Darie Billown's page

Darie pondered the viewpoint for a moment, then added "I see what you are tring to do. But I don't think we're doing anything illegal here, as long as its an abandoned ruin, we'll just be squatting. If we take on the deed, we'll be responsible. I don't know if we even want to stick along after we are done with the cairn."

Darie grimassed. "I don't think going to the city is a good idea, Kessel. I heard that as soon as you put something like that down in writing, some Whaterdhavian advocate jumps up, and steals it from you with some gibbergab about taxes, primacy of noble blood and what not."

She put some more herbs into her meal, and chewed thoughtfully. "If you can hold on to it, it's yours. That's what the cityfolks always do, so why shouldn't we?"

Thought I might as well show her new infernal bloodline a bit. Thankfully, the low frequency of this game allows me to stay in - I hope

My sincere condolences, too. I hope you recover from the loss soon, but do not put any pressure on yourself on a game's behalf.

Darie pursed her lips, and her look became almost hostile for a moment. This had probably been the exact wrong thing to say to her. Still, she remained by the meal, and dug in. After all, she had no supplies left herself, and who knew when she was going to eat next.

"Well, the mortal danger was a bit of a letdown." Darie let slip, blushing slightly. She was growing a bit too easy into the situation. There was not much she could go on here, but already she was beginning to trust them. Inwardly she chided herself, but it wouldn't help, she knew.

Darie looked at the food Kessel had provided, and her stomach growled audibly, which send her into a heavy blush. "I can try it, but I am not a really gifted cook. Still, it should be good to eat."

"Not a good idea" Darie replied towards the dwarfs idea. She closed the distance with a few swift steps, and vaguely pointed into the Cairn's direction. "Lots of people already know what we're doing. Too many, probably. Adding another dozen or two will just lead in dozens of people competing with us for what we plan to find."

Darie wordlessly began to clear up the outsides of the debris, overgrowth and filth. She was very careful to not soil herself or damage her clothes too much.

She talked little once again, only when something was absolutely required to complete the task, such as moving a boulder she could not lift on her own.

Darie's frown remained on her face as the discussion continued. She looked at the druid trying to make up her mind. "Well, anyway... have you met my family lately? The Billown's, three farmhouses out of town. About fifty people, all told."

Darie looked towards the halfling, and pursed her lips. "If it was my land, I'd just drive a few goats through the area. Its an old mine area, and there's probably all kinds of nastiness in the ground." She almost immediately regretted the words, but they were out.

Darie looked at what looked like a happy reunion with a bit of apprehension, and remained solidly apart from it. She was hungry, still a bit exhausted from her earlier exertion, and generally feeling none too well.

The elven druid (or whatever he was) struck a nerve with her especially. Just the kind of men her family had always warned her about. On the other hand, Kessel was also a songsmith, wastrel and generally untrustworthy person, and he turned out alright, as far as she could tell.

Darie remained quite apart from the newcomers, lips pressed tightly against each other. The young woman, quite good-looking, just stood away about ten feet at all times, arms crossed before her chest. She did not so much actively turn hostile, but instead... just clamped up tightly.

Darie went through the last of her rations on the back trip, putting away the heavy waxed cloth she had kept the cheese and hard sausages in somewhat sheepishly. "Could we at least sell a few things so I can buy a little more food from my share?"

Pathfinderized Darie, now with more Infernal ;)

Darie lay down, and tried to rest a little bit. Her headache had begun to dull and fade into annoyance rather than head-splitting agony. She wanted to get better, but felt a little guilty of slacking off while the men worked their asses off for the tombs.

"We should find out how valuable they are, first" Darie added, meekly. "We don't want to be the stupid farmers taken for a ride by the city folk, do we?" She smirked, somewhat weakly. Her head was still paining her, but had settled into a dull throb instead of the lances of pain now.

Darie nodded, sighing deeply. "I feel alright, we should go on." She was a horrible liar, with her eyes tearing up as it was, and her posture slumped.

