Erk, the captured goblin leader, remains quiet and looks more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment, shifting from foot to foot and looking around all over the cave as if looking for a hole to disappear into.
Rel continues in her strangely accented Common. "I believe the... knight? The knight, Sildar, is right to take precaution, Mara. I know well the perils of strange tunnels. I can only tell you that I intend no threat to you. These goblins, or ones similar enough that I cannot discern the difference, waylaid us, my friend and me, and..." (Rel's voice comes close to breaking, but she continues doggedly). "... And slew her while I could only flee. Later, hiding by a nearby section of road, through the thick trees and leaves, I believe I witnessed them ambush the knight and his companion, perhaps a... dwarf?"
"I stalked them to the cave entrance, remaining hidden, my eyes seeing blood and wanting revenge." Her irises seem to strobe black momentarily. "Yet I dared not enter alone. I waited long, and then... I saw all of you arrive and enter. Well, except the knight. And this other goblin here. Who still lives..."
Her face loses expression and she gazes at Erk for a long moment. "Why does he still live?"
“Because” Mayres said, “he surrendered, and he’s useful, and we probably shouldn't kill him unless we have to”–he ran his fingers through his tousled hair, the slowly dissipating terror on his face, that would otherwise be evident, partially obscured by the darkness–“as I said before, he’s useful.” Speaking for the first time since the wolves had driven him stumbling to the wall, Mayres’s voice held not its usual cheerful and absent-minded inflection nor the darker, poisoned one that sawed at the edges of his words when his mask slipped; his voice was simply broken, raw, an old wound reopened.
Aeran lets out a heavy sigh, but manages to supress the desire to rub his chin. He isn't very sure what to make of this whole situation, with the rest of the party seemingly ready to believe at once the story of the unfamiliar woman. He does manage to find some positive - at least she intercepted the fleeing goblin, preventing him from calling more reinforcements, but that doesn't mean she is who she says she is. After everything he's and heard in the last couple of days, he could see other parties being interested in the mine's myth, and what was it to say Rel wasn't after it? Still, he reminds himself that he hadn't known Mara either, and yet here she is, right next to him. Is it Rel's appearance that makes him feel more apprehensive? Is it the edge from the attack, the pain, the worry?
His brow furrows for a moment, "Why did you wait until now to show yourself?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Aeran Dormaris - L2 Paladin on his way to Phandelver
Rel lets the goblin's corpse slide to the floor. In truth, she had not really thought through how she might explain herself to a group of people she assumed were in it to slay goblins and rescue their victims. Though it makes sense. She certainly might be suspicious in their shoes.
"You may not see in what you call darkness, giant-kin, yet I can, as can your golden elf companion. I made no effort to hide from his darkvision. Why did I wait? It is true, I waited hidden quite distant from the cave entrance after trailing the goblins here, watching. Unsure of whether to enter. After your arrival and the fighting, I remained not fully certain of your intentions. But when you entered, I had a choice to follow. I eventually took it. I am new to the surface world, and I knew not how deep these caverns went, so I proceeded cautiously, wary of another goblin ambush. I had not caught up to you until just now, so it is not as if I have been creeping along and spying on you, only to reveal myself now like some nasty duergar."
A strange feeling comes over Rel at the pained voice of the... pale, young man. Why do I sense that this one's suffering may far outstrip my own, as the nearby stream is outstripped by the Sunless Sea. She looks at him for a long moment, wordless, before finally speaking of Erk being useful.
"Is he?" she responds. "Useful? I care not for his surrender, as the eight goblins cared not when my friend Roywyn and I sought to surrender, then flee, slaying her with arrows in her back, then dragging off her corpse to clear the way for their next ambush. Yet he is your captive, so your decision."
Rel gazes coolly at Erk once more. Her grey irises briefly strobe to black, matching her pupils in the firelight. She turns to face Sildar.
"Useful... has he described to you where to find your dwarven companion then, sir knight? Or others who they have waylaid?"
Although his face expression remains somewhat unsure, the paladin considers Rel's words for a moment, then slowly nods. "I see. Is that what you are here for now then - revenge for your friend?"
All eyes turn to the newcomer. Sildar picks up the scimitar from the ground where he had left it next to Mara, and steps across to place himself protectively between her and the dark-skinned arrival.
Mara rolls her eyes and places a firm hand on his arm to guide him back out of the way.
"Now, now, Sildar," she says, like a mother scolding a child, "there is no need for that, I'm sure."
