Zed, always the early riser, hands Constantin a cup of hot tea. "The sunrise is pale here."
"Thank you, Zed," says Constantin as he accepts the tea. He takes a sip, winces slightly at the heat, and waits a bit for it to cool. He swallows hard, his throat sore from a night of poor sleep.
"Zed... since I presume you've given it thought... you have a plan for how to end me if my psychic abilities grow out of control and I become a monstrous threat to the people around me, yes?" he says idly as he turns the tea cup in his hands to warm his cold fingers.
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"Zed... since I presume you've given it thought... you have a plan for how to end me if my psychic abilities grow out of control and I become a monstrous threat to the people around me, yes?" he says idly as he turns the tea cup in his hands to warm his cold fingers.
Nondetection and invisibility to get the drop on you, open with a swing from my tetsubo and then go into grappling. Drain your blood from there. You know I have vampiric blood but don't know I actually have usable fangs. You have unusual psychic abilities but share similar vulnerabilities with mages, and my mind is not easily overcome. Zed offers Constantin a lemon wedge for his tea. "I've given it some thought, yes."
Kazamir looks worse for wear as well in the morning, taking longer than usual to reach his usual fastidiousness.
It is the Age of Lost Omens...Whispers in the night are NOT prophecy. Whispers of another Way...
He shakes his head in disgust, re-tying his neck-cloth for the third time, finally getting it right after his obvious distraction.
"Good, thank you. I trust you with that responsibility," says Constantin as he accepts the wedge of lemon and applies it to his hot tea. "Incidentally, wherever did you manage to find fresh lemon?"
As Kaz arrives, Constantin says, "Kaz, you look like I feel. You should have some tea. Bad night?"
Vala remains quiet and withdrawn as the others chat over the simple breakfast and tea. In the thin light of the bitter morning, she looks shockingly gaunt and haggard, especially in how sunken her cheeks appear.
She answers Constantin's question for Kaz absently, though her gaze is fixed on the contents of her cup and her voice is soft and hollow. "Can anyone even remember the last time any of us had a good one?"
HP: 57/57
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 16
F/R/W: +7/+4/+13 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Healing Hex targets:
Bone Ward targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Bones
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 17: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (4+1+1*) | DC 18: false life* [ ], magic missile (toppling) [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 19: bull's strength (extended) [ ], lightning bolt [ ] [ ], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (toppling) [ ]
Level 4 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 20: ball lightning [ ], fear* [ ], greater magic weapon [X], spiritual ally [ ]
Level 5 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 21: dispel evil [ ], lightning arc [ ], slay living* [ ]
Ongoing Effects
Greater Magic Weapon (Vermundr)
Vermundr abstains from the morning chatter. Instead, he silently sharpens his blade while lost in private thought.
Zed nods. "Fresh is a strong word, but citrus fruit keeps very long if you don't slice it and keep it stowed away. It's good for digestion." He takes a sip. "And I like the taste."
"Good, thank you. I trust you with that responsibility," says Constantin as he accepts the wedge of lemon and applies it to his hot tea. "Incidentally, wherever did you manage to find fresh lemon?"
As Kaz arrives, Constantin says, "Kaz, you look like I feel. You should have some tea. Bad night?"
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You already knew Constantin worried about his powers getting out of hand and *of course* Zed's thought up ways to put each and every one of us down ten times over if it comes down to it.
Kazamir nearly nods, half listening, and accepts a cup, almost perfectly concealing his surprise and disappointment that it contains tea.
"After opening my mind to the pain and loss and blackness of the place by the tree, I'm not surprised that my dreams were a little grim."
"Bad dreams? Me too. Whispering Way," says Constantin sympathetically.
Kaz nods absently for a moment, then his eyes narrow, and he turns toward Constantin. A look of comprehension plays over his face for a moment, then a grim smile.
"The Way were perhaps a little too clever. One man hears whispers in the night - its a bad dream. Common as grass in Ustalav. Two men have the same dream?
I almost didn't speak of it - just a bad dream, right? Thank you, Constantin. You remind me of who we are up against, and their capabilities."
He addresses the group at large.
"Sorry, friends. We should all be in the habit by now of sharing the unusual, even if it just dreams or stray thoughts. I draw hope from the act that our foes are concerned enough to try to sway us from our path."
Vala sighs at the detectives' conversation, her gaze bouncing from Kazamir to Constantin and back again before she disengages and forces her eyes down to the cup in her hands. She shoots Pyth a look, as her bitterness brings a sharp and scathing remark to her tongue, but she swallows it along with the last of her tea. They spoke of one shared bad dream, but what could any of them understand of her ongoing nightmare? Kendra and Petros were waiting every time she fell asleep, always screaming at her for help and yet perpetually out of reach and made of vapor. Jonathan appeared regularly before her waking eyes, silently accusing her with his ceaseless, hollow stare. She sees him even now, looming just above and behind Vermundr's broad shoulder, a spectre of judgment and failure.
Pyth, sensing her distress, flits down from his perch atop one of the simple tents and lands on Vala's shoulder to nuzzle her with the crown of his head. She absently scratches his neck as she looks up to Hazel, "Thank you for the breakfast, dear."
After a melancholy breakfast, the party sets off once more, following the tracks across the plains of Ardeal for mile after mile though the mist makes this a frustrating and difficult task.
