Ezreal peers into his crystal focus. The twisting skeins in the rock seem to contort and writhe, reforming into an image of Lightbringer. He is marching across the bleak landscape of the Mournland, surrounded by other warforged. He seems to be in deep conversation with one, a lightly-armoured skirmisher model.
"The spirit knew of a site filled with riches. It would take me there. It whispered in my dreams. It wanted only knowledge of the process, the warforged project, and I could keep all of the treasure for my crew and me. I was deceived. It would not release me, it drove us to our deaths."
You are pushing this Speak With Dead line - the power doesn't explicitly give you this ability, though I'm willing to rock with it to some extent, but an extended interrogation above and beyond what the spell would give I'm not really prepared to countenance. And I'm not going to give away the plot this way, especially stuff that I may not have decided on myself yet.
"Are you sure having four people when they were following one won't do that for us?"
Janosz growls something obscene and most probably anatomically impossible at Gil. "For all that they know, you lot could have been hiding in a house here in Eston while Lightbringer and I fooled around inside the bunker. I was thinking more along the lines of not revealing the tent or using flashy magicks. Also, we shouldn't dump Basher's wreck anywhere in the Mournlands - they'll probably think we murdered him. We're basically here on their sufferance, and we shouldn't put that to the test."
"Let's head out. The heavy armour stays in the tent - that means Gil and I walk. If we see anything, we run like our hair's on fire and unload the others when we get a little distance on our foes. Luckily most constructs are a bit on the slow side; that'll buy us time. Marching light will save us several days of camping in the Mournlands." He gives Rod and Rolund a sour look. "So, strip down to your chainshirts, or stay in your rooms."
Janosz growls something obscene and most probably anatomically impossible at Gil.
The apparently-half-elven lass smirks and winks at the ranger. "Careful what you ask for, handsome. You don't know what this anatomy is capable of." She laughs, "And I've no intention of showing you!"
"I'm hopeful we can bring the big lug back - he had grown on me and he only did what we asked. I wasn't planning on dumping him anywhere. And if it comes to hustling, I can double our speed for a short time - enough to get ahead and out of sight - and invisible - while we plan our next move."
Yeah, pretty much. We're fast, with good Perception and Stealth skills and should be able to avoid most trouble. And if we can't, Gil can turn us invisible while we run away.
On that first morning surrounded by candles and the smoke of incense, Ezreal sits staring deeply into his focus crystal until he finds Lightbringer.
"Lightbringer- keep walking and do not react. We are marching for Breland. The Lord of Blades has sent trackers to follow us at a distance and we are not prepared to fight him here in his territory now. Rolund has animated Ikar to keep watch and assist you should you escape for as long as he lasts. Be safe and keep your ears open. Learn what you can. We will find you wherever you are. I will be in touch."
Cast message.
1d100 ⇒ 35 1-50 = success
Perception DC 25 for the forged walking with him to overhear me.
He can reply if he wants and I will hear it.
Lightbringer replies carefully, seemingly to the warforged he is talking to but actually to Ezreal. "There is much danger in the wider world, which I cannot ignore. But there are many souls here looking for peace. That peace can only come from the Flame, which asks merely for those who accept it to do of their best. It does not come from the Lord of Blades, who dominates and corrupts with false prophecies. I will do what I can for the souls here in the time that I have available to me."
The group of travellers beging tramping south along the road, away from Eston and heading for the distant Brelish border. The going is easy on the road and the shattered towers of the city gradually fall behind. To the west are the low hills which stand between the road and the lake shore. Eastward, the land is flatter and rolling, and before the Mourning was probably good farming, with the shells of farmhouses and barns in the distance. The road passes through a few towns and villages, although the adventurers detour round these, keen to avoid being trapped and attacked in their confined spaces. A few corpses are scattered about - field workers dying as they went about their business, wagons with the draft horses dead between the traces and the drivers slumped in their seats, a military column collapsing as they marched - all unnaturally uncorrupted like the soldiers at the shore.
The light is, as ever, cold and grey. Other than the sighing of the wind and their own footfalls, there is nothing but silence. Not the crystaline silence of the deep wilderness, an absence of civilisation filled with coiled potential and exhilaration. This is the silence of the sepulchre, dry and dusty, exhausted and indifferent. The Mournland plays its twisted games, dark thoughts and memories bubbling up in the minds of the walkers as they march. Without sight of the sun, the walk takes on a timeless quality, the nearest thing on Eberron to being trapped in the dread, spirit-sapping wastes of Dollurh. It is both nerve-wracking and depressingly boring at the same time.
An attack by some sort of denizen of death would almost be a relief, but nothing offers to break the monotony that first day.
OK, I'll ask you at the end of each day whether you intend to force the march at all Also, what will be your guard patterns. I assume you will be setting up the tent and so on each night.