"Alright, that was a lie" She admitted, blushing. "I'm sorry. But I don't want to be a drag." As she turned towards the bodies, and poked one with her weapon. "But I'd like to see the Champion's Games once. I could imagine the man from town looks pretty good all..." she stopped. That was entirely the wrong kind of thought, and she had not just thought it, but spoken it out aloud. She really was tired to let something like that slip.

Darie looked ast the disfigured corpses, and looked a lot as if she was going to be sick right next to the bugs nest. She managed to control her stomach - just barely. "This is a lot less glorious than I hoped. We are not just taking things of people long turned to ash and dust, these people were here not... Ah... yes, I know. They won't need it anymore. But still."

Darie is still here - just the bugs scare her

Four bodies, by any chance?

Darie slowly approached the orange mass, still visibly worn down. "I think i really overdid things. People, would you horribly mind if i went back for the moment? I really don't feel so well."

Darie leaned her forehead against one of the walls, and sighed. "I've got the... oh damn, my head. Does it always hurt so badly? That's almost a curse by itself."

She pushed herself away, eyes pushed shut tightly. "Alright... don't hold back on my account, I'll just hold back for a while. Truth be told, I feel like dropping and sleeping for a day or so."

Darie was sweating profoundly, and shouted out the words again, fanned out her fingers painfully wide... but no more flames erupted, no matter how much she tried.

She felt as if she was burning up inside, felt there was still fire, but just could not reach it, could not call and coax it forth. Things just did no longer align.

Darie felt stunned as she released the flames again, but Kessels cry made her focus on the words of power again... shouted them out yet again, and felt them rush through her flesh, ripping at her inside.

She staggered, as the power left her. She was just... spend.

Darie tensed up as the beetles began swarming towards the group, but knew that the fire she had conjured up needed to catch as many of them as possible. Thus, she held herself in check.

Once they got really close to her, at arms reach, she would unleash the flames again. But not before - no matter how horrible the bigger bug looked.

Darie's face lightened up as Kessel explained the plan once more, in somewhat plainer terms. "Understood. Sorry, but... i remember that one symbol alright, but bunched with all the others, it sure gets confusing."

Darie followed the different directions on the chalked map, and furrowed her brow, finally shrugging. "Alright. Just tell me where to stand, and what to do."

Darie shook her head. The plan sounded sensible enough - now she only hoped she did not need to jump out in front of the others to hold back another deluge of small beetles. Well, she hoped that, but at the same time - it would be heroic.

Darie nodded. "I think i can... make fire one or two more times. It feels strange, draining in a way, but I'll manage." She smiled at Kessel, even though Tobin had done the talking. "If Kells and you are up to pulling my backside out of the fire, I think it's time i finally start earning my keep and pulling my weight."

She seemed quite enthusiastic to continue the exploration. For now, the joy of being able to contribute to their progress clearly still had the upper hand over any doubts as to just what she was doing.

"Besides, it gives us a good excuse to get some more of that wonderful game and wild onions." Darie chimed in, but slowly moved towards the collapsed elevator. She looked down the shaft, and bit her lips. "That's where all the beetles came from, right? I'd guess... we better expect some more of them. They won't all have swarmed out just like that."

Darie nodded. "Yes, i really should. But then again, how much virtue do I have left after three weeks of lodging in the cheapest inns of town, and roaming around the wilderness with you?" The words were light-hearted and jovial, but there was a darker touch to them. The last few weeks probably really wouldn't be what a proper lady wanted in her personal history.

Of course, then again in her social circles, everything shy of leaving children or taking place in public was pretty much tolerated - no sense wasting someones live over as long as they otherwise worked as expected of them - though her family had a decidedly stricter bend than many other farmers on the outskirts.

Darie fell into the same laugh as Kessel, her dark mood seemingly put to rest for the moment. It probably would come back, but right now the support of her friends just left no room for it.

