Looking up from the tome, he blinks. Mr Vydar? No one has ever called him that before. "Uh, alright."He says, then looks at the dagger. Perhaps he should check it out before reading to much of this tome.
Moving to dry land, he sets the tome and the small box with the coins down, then examines the dagger closer. Still unable to clean anything from it just by looking at it, he sets it down carefully then opens his own satchel and pulls out a tattered grimoire. Opening it, he skims a page before closing it and placing it back in his satchel. Then he picks up the dagger again and focuses on it intently. A red shimmer surrounds him as he casts a spell to identify the object. "Now...tell me what you are."He says under his breath.
Vydar only (others can look out of character after Vydar describes in game what happened)
As you complete your one minute spell, you touch the dagger to learn its properties. Instead of learning the properties of the dagger, you are propelled into a vision. You see a dark chamber with no windows. In the center is a woman chained to an altar. She is a priestess of Libra. People march in, all hooded, wearing black. They begin chanting in another language. A person who you assume is a high priest enters the stage and altar. She pulls out a black dagger and plunges it into the woman's heart. You see the skin around the puncture rot, and widden as if torn from the inside out. You see her heart, dissolving while she still lives, flow out of her chest in gelatinous goo. Then, screaming in agony, she dies.
You then hear a sort of laughing sound, a deep raspy laugh and see (Picture. The thing laughs and eats the woman. Then it turns and looks.....at you. It is missing one of its fingers (a black pointy claw: the dagger). You feel exposed, as if the thing sees you as you see it. It smiles. You then wake up, as if from a bad dream.
You wake up lying on the floor. looking up at your friends. You have wet yourself, and your are sweating. The dagger lies where you left it. You have never experienced this type of terror before. you have just seen a demon of the pit!
The donkey is now Amdaengs best friend. It is very interested in the apple, as its smell is intoxicating compared to the grass by the water. It willingly follows you back to the others. As you head back, you see the group looking through belongings, and Vydar lying on the ground.
Iólinder followed the others cautiously when there came no reply to his booming voice. The box on the bridge, Paevira mentioned, contained fishing supplies. It struck Iólinder as curious that someone would leave behind all this gear. He was no fisherman but he knew that anyone who took fishing seriously would not be so careless with their tools. A slight chill came down his spine. The entire ordeal was... off somehow.
It did not take long for them to come across the sight nobody was expecting. Natalie Storm, the esteemed professor and the one Iólinder had come all this way to meet, was dead. Her lifeless body was gently swaying in the water some distance down river. The others already waded in to drag her corpse onto shore and collect whatever else of personal belongings there were. Iólinder through the shock merely observed them, not really registering them: a hat, a dagger, a book. There was also an overturned cart and supplies scattered about but Iólinder paid no mind to those.
Paevira mentioned something about Giants. The sudden mention of something so out of the ordinary snapped Iólinder back to his senses in time to notice that someone was holding what looked like a bunch of maps. 'Could I see that?' He asked, wanting to contribute to the murder investigation. 'I always liked maps.'
It took him a moment to realise what he was saying. 'What I mean is, I- I'm good with maps. Studied plenty of them during my time as an acolyte. There may be something that could tell us more about this-'His eyes darted around the area and swallowed hard, 'situation.'
Iólinder has proficiency with Cartographer's Tools. Does that influence any potential check to inspect the maps?
Though most of the text is unreadable, there still remains a few rather dense notes in the tome. Lev isn't sure if they are significant or not. Perhaps this treasure is what Natalie was planning on searching for. Regardless, all he knows is that they were written by Natalie, who is now dead.
After looking through the mostly ruined book, Lev looks to Iolinder who seems interested in trying to decipher the maps. He hesitates a moment, grumbling under his breath about thieves and murderers before handing the soaked tome over to the half elf. He eyes Iolinder for a moment, then looks to the rest of the group as they go about searching the wagon and/or running off to look for other things. "Bastards." He says bitterly, "Bloody bastards."
He suddenly realizes that he still has Natalie's hat in one hand, very nearly crumpling it as he clenches his fists. Fortunately the thing seems to be made of good material so it doesn't stay crumpled when he loosens his grip. Letting out a breath through his nose he says, "They clearly weren't interested in looting the cart, but someone took some pages of this book." He gestures to what Iolinder is now holding, then shakes his head angrily.
Now what is he supposed to do? He's trying to get away from this kind of thing. Blood and murder. This is not what he hoped to find here. He watches silently as Paevira mentions burying Natalie before rifling through the wagon, where Vydar just pulled something out of the floor. Clearly the dark elf is the most broken up about this whole ordeal. Apparently he really did care about the elderly dwarf woman.