Turning her attention to Rel, she says, "Hello! I'm Mara. It's, um, nice to meet you, though somewhat odd, I have to say. We had only really expected to find goblins in here. And this big lump of course." She smiles sweetly at Sildar to dull the insult, before turning her attention back to Rel "Are you alone?"
Meanwhile, Erk, the captured goblin leader, remains quiet and looks more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment, shifting from foot to foot and looking around all over the cave as if looking for a hole to disappear into.
While addressing Rel, Mayres had moved to stand behind Erk, looming over the goblin despite his height only being slightly above average for a human. Without taking his shadowed eyes off the conversations happening elsewhere in the tunnel – Sildar’s suspicion, Mara’s easily won trust, Lukuth’s confusion, Aeran’s apprehension; repressed but still visible in the furrow of his golden brow, and Rel’s analytical gaze – Mayres bent down and restrained Erk with a hand to the shoulder, his grasp too tight, his fingernails digging into Erk’s skin.
“I don’t suggest you run,” he whispered, the hissing threat soft and faint as the sound a dagger made when it slipped from its sheath, “you won’t get very far. You’ve seen us kill your brethren, what makes you think we won’t slaughter you, too, once you’ve run out your usefulness? Your people breed like rabbits, Erk,” he said, using the goblin’s name for the first time, “they’ll replace you almost instantly and almost certainly without a fuss, as you’re wholly unimportant.” Some part of Mayres, much larger than he really wanted to recognize, was enjoying this cruelty. When the mask he always wore to maintain some semblance of his sanity slipped, he stretched his darker desires like one might stretch a vital but underused muscle. He’d long ago stopped trying to make himself feel guilty for doing whatever he had to do to save Annabel. He simply chose not to murder and maim most living (and non-living, as a necromancer) beings he came across, not out of any particular moral standing, but because his appearance had not changed in the last six centuries or so, due to being an immortal, and thus, as Mayres had discover early on in his career of generally-illegal wizardry, inconspicuousness was a tenet he had to believe in if he ever wished to complete his goal of raising Annabel. Of course, there was also the fact that killing everything was boring after the fifth or sixth time you’ve done it. “And besides, even if you did manage to escape and scamper back to your village, they wouldn't know we’re coming, she”–his eyes flicked to Rel again, she was having what appeared to be having an exchange with Sildar–”killed the only other one of you that knew about us at all, so you’d be totally unprepared and then you’d all die anyway. I really do suggest that you don’t run, Erk.” (Intimidation Roll: 15)
Sildar's suspicion has not been erased by Mara's confidence in the purity of the stranger's intentions.
"You saw the ambush? And yet you did not think to lend assistance, despite clearly being very..." he looks meaningfully at the latest goblin corpse, "capable?"
"These good (a sideways glance at Mayres) people put themselves in harm's way to get me and Gundrun out of here. You could have helped stop this before they needed to. Forgive me if I don't receive you with open arms. If you are here to kill goblins, there are more where these buggers came from. Feel free to go get them."
"Sildar, you're being mean," chides Mara. "We're not all big brave knights like you who can charge in and save the day single-handed. Rel looks like she could lend us a hand, if you say we should clear out this gang so as to make the road safer for travelers to Phandalin. What do you think, Aeran? I'm not sure revenge is necessarily the healthiest of motivations, but if she wishes to indulge it whilst we want to find your friend, maybe we could stick together and help each other out."
"This is turning out to be a proper adventure!" Mara smiles and claps her hands excitedly, clutching her staff under one armpit as she does so, then winces as she remembers the arrow shaft sticking out of her chest. "Luk," she calls, "be a dear and break this off, would you? Gently please."
Erk cowers and shrinks away from Mayres. He just shakes his head to indicate he has no intention of trying to run away.
Although his face expression remains somewhat unsure, the paladin considers Rel's words for a moment, then slowly nods. "I see. Is that what you are here for now then - revenge for your friend?"
For a long moment, Rel does not answer. When she does, her voice is quiet.
"Aye, revenge was foremost of my motives. I have anger in my heart. You know, Roywyn was a rock gnome? Not one of the deep gnomes common to the Underdark, but rather captured from the surface. A slave kept by my matriarch b!tch of a mother. One of thousands... as was my father." Rel looks very upset for a moment, but continues. "When the abyssal calamity befell Menzoberranzan all those months back, we took our chance and escaped, Roywyn and I. The scorned bastard daughter and the despised slave. She was my best friend. It seemed incomprehensible to me that we survived a lifetime of the Underdark's perils to finally reach the surface not far from her clan home, only for her life to be cut short by these two-legged rats."
