Soris Inkcaller |
Soris looked at the two.
"No one tries to impersonate the legion. More so when they are doing something good. That other Tyrene had no love for the capital. Maybe these guys broke ties with Tyrene, you can take pride in your group without taking pride in their birthplace you know. That would make alot more sense, not everyone is a fool."
Being a soldier did not mean you had to agree with the orders or those in power. Give one to many distasteful orders and your own army may turn, away from you or worst against you.
Isaac of Steyr |
Isaac mourns quietly and alone. After a time, he returns to make sure Groden's body is handled appropriately. He does not speak unless spoken to, and will participate in any ceremony. If no one else makes a move, he will conduct a burial himself. Afterwards, Isaac awaits the eagle-nosed man.
GM Tierce |
"Earth and Water" is repeated in Dwarven and you look to see the source of the voice. A large burly man with animal skins, a large braided beard and a large hammer straped to his back leans down besides Groden's body. He nods to Boomer who has the sudden feeling that they know each other really well. You also notice an older man, sitting in Groden's reading chair, smiling at the group. Felisin recognizes both men from her dream.
The beared man looks to Isaac and Boomer, "Make sure to build a pyre for his body, it's the proper way to send off a warrior" The man in the animal skins touches Groden's forehead and a bright lights shines out, blinding you temporarily. After the light clears, you can see a younger Groden standing next to the bearded man. The bearded man puts his arms around the Groden and the pair disappears, leaving the old man still sitting in the reading chair.
The old man stands, using a walking stick to help him up. "Greetings to you, my name is Odin, but you may call me Father or Woden. I have several names, but Odin is my original." He smiles to each of them.
"I must appoligize, I admit that I asked Groden to send you out on this years contest. Unfortunatly it has thrown you into the thick of things, and I must ask you to continue on this journey. You must find the other seven Star Prison Seals before the dead priest does and starts the Age of Madness. The closest seal is in Caldin, to the south, and you must find the mad priest, he will know where to find it... I bet you have a lot of questions, so please ask and I will answer to the best of my ability."
Isaac of Steyr |
Sorry, I'm going to break time and ask all my questions at once.
Starts the age of madness? I thought the age of madness ended when Praetor brought order to the heavens.
Is the mad priest the same as Nemesis?
Who was that man that took Groden, and where did they go?
Soris Inkcaller |
Soris eyes the old man.
Cast Detect Magic
Perception
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Sense Motive
1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22
"My first question is why us? Another being why is it our problem, when their are others more suited?"
He was not about to take something at face value. Anyway where were these guys when the world was going thru Tyrene's "order", he considered that to be an age of madness.
GM Tierce |
The old man laughs, "I'm afriad Praetor is an upstart god who is trying to deal with this situation on his own. Back when the world was new, the world had many of us. Every country had their own pantheon of gods, my son and I were from the Northlends and the dwarven lands. my son Thor himself is still the patron god of the Dwarven lands. Good call Soris "The pantheon's would argue from time to time, and Praetor believed that he could get the job done better on his own.... sadly he is mistaken"
"The mad priest is the only remaining priest of the Southern land gods. He is referred to as mad because he's well.... insane. But I'm sure you will get along fine" Odin smiles broadly.
Odin sighs "You sure ask a lot of questions for a priest of Praetor, but that was my son Thor. Thor has been the patron god of Groden since he was old enough to hold a weapon. Groden was originally from the Northlends before he settled here during the war. Groden is going to where all warriors of the Northlends go, to valhalla."
GM Tierce |
You just tried to detect magic on a god and almost went blind from the effect
Odin looks to Soris and smiles "You were the best suited for the job. You come from an open land of freedom and you were brought together from all walks of life. The perfect balance."
Odin reads from Soris mind "While the war was going on down here, there was an equally devastating war in the heavens as Praetor snuffed out each and every god until only the founding gods were left. As well as Thor as his armies were unable to breach the walls of the dwarven fortresses"
Boomer Bellowpiper |
It can'nae be... Can it? Th' gods walk th' earth again?
Boomer watches the proceedings with unabashed awe, and then drops to one knee before Odin and his son.