He stands there quietly, waiting for Iolinder's opinion on the maps and watching as everyone else does what they want. He's not sure how to feel about taking things from the cart, but at the same time it doesn't make sense to waste it. He can fix it if they decide to go further but... does he really want to stay with this group? Is this really his problem?
The amulet hangs heavy on his neck, and it's then that Vydar suddenly passes out.
Without much thought, Lev hurries over to the dark elf, propping him up wordlessly and checks his vitals. Satisfied that he's alive, Lev lowers him back to the ground and pulls out his waterskin, knowing from experience (personal and otherwise) that Vydar will probably want water after waking up. What the heck did he do to himself? Is it just stress? Did he pass out from shock? Or did this have something to do with that black dagger? Come to think of it, Vydar was looking at that thing for at least a solid minute...
As soon as Vydar wakes up Lev backs off and crosses his arms, giving him a disapproving look with no explanation of why.
Then he looks to Amdaeng as she comes out of the woods with a donkey. Well, at least if they decide to try fixing the cart they'll have an animal to pull it with. Still standing with his arms crossed and a sour expression, he looks to Iolinder, expecting their would-be cartographer to have something to say about the maps. Even if all he has to say is that they are useless.
(Maps are readable by all, journal was in another language, but we’ll say Iolinder translated. You see a map with numbers corresponding to caches 1-5) comparing to the map in the wet tomb, 9 caches, not numbered. Whoever took a copy took the one with 9 locations.
So to summarize: Natalie Storm had a tomb that was found in the river. The ink had run and other than a few damaged and vague maps, not much was recoverable. None of her belongings were taken on herself or wagon to your knowledge, other than from the wet tomb.
Of note was that the map of the Caches had 9 locations, and multiple copies (4), with the last (2) pages torn out.
Then in the hidden box under her seat in the wagon was a second book. A backup copy, but with additional notes and her personal journal. Here is what was included (LORE/ BACKGROUND)
1) A color map of Allansia with a blue circle (where she thinks Caches are located)
2) A Full-size map of Allansia, including locations of Port Rentarn and the town of Silverton
3) A map of the pass between Rentarn and Silverton, including a blue line tracing the pass, and (5) FIVE of the sites are marked, 1-5, corresponding with her journal
4)Natalie Storms Journal, written in Old Allansian, to save time, translated. This includes what she is looking for, some personal notes, and 5 sites.
5) The tale of Malbordus
6) The Artifacts
7) Traps, Riddles and glyphs
There is a copy of each of these on the link to join site,posts 118, 119, 120, 121. Your best map is above, post 148, enlarge them!)
(OOC: Lev or someone else can add the hat to your inventory: (Search for STORM'S HAT) when adding item.
(OOC: If you want the other items, please divvy them up and put them on your PC sheets. (such as the dice, whip, scrolls, potions, bolts, hat, from post #141 and from searching body).
(Lots of info to absorb, now you know where Natalie Storm was headed and why, but it seems the group that killed her took one of her bad maps and has a 12-hour head start)
(You also have a very creepy dagger to deal with, which knocked Vydar out)
Iólinder definitely notices a difference between the maps in the damaged tomb and those in the private compartment. He notes that there are 9 locations on the wet maps of caches. On the private notes, 5 locations are marked specifically, including the mountain. He also notes the pass going from Port Rentarn to Silverton (in blue), and that oddly, north on the map is in the top left corner on the better map. Natalie Storms private notes are written in Old Allansian. He is able to translate it for the group.
As you sort through all of Storm's personal belongings and read over the information she has gathered, you note that something happened to Vydar.
It appears Vydar tried to cast some sort of spell, likely to learn more of the black dagger. Looking over at him, he lies on the floor dazed or unconscious. He has wet himself, is sweating, and the black dagger that killed Storm lies next to him in the grass.
Iólinder's eyes poured over the maps and journal pages. They were written in in Ancient Allansian which he thought was odd. Ancient Allansian was a dead language: nowadays it was only used in old religious ceremonies or encountered in ancient texts. Not many knew it, let alone be well versed in it to write fluently in it. Though in hindsight a professor of archeology using a dead language to track their progress seemed oddly poetic. It saddened him to realise that such a brilliant mind was now gone from the world.