Rel's words come skidding to a ragged stop. For another lengthy pause, she is wordless, breathing hard. Finally continuing:
"Yet revenge is not my only motive. I would have freed all my mother's slaves were it in my power, just as I wished to stop the ambush that captured you, sir knight. Perhaps I could have, but I was still nursing an injury from our ambush when I saw yours unfold from my concealed spot several hundred feet away, more than twice the range of my furthest attack. You must know these goblins' tactics better than I, Sildar. Easy to defeat one-on-one, yet harder when they swarm in an ambush. It was over too quickly for me to intervene. I trailed them at a distance hoping they would tie you to a tree so I could free you stealthily, but was stopped short when they entered the cavern. I hid well away from the cave mouth to recover from my wounds, alone and unsure of what to do next. When I saw this group arrive, I knew not what to make of them, but when they fought their way in, I followed."
She sighs, and her shoulders slump a little.
"If Erk is useful, so be it, and there is no need to... torture him as my mother would do for sport to her slaves." She looks uncomfortably at Mayres.
Standing back up straight, Rel continues with more force. "I have given all of you my name, and much more of myself in the hopes of gaining your trust, yet you have told me next to nothing. Only Mara has spoken her own name, also revealing Sildar's and Luk's incidentally. Is that the way of it? Do surface folk not trust each other until they fully share each other's secrets? Do all of you truly know each other so well? Then it may take me weeks or months to earn your trust, and we lack the time, treading on hostile ground as we do. You wish me to slay goblins, Sildar? Very well."
With that, Rel turns and walks away along the northeastern tunnel, shield up and warhammer in hand, dark earrings swaying below her silver hair.
"Are you just going to let her walk in there by herself? Come on, let's finish the job we started. I'm sure the people of Phandalin will thank us for it."
She starts down the steps, making to follow Rel into the tunnel. Sildar, protective instincts triumphing over his suspicion, follows.
After some more consideration, the high elf finally nods. "Your words do hold wisdom, so... we can work together in clearing the area. Forgive us for being overly cautious. This is the third time we've had to fight in the last... 30 hours. I'm Aeran," he introduces himself with a small, tired smile.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Aeran Dormaris - L2 Paladin on his way to Phandelver
"Are you just going to let her walk in there by herself? Come on, let's finish the job we started. I'm sure the people of Phandalin will thank us for it."
She starts down the steps, making to follow Rel into the tunnel. Sildar, protective instincts triumphing over his suspicion, follows.
“Me snap arrow?” Lukuth says to Mara seeing the arrow.
After some more consideration, the high elf finally nods. "Your words do hold wisdom, so... we can work together in clearing the area. Forgive us for being overly cautious. This is the third time we've had to fight in the last... 30 hours. I'm Aeran," he introduces himself with a small, tired smile.
(Rel may or may not have heard any of that, but as stated in post 495, she has already left the room, receding into the darkness of the northwest tunnel).
She is of course trying to move quietly, though her scale mail does not make it easy. Peering through the gloom with her darkvision, her Perception at disadvantage (perceiving darkness as dim light... alternatively no disadvantage if it is dim light, which she perceives as bright light).
Stealth at disadvantage due to scale mail: 6, would have been 16 without disadvantage. Perception at disadvantage due to darkvision treating darkness as dim light: 4 (Nat. 1), would have been 17 without disadvantage.
(Rel may or may not have heard any of that, but as stated in post 495, she has already left the room, receding into the darkness of the northwest tunnel).
She is of course trying to move quietly, though her scale mail does not make it easy. Peering through the gloom with her darkvision, her Perception at disadvantage (perceiving darkness as dim light... alternatively no disadvantage if it is dim light, which she perceives as bright light).
Stealth at disadvantage due to scale mail: 6, would have been 16 without disadvantage. Perception at disadvantage due to darkvision treating darkness as dim light: 4 (Nat. 1), would have been 17 without disadvantage.
Mara follows Rel into the tunnel, with Sildar and Willow close behind.
Rel sees nothing but tunnel, until Mara starts to catch up. She has cast Light on the crystal atop her staff and is holding it like a torch. As the darkness ahead is pushed back by the edges of the magical light, Rel can see a wooden bridge up ahead, crossing the stream and then disappearing into a tunnel on the far side.