Between the mist and the mud and the lack of discernable landmarks, the journey takes near double the time it should have but eventually, toward dusk, you close in on the area marked as Feldgrau on Vermundr's map.
Toward the end of Bastoi's forced occupation of Ardeal almost 2 decades ago, Count Aericnein Neska's troops spent a night in the small town of Fledgrau. when they pulled out the next morning, they repaid the town for it's hospitality by butchering it's citizens and putting Feldgrau to the torch.
On the outskirts of the town stand the ruins of a small farmhouse and two outbuildings, their roofs long collapsed, exposing splintered frames of grey timber. Beyond, a sodden unsown field stretches to the shattered town of Feldgrau.
The barren earth is scattered with muddy trenches and covered with a perpetual wash of low, swirling fog. Dead trees, like pale and wiry skeletons, grasp at the grey skies, casting their long, ghostly shadows over the crumbling ruins.
"Nearly twenty years. Count Neska's troops came through during Ardeal's occupation and razed the town on their way out. It's been naught but a graveyard and ruin since." Vala shakes her head, disquieted at the thought of what Vrood might be up to within.
"Let them." Vala's voice is dark and full of violent promise as she looks for any signs of movement within the ruins.
The farm and outbuildings are practically destroyed, having been burnt out years ago.
The mist has deepened into a thick fog that obscures your vision beyond about forty feet bur Vala does spot many criss crossing tracks of hoof and paw and boot in the field between the farm and the town proper.
Most seem to be leading to a small building with a thick, stone chimney, most likely a blacksmiths forge.
It is impossible to see deeper into town through the fog though it all seems desperately quiet.
Constantin mentions to Kaz as the group travels, "I think... I think I have learned enough about the workings of the mind below the level of cognition to understand a bit about dreams and the ways that the mind twists and bends. I... might be able to shield against outside influence in dreams, if you think it's useful."
"But they might also play their hand in dreams. Maybe one of us should remain... accessible."
"I don't understand Constantin. What do you mean by accessible?"
Vermundr pauses to study the assorted tracks and learn their story.
"It sounds like Kaz and I both had disturbing dreams last night," Constantin explains. "Disturbingly similar dreams. Dreams about the Whispering Way."
"I think I can shield against that kind of mental intrusion... but if the Way is trying to contact us in dreams, maybe one of us should let them. In case they let something slip... accidentally tell us something useful about where they are and what they are doing."
"A discussion best reserved for later, perhaps?" She shrugs, as if the answer doesn't matter. "We can worry about sleep and whatever wards we do or don't want when the work immediately before us is done. We are walking into a ruin filled with demon worshipping werewolves, Nethys knows what manner of undead monstrosities serving the Whispering Way, and Vrood himself. We all need to be sharp and focused or we might not see another bed to begin with."
She casts a brief spell over herself then, in anticipation of the violence to come.
HP: 79/57
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 16
F/R/W: +7/+4/+13 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Healing Hex targets:
Bone Ward targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Bones
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 17: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (4+1+1*) | DC 18: false life* [X], magic missile (toppling) [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 19: bull's strength (extended) [ ], lightning bolt [ ] [ ], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (toppling) [ ]
Level 4 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 20: ball lightning [ ], fear* [ ], greater magic weapon [X], spiritual ally [ ]
Level 5 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 21: dispel evil [ ], lightning arc [ ], slay living* [ ]
Ongoing Effects
Greater Magic Weapon (Vermundr)
False Life (self): 9 hours
"We didn't discuss it at all until now because we didn't even know until comparing notes just now. We may have had similar dreams, but I didn't see Kaz in mine, so until the similarities became clear, we didn't even know. Which is why we are discussing it right now with everyone," says Constantin, exasperated.
"Anyway... seems like everyone here is asleep," says Constantin. "Maybe we should head to that smithy? It seems to be at the crossroads."
Constantin adjusts the straps on his pack, then he stops. He thinks for a moment, then squints and slowly turns in a half-circle.
"Stop," hisses Constantin. "I sense the undead."
He looks at the burned-out buildings with a crawling sensation.
"If Vrood came through here... I think he may have turned this whole village into a trap for us."
Hearing Constatin's warning, Vermundr brandishes his blade.
Eyes half-lidded, Constantin says, "I'm sensing a strong presence... pervasive... like either the town itself is undead, or some overwhelmingly powerful undead passed through here recently. Sensing... two... moving... in the mist, ahead, just a little too far to see. If they're incorporeal they might hide in the mist until we're right on top of them."
Fully expecting trouble, Vermundr wards himself against danger before leading the way toward the smithy.
Constantin slowly moves into the fog after Vermundr, still concentrating.
"That way... a little to the right... it's still moving."
Hazel leads the group as quietly as possible to the door of the forge.
As you move, you can sneak a glance in between broken windows and see a dark, non-descript room within that was probably a bedroom in this one story building.
You arrive at a front door that looks in complete disrepair. The auras are stronger now that Constantin has been able to concentrate for a few more moments, but appear to be slowly moving away from you. Whatever is out there in the mist, it doesn't seem to have spotted you. Yet.
Kazamir whispers "I don't know that its worth the risk at this point. Shall we slide to the south of this building, then head east into the 'town'?"
Zed casts heroism on himself. "I can make somebody invisible to go scout if desired." He offers.
Heading carefully south, the small building beside the forge offers no indication as to it's purpose from the outside.
Zed cloaks himself in invisibility and quietly enters.