"I'm tapped out for magic, besides the little stuff. I've got my knives, but I haven't figured out how to get around armor with them very well," Gwyn says as she finishes inspecting the door. "If we're all about out, we should rest up. Forcing ourselves to continue on like this is going to get someone killed. I don't think Shalelu could take another beating like that."
With a grim nod, Shalelu says, "I would rather not repeat that."
"I'm sure I would be able to keep us all well for a while longer," Helena says meekly. "But I think you're right. A night's rest will do us all good. I'll use what remains of my power, and we can come back tomorrow."
"OKay, let's get out of here then!"
Gwyn opens the door and looks about while Fluff keeps an eye out as well.
Pressing her ear to the heavy door to the south, Gwyn hears nothing.
She cracks open the door and looks within. Beyond is small stairway leading down that ends at another door.
She presses her ear on the next door, and thinks she hears the faint sound of someone sobbing. The voice does not sound like a goblin's... it's probably human, and probably that of a woman.
Gwyn opens the door. The goblin prisoner spoke the truth: This room is a horrifying jail. The southern wall is a bank of six cells with iron bars for doors, offering no privacy. The rest of the room is obviously a torture chamber. The chamber is dimly lit by a smouldering fire-pit in the middle of the room; above it hangs a empty metal cage on a rusty chain. A rack sits against the western wall, and an iron maiden stands to the north. The stench of this room is almost overpowering: smoke, blood, body odor, feces, and goblin-stink all compete in an assault on the nose.
The sobbing comes from the sole inhabitant in the room: In one of the cells sits a bedraggled, human woman dressed in nothing but rags and grime. She hugs her knees and rocks slowly back and forth. She does not appear to have noticed the door open.
Two closed doors lead out of this prison: one to the east and another to the north.
Any of Gwyn's mirth that had been coming back disappears as she sees the woman, Silently she pulls out a set of tools and begins to work on the lock. Anyone who sees her face just sees a blank, leached of all emotion. Fluff flits from her shoulder to Helena's. She trembles in fear and her gaze never leaves Gwyn as she works.
With door finally open, Gwyn opens it and gently puts her arms around the woman and helps her to her feet.
"Orik," she says coldly, "did you have anything to do with this?"
Her black eyes bore into his. Her face is no longer an emotionless mask, her brow furrows a little in a frown as her eyes narrow. The normally expressive elf's face shows little more than that subtle frown, but her eyes, her eyes are cold, black pools of deep, dark rage. They did not promise pain or vengeance.
Those cold eyes only promise death.
The surprise at seeing the woman in the cell is evident on Orik's face, but not in the way that Gwyn may think. "Not directly," he sighs, not able to meet the intensity of her gaze. "Her goblins raided a small caravan a few weeks back, brought back some prisoners and that warhorse upstairs. At the time, she told me that they would be held for ransom. I didn't think anything of it, until I saw one of those prisoners end up on the altar in that temple we just left. Honestly, I thought she'd killed all of them by now." He looks around, feeling the Heroes of Sandpoint judging him.
"Just what in the Hell did you all expect me to do? Questioning that mad b***h's motives is a quick way to jump to the front of the sacrificial victims line, and I had no intention of doing that. Not by myself, anyway. You all are the heroes. I'm just some guy good with a sword with a high pain tolerance in way over his head. Again."
"Good, then I don't have to turn you into a pile of ashes," Gwyn says coldly as she leads the woman out and towards Helena.
"Can you help her out? I'll go check the door," the elf asks in a slightly less frosty tone. Once she's free she checks the others doors.
Nodding mutely, Helena looks the woman over for any obvious injuries or maladies.
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Cerin puts a hand on Orik's arm. "Don't worry, everyone has done things they aren't proud of at some point in their lives. What is important is what you are doing now, and what you do in the future. You may not think you're a hero, most of us here didn't think that when this first started. But sometimes fate forces you into taking on a role you didn't expect..." he states comfortingly, breaking into a wry grin at the end.
When the woman is brought forward, he moves to speak calmly to her, reassuring her that she is safe and they will take her home.
As Gwyn starts to work on the cell door lock, the woman takes notice. Her sobs cease, and she looks up at Gwyn with terror in her eyes. "No! No! Don't bring me back into the temple! Not again!" She scrambles back against the back wall of the cell as Gwyn swings the door open.