Rel continues doggedly around the bend turning southeast (after first going northeast). As she approaches the start of the bridge, she pauses.
She gestures with her hand and an image of Sildar appears, standing on the bridge, near the far side, looking lost. (Minor Illusion).
Peeking around, up and down the chasm, and past the end of the bridge, Rel waits a few moments to discern if anyone or anything reacts to the illusion.
Rel brow furrows and she looks momentarily puzzled. "The... shadows?" She looks around, clearly not thinking of this place as particularly dark. Yet as her black earrings glint, she turns back to the goliath, thinking she understands his deeper meaning (she doesn't, since he likely has no deeper meaning).
"Ah, you mean... yes, sharp eyes and keen mind you have, giant-kin." She touches her black warhammer. "There is power in shadow. And also a price."
Rel continues in her strangely accented Common. "I believe the... knight? The knight, Sildar, is right to take precaution, Mara. I know well the perils of strange tunnels. I can only tell you that I intend no threat to you. These goblins, or ones similar enough that I cannot discern the difference, waylaid us, my friend and me, and..." (Rel's voice comes close to breaking, but she continues doggedly). "... And slew her while I could only flee. Later, hiding by a nearby section of road, through the thick trees and leaves, I believe I witnessed them ambush the knight and his companion, perhaps a... dwarf?"
"I stalked them to the cave entrance, remaining hidden, my eyes seeing blood and wanting revenge." Her irises seem to strobe black momentarily. "Yet I dared not enter alone. I waited long, and then... I saw all of you arrive and enter. Well, except the knight. And this other goblin here. Who still lives..."
Her face loses expression and she gazes at Erk for a long moment. "Why does he still live?"
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
Lukuth doesn’t understand
”Power in shadows? But in dark I cannot see, not good for bashing goblins. Not really power.”
he frowns, “Good hiding though, I’d never hide though so not useful.” He shrugs
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
“Because” Mayres said, “he surrendered, and he’s useful, and we probably shouldn't kill him unless we have to”–he ran his fingers through his tousled hair, the slowly dissipating terror on his face, that would otherwise be evident, partially obscured by the darkness–“as I said before, he’s useful.” Speaking for the first time since the wolves had driven him stumbling to the wall, Mayres’s voice held not its usual cheerful and absent-minded inflection nor the darker, poisoned one that sawed at the edges of his words when his mask slipped; his voice was simply broken, raw, an old wound reopened.
Aeran lets out a heavy sigh, but manages to supress the desire to rub his chin. He isn't very sure what to make of this whole situation, with the rest of the party seemingly ready to believe at once the story of the unfamiliar woman. He does manage to find some positive - at least she intercepted the fleeing goblin, preventing him from calling more reinforcements, but that doesn't mean she is who she says she is. After everything he's and heard in the last couple of days, he could see other parties being interested in the mine's myth, and what was it to say Rel wasn't after it? Still, he reminds himself that he hadn't known Mara either, and yet here she is, right next to him. Is it Rel's appearance that makes him feel more apprehensive? Is it the edge from the attack, the pain, the worry?
His brow furrows for a moment, "Why did you wait until now to show yourself?"
Aeran Dormaris - L2 Paladin on his way to Phandelver
Vesna March - L1 Cleric in Etharis
DM The Missing Farmer
Rel lets the goblin's corpse slide to the floor. In truth, she had not really thought through how she might explain herself to a group of people she assumed were in it to slay goblins and rescue their victims. Though it makes sense. She certainly might be suspicious in their shoes.
"You may not see in what you call darkness, giant-kin, yet I can, as can your golden elf companion. I made no effort to hide from his darkvision. Why did I wait? It is true, I waited hidden quite distant from the cave entrance after trailing the goblins here, watching. Unsure of whether to enter. After your arrival and the fighting, I remained not fully certain of your intentions. But when you entered, I had a choice to follow. I eventually took it. I am new to the surface world, and I knew not how deep these caverns went, so I proceeded cautiously, wary of another goblin ambush. I had not caught up to you until just now, so it is not as if I have been creeping along and spying on you, only to reveal myself now like some nasty duergar."
A strange feeling comes over Rel at the pained voice of the... pale, young man. Why do I sense that this one's suffering may far outstrip my own, as the nearby stream is outstripped by the Sunless Sea. She looks at him for a long moment, wordless, before finally speaking of Erk being useful.
