On the second watch Ebokk will sit by the fire a bit as he wakes up fully after a nap during the first watch. He takes out the shield he found holding it to the light of the fire. What grand adventures are in your past.he mumbles
As he gets warmed up and is now wide awake he will walk around the camp. He strolls around a bit and watches his companions sleep. Getting a bit bored himself he needs to stay awake so pulls out his warhammer swinging it left to right as he walks. He streches his arm a bit remembering the muscle he pulled while inside the cave. It is feeling much better now and Ebokk swings it left to right with a little more force. Unsure if it was the healing that made it feel more nimble then before or simply because he was forced to be wary about how to use his arm while it was injured.
Whatever it was Ebokk's swings grew more powerfull and faster. Stopping a swing mid air to move into a reverse swing for a moment he lost himself to the excitement as he verbally reinforces his swing Arrgh.. Oh. he says as he stops himself looking at the others to see if he had awoken anyone.
He puts his weapon away again as he looks at the others. He would protect them when needed, as he has done before. His recent bruises still visible but Ebokk finds that he endures more punishment for those he has grown fond of.
Ebokk picks up the new shield again and places it back into his bag. Perhaps Eilikasys will tell us your past. And perhaps you can be part of our own adventures. he whispers to the shield before closing up the bag.
After that he walks around one last time to check for anyone before waking up the person for the third watch.
Erric falls totally unconscious in an instant as soon as his head hits the ground. Still and perhaps mistaken for dead, if his chest weren't rising and falling periodically.
Then, throughout the night, he begins to stir, but not awaken. Each party member who takes a watch shift can hear the bard begin to sing in his sleep. At first little vocalizations, very quiet, but as the night goes on, it's full-on verses and choruses. Nothing loud, but the words are understandable. Mostly from songs the party's heard -- the ballad of rich zombies, cracked mirrors, rude birdmen, horror chickens, ghosts, potions, house fires, sparklefingers, Maldorn's nicknames. The shanty involving dancing crabs, Bosun Grout, three sharks who fiercely guard the linen closet of a merman named Davijonz, irregular zombie gnolls, abandoned camps, large mounds, mud bats, the worst flail in the world, a murderous chest, pirate's treasure, the tragic death and improbable revival of Ebokk, mutiny. The eerie drinking song about the battle for Anafrey, the polka he was still tinkering with about the boot, and now the patter-filled slam poetry rough draft of a song about the tomb.
It's easy to forget, and good to remember.
As he sings, a hand will gesture in the air, and a faint hint of light will coruscate through his fingers. Something's happening. Erric never seems to read anything, and he doesn't practice magic, just his music. But something's happening.
Once he is woken up, he comes to with a smile and there's a steadiness behind his eyes. You feel much more at ease with him there. He's still silly at times, and he may be naive, but it feels good to have him there.
On the last shift, he takes his lute out and repairs some damage it took during the time in the tomb. He also takes some time to identify the other things the group picked up from the treasure pile.
Once everyone's awake, he asks if any one wants the cloak of the manta ray (and the other things, assuming they are magical).
(Sorry this is so long! tl;dr: Jambiya swaps her book (Pact of the Tome) for a wooden spoon (Pact of the Talisman) and feels closer than ever to the party and to her "mother." Also ,for game purposes, the spell she added was Fly and she can no longer cast Dancing Lights. I really tried to make it work, but it's just not on any spell list she has access to now.)
Woken for her watch, Jambiya hops up, then sits back down, aware of just how tired she is. She nods and stretches, and finally stands up. After some aimless wandering about at the edges of the firelight, she comes back to her pack and pulls out the book her mother gave her. She settles onto her bedroll with the book in her lap, and opens it to begin reading through it, for what seems the millionth time. As before, the characters are foreign to her, the symbols and squiggles meaningless.
She’s never loved books, not like Daddy Pops. The library of books he keeps in his study never pulled to her like Grumpy Pops’ spices and pots did. Or a good thunderstorm. Or the happy sounds of a full common room. She can read, but slowly, working hard at each word and phrase. She’s never understood what there is in a book that is better than the real world. Stories are great, but why rehash old adventures when you can be out here, making new ones?