"Welcome back. Ah don' know why ye' need us, All Father, but ye've got me t' th' end. Ye always have."
GM Tierce |
Odin smiles down to Boomer and kneels down with him. "I'm afraid I was never good with worshippers. I am the patron of inventors, knowledge and magic, so I'm more at home when people are in their workshops or libraries like this. I hear you are an inventor, when we have some free time, I would like to see the work you have done on your firearm here."
Boomer Bellowpiper |
"Ah know all 'bout ye, Sir. Dwarves write things down on stone fer a reason. Unlike humans, we don' reinvent our society every couple hunnerd years." Boomer says conversationally, rising again to stand proud and look Odin in the eye. "Ye were never much fer answerin' prayers, which is good cause Dwarves ain't much good at given' 'em, but it don't mean we forget where we came from. We knew ye were gone fer a while, but we didn't ferget about ye."
He breaches the weapon to remove the round, and then hands it to his God with stoic reverence.
"She's a prototype. Got a long ways t' go wit' her. Ah coulda shown ye the schematics, but Ah'm pretty sure they blew up 'bout three minutes ago."
Soris Inkcaller |
Soris snaps his eyes closed until the spell was done. That sure confirmed it for him. Felt like his eyes were boiling, he soon recovered with only a dull pain.
"So what gods are left?"
A part of him wanted to know about the gods of his homeland. Another would very much like to see Praetor put down, who best then a god for the job. Yet another wanted a place for himself and those like him, while this god held sway over magic he did not seem right to him. He just realized Odin had answered an unasked question he had thought about....... OH CRAP.......he tries to think of nothing then images of half naked women with tattoos he had done start creeping in, he stares at the floor counting the cracks and features of it for a while.
Damn you and your mind reading xD
Isaac of Steyr |
So, Praetor killed other gods? How can that be? I thought Praetor was the only one. That means that...why does most of the world worship Praetor now if they did not always?
Isaac realizes that Praetor is not necessarily the perfect leader he always imagined. His values of freedom and devotion are conflicting.
GM Tierce |
Odin puts his hand on Soris "Trust me son, I have seen worse." Referring to his thougts.
"As for the remaining gods, Thor and myself are left, as well as the remaining founder gods. Their fate is tied to the land and Praetor would have to destroy everything to get rid of them. The founding gods include myself; Cronis; Ra and Setish; Zeus, Hades and Poseiden; and Tiamat the First Dragon. I can already sense Setish's presense on you, looks like you have been claimed already."
Odin looks to Isaac "There once was an upstart god of war named Ares, who was feed up with the way the world was working and decided he could run it better on his own. He had his priests remove the worship of all other gods so that only he was left. Once he started his war, he renamed himself Praetor. And that is history"
Isaac of Steyr |
That cannot be! But, why would you lie?... Isaac begins to fret and pace, putting his hands to his face, then back down, then to his weapons, then to face...muttering all the while. Praetor - the god of war? Killed the others...forced worship...nnggh...
After some time of his frenzied muttering, he turns back to Odin.
What of these other gods? Who are they? What do they stand for?
GM Tierce |
Odin sighs, "Various things, the ones I spoke of helped shaped the world as you see it today. Before the collapse there were thousands of gods, all representing something. I'm sure as you travel you will learn of them. For now, concentrate on stopping the Age of Madness. Behind the Star Prison lurks a primordial force that makes us all seem like nothing."
He stands to his full height, "Now before I go, I must name my champion... Boomer, I'm afraid my son would be mad with me for stealing one of his people, but you are an inventor and you fall under my protection. Please take my walking staff and this scroll case. Inside you will find the plans for a new weapon that you will quite like." He smiles like a kind old grandfather.
"I have time for a few more questions from the quiet people before I leave"
Soris Inkcaller |
"Would you happen to know why he wants to break the seals in the first place. Even that twisted war god knew better."
He ignored the priest's fall into the real world. He had seen it coming from the start, he did try to set him right but it seemed nothing sort of another god was going to get thru that thick skull.
GM Tierce |
You hear a foot tapping at the door and look over to see the eagle nosed man at the door. "I might of figured...Odin, you were always meddling and sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."
Odin laughs "Talon, you always seem to appear whenever there is trouble..."