He rubbed his eyes to clear away the wetness welling up so he could focus. His Ancient Allansian was a bit rusty but the more he read, the clearer the language became. The words spoke of a cult, dragons, a ritual involving five artifacts and professor Storm's efforts in infiltrating the cult and locating said artifacts. It reminded Iólinder of something he heard about some twenty years ago: how professor Storm had a theory that if she could locate all the ancient dwarven forges, she could trace a path back to the god-forge from which divine artefacts sprang forth. Back then the idea was ridiculed and even Iólinder did not believe it but after his studies there came a hint of doubt. Professor Storm was eccentric but brilliant and very, very diligent. Her reputation was such that, even after twenty years, there were people who came to believe she was on to something. People who petitioned other people to venture out and search out Professor Storm to aid her in her explorations.
Iólinder related all the content from the maps and journal. 'You know, these caches with the hidden artefacts a rather similar to another theory Professor Storm had twenty-' He cut his words short when a dull thud interrupted. Vydar had collapsed on the ground clutching a black dagger. A dagger, Iólinder recalled, that had been plunged into Professor Storm's back.
Iólinder clutched the journal and maps in one hand and rushed over. Whatever fainting spell came over Vydar had already lifted but the guy looked like he had just spent five days sweating out a disease. 'What happened? What did you do?'Iólinder asked as he supported the dark elf's head and looked for anything unusual.
” magic it is. Tis a wicked looking thing. I think i am going to keep this whip, it seems of superior quality and has quite the reach, “ she will say while giving it a good crack. Also quite a nice crossbow and fancy bolts.” She will start gathering large stones to help cover the body of Mrs Storm.
Iólinder's Studies the dazed Vydar. It looks like he saw a ghost, or was exposed to intense fear. He has no injuries you can see. As you hold him, he seems to calm down and orient himself. His spell book is open and a black dagger lies on the ground next to him.
Vydar hears Amdaeng and looks up hearing friend. , “Charlie” Storms donkey! It seems happy enough and walks up to Vydar and nuzzles him.
“ thats a beautiful donkey she had. His name is Charlie?. We should get this wagon repaired and see about x mark #1” Paevira will see Vydar is recovering from whatever magic thing happened to him from that nasty dagger. Sont want to nick oneself on that evil thing.
Iólinder followed everyone else's gaze along the ground to the black dagger. From his backpack he retrieved his blanket and using the cloth he picked up the weapon and thoroughly wraps it around the blade in such a manner that no accidental touching is possible.
'If merely touching the blade caused this, we should take every precaution.' He said. Even wrapped in the blanket he could feel some sort of wrongness emanating from it. 'Until we know more, nobody should interact with it.' He carefully placed the blanket into his backpack.
Iólinder then aided Paevira in searching stone to bury Professor Storm in a cairn. It was an old burial method. He felt Professor Storm would appreciate it.
Looking up from the tome, he blinks. Mr Vydar? No one has ever called him that before. "Uh, alright." He says, then looks at the dagger. Perhaps he should check it out before reading to much of this tome.
Moving to dry land, he sets the tome and the small box with the coins down, then examines the dagger closer. Still unable to clean anything from it just by looking at it, he sets it down carefully then opens his own satchel and pulls out a tattered grimoire. Opening it, he skims a page before closing it and placing it back in his satchel. Then he picks up the dagger again and focuses on it intently. A red shimmer surrounds him as he casts a spell to identify the object. "Now...tell me what you are." He says under his breath.
You initiate your spell.
Vydar only (others can look out of character after Vydar describes in game what happened)
As you complete your one minute spell, you touch the dagger to learn its properties. Instead of learning the properties of the dagger, you are propelled into a vision. You see a dark chamber with no windows. In the center is a woman chained to an altar. She is a priestess of Libra. People march in, all hooded, wearing black. They begin chanting in another language. A person who you assume is a high priest enters the stage and altar. She pulls out a black dagger and plunges it into the woman's heart. You see the skin around the puncture rot, and widden as if torn from the inside out. You see her heart, dissolving while she still lives, flow out of her chest in gelatinous goo. Then, screaming in agony, she dies.
You then hear a sort of laughing sound, a deep raspy laugh and see (Picture. The thing laughs and eats the woman. Then it turns and looks.....at you. It is missing one of its fingers (a black pointy claw: the dagger). You feel exposed, as if the thing sees you as you see it. It smiles. You then wake up, as if from a bad dream.
You wake up lying on the floor. looking up at your friends. You have wet yourself, and your are sweating. The dagger lies where you left it. You have never experienced this type of terror before. you have just seen a demon of the pit!
(OOC: You have a party member that can read the document in another language without using a spell, check player sheets languages)
Amdaeng finds a bit of dried apple among her rations and tries to lead the donkey back toward the others....
