(3) Legend of the Elder Souls (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

"Hmm. Maybe ... I'm not sure exactly what to do, but it might be easier to think of something if I see it myself. An more mundane - and slower - method might be simply planting something to absorb the harshest radiation. Like a line of resilient trees and scrubs to halt the expansion of a desert or draw out the corruption from tainted soil. Maybe ..."

Liisa leans down and scratches 'her' fox behind the ear and smiles. "Mmm... I haven't thought about it so much, I just went with 'Fluffy'. A bit inane perhaps, but he didn't mind!"

Johnny is a bit more interested in creating a robot army than making weapons. Although he still hasn't quite figured out how to make ones that do what he wants them to (basically, fly about scouting the area and eventually provide an early warning system if the wall comes down)

"Exploring outside the wall seems fine to me. Maybe after that we can visit the raptors or something. It'd be nice to have a better idea of what resources we have access to or what other neighbors might be around."

"The raptors don't speak our language but have some kind of magic to be able to so we'll need a translator again, they at least don't want to kill us unlike the town."

"We should definitely return to the raptors once we've learned some translation magic ourselves, it'll save us the trouble of hiring a translator and make sure we're understood properly. I'd guess that Johnny's gem would be the most apt at that sort of thing, since he's got all those wanderers."

"Luna... we'll be more careful this time. I promise. I don't want to see any of us get hurt again, but we've all learned a great deal about stealth. We'll stick to the treeline if there is one, scout ahead, make sure we see others before they see us and choose who to engage. With this new gem, I can climb trees like a squirrel, and Litilgandr here," waving the snake on her arm, "should act like a cheap telescope. We'll buy or steal clothes from locals if we can, wear 'em to blend in then and summon our armor only when we need it. You're the most paranoid of any of us, so if you could make sure we're always on our toes and alert to anything following, that would be quite helpful."

"Liisa, Johnny—you two are clearly the best fast-talkers, thanks to what I'm beginning to assume are a few colorful careers I'd best not ask about. We'll want you interacting with the locals, when we meet them, but if you're ever not sure whether a comment might out us as 'demons from beyond the wall,' don't take a chance—Luna and Neri know this world best, and they'll be able to run backup if you've forgotten the local lore. And Johnny, there's a spell the metalsingers had that you might be able to learn—it'll let us communicate by whispering. That should be valuable; we can use our hands as walky-talkies for speaking incognito. Liisa, meanwhile, has the best chance of finding us proper shelter and food in the wilderness if we need to camp out. We can bring bedrolls and travelers' cloaks, but if you've got magic that could disguise a shelter as ordinary underbrush, that would be useful."

"Neri, would you be willing to lead? You're the stealthiest and best dodger of any of us, and you know what parts of the town to scout first, see if things are abandoned or reinforced."

"And I'm still a cop, though it looks like I've gone from tactical ops to detective. My new gem seems to like patience, and balance, and I've learned enough kung-fu to fight stealthily with the rest of you, instead of charging and screaming around like Minestria did. More importantly, I'm pretty sure I now know how to track just about anything across just about any distance, and I've commanded my snake to tug on my wrist if it sees clues I've missed. My skills might be helpful if we need to ambush someone or sneak around a patrol—and I've still got my handcuffs if we want to take prisoners—but I'll try to stay inconspicuous otherwise, though I think experience has shown I'm not great at that."

Neri actually understands raptor, and can 'speak it', though he's by no means perfect in it.

"I've no problem with leading, for the most part. I'm also a fair amount faster... though I'll miss how much more sturdy everyone else was that wanted to go first." he shrugs a little. "And I'll probably be adequate at anything we'd pretend to be doing. We'll need to know more about the world... and I suggest covering up Lees's bindi. And yeah. If there are any disagreements, I'll ask that you keep your clothes on, and not rekill any merchants we meet." Neri grins.