"We're not going into the temple, not if we can help it. We're getting you out of here, alright? I'm Gwyn, and this little fluff ball is Fluff," she says pointing to the little thrush on Helena's shoulder. "Can you tell us your name?"
"Shhh, shhhhhhhh," Helana murmurs, gently massaging the woman's wrists. "Gwyn's had a long day. We all have; we're all a bit put out. We're going to get you out of here, okay? My name's Helena. Let's get those bruises cleared up."
The prisoner backs away from Helena as she enters the cell, physically trembling. But Helena's words seem to comfort her. "You're... you're really here to rescue me? You're not another trick by that... that... demon?" Helena then casts a spell summoning healing energies from the spirits of life. Warmth radiates up from the floor, healing most of the prisoner's wounds.
She then throws her arms around Helena and buries her face in the white-haired woman's shoulder. She cries for a long moment, then composes herself. "Thank you! Thank you! Can we please get out of here?"
She is wearing a ragged and filthy tunic, and nothing more.
"Our bunks are nearby," Orik offers noncommittally. "Probably something in there we could kit her out in."
"I am a trickster," Gwyn says with a reassuring grin as she fishes a blanket from her pack, "but I promise you that I am no trick, of demons or otherwise. Here," she wraps the blanket around the woman before helping to guide her out of the cell. "Sorry, but until we can find you something better, this'll have to do," Gwyn apologizes.
"Oh, come on, Gwyn. It's not like it would be the first time you had to run around in your underwear," Fluff says, trying to lighten the mood some.
"Ignore her. She doesn't know what she's talking about and doesn't believe I'll actually put her in a stew pot," Gwyn says after shooting the thrush a sidelong glare.
"You're safe, you're safe. We're real," Helena smiles, using one of her hair-pins to secure Gwyn's blanket around the woman's shoulders. "Orik, how close are the bunks?"
"Not far," Orik replies, meeting Helena's gaze only slightly. "I can take you there."
Taking the prisoner with you, Orik leads you all out the eastern door of the torture chamber through a corridor, and into a larger room. A single lantern hangs from a hook on the north wall next to a open stairway leading up. Several rickety doors open into this room, and a few discarded dog pelt rugs lie forgotten in the northeast corner. Orik then heads to the middle of three doors on the southern wall, which opens to a hallway leading south. Unlike most of this underground area, this hallway is lit by oil lamps hanging from spikes driven into the worked-stone walls.
The corridor turns west, ending at a door. Four other door lead off the corridor, two to the north and two to the south.
Orik indicates which room had been his quarters.
You also know whose quarters the other rooms had been:
A- Tsuto's
B- yours
C- Lyrie's
D- Bruthazmus'
E- Nualia's
"The bunks are here," Orik says, leading the Heroes down the tight passage. "Mine's the first door on the right, and widdershins from there is Tsuto's, Nualia's, Lyrie's, and Bruthazmus'. Let me, um, check in on Lyrie's bunk, she might have left behind some clothes or something." He knocks on her door before opening it.
No one responds to the knock on Lyrie's door, which was slightly ajar. After a moment, Orik opens it. The light from a lamp in the hallway reveals a room bare of anything save a neatly-made cot, a small writing desk with a wooden stool, and an open and empty footlocker. The drawer of the desk is pulled open and is likewise bare save for an empty ink bottle and two inkpens with broken nibs. You guess that Lyrie must have retrieved her personal effects before she left Thistletop.
Cerin does not hear anything beyond the door. When he tries it, the door is locked, but Kyrian picks the lock easily and swings the door open.
This large chamber seems to serve a dual purpose. To the north is a fine bed with silk sheets, while to the south, a desk and chair under a hanging lantern make a comfortable-looking study. There is also a footlocker at the end of the bed. The latern is lit, illuminating the room.
The footlocker contains several changes of practical women's clothing, sized for a particularly tall woman. Also in the footlocker are a hand-carved wooden holy symbok of Lamashtu on a worn leather cord, two small pottery vials, and a very creepy-looking ragdoll.
The desk is bare of anything save an inkpen and a vial of ink. The desk drawer contains a single item: a slim leatherbound book.