She blinks and sighs, then refocuses on the book in her lap. She concentrates, thinking of her mother, and the love she feels whenever she reaches out for guidance, and the marks on the pages swim before her eyes as they always do, and resolve into… nothing. They stay squiggles and blots.
A little shock of fear runs through the goblin girl. Taking a calming breath, she tries again. She closes her eyes and thinks of her mother… or, at least of the feelings she has when she’s in her mother’s presence. Warmth. Safety. Confidence. Love. Her heart slows and her nerves calm. She opens her eyes again to look at the book… and her heart plummets. The marks are meaningless.
She flips through the book, page after page of random lines and letters, all of it nonsense. Her breathing starts to come too quickly, and she slams the book shut, throwing it on the ground in front of her and squeezing her eyes tight in the night. She holds perfectly still, hoping that this is just a dream. Her mother wouldn’t forsake her? Would she? Did Jambiya do something wrong?
In the silence, she hears a little thread of music. A voice, quiet, mumbling… it’s Erric, singing in his sleep. Her whole being latches on to that little thread of comfort, and her body, quivering on the edge of panic, begins to unknot. Her friends are here. In what she dismissed as the background noise of the forest, she hears Maldorn’s quiet snuffling snore, and Ebokk’s louder rumble. These are the people who love her. The people she loves. She is surrounded by love.
Slowly, she calms again, and after a bit, she opens her eyes. Then wider. The book, on the dirt in front of her, is ruffling in a non-existent breeze. It’s cover, made of bark and leaves, flutters, and begins to come apart, each leaf coming loose and swirling in an eddy of wind she cannot feel. The bits of bark, the dried flowers, the flattened leaves that make the pages, each comes loose, and soon there is a small storm of loose nature swirling in front of her. Jambiya reaches out towards it, and when her hand nears, the storm suddenly stops, all the pieces fall to the ground. She lets out a soft, “Oh,” as the final petals flutter down in little spirals to rest on the pile of what used to be a book.
Coming up on her knees, Jambiya reaches for the pile. There is something in it, and she clears the leaves away to discover an object made of wood. She picks it up, settling back on her seat. It is a spoon, the size of one you might eat soup with, carved, or… shaped, from a rich dark brown wood she does not recognize. It feels warm to the touch, but more importantly, it radiates… love. Images flash in her mind. Back at the inn, Jambiya wielding a wooden spoon to rap an overly affectionate patron’s knuckles. In the woods, outside of town, little Jambiya caught in a storm, a branch falling, landing just so, arching over her protectively as more branches fall around her. In the kitchen, sitting on the counter while Grumpy Pops stirs a fragrant stew over the fire with a huge wooden ladle. In the dirt in front of the Inn, letting ants bridge a puddle on a stick she found out back. Late at night, a spoonful of honey soothing her throat rough from a winter fever.
She closes her eyes, gripping her spoon, and smiles. It seems she and her mother are still getting to know each other. Twenty feet above her, unseen among the branches, a small dragon gazes down on her, tail twitching.
When she wakes the next watch, she impulsively gives them a hug, smiling enigmatically at them, then curls up in her bedroll, fast asleep in moments.
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she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
In the morning, Jambiya wakes with the sun, and starts going about making breakfast. When the others see her, she's humming happily over a pot, with a striking wooden spoon hanging from her neck on a leather cord.
(Character sheet updated!)
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she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
I'd say IDing the magic items, distributing them, and heading back to town?
Agreed. Maldorn would like to claim the two silver daggers but is willing to share should anyone really want them. He has had to settle for melee combat more often than he'd like. Also, did we get any gold?
(Did I read between the lines that Erric can now Identify things?)
Jambiya can’t wipe the happy grin off her face as the party gathers for food, then lays out the magic they found. She actually doesn’t want any of the things we found, and is pleased to let the others have them. She thinks the silver daggers look really fine, and compliments Maldorn on them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Just to make sure you remember what you've got: a random assortment of pieces of carvings that where shattered by the skull's shatter spell; 2 pearls; 6 spell scrolls (cure wounds, hunter's mark, mage armor, and 3 others you can't identify); a cloak of the manta ray; a magical shield; 2 silvered daggers; a silk rope that has also been shattered into several pieces; and a potion of greater healing. There was no coin.