I'd prefer to avoid force marching; being fatigued all the time really sucks. We roll out the tent every night, so everyone gets a piece of the watch action. I have Darkvision, so I'll take a late shift.
Runzyl only requires 4 hours of rest as an elf, so Gil can take first watch while there's still light out, Runzyl will be rested in time for second watch, and Janosz and Runzyl can take the dark watch together. This allows Gil and Janosz to both get 8 uninterrupted hours, too (assuming 4 hour shifts).
I assumed that the tent would be pitched up and the others (i.e. the non-walkers) can also take a watch - after all, it's the least they can do with their rather relaxing regime of fine food, good drink, massages and so on.
I assumed that the tent would be pitched up and the others (i.e. the non-walkers) can also take a watch - after all, it's the least they can do with their rather relaxing regime of fine food, good drink, massages and so on.
Then they might get a chance to escape before we sell the tent to the quori... oh, fine. They can be watchers, I guess. Janosz should be around for the night watch, though. How about this watch rotation?
Ezreal rests during shifts 1 & 2, and Gil can get fully rested for her spells by 3rd shift's end. Everyone else who casts is a divine caster and doesn't require uninterrupted rest to recharge.
Ezreal spends that first day through the Mournland pouring over the newly acquired spellbook with his own book open side by side quill in hand. Periodically he stops to explain a finer point of the process to Kadesh who perches on the desk beside him examining the book with his feathered head cocked to one side before getting bored and swooping down to savage a loose piece of string or anything else that might catch his interest. As he does, Ezreal snorts and gets back to work.
First Day:
Scroll: 8 hours, 500 gp to create
Command Undead 150
See Invisible 150
Mirror Image x2 300
Arcane Sight 375
Repair Light Damage 25
Scribe to Book:
Shield (2 hours, 10 gp)
One hour spent prepping spells and another spent scrying
Gil is reminded of the exo-suit when the watch schedules (and the ranger's darkvision) are discussed. She will open the portable hole during her watch and examine the unit to see if there is any hope of utilizing it again.
I need to review, but I believe it basically needed to sit long enough to charge back to full...
It appears to me that it should be operable again after a day in storage, but it's about half hit points after the battle with the mecha-kraken. If she realizes this, she will let Ezreal know in hopes that he can spare the occasional slot in his daily allotment for repair spells.
You are pushing this Speak With Dead line - the power doesn't explicitly give you this ability, though I'm willing to rock with it to some extent, but an extended interrogation above and beyond what the spell would give I'm not really prepared to countenance. And I'm not going to give away the plot this way, especially stuff that I may not have decided on myself yet.
Wasn't trying to find the plot, just asking questions Rolund would ask. Besides, he really doesn't trust Ikar. He knows its evil and doesn't trust any of its answers. He's just trying to trick him or trip him up with one of the questions in hopes of surprising an honest answer out of it.
Ikar will also be on guard duty during all the shifts. He'll warn the others to keep a partial eye on him to make sure he doesn't do anything maliciously. Once it looks like we're getting to the foggy border, Rolund will release Ikar on his task to track and possibly assist LB. Unless he gets destroyed with some random encounter along the way.
The night passes quietly. The unsettling presence of Ikar's shell standing sentinel doesn't help ease anyone's discomfort, although at least it doesn't tire and doesn't try small talk.
The the first half following day is much like the last - following the road south past fallen corpses and silent settlements. However, by the afternoon the landscape begins to change. The land is hillier, and the farms are replaced with more rugged forest. It might have benn scenic once, but the brown leaves are just a sad mockery of the areas former greenery. The road runs along a river in a wide valley, though the water is now replaced with a rusty brown sludge with a strong chemical smell. Eventually the way comes to an abrupt halt at a fallen bridge. The ground here seems oddly churned, with fallen trees on either bank mashed up againt the ground.
"Giant explosion, maybe? Big pocket of marsh gas lights up, throwing earth and trees everywhere. Or maybe the world's biggest mole dug up and... Nah. Probably not that."
"Gil, you can fly us across, right? Maybe we can enlist Ezreal's bird to look around first, though, from a safe height. Remember, it saw something unsettling in the chasm through Eston."
Janosz keeps poking around a bit longer. "I take back the mole comment, sorta. I'd say this is the work of one or more huge-ass worms. It might be gone now - not much to feed on here. But that's a chance I don't want to take. Gil, can you get the flying magicks going?"
Init: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16. We probably would've put up the tent since using Ezreal's bird as a scout had been mentioned. If we'd been idle for more than a few moments, almost certainly.
In that case, you've got it up (the tent, that is). The others can be assumed to be either outside or within a move action of getting outside, at their discretion.