You give one set of clothing to your liberated prisoner, who has remained silent since leaving the torture chamber. She mutely nods in thanks, and steps into Lyrie's room to change. Shalelu steps in with her, offering her a waterskin. The prisoner takes a long drink, and then uses it to try to wash away of the grime.
Meanwhile, you examine the book, and find it to be a personal journal. In a juvenile hand, the name "Nualia Tobyn, 4697" is written inside the front cover. The "i" in Nualia is dotted with a small flower.
18 Erastus, 4698
Dad said he was working on my birthday cake, so he let me finish my studies early today. I went outside, and there were some boys from the Academy waiting. They threw rocks at me and one hit me in the back of the head. I have a huge lump now, and it bled a little, too! They called me a freak and laughed at me when I started crying. Dad came out and shooed them away. He says that they only do it because they're jealous, because no one else is as gifted as me. He said that my silver hair and violet eyes are a blessing from Desna. He said I'm and angel!
1 Kuthonia, 4699
Master Gandethus gave me an impossible amount of work today. I was trying to finish it up when I noticed Amylee and the other girls giggling and pointing at me. I did what my teacher said and tried to ignore them, but they wouldn't stop. I excused myself and went to hide in the washroom for a while. While I was in there, the girls pushed a heavy desk in front of the door, and I couldn't open it! I was locked in the washroom all afternoon for hours. I screamed but no one came to help me. When the candle went out, it was so dark, and I was afraid I was going to die! Mr. Jervis came by and let me out. He was making some beautiful bird carvings on the side of the staircase. I am never going back to Turandarok Academy again. Ezakien can't make me. He's not my real dad anyway!
10 Pharast, 4700
I was walking home from school toady, and I took a shorcut past Cracktooth's. A bunch of boys from school was following me. The boys there are always staring at me. They were shouting disgusting things at me and calling me terrible names. One of them called me a slut. It was that awful Banny Harker. I started running and dropped my school bag. I saw one of them pick it up and then run toward Junker's Cliff. When I got home, Dad wanted to know why I was crying, but I told him I just wanted to be left alone.
24 Sarenith, 4700
The merchants always gawk at me at the market. It's not my fault I'm different! I forgot to wear my hat today, and while I was buying some vegetables for supper, some old woman grabbed my braid and snipped half of it off with a pair of scissors! She said, "Your silver hair will bring me luck!" and she turned around and just walked awway! I didn't know what to say or do, and now my hair is all messed up! Amylee and her little friends are going to make fun of me, I just know it. Father says I shouldn't go out so much, and that I should spend more time praying.
5 Lamashan, 4700
I was walking down Cliff Street when about a dozen farmers in for the Harvest Feast started crowding around me. I just wanted to go! They demanded that I cure them of their rashes and boils, and started taking off their shirts to show me. They smelled awful! I tried to be nice, but when I said that I couldn't, one of them grabbed me by the hair and started yelling at me. He wanted to know when he should plant his cabbages and potatoes. How should I know? Another said he was haunted by evil spirits and that since I was the "blessed of Desna," my voice could drive away the voices he was hearing. I scremed at them and kicked one in the shins, hard. I finally pulled away and ran home, but they followed after me, shouting and yelling at me. They chased me all the way to the temple. I barred the door, but they started pounding on it and shouting for me to come out and cure them. Why does this keep happening to me?
15 Gozran, 4701
Father told me today that he would be sending me to study at Windsong Abbey on my 17th birthday. He didn't even ask me! I love Desna, but I don't want to be a priestess... I just want to live a regular life. He's not letting me go out until I can recite the first of the Eight Scrolls perfectly. Now, I'm going to spend the whole summer locked up in the temple. I just want to go out and be like everybody else.
[Drawing of a silver-haired girl hugging her knees.]
3 Abadius, 4702
I met a boy at the market today. I was at a fruit stand when I caught him looking at me. At first, I thought he was like all the others, but he just said 'Hi' and asked me my name. When he spoke, I heard none of the venom that so many others have for me. He is very handsome. I couldn't believe he was talking to me so nicely. I hope I see him again soon.
6 Abadius, 4702
I met the boy again today. My heart pounded when he looked at me. The Varisian boy wants to meet me alone so that we can get to know each other. I want that too... and more. I think he does too. I can just feel it! In his gaze, I don't feel the solitude of my own weird existence as a heaven-sent freak to be pawed at by the villagers. Instead, I finally feel whole. I feel like myself at last! Delek Viskanta. Delek Viskanta. Delek Viskanta. I whisper his name over and over again before I go to sleep. Delek Viskanta. Delek Viskanta.