Jambiya:
Ebokk bringing up Neverwinter again jogs your memory. During your last stay at home, Daddy Pops made an off-hand comment one time after you told him about your stop at the Fallen Tower in Neverwinter. He said that if you were ever that way again to try to find the grave of one of his old adventuring buddies. You know he said something about a ruined temple, but you can't remember to whom. He also said where the temple was, but all you can remember is something like key squire. What you remember vividly — and perhaps fixating on this is why you don't remember the rest — is that he had buried loot with the body to keep the militia from catching them with it, and that they planned to return to dig it back up, but never did.
(Erric was just doing the "spend an hour with a magic item and you get to know what it is" rule we've been going with for some things. If that's not allowed that's fine.)
Everything's been ID'ed except for the shield, but Ebokk's been pretty adamant about not ID'ing it. Am I missing something? Spell it out for me, Mobius. :)
Ah sorry, I was fairly nebulous in my understanding of what could be magical. My bad! And if Ebokk's not interested in finding out what the shield is, that's fine.
So we have a potion of greater healing, a cloak of the manta ray, and the silver daggers? No gold as far as I saw. Also two pearls, and 6 scrolls. Erric would definitely look at the scrolls.
And he's happy to do this as they head back to town! I'm honestly blanking on where the nearest town was -- Ebokk gave directions from Seldom Spring to get here, right?
Also all the broken tablets that Jambiya swept up. She’s hoping they are a clue to further adventure! But she hasn’t remembered, or bothered, to get them out again.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Everything's been ID'ed except for the shield, but Ebokk's been pretty adamant about not ID'ing it. Am I missing something? Spell it out for me, Mobius. :)
And if Ebokk's not interested in finding out what the shield is, that's fine.
Its not that Ebokk does not want to find out. Im just roleplaying it to make more sense. There is no reason why Ebokk would be able to identify a random magical item just by looking at it. Hes not trained or knowledgeable in that sort of thing thats why i feel it doesnt make sense for Ebokk to do so. It will also give the group a little purpose to follow up and go to someone that can identify it to wrap up this part of the adventure. Since i dont think we have a clear mission otherwise.
Maldorn ponders on Ebook's suggestion for a bit and says: "It is a long trek, but I don't think we have anywhere to go otherwise, other than back to Seldom Spring, of course. I wouldn't mind the chance to buy some new armor in Neverwinter."
Ebokk nods Indeed. A good place to share our tale too.
He takes out his map burried at the bottom of a bag and unfolds it. We could journey along the edge of the Neverwinter woods going West. Or we could go through the Neverwinter woods to the North West, its shorter but could be more dangerous.
Which path should we take?He says looking at the others
“Through the woods!” Jambiya says without hesitation. “I’ve heard so much about them, and I’d love to really see them up close. And when we get to Neverwinter, there’s one of Daddy Pops’ stories I want follow up on, buried treasure at the burial site of a nefarious scoundrel!”
She wraps up the tasks of breaking camp, and is ready to go shortly after that.
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she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Going through Triboar would be the opposite direction (it is east of your location) to get to Neverwinter, but it's the shortest way to an actual road. It would have been how Ebokk came from Waterdeep. However, the party came from Neverwinter, and they skirted the southern point of the Wood on their way. Are you wanting to take the shortest route through the southern portion of the Wood this time? You have a horse, and that might mean crossing the river without a bridge.
Erric, there isn't anything further your party can learn about the scrolls that wasn't already explained in this post.
FYI, I use this map a lot. If you look at the Sword Mountains and Neverwinter, you can see that drawing a line from the northern point of the mountains to Neverwinter does go through the Wood and across the river. You won't know if that causes any problems until you try it out.