"I'd like to meet your sister eventually. You know, you make her sound like some cross between Umberlee and... i don't know. Sorry, didn't want to make her sound horrible." She gave Kells a short squeeze of the hand, and put her sentence back in order. "I'd just like to meet her eventually. She sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders."

The compliments send a tinge of redness into Darie's cheeks. Kells and Kessel could hardly both be wrong, and to protest their declarations of trust would dishonor them. "Thank you, Kells. I won't disappoint either of you, i promise you that."

Not to let the situation accumulate too much gravity, she added a playful "And i keep my promises. Even more that makes me like Kessel's Sister, right?"

Darie took the hand, and slid easily down on her feet again. "That sounds like quite a lot, actually." She answered, with a soft laugh. "Up to this point, i don't regret anything. Sometimes it is pretty frightening, but so was going to town for the first time, even when all my brothers were there to hold my hand."

She took a few steps towards the collapsed elevator, but not to the point of letting go of Kessel, should he not follow. "I guess we really should move on. This magic may be useful to fall back on. Just when it is needed, not frivolously."

"I heard about that drow. I guess it is one of these stories that grow ever larger and less connected to a person with each and every retelling. I doubt anyone could do even half the things that Drisitt is said to have done even are possible." Darie sighed. Kessel was a lot like Aunt Varil. Made her open up even against her better judgment, and deeply ingrained "family laws".

"I guess i have to find out. No way going back. I mean, my family would have allowed me to live. That is all. I wouldn't be allowed to have a husband, or children, or inherit, or... anything. I could as well be dead now." She blushed. This sounded a lot like fishing for sympathy, she realized. From Kessel (she couldn't really make herself to shorten his name), in particular.

"Yes, of course. Through years of study, or connection to the gods, or the power of song and legend. With my family... its different." Darie made a face. "This is really a secret, but... i guess i might as well tell you the whole story now. Then you decide."

She let her arms fall into her lap, took a few breaths. Tried to sort out some consistent tale through the tangled knot of feelings. "It is a family curse. Our family, the Billown, are... touched. I've never been told the whole story, but a taint of evil runs through us. And in some of us, it comes to the fore. This is why i speak the language of devils, and can handle hellfire in my hands. It just... came to me. I was in a toolshed after dark, and wished very very hard i had taken a lantern along - and a light came to me. I began to understand some... family curses, and began to really get why they are swears."

"I can't really do much now, but i know if i tried, i could grow more powerful. Call the devil in me so much more to the fore." With a dejected gesture, she rubbed her forehead. "Its not like the magic you learn from books, or song, or pray for. I can't even read. Why should i learn, it's not necessary to milk cows, weed gardens and steal eggs from chicken."

Darie blinked, once the giggles had subsided. "That's it. Wow... you sure have an open mind, Kessel." She sat down straight on the lid of the sarcophagus. "Gods and saints. We've got to get down there is your first instinct. Tell me, didn't that frighten you? And what i did... don't you think less of me?"

Darie sighed, and took a moment to catch her breath. The excitement send her blood thundering through her ears, thumping as if to shatter her head into dozen fragments. "Uh... burnt bugs... sure stink". Inane, childish, and all too girly for a large woman like her.

The giggle fit came unexpectedly. "At least they won't bury us as 'eaten by beetles'."

Darie was breathing heavily, and as the swarm dispersed, came to a halting stop on the sarcophagus. Both her hands pushed solidly against the coffin lid, but not attempting to move it. "That should do it. Do you manage the big one?" She asked, actually somewhat out of breath - and still battling quite a few conflicting emotions. The exhilaration of power. The shame and guilt of "slipping" into it. The sincere loyalty in these friends, unlike what she had felt before.

Darie saw Kells and Kessel remain behind the Sarcophagus, and cursed. Why weren't they running for the exits? They... couldn't expect...