[Drawing of two roses, their stems entwined to make a heart shape.]
19 Abadius, 4702
Delek and I have been meeting where we can, wherever we can: Across the river in the woods at night, in the ruins of the Old Light, in a store room in the sawmill. But last night, Delek showed me the old "smuggler's tunnels" he'd found as a boy that run under the town. He said that the Sczarni used to use them, but they don't anymore, and he doesn't think anyone else knows about them. We finally have a place to be alone together undisturbed! We went down one long brance until we reached an old brick wall that closes it up. We made love there for the first time last night. It was heaven! We left our bedrolls so that they'll be there when we go back tonight.
21 Pharast, 4702
My knees bleed from days of prayer. The cell is almost bare, a stone bed, a rude wooden symbol of Desna on the wall. My mouth is dry. Father visits me only once a day. He leaves me a loaf of hard bread and a bowl of water. He didn't know I hid this journal and a charcoal stick under my tunic before he locked me in. "Do you repent?" he keeps asking me. I cannot abase myself any more than I did for the love of Delek. When I told the man I loved that I was with child, I thought he would be happy. But he slapped me and called me a slut. A harlot. He said the child couldn't be his... it had to be from one of the other men I'd been with. But I've never been with anyone else! I told him I loved him, but he slapped me even harder and knocked me to the ground. He said I should try to get a job at the Pixie's Kitten, because that's the only thing I'm good for. Then he spat in my face, and it mixed with my tears. He said he was riding to Magnimar within the hour and that he'd never be back. And he left me to face Father alone. What am I going to do? By all the gods... what am I going to do? Gods help me!
28 Pharast, 4702
After a week in my cell, Father has released me, but I am still confined to the temple. He lectures me daily on my sins and forces me to beg Desna to forgive me for defiling the body she had blessed me with. He raised me, but how can I love a "father" who won't forgive me. My sorrow is over. The only thing I feel now is bitterness.
18 Kuthonia, 4702
It seems like almost a dream now, that night two months ago. It was late, but I awoke in a fury. What came over me, I do not know. All I knew was rage. Utter, pure, rage...a force from outside my control that poured through my body and spirit. I was in a frenzy. In a room choked with incense and filled with the droning of my father's prayers, I brought forth my son in a bed of blood. It was nine weeks before his time. I came to my ssenses long enough for a glimpse, but that was enough. The tail, the scales, the mouth too big for an infant, the row of fangs, and the cry of the midwife when he bit her. The midwives stole him away from me. I slipped into blackness. But then the dreams came, sent my the Mother. The Mother of Monsters. It is fitting. For what else has everyone around me ever treated me as, but a monster in their midst. As the townsfolk here have made me wretched, so I would magnify my own suffering and unleash it upon them tenfold. A hundredfold. I know now that my angelic blood is a taint, a curst, to be expunged, burt from my veins. This is no gift—it has brought me nothing but pain and misery. The Mother's chaos and vengeance would pour through me into this rotten world. I shall be its conduit. I have seen a vision: Sandpoint in smoking ruins, adorned with charred flesh and spintered bones. And I shall stand there and laugh at the corpses. I vow by the Mother to make this vision a reality. When I awoke, I knew I could do what the Mother bade me. In my nightclothes still bloody from the birth, I crept to my father's room and set his curtains aflame, and then his bed. I barred his door and listed to his screams of agony before the flames chased me into the street. I barred the temple doors as well and ran into the night.
[Drawing of the symbol of Lamashtu]
5 Neth, 4703
I had to crawl through the most wretched taverns of Underbridge before I found Delek in a pesh den. The year had not been kind to him. I would be crueler still. I waited until he was dulled from his drug, and then siezed him. With the help of the Brothers Seven, I dragged him to a narrow alley reeking of rotten fish. I spat in his face, stared him in the eye, and cut open his throat. I let him bleed out onto the cracked cobblestones, and then I threw Delek's corpse into a pile with the other garbage. I left with a gift from their leader and a dictum that my dreams were a map to destiny.