He cross over to the group, "I'm sorry about not introducing myself earlier, but under the circumstances I am sure you understand. I am Legate Talon Vraie, Commander of the 13th."
Talon crosses over to Galdor, "He won't provide you with any equipment, but I will. I have some basic travelling equipment and horses that you can borrow."
GM Tierce |
Talon laughs and nods, "It's worse when they send you on a suicide mission and try to candy coat it. When we have a moment, I will tell you the story about Groden and I fighting the raksah beast."
Everyone Gains 350 XP. Which by my math is a level for everyone. Once all the questioning is done, we will have reached a milestone. So while you level up, you can also use the milestone rules (see discussion)
Soris Inkcaller |
"Dont suppose you could point us to a good starting point, like a city or something? Just a detailed map of the country would be helpful if nothing else."
His travel had been simple, take the same slave route to its northern most point then keep going until you were in the land of freedom.
GM Tierce |
Odin smiles down to Felisin and pats her shoulder, "I'm sorry about that, but I needed to allow one of you to be prepared for this outcome. I can be a bit meddlesome as Talon said.... and Cross is not only a free Country for mortals, it is for us immortals as well. I have no vision of what is to the south of here, only that it is the direction that you must go."
Odin turns and picks up a few of Groden's books "If you ask, I'm sure people might be able to direct you to the mad priest. He is quite known in the capital. I would go there first"
Odin nods to the group, "I wish you all luck on your travels, may the light of the gods shine on you"
And with that Odin disappears and Talon goes off to prepare supplies for your Journey
Resuming tomorrow morning
Darius Vladicus |
"Well that was interesting." Looks at Soris and jokes, "Does this mean we won the contest?" Then sees a look of disgust from Felisin, sighs deeply and says, "I suppose an explanation of what happened in the cave is in an order."
Darius Vladicus |
Catching the silent hint from Soris, Darius sighs deeply and continues, "I was born of a Human father and.......... and a Vampire mother. That is why your blast of energy weakened me. As for 'Nemesis' he is the same as I, half-human and half-vampire." Well the cat is out of the bag now.
Felisin LightTouch |
Felisin looks at Darius and is shocked that no one else seems to care but then she thinks He has never hurt us not even when we hurt him. Maybe he is not a monster.
The anger in her eyes gives way to compassion and sorrow. She walks over to him "I am sorry Darius. Truly." she raises her hand and places it on his shoulder "You feel up to killing those 'friends' of yours."
GM Tierce |
Another soldier of the 13th walks in, he hands Talon a leather bound journal and slautes him with a fist over he heart. "Legate, we found your son. A patrol coming in from the north road encountered him. Appears he was walking back to Tyr on foot"
Talon chuckles, "He gets that pig headed nature from his mother. Set him up in the tavern with a bed and I will see him once he gets a few hours of rest."
The soldier salutes again and walks out of the room, Talon reads the information in the journal and points at a few entries. "I can spare you enough horses. Seems we had a few loses today... I have six riding horses and a pack horse that is yours. I also have about two weeks worth of military rations that I can spare. If you need anything else, please ask and I can see if we have it."
GM Tierce |
While holding the staff, you swear that your hearing and seeing has become sharper. You also notice that book cases along the north wall of the room are slightly farther out then they should be
While holding the staff, your Perception skill is increased by +2. You also are able to detect secret doors within a short area
Darius Vladicus |
Looks into Felisin's eyes and says, "They are no friends of mine, I've never met them prior to now."
Looks to Soris, "Unlike my progenitor, I do not need blood to survive. However, I still unfortunately inherited her thirst. And the sight of blood causes her to speak to me in my head. It's rather inconvenient at times."
And finally looks to Boomer, "Vampirism may have a cure if one has been bitten, my friend, but in my circumstance there is none."
GM Tierce |
Talon looks to Soris, "I have some basic equipment amoung the men, nothing fancy, some climbing kits if you need it. Whatever you think you need."
"I'm sure we can spare a crossbow with some bolts. Just compile a list and let me know. I'm going to see that my son is comfortable and ask what he found" He hands Galdor a sheet of paper and a inkpen, and nods to each of you and leaves.