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On the second watch Ebokk will sit by the fire a bit as he wakes up fully after a nap during the first watch. He takes out the shield he found holding it to the light of the fire. What grand adventures are in your past. he mumbles
As he gets warmed up and is now wide awake he will walk around the camp. He strolls around a bit and watches his companions sleep. Getting a bit bored himself he needs to stay awake so pulls out his warhammer swinging it left to right as he walks.
He streches his arm a bit remembering the muscle he pulled while inside the cave. It is feeling much better now and Ebokk swings it left to right with a little more force. Unsure if it was the healing that made it feel more nimble then before or simply because he was forced to be wary about how to use his arm while it was injured.
Whatever it was Ebokk's swings grew more powerfull and faster. Stopping a swing mid air to move into a reverse swing for a moment he lost himself to the excitement as he verbally reinforces his swing Arrgh.. Oh. he says as he stops himself looking at the others to see if he had awoken anyone.
He puts his weapon away again as he looks at the others. He would protect them when needed, as he has done before. His recent bruises still visible but Ebokk finds that he endures more punishment for those he has grown fond of.
Ebokk picks up the new shield again and places it back into his bag. Perhaps Eilikasys will tell us your past. And perhaps you can be part of our own adventures. he whispers to the shield before closing up the bag.
After that he walks around one last time to check for anyone before waking up the person for the third watch.
Erric falls totally unconscious in an instant as soon as his head hits the ground. Still and perhaps mistaken for dead, if his chest weren't rising and falling periodically.
Then, throughout the night, he begins to stir, but not awaken. Each party member who takes a watch shift can hear the bard begin to sing in his sleep. At first little vocalizations, very quiet, but as the night goes on, it's full-on verses and choruses. Nothing loud, but the words are understandable. Mostly from songs the party's heard -- the ballad of rich zombies, cracked mirrors, rude birdmen, horror chickens, ghosts, potions, house fires, sparklefingers, Maldorn's nicknames. The shanty involving dancing crabs, Bosun Grout, three sharks who fiercely guard the linen closet of a merman named Davijonz, irregular zombie gnolls, abandoned camps, large mounds, mud bats, the worst flail in the world, a murderous chest, pirate's treasure, the tragic death and improbable revival of Ebokk, mutiny. The eerie drinking song about the battle for Anafrey, the polka he was still tinkering with about the boot, and now the patter-filled slam poetry rough draft of a song about the tomb.
It's easy to forget, and good to remember.
As he sings, a hand will gesture in the air, and a faint hint of light will coruscate through his fingers. Something's happening. Erric never seems to read anything, and he doesn't practice magic, just his music. But something's happening.
Once he is woken up, he comes to with a smile and there's a steadiness behind his eyes. You feel much more at ease with him there. He's still silly at times, and he may be naive, but it feels good to have him there.
On the last shift, he takes his lute out and repairs some damage it took during the time in the tomb. He also takes some time to identify the other things the group picked up from the treasure pile.
Once everyone's awake, he asks if any one wants the cloak of the manta ray (and the other things, assuming they are magical).
(Sorry this is so long! tl;dr: Jambiya swaps her book (Pact of the Tome) for a wooden spoon (Pact of the Talisman) and feels closer than ever to the party and to her "mother." Also ,for game purposes, the spell she added was Fly and she can no longer cast Dancing Lights. I really tried to make it work, but it's just not on any spell list she has access to now.)
Woken for her watch, Jambiya hops up, then sits back down, aware of just how tired she is. She nods and stretches, and finally stands up. After some aimless wandering about at the edges of the firelight, she comes back to her pack and pulls out the book her mother gave her. She settles onto her bedroll with the book in her lap, and opens it to begin reading through it, for what seems the millionth time. As before, the characters are foreign to her, the symbols and squiggles meaningless.
She’s never loved books, not like Daddy Pops. The library of books he keeps in his study never pulled to her like Grumpy Pops’ spices and pots did. Or a good thunderstorm. Or the happy sounds of a full common room. She can read, but slowly, working hard at each word and phrase. She’s never understood what there is in a book that is better than the real world. Stories are great, but why rehash old adventures when you can be out here, making new ones?