26 Sarenith, 4704
I turned my will to the Mother and was guided to the tunnels beneat Sandpoint, to the very wall where Delek and I made our ill-fated son. I broke down the wall, tearing the last bricks with by bleeding fingers, and I stepped into the catacombs beyond. The tine winged demon Erylium found me then, and I became her student. I learned what the catacombs held: the altar filled with Mother's sacred waters, the prison holding Erylium's flock, the weightless chamber. For months, she tutored me in the wisdom she gained in her long captivitiy.
[Strange runes cover the middle third of a page.]
1 Arodus, 4704
The Runewell draws the anger of wrathful souls to itself, when a death occurs within its sphere. It is so strange—ancient and powerful, bubbling, glowing orange, but freezing cold to the touch. After the mad woodcarver's parade of murder, and the fire that was my own work, the Runewell glows like a furnace. My demonic teacher showed me how a blood sacrifice can summon forth a twisted monstrous soldier from its depth, born of pure wrath. Lamashtu's blessing must truly be with this place. But the quasit warns me not to overtax the Runewell, else I drain it permanently. With each soldier I draw forth, the Runewell's light dims.
18 Desnus, 4706
Four years ago tonight, my son was born. The Mother's first gift to me, stolen by Ezakien and his fools. At last, to know how I can bring about the wasteland I see every night in my dreams! The Mother has sent me an answer: One of her Chosen awaits—Malfeshnakor! Spawned in the depths of the Abyss and suckled at the teats of Lamashtu herself, Malfeshnakor waits patiently in a chamber beneath the goblin-infested rock called Thistletop. I must release him. Blood sacrifice is the answer! My father's bones shall be the first sacrifice. And then I shall spill more blood in her name and burn corpses at her feet to free th ebeast. When Makfeshnekor is free and under my command, I will raze Sandpoint to smoking ruin. And I shall be remade in the Mother's image, my celestial taint forever purged from my veins!
28 Rova 4706
I have a recruit! The Kaijitsu boy, Tsuto. Fate has dealt him a hand nearly as bad as my own. He, too, is an outcast from Sandpoint, maltreated by his father. When I approached him in Magnimar, he seemed surprised I was still alive, and was eager to talk. He jumped at the opportunity to burn Sandpoint to the ground. He is no longer the boy I remember, but a grown man. His form is pleasing to my eyes...and my loins. I think he feels the same. Perhaps Tsuto can sire another of the Mother's children for me to bear!
5 Neth, 4706
My second recruit. A mercenary named Orik Vancaskerkin. Perhaps not as eager to join the cause as Tsuto, but he works for his pay. He accepted my offer to hire him as my personal bodyguard, but I do not doubt that he would turn on me without much thought were I to stop paying him. Still, he could have other uses as well.
11 Calistril, 4707
I have found my third recruit, a rejected Pathfinder hopeful named Lyrie Akenja. She seems quite knowledgeable about arcana and of ancient architecutre. She will prove useful in divining a method to free Malfeshnakor, and since her plans to join the Society did not pan out, she in in need of opportunity.
24 Gozran, 4707
In Nettlewood, we were attacked by a bugbear. After defeating him easily, I asked his name. Bruthazmus, he is called He stalks the woods preying on travelers. He seems to have mistaken me for some kind of forest spirit, and fawned over me, so I chose to spare him. He claims to be a friend of the Thistletop Goblins. Perhaps he is our way in, as Ripnugget as thus far rejected my offers of parley. I offered him a position in my band, and he accepted, although he does not get along with any of the others.
19 Arodus, 4707
The goblins finally brought human captives to Thistletop, as I had ordered. I shall begin sacrificing them to the Mohter in preparation for the later cermonies.
25 Arodus, 4707
The plans are made. On the day of the Swallowtail Festival, Ripnugget will lead the goblins on an assault on Sandpoint. At the same time, Tsuto will lead the a small party through the tunnels to steal Ezakien's bones from his crypt. I shall sacrifice his bones to begin my own rebirth. When Malfeshnekor is free, all of Sandpoint shall burn. A burnt offering to my Mother.
Gwyn inspects the items she'd grabbed from Nualia's room to see what they are and if they could be useful to the group before moving on to the journal.