"Is he?" she responds. "Useful? I care not for his surrender, as the eight goblins cared not when my friend Roywyn and I sought to surrender, then flee, slaying her with arrows in her back, then dragging off her corpse to clear the way for their next ambush. Yet he is your captive, so your decision."
Rel gazes coolly at Erk once more. Her grey irises briefly strobe to black, matching her pupils in the firelight. She turns to face Sildar.
"Useful... has he described to you where to find your dwarven companion then, sir knight? Or others who they have waylaid?"
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
Although his face expression remains somewhat unsure, the paladin considers Rel's words for a moment, then slowly nods. "I see. Is that what you are here for now then - revenge for your friend?"
Aeran Dormaris - L2 Paladin on his way to Phandelver
Vesna March - L1 Cleric in Etharis
DM The Missing Farmer
While addressing Rel, Mayres had moved to stand behind Erk, looming over the goblin despite his height only being slightly above average for a human. Without taking his shadowed eyes off the conversations happening elsewhere in the tunnel – Sildar’s suspicion, Mara’s easily won trust, Lukuth’s confusion, Aeran’s apprehension; repressed but still visible in the furrow of his golden brow, and Rel’s analytical gaze – Mayres bent down and restrained Erk with a hand to the shoulder, his grasp too tight, his fingernails digging into Erk’s skin.
“I don’t suggest you run,” he whispered, the hissing threat soft and faint as the sound a dagger made when it slipped from its sheath, “you won’t get very far. You’ve seen us kill your brethren, what makes you think we won’t slaughter you, too, once you’ve run out your usefulness? Your people breed like rabbits, Erk,” he said, using the goblin’s name for the first time, “they’ll replace you almost instantly and almost certainly without a fuss, as you’re wholly unimportant.” Some part of Mayres, much larger than he really wanted to recognize, was enjoying this cruelty. When the mask he always wore to maintain some semblance of his sanity slipped, he stretched his darker desires like one might stretch a vital but underused muscle. He’d long ago stopped trying to make himself feel guilty for doing whatever he had to do to save Annabel. He simply chose not to murder and maim most living (and non-living, as a necromancer) beings he came across, not out of any particular moral standing, but because his appearance had not changed in the last six centuries or so, due to being an immortal, and thus, as Mayres had discover early on in his career of generally-illegal wizardry, inconspicuousness was a tenet he had to believe in if he ever wished to complete his goal of raising Annabel. Of course, there was also the fact that killing everything was boring after the fifth or sixth time you’ve done it. “And besides, even if you did manage to escape and scamper back to your village, they wouldn't know we’re coming, she”–his eyes flicked to Rel again, she was having what appeared to be having an exchange with Sildar–”killed the only other one of you that knew about us at all, so you’d be totally unprepared and then you’d all die anyway. I really do suggest that you don’t run, Erk.” (Intimidation Roll: 15)
Sildar's suspicion has not been erased by Mara's confidence in the purity of the stranger's intentions.
"You saw the ambush? And yet you did not think to lend assistance, despite clearly being very..." he looks meaningfully at the latest goblin corpse, "capable?"
"These good (a sideways glance at Mayres) people put themselves in harm's way to get me and Gundrun out of here. You could have helped stop this before they needed to. Forgive me if I don't receive you with open arms. If you are here to kill goblins, there are more where these buggers came from. Feel free to go get them."
"Sildar, you're being mean," chides Mara. "We're not all big brave knights like you who can charge in and save the day single-handed. Rel looks like she could lend us a hand, if you say we should clear out this gang so as to make the road safer for travelers to Phandalin. What do you think, Aeran? I'm not sure revenge is necessarily the healthiest of motivations, but if she wishes to indulge it whilst we want to find your friend, maybe we could stick together and help each other out."
"This is turning out to be a proper adventure!" Mara smiles and claps her hands excitedly, clutching her staff under one armpit as she does so, then winces as she remembers the arrow shaft sticking out of her chest. "Luk," she calls, "be a dear and break this off, would you? Gently please."
Erk cowers and shrinks away from Mayres. He just shakes his head to indicate he has no intention of trying to run away.
For a long moment, Rel does not answer. When she does, her voice is quiet.