She blinks and sighs, then refocuses on the book in her lap. She concentrates, thinking of her mother, and the love she feels whenever she reaches out for guidance, and the marks on the pages swim before her eyes as they always do, and resolve into… nothing. They stay squiggles and blots.
A little shock of fear runs through the goblin girl. Taking a calming breath, she tries again. She closes her eyes and thinks of her mother… or, at least of the feelings she has when she’s in her mother’s presence. Warmth. Safety. Confidence. Love. Her heart slows and her nerves calm. She opens her eyes again to look at the book… and her heart plummets. The marks are meaningless.
She flips through the book, page after page of random lines and letters, all of it nonsense. Her breathing starts to come too quickly, and she slams the book shut, throwing it on the ground in front of her and squeezing her eyes tight in the night. She holds perfectly still, hoping that this is just a dream. Her mother wouldn’t forsake her? Would she? Did Jambiya do something wrong?
In the silence, she hears a little thread of music. A voice, quiet, mumbling… it’s Erric, singing in his sleep. Her whole being latches on to that little thread of comfort, and her body, quivering on the edge of panic, begins to unknot. Her friends are here. In what she dismissed as the background noise of the forest, she hears Maldorn’s quiet snuffling snore, and Ebokk’s louder rumble. These are the people who love her. The people she loves. She is surrounded by love.
Slowly, she calms again, and after a bit, she opens her eyes. Then wider. The book, on the dirt in front of her, is ruffling in a non-existent breeze. It’s cover, made of bark and leaves, flutters, and begins to come apart, each leaf coming loose and swirling in an eddy of wind she cannot feel. The bits of bark, the dried flowers, the flattened leaves that make the pages, each comes loose, and soon there is a small storm of loose nature swirling in front of her. Jambiya reaches out towards it, and when her hand nears, the storm suddenly stops, all the pieces fall to the ground. She lets out a soft, “Oh,” as the final petals flutter down in little spirals to rest on the pile of what used to be a book.
Coming up on her knees, Jambiya reaches for the pile. There is something in it, and she clears the leaves away to discover an object made of wood. She picks it up, settling back on her seat. It is a spoon, the size of one you might eat soup with, carved, or… shaped, from a rich dark brown wood she does not recognize. It feels warm to the touch, but more importantly, it radiates… love. Images flash in her mind. Back at the inn, Jambiya wielding a wooden spoon to rap an overly affectionate patron’s knuckles. In the woods, outside of town, little Jambiya caught in a storm, a branch falling, landing just so, arching over her protectively as more branches fall around her. In the kitchen, sitting on the counter while Grumpy Pops stirs a fragrant stew over the fire with a huge wooden ladle. In the dirt in front of the Inn, letting ants bridge a puddle on a stick she found out back. Late at night, a spoonful of honey soothing her throat rough from a winter fever.
She closes her eyes, gripping her spoon, and smiles. It seems she and her mother are still getting to know each other. Twenty feet above her, unseen among the branches, a small dragon gazes down on her, tail twitching.
When she wakes the next watch, she impulsively gives them a hug, smiling enigmatically at them, then curls up in her bedroll, fast asleep in moments.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
In the morning, Jambiya wakes with the sun, and starts going about making breakfast. When the others see her, she's humming happily over a pot, with a striking wooden spoon hanging from her neck on a leather cord.
(Character sheet updated!)
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Nice, everyone! I enjoyed reading them all and getting to know your characters a little more. It's morning. What's next?
I'd say IDing the magic items, distributing them, and heading back to town?
Agreed. Maldorn would like to claim the two silver daggers but is willing to share should anyone really want them. He has had to settle for melee combat more often than he'd like. Also, did we get any gold?
(thats why Ebokk is talking of Eilikasys, we should get to Neverwinter to identify all items and if needed sell/exchange stuff there)
(Did I read between the lines that Erric can now Identify things?)
Jambiya can’t wipe the happy grin off her face as the party gathers for food, then lays out the magic they found. She actually doesn’t want any of the things we found, and is pleased to let the others have them. She thinks the silver daggers look really fine, and compliments Maldorn on them.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Just to make sure you remember what you've got: a random assortment of pieces of carvings that where shattered by the skull's shatter spell; 2 pearls; 6 spell scrolls (cure wounds, hunter's mark, mage armor, and 3 others you can't identify); a cloak of the manta ray; a magical shield; 2 silvered daggers; a silk rope that has also been shattered into several pieces; and a potion of greater healing. There was no coin.
Jambiya:
Ebokk bringing up Neverwinter again jogs your memory. During your last stay at home, Daddy Pops made an off-hand comment one time after you told him about your stop at the Fallen Tower in Neverwinter. He said that if you were ever that way again to try to find the grave of one of his old adventuring buddies. You know he said something about a ruined temple, but you can't remember to whom. He also said where the temple was, but all you can remember is something like key squire. What you remember vividly — and perhaps fixating on this is why you don't remember the rest — is that he had buried loot with the body to keep the militia from catching them with it, and that they planned to return to dig it back up, but never did.
(Erric was just doing the "spend an hour with a magic item and you get to know what it is" rule we've been going with for some things. If that's not allowed that's fine.)
Everything's been ID'ed except for the shield, but Ebokk's been pretty adamant about not ID'ing it. Am I missing something? Spell it out for me, Mobius. :)
Ah sorry, I was fairly nebulous in my understanding of what could be magical. My bad! And if Ebokk's not interested in finding out what the shield is, that's fine.
So we have a potion of greater healing, a cloak of the manta ray, and the silver daggers? No gold as far as I saw. Also two pearls, and 6 scrolls. Erric would definitely look at the scrolls.
And he's happy to do this as they head back to town! I'm honestly blanking on where the nearest town was -- Ebokk gave directions from Seldom Spring to get here, right?
Also all the broken tablets that Jambiya swept up. She’s hoping they are a clue to further adventure! But she hasn’t remembered, or bothered, to get them out again.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Its not that Ebokk does not want to find out. Im just roleplaying it to make more sense. There is no reason why Ebokk would be able to identify a random magical item just by looking at it. Hes not trained or knowledgeable in that sort of thing thats why i feel it doesnt make sense for Ebokk to do so. It will also give the group a little purpose to follow up and go to someone that can identify it to wrap up this part of the adventure. Since i dont think we have a clear mission otherwise.
For direction Ebokk should know the way since has a map (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/35439-seldom-spring?comment=3462). We could go to triboar first along the road, i think its a small village and head to neverwinter from there?
Maldorn ponders on Ebook's suggestion for a bit and says: "It is a long trek, but I don't think we have anywhere to go otherwise, other than back to Seldom Spring, of course. I wouldn't mind the chance to buy some new armor in Neverwinter."
Ebokk nods Indeed. A good place to share our tale too.
He takes out his map burried at the bottom of a bag and unfolds it. We could journey along the edge of the Neverwinter woods going West. Or we could go through the Neverwinter woods to the North West, its shorter but could be more dangerous.
Which path should we take? He says looking at the others
“Through the woods!” Jambiya says without hesitation. “I’ve heard so much about them, and I’d love to really see them up close. And when we get to Neverwinter, there’s one of Daddy Pops’ stories I want follow up on, buried treasure at the burial site of a nefarious scoundrel!”
She wraps up the tasks of breaking camp, and is ready to go shortly after that.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
OOC: LOL. Of course that as soon as I get rid of the Natural Explorer: Forest feature, we immediately go into the woods!
Going through Triboar would be the opposite direction (it is east of your location) to get to Neverwinter, but it's the shortest way to an actual road. It would have been how Ebokk came from Waterdeep. However, the party came from Neverwinter, and they skirted the southern point of the Wood on their way. Are you wanting to take the shortest route through the southern portion of the Wood this time? You have a horse, and that might mean crossing the river without a bridge.
Erric, there isn't anything further your party can learn about the scrolls that wasn't already explained in this post.
FYI, I use this map a lot. If you look at the Sword Mountains and Neverwinter, you can see that drawing a line from the northern point of the mountains to Neverwinter does go through the Wood and across the river. You won't know if that causes any problems until you try it out.