The donkey is now Amdaengs best friend. It is very interested in the apple, as its smell is intoxicating compared to the grass by the water. It willingly follows you back to the others. As you head back, you see the group looking through belongings, and Vydar lying on the ground.
Though most of the text is unreadable, there still remains a few rather dense notes in the tome. Lev isn't sure if they are significant or not. Perhaps this treasure is what Natalie was planning on searching for. Regardless, all he knows is that they were written by Natalie, who is now dead.
After looking through the mostly ruined book, Lev looks to Iolinder who seems interested in trying to decipher the maps. He hesitates a moment, grumbling under his breath about thieves and murderers before handing the soaked tome over to the half elf. He eyes Iolinder for a moment, then looks to the rest of the group as they go about searching the wagon and/or running off to look for other things. "Bastards." He says bitterly, "Bloody bastards."
He suddenly realizes that he still has Natalie's hat in one hand, very nearly crumpling it as he clenches his fists. Fortunately the thing seems to be made of good material so it doesn't stay crumpled when he loosens his grip. Letting out a breath through his nose he says, "They clearly weren't interested in looting the cart, but someone took some pages of this book." He gestures to what Iolinder is now holding, then shakes his head angrily.
Now what is he supposed to do? He's trying to get away from this kind of thing. Blood and murder. This is not what he hoped to find here. He watches silently as Paevira mentions burying Natalie before rifling through the wagon, where Vydar just pulled something out of the floor. Clearly the dark elf is the most broken up about this whole ordeal. Apparently he really did care about the elderly dwarf woman.
He stands there quietly, waiting for Iolinder's opinion on the maps and watching as everyone else does what they want. He's not sure how to feel about taking things from the cart, but at the same time it doesn't make sense to waste it. He can fix it if they decide to go further but... does he really want to stay with this group? Is this really his problem?
The amulet hangs heavy on his neck, and it's then that Vydar suddenly passes out.
Without much thought, Lev hurries over to the dark elf, propping him up wordlessly and checks his vitals. Satisfied that he's alive, Lev lowers him back to the ground and pulls out his waterskin, knowing from experience (personal and otherwise) that Vydar will probably want water after waking up. What the heck did he do to himself? Is it just stress? Did he pass out from shock? Or did this have something to do with that black dagger? Come to think of it, Vydar was looking at that thing for at least a solid minute...
As soon as Vydar wakes up Lev backs off and crosses his arms, giving him a disapproving look with no explanation of why.
Then he looks to Amdaeng as she comes out of the woods with a donkey. Well, at least if they decide to try fixing the cart they'll have an animal to pull it with. Still standing with his arms crossed and a sour expression, he looks to Iolinder, expecting their would-be cartographer to have something to say about the maps. Even if all he has to say is that they are useless.
(Maps are readable by all, journal was in another language, but we’ll say Iolinder translated. You see a map with numbers corresponding to caches 1-5) comparing to the map in the wet tomb, 9 caches, not numbered. Whoever took a copy took the one with 9 locations.
So to summarize: Natalie Storm had a tomb that was found in the river. The ink had run and other than a few damaged and vague maps, not much was recoverable. None of her belongings were taken on herself or wagon to your knowledge, other than from the wet tomb.
Of note was that the map of the Caches had 9 locations, and multiple copies (4), with the last (2) pages torn out.
Then in the hidden box under her seat in the wagon was a second book. A backup copy, but with additional notes and her personal journal. Here is what was included (LORE/ BACKGROUND)
1) A color map of Allansia with a blue circle (where she thinks Caches are located)
2) A Full-size map of Allansia, including locations of Port Rentarn and the town of Silverton
3) A map of the pass between Rentarn and Silverton, including a blue line tracing the pass, and (5) FIVE of the sites are marked, 1-5, corresponding with her journal
4)Natalie Storms Journal, written in Old Allansian, to save time, translated. This includes what she is looking for, some personal notes, and 5 sites.
5) The tale of Malbordus
6) The Artifacts
7) Traps, Riddles and glyphs
There is a copy of each of these on the link to join site, posts 118, 119, 120, 121. Your best map is above, post 148, enlarge them!)
(OOC: Lev or someone else can add the hat to your inventory: (Search for STORM'S HAT) when adding item.
(OOC: If you want the other items, please divvy them up and put them on your PC sheets. (such as the dice, whip, scrolls, potions, bolts, hat, from post #141 and from searching body).