"Aye, revenge was foremost of my motives. I have anger in my heart. You know, Roywyn was a rock gnome? Not one of the deep gnomes common to the Underdark, but rather captured from the surface. A slave kept by my matriarch b!tch of a mother. One of thousands... as was my father." Rel looks very upset for a moment, but continues. "When the abyssal calamity befell Menzoberranzan all those months back, we took our chance and escaped, Roywyn and I. The scorned bastard daughter and the despised slave. She was my best friend. It seemed incomprehensible to me that we survived a lifetime of the Underdark's perils to finally reach the surface not far from her clan home, only for her life to be cut short by these two-legged rats."
Rel's words come skidding to a ragged stop. For another lengthy pause, she is wordless, breathing hard. Finally continuing:
"Yet revenge is not my only motive. I would have freed all my mother's slaves were it in my power, just as I wished to stop the ambush that captured you, sir knight. Perhaps I could have, but I was still nursing an injury from our ambush when I saw yours unfold from my concealed spot several hundred feet away, more than twice the range of my furthest attack. You must know these goblins' tactics better than I, Sildar. Easy to defeat one-on-one, yet harder when they swarm in an ambush. It was over too quickly for me to intervene. I trailed them at a distance hoping they would tie you to a tree so I could free you stealthily, but was stopped short when they entered the cavern. I hid well away from the cave mouth to recover from my wounds, alone and unsure of what to do next. When I saw this group arrive, I knew not what to make of them, but when they fought their way in, I followed."
She sighs, and her shoulders slump a little.
"If Erk is useful, so be it, and there is no need to... torture him as my mother would do for sport to her slaves." She looks uncomfortably at Mayres.
Standing back up straight, Rel continues with more force. "I have given all of you my name, and much more of myself in the hopes of gaining your trust, yet you have told me next to nothing. Only Mara has spoken her own name, also revealing Sildar's and Luk's incidentally. Is that the way of it? Do surface folk not trust each other until they fully share each other's secrets? Do all of you truly know each other so well? Then it may take me weeks or months to earn your trust, and we lack the time, treading on hostile ground as we do. You wish me to slay goblins, Sildar? Very well."
With that, Rel turns and walks away along the northeastern tunnel, shield up and warhammer in hand, dark earrings swaying below her silver hair.
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
Lukuth nods and points at his chest, “Me Luk” he smiles. “We happy to have you along.”
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
Mara slaps Sildar on the arm in frustration.
"Are you just going to let her walk in there by herself? Come on, let's finish the job we started. I'm sure the people of Phandalin will thank us for it."
She starts down the steps, making to follow Rel into the tunnel. Sildar, protective instincts triumphing over his suspicion, follows.
After some more consideration, the high elf finally nods. "Your words do hold wisdom, so... we can work together in clearing the area. Forgive us for being overly cautious. This is the third time we've had to fight in the last... 30 hours. I'm Aeran," he introduces himself with a small, tired smile.
Aeran Dormaris - L2 Paladin on his way to Phandelver
Vesna March - L1 Cleric in Etharis
DM The Missing Farmer
“Me snap arrow?” Lukuth says to Mara seeing the arrow.
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
Lukuth grins, “All friends now!”
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
(Rel may or may not have heard any of that, but as stated in post 495, she has already left the room, receding into the darkness of the northwest tunnel).
She is of course trying to move quietly, though her scale mail does not make it easy. Peering through the gloom with her darkvision, her Perception at disadvantage (perceiving darkness as dim light... alternatively no disadvantage if it is dim light, which she perceives as bright light).
Stealth at disadvantage due to scale mail: 6, would have been 16 without disadvantage.
Perception at disadvantage due to darkvision treating darkness as dim light: 4 (Nat. 1), would have been 17 without disadvantage.
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
(Damn, low roll curse is back)
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
Mara follows Rel into the tunnel, with Sildar and Willow close behind.
Rel sees nothing but tunnel, until Mara starts to catch up. She has cast Light on the crystal atop her staff and is holding it like a torch. As the darkness ahead is pushed back by the edges of the magical light, Rel can see a wooden bridge up ahead, crossing the stream and then disappearing into a tunnel on the far side.
Luk follows along pushing Erk.
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn
Rel continues doggedly around the bend turning southeast (after first going northeast). As she approaches the start of the bridge, she pauses.
She gestures with her hand and an image of Sildar appears, standing on the bridge, near the far side, looking lost. (Minor Illusion).
Peeking around, up and down the chasm, and past the end of the bridge, Rel waits a few moments to discern if anyone or anything reacts to the illusion.
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
Luk turns the corner and stares in shock at the two Sildar’s. He frowns, clearly confused.
Characters (Links!):
Faelin Nighthollow - 7th Sojourn