"TORIVE IGNE VA!" she screamed on top of her lungs, and send another set of fire plumes into the closing insects. "Why are you sticking around?! Kessel! This is not!" She was too frightened to form coherent sentences, but the power coursing through her was also intoxicating. And at the same time, she knew she could not possibly let her friends stay behind. She knew this for a fact more than ever before in her life.

Init Roll (1d20+2=20)

This will be a little more complex. What i want to do is to wait until they come into 5' range of me, fire off "burning hands", and then move away as quickly as possible.

Darie saw the surge of insects, and stopped thinking. Watched as it rolled out of the ruined elevator shaft, and knew this was not the time to be timid. There were too many of them. They looked fast, hungry, mean and perfectly willing to eat them all alive. The beetles were rolling towards her, probably would get her and bury her under chitin.

"Torive Igne Va..." she whispered, five fingers of fire. Spread out her hands before herself. Throughout her whole body an unnatural heat spread, exploding out of her fingers in ten plumes. She did not take the time so survey what damage she had done. She just ran, hoped to join the others. With some luck, the swarm would recoil from the fire a little bit.

"Are you sure?" Darie looked doubtfully back towards the sarcophagus, which seemed to have settled into its new position. Maybe this was some kind of trap, and the builders had decided that bringing the place down on some intruders was worth protecting their secrets?

Before she could voice that horrible idea, though, her common sense prevailed. Someone had previously tried to loot the place, so most likely the passage they were now waiting to open had been tried before as well. No reason to get too worried.

Darie looked around, grimassing. "That does not sound good, folks?" She took a few halting steps towards the green lantern, maybe to see what the cause of the ruckus was, but it was decidedly half-hearted. "Anyone have any idea what this is? The roof is not coming down on us, right?"

She looked back towards Kessel "Or should we turn it back?"

Darie stepped towards the sarcophagus, and got into position to help push it. She wasn't very strong, but she had had to carry her weight around the farm. "Alright... clockwise, one alcove at a time? Until something new comes up?"

"It smells good enough, but the color and consistency... Yuck!" Darie agreed. "Let's just carry on. I'd rather have a few more "floating muscle" things than eating this stuff."

Not content to merely nag, she began to stroll back up the corridor, towards the strange tube. Maybe there were others like it? Who knows what else the Cairn would show them?

With a shudder, Darie turned away from Kessel, and shook her head. "That you'd even think about doing that. All right, it probably would beat starving to death, but... not unless we find nothing else at all." She seemed remarkably squeemish all of a sudden... at odds with the tough attitude she had tried to build up for herself, and the nonchalance with which she treated blood, freshly-dressed animals and other things.

Then again, she probably had been around these for most her life, considering the Billowns slaughtered and smoked their own meat.

"Sure thing" Darie replied, and with an impish grin extended her finger towards him. "Say Ah like a good boy."

She shrugged, and cleaned off her finger after offering it to him for a moment. "Why do you think I'm any more keen on putting that stuff in my mouth than you?"

"Well, it smells alright, but... the color is nothing short of disgusting" Darie proceeded to clean up the end of the staff on the stone walls, and rub it between the tip of her finger and the thumb. "I wonder what it is supposed to do, though. Some kind of lantern oil maybe?"

"In my opinion, some kind of goo?" Darie replied, a bit sheepishly. She dipped the tip of her recently-acquired staff into the substance, and in case it survived the contact, proceeded with a finger.

"I mean, we found the Loo..." Darie chuckled. For all the dangers and traps, and her earlier anxiety at having to connect with the dark secret, this and the exchange with Kessel had cheered her up. So the mysterious builders were not so different, in some fundamental ways. Quite... relieving.

Darie grinned, and crossed her arms in mock anger. "So, great Kessel Coby, what would the criteria be to replace me?" It was a little strange to start fooling around so carefree deep in an abandoned tomb, but she wouldn't be the one to spoil the mood. Not now.