(Lots of info to absorb, now you know where Natalie Storm was headed and why, but it seems the group that killed her took one of her bad maps and has a 12-hour head start)
(You also have a very creepy dagger to deal with, which knocked Vydar out)
Iólinder definitely notices a difference between the maps in the damaged tomb and those in the private compartment. He notes that there are 9 locations on the wet maps of caches. On the private notes, 5 locations are marked specifically, including the mountain. He also notes the pass going from Port Rentarn to Silverton (in blue), and that oddly, north on the map is in the top left corner on the better map. Natalie Storms private notes are written in Old Allansian. He is able to translate it for the group.
As you sort through all of Storm's personal belongings and read over the information she has gathered, you note that something happened to Vydar.
It appears Vydar tried to cast some sort of spell, likely to learn more of the black dagger.
Looking over at him, he lies on the floor dazed or unconscious. He has wet himself, is sweating, and the black dagger that killed Storm lies next to him in the grass.
Iólinder's eyes poured over the maps and journal pages. They were written in in Ancient Allansian which he thought was odd. Ancient Allansian was a dead language: nowadays it was only used in old religious ceremonies or encountered in ancient texts. Not many knew it, let alone be well versed in it to write fluently in it. Though in hindsight a professor of archeology using a dead language to track their progress seemed oddly poetic. It saddened him to realise that such a brilliant mind was now gone from the world.
He rubbed his eyes to clear away the wetness welling up so he could focus. His Ancient Allansian was a bit rusty but the more he read, the clearer the language became. The words spoke of a cult, dragons, a ritual involving five artifacts and professor Storm's efforts in infiltrating the cult and locating said artifacts. It reminded Iólinder of something he heard about some twenty years ago: how professor Storm had a theory that if she could locate all the ancient dwarven forges, she could trace a path back to the god-forge from which divine artefacts sprang forth. Back then the idea was ridiculed and even Iólinder did not believe it but after his studies there came a hint of doubt. Professor Storm was eccentric but brilliant and very, very diligent. Her reputation was such that, even after twenty years, there were people who came to believe she was on to something. People who petitioned other people to venture out and search out Professor Storm to aid her in her explorations.
Iólinder related all the content from the maps and journal. 'You know, these caches with the hidden artefacts a rather similar to another theory Professor Storm had twenty-' He cut his words short when a dull thud interrupted. Vydar had collapsed on the ground clutching a black dagger. A dagger, Iólinder recalled, that had been plunged into Professor Storm's back.
Iólinder clutched the journal and maps in one hand and rushed over. Whatever fainting spell came over Vydar had already lifted but the guy looked like he had just spent five days sweating out a disease. 'What happened? What did you do?' Iólinder asked as he supported the dark elf's head and looked for anything unusual.
Medicine Check: 15
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Remarking on Vydars situation with the dagger….
” magic it is. Tis a wicked looking thing. I think i am going to keep this whip, it seems of superior quality and has quite the reach, “ she will say while giving it a good crack. Also quite a nice crossbow and fancy bolts.” She will start gathering large stones to help cover the body of Mrs Storm.
Amdaeng looked around, " Found a friend!"
" Uh, what happened to Vybor....Vyn...Vybar?"
Her eyes swept the scene, burial detail....pile of collected items.....documents and maps.......
" I think this one will volunteer to carry stuff.....probably wants more apple though if you've got some."
She kept approaching towards Vybar, " Seriously....whys he on the ground?"
Iólinder's Studies the dazed Vydar. It looks like he saw a ghost, or was exposed to intense fear. He has no injuries you can see. As you hold him, he seems to calm down and orient himself. His spell book is open and a black dagger lies on the ground next to him.
Vydar hears Amdaeng and looks up hearing friend. , “Charlie” Storms donkey! It seems happy enough and walks up to Vydar and nuzzles him.
“ thats a beautiful donkey she had. His name is Charlie?. We should get this wagon repaired and see about x mark #1”
Paevira will see Vydar is recovering from whatever magic thing happened to him from that nasty dagger. Sont want to nick oneself on that evil thing.
Iólinder followed everyone else's gaze along the ground to the black dagger. From his backpack he retrieved his blanket and using the cloth he picked up the weapon and thoroughly wraps it around the blade in such a manner that no accidental touching is possible.
'If merely touching the blade caused this, we should take every precaution.' He said. Even wrapped in the blanket he could feel some sort of wrongness emanating from it. 'Until we know more, nobody should interact with it.' He carefully placed the blanket into his backpack.
Iólinder then aided Paevira in searching stone to bury Professor Storm in a cairn. It was an old burial method. He felt Professor Storm would appreciate it.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus