Tales from Talaveroth

Twitch launches herself forward and staggers the Father. He spends a moment teetering on the edge before she drives her dagger into his good leg. He collapses under the weight of the attacks and leans back for just a second, long enough for the winds swirling around the tower to grab him and carry him high above the tower. 

You see his body get thrown from the top of the winds, sailing down towards the bay.

(Combat is over)

Twitch, you find your other dagger resting by the Lighthouse beacon.

As you collect yourselves you notice a calm. Looking around you see that the winds have stopped, leaving you in the strange silence of this wizards tower turned monastery turned who knows what.

Si'Juul immediately takes off and begins flying around the tower a bit. If the group is able to see his expression at all they will see he is significantly more calm than he was.

He will land at the base outside the tent and step in.

"We're done here. Oleg, your friend went off the deep end. There was no reasoning with him, had to take him down. The winds are gone if you want to head inside, though you won't find him there. He ended up being carried away by the winds."

Si'Juul looks to the woman with the holster.

"So, who are you? If you introduced yourself already, I missed it."

Oleg looks a bit stunned and sad but just nods, saying no words before heading inside.

The woman turns to you. "My name is Nett. I am here because my husband was inside the tower at the time all this madness began. Do you know if he is alive? His name is Line." 

"Didn't catch any names of anyone else. Too busy defending myself from the nuts who were inside. I notice your holster is empty. Do you know where your weapon is?"

Twitch immediately rushes over to the beacon, trying to find out how she can relight it to make sure this lighthouse works again as intended, to avoid any more people dying needlessly. Anyone that can see her face can tell that tears are rolling down her cheeks.

She laughs. "Hidden away safely, just so that someone like you couldn't come and take it. And a member of the Black Brand calling someone else nuts is a bit rich don't you think? You may not have a god but you worship your powder as though it were one. Now, since we both know you were sent here to kill my husband why don't we just dispense with the pleasantries and you tell me where I can find his body to give it a proper funeral."

Si'Juul just crosses his arms and shakes his head, believing it to be pointless to get into a redundant argument with the woman.

'Let her believe what she wants', he thinks to himself.

"Well, he's either passed out due to a shattered hand, or crushed under a bookcase. Nobody's stopping you from going inside to collect him. But I will offer you some words of advice. Keep your holster hidden as well, let nobody know you have one or they will find you and take it from you, by any means necessary."

Si'Juul leaves the woman to her business and immediately flies back to the top of the tower before she can respond.

Landing near Poinki and Elhanna.

"Everything ok up here?"

The woman heads inside and the rest of the group can now hear movement on the floors below them.

On the roof Twitch can see that almost as soon as the winds stopped the beacon began to turn and light the way that it was meant too.

"Hope she wants one we tied up," says Poinki. "Sad if married to one of dead ones. So, what we do now?"

"Nothing. Our job is done. We took out the mad man and disabled the underlings. We have no more business here. And I am not going back into any more towers. If anyone wants a lift down, let me know. Before we go, while we have at least some measure of privacy up here.....that woman down there knew about the Black Brand. She thought I was one of them. Can't blame her, given my equipment. What unnerves me is that the Black Brand is known around here. Unless she happens to live clear across the country, the Black Brand's name has spread all the way out here, which means they may not be too far."

Once the group decides to leave, Si'Juul will carry down anyone who wants to.

You hear some more rustling downstairs and a couple of thuds before Oleg joins you on the roof. "Would it not be reasonable, given her and his equipment as well, that they might be members of the Brand themselves?" He asks.

In his arms you see he carries a number of books, as well as a few cases. Si'Juul also notices that cradled behind all these things is a long metal tube with a wooden stock and brass sights affixed to the top. "I found this down below. It seems like someone who made this would need some training." 

Seeing father Ephesian getting sucked out Elhanna throws herself towards him in an attempt to grab him. When she is unsuccessful she let out a mournful “NOO!” And tears streak down her cheeks. She sobs on the floor for a while, sad she was unable to save a great man who died knowing he had been betrayed by his convent and all he believed in was a lie. 

When Si’Juul comes back and seems to be feeling calm and in uncaring, as if what just happened wasn’t a big deal, she stands up and slap him hard in front  of everyone. ( unarmored strike: 1dmg) “How can you be so cold! Father Ephesian was a good man who had all his believes shattered and went mad because his whole life were destroyed. And you treat this as if you just went out with the trash?!” She sniffs “a good man just died! A man we were supposed to help!” Sniff, she turn around and leave th group and the tower and walk outside, needing to be alone for a while and process her feelings. 

Poinki quietly walks down the tower to rejoin the clerics of Ilmater.  He will let them know how things went, and join them in their prayers for the soul of Father Ephesian.

And while he prays, he will quietly Detect Good and Evil among them. He may not be strong enough to cleanse Ilmater's church yet, but he has the guidance of the god, Father Ephesian's book in his backpack, and a holy mission. He can at least begin by making a list of names...

Twitch walks up to Elhanna, and lays her hand on Elhanna's shoulder: "I agree Elhanna, but you saw yourself, there was nothing more we could do. If Poinki couldn't persuade him, there was nothing we could do. I went up to confront him, no weapons drawn, and he attacked me, convinced that I was one of the cultists. But I promise you, he won't have died in vain." Turning to Oleg, Twitch wants to gently take him aside.

"Oleg, I'm sorry for your loss, yet again. I don't want to hurt you any more, but I believe you to be strong enough for the truth. Father Ephesian found evidence that the high ranks of the church of Ilmater are corrupted by a sect or organisation devoted to Abaraxes, the demon lord. He kept chanting an old phrase: The god that I worship, the demon I blame, conspire as one, exactly the same. I don't know what evidence exactly he had, but whatever he found, it was strong enough to warp his mind and turn him mad. We all tried to reason with him, but like our feathered friend there said, he was too far gone, driven mad by his love for the church and the obligation to excise this evil cult. I know that you may have wanted something very different from your life at this stage, but it seems that your god still had other plans for you. Please, most of us are convinced that we can try and help save the church, by investigating this cult and by removing the tumour that has spread within. Your help along the way would be invaluable."

Persuasion: 20

Poinki sits with Bishop Aesar and Sister Lavante as they pray. Both seem genuinely sad that Father Ephesian is gone. As he prays Poinki opens himself to Ilmater's guiding but the spell detects no fey, fiends, celestial, elementals or undead anywhere around him. As he prays he hears the same voice in his head though, "Paladin."

The paladin Sister Lavante is the first to stand. "I suppose that I should return to my paladins. We have much to do that was put on hold for this and now that it is over me must continue it. It is what the Father would have wanted." She leaves with a nod.

Bishop Aesar looks to you as he too stands. "I thank you for trying my child. I wish it had ended another way but at least the Father, if he was still somewhere in that poor soul, knew that good people were fighting for him. And before you go, here, for you and your friends. You have saved many relics of the church and deserve to be rewarded as such." He hands you a bag of 400 gold pieces.

Oleg turns to Twitch with wide eyes. "Well, that is most concerning. I guess this is why my God has been keeping me alive. And just so you know, I do not serve Ilmater. I am a cleric of Farlân. As befits the god of travellers though he has no organized temples and we associate ourselves with other churches. I have chosen to work with the church of Ilmater, and now it seems I must work to free them of their shackles." 

As you stand near the tower Twitch you suddenly heard a rush of what seems to be wind followed by a loud thud a few floors up followed by a familiar voice cursing in a language she doesn't understand. "A freaking bookcase! Really barkeep. Couldn't have looked before you shoved me through!" 

Si'Juul just sighs and hangs his head briefly after being slapped by Elhanna.

When Oleg appears, Si'Juul immediately notices the rifle.

"Oleg, what are you doing with all of those things?"

"These, minus this big thing here, are relics of the church and useful items. I did a little more searching around than you all did, which makes sense, I wasn't fighting anyone on my way up." 

He hands Si'Juul the rifle and then moves down the line, handing Elhanna a small wooden wand made of dark wood that feels almost like it weights nothing. Twitch he hands a dagger with a golden handle, a symbol of an eye carved into the blade. Finally to Poinki he hands a vial of clear liquid, filled with bits of soot and salt.

(Si'Juul, you get Bad News. Elhanna, a Fernian Ash Focus. Twitch, a Dagger of Warning. Poinki, a Potion of Comprehend Languages. Whoever has the two flasks you found before has a Ghosthunter Flask and a Vial of Violent Winds. I'll make those and put them in your inventory.)

Si'Juul takes the rifle and sits down to examine it. His eyes are wide in amazement and excitement.

After marveling for a minute or so, Si'Juul stands back up and takes flight. He looks through the scope at various parts of the environment nearby.

Poinki accepts the 400 gold pieces with a bow and promises, "Gold will be used in Father Ephesian's memory, to help people and end suffering, as Ilmater approves." He does not disagree out loud with the bishop. Ephesian did not know good people were helping him: his madness lay in his inability to trust anyone, and that was due to the betrayals of his fellow followers of Ilmater, and the demon who had corrupted them. But either the bishop was loyal, in which case Poinki did not want to hurt and disturb him, or he was a demon worshiper, in which case, Poinki preferred he had no warning of what was to come.

He returns to the party to share out the gold, and gladly receives the Potion of Comprehend Languages. "Poinki need one of these full time," he jokes, though traveling with the others is quickly improving his mastery of Common.

Twitch happily accepts the dagger and places the flask of chains onto the ground before them. "I'm not really comfortable with all of this demon and ghost stuff, so if Elhanna or Poinki want to take this flask, feel free to use it."