At first, she feels sympathy for the young Nualia, but as she reads, her horror and anger grow. When she reads the last entry, Gwyn's eyes are dark, and sparks of arcane fire dance in her hair. She sends fluff to keep Helena company as she finds the young woman they rescued. Without preamble or saying anything at all, she gives her a hug.
"You never did tell me your name," she says softly.
The door to Bruthazmus' quarters is unlocked and opens easily. The room has a stong odor of must, goblin-stink, and rotting meat. The bed is covered with matted black-and-gray hair. Bloodstains mar the stone floor. A morbid stack of birds' feet and heads lie heaped on the floor beside the bed. There does not appear to be much else in the room.
If you examine the bird parts...
That's weird, Orik hurriedly grabbed a chapbook sitting on the cheap nightstand by his bunk and quickly shoved it into the depths of his backpack.
You head up the stairs, which come out near the entrance hall to Thistletop. You walk through the entrance chamber, past the gruesome trophies nailed to the walls, and find the main door to the stockade open. The prisoner whispers, "Sunlight!" almost reverently.
You exit the fort to find the sun very low in the sky; you think you have maybe ninety minutes remaining of daylight, followed by another three-quarters of an hour of twilight before darkness sets in. Shalelu mentions that you probably have just enough time to return to Sandpoint before it gets too dark to safely travel the roads.
Kyrian then remembers the warhorse you'd freed earlier in the day, and runs back to check on it... only to return a few moments later to report that it's gone.
After not saying very much since you freed her, the prisoner says, "If Sandpoint is only two hours from here, can you please take me there? If I can get back to Magnimar, I could pay you as thanks."
You know that somewhere in the dungeons below the stockade behind you, Nualia, Bruthazmus, and Tsuto are all still alive... plus an unknown number of remaining goblins. (Orik thinks that number is probably small, but there might be a raiding party still out that could return at any time.)
However, you also notice a problem: the rope bridge across from Thistletop to the mainland has been cut, and is now hanging down the face of the cliff below you. The chasm between you and the mainland is about fifty feet across. The sound of surf pounding on the rocks echoes up from below.
"Orik," Gwyn says after she sees the bridge, "If we ever see your girlfriend or her boyfriend again, I'm leaving them both tied up in the town square, naked."
Looking across the chasm, the posts are still there, with cut ropes hanging from them. If you could get over there with the rest of the bridge, it wouldn't be too hard to re-attach the ropes.
Orik takes a quick glance at the bridge. "F**k," he breathes. "[b]If Lyrie had anything to do with this, I'll do the binding myself, Gwyn.
Looking down, you do see that the rope bridge hangs down into the water; it wouldn't be that hard a climb down. Of course, the surf looks pretty rough... and the rocks are jagged.
Looking across, it might take a few throws to land it right, but the bridge support posts on the other side seem sturdy enough to hold a grappling hook. You'd just need enough rope...
Helena squints in the direction Cerin points, before taking a step back and shuddering, shaking her head slowly. "This fey curse troubles me," she murmurs. "I fear I will be of little help in getting us back."
"Ah, so I take it you're going to leave the stripping to me," Gwyn says with a wicked grin. She sobers after a moment and begins fishing in her pack. After a moment she gives a defeated sigh before turning to see what Cerin had pointed out.
"Let's just save that plan for if we need it. I don't know about you, but I don't favor our chances with those rocks and the surf."
Turning to everyone now, she begins outlining her plan.
"The safest way out of this is to fix the bridge. If we can hook the supports with ropes, then we could just roll the planks across and secure the lines. The only two problems with that are we need two grappling hooks, and two long lengths of rope that will reach across the gap."
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"I have the rope, but I did not think to pack a grappling hook." Cerin offers, handing his rope to Gwyn. Suddenly remembering something, he starts fishing around in his pouch. "We did find that Anchor Feather token! What if I used the Wand of Resize Item to shrink it down; do you think it would make an acceptable grapple?"
"Maybe," Gwyn answers uncertainly.
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Figuring they have nothing to lose, Cerin activates the token and lets the now-full sized anchor drop to the ground in front of him. He pulls the wand from his pouch and mutters the activation word, concentrating on making the anchor shrink to half its normal size.
After tying the rope to the makeshift grapple, he hands it to Orik. "You probably have the best chance to make it all the way over there, it's a bit heavier than a normal grapple."