I am ready to go when everyone else is! Once at the wall, we'll have two things to check on, if the Sorcerer will humor me :)

I... think everyone else is? I've also currently got a pocket full of shuriken, which could be entertaining.

"The wall first, then look around? I'm game!" Liisa grins

I believe everybody is ready to go.

Johnny taps his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I could temporarily teach a raptor our language. Share Language Or at least make it so that I can understand them. As for interacting with the locals, I could make myself appear more like a local, but that may backfire as it may be more useful to pretend to be from one of the far off lands. Like where ever Kiki comes from. I could also disguise someone if need be. Also, if we bring along a mirror large enough, I can turn it into a portal to a small hide-away for us. Of course, all of these are a question of priorities since obviously my skills are skill limited."

Johnny then casts message and whispers in his hand to Lina. "Is this the spell you were thinking of that the metalsingers knew? Also, I'm glad your new gem seems less like a psychopath."

He then speaks normally again. "Oh, also, I don't know how long it'll take to get through the forested area, but I have a spell that should help with visibility."

"Yeah, that's the spell. Mirrors are... advanced, and I'm guessing they'd take magic to craft here. If we see one, we can buy it—I'll bring some of our gems with us so we can craft things where we go."

Lina thinks. "Foreigners might be easier if we knew what any of the foreign countries were called, how far away they were, and whether we're near any ports here. Maybe just 'travelers,' and keep it ambiguous, but we'll see who we meet."

"Hmmm, actually after re-consulting my book of spells, it seems it'd work just as well."

Luna looked a little confused at Lina's claim but shrugged, She would prepare a few of her things while on the trip there as well and if she had time she might be able to gather supplies for more potions.

"Then lead the way."

going to say luna preps a dex Mutagen on the road also any chance of potions or supplies for them?

The group spends a few days preparing, and then heads out.

Luna could get enough supplies for potions from Liisa's compound to make two potions a week if Liisa spends time gathering the components.

Upon approaching the wall, the group finds it much as it was when they last left it, those who have seen it before. The curtain of energy shimmers as it stands there in place.

Neri conjures his armor and walks straight through the divot that has been worn into the earth itself, as if there were absolutely nothing to worry about. He was mostly sure there wasn't. He headed for where he'd stashed his old backpack, first, though his eyes darted across the ground to see if the mithral shrapnel was still there.

Lina will step through and look around, since I'm not sure if she's ever been through the barrier before, and check to see if the shards of Mithral are still there.

"A few days" should be more than enough time for Lina and Johnny to craft Sleeves of Many Garments for anyone who wants them. This will let us mimic the clothing of the villagers we've seen before, and anyone else we meet as well.

Lina's weapons become +1, as does her armor

Lina had been previously. You'd stated you wanted to ride out to the wall on your mount while you had time to do so. That being said, getting recharged in your new armor and weapons might be required! It wouldn't be a bad idea to get horses either, maybe... though we'd really want to cleanse them. That is... if we want to utilize the roads in all of this. Not using roads takes longer, and looks very suspicious to anyone on the road that -does- spot you.

[ooc]If we can buy or steal horses on the other side, they'll be the local sort of horses, and look a lot less suspicious than if we brought some with us. We can stick to roads, but if we see anyone coming before they see us that lets us choose how they see us.

Everyone, btw, get a Sleeves of Many Garments if you wanted one or are worried about being conspicuous, they're practically free.

Luna could also make 4 extracts of disguise self that would last 40 minutes each but that would be all of her level one spells

I would imagine that we'd need disguises enough that we may as well just use the sleeves. Although those who have been seen before might want hoods or something. Any potions of disguise could probably be drunk later if people think they need them.

I would also suggest that Johnny could summon some mounts, but it'd most likely be pretty bad if they were to suddenly disappear with villagers nearby. And they'd only last about 2 hours.

Also, not using roads only looks suspicious if you can't convince them that you're lost. Or if you don't look like hunters.

Johnny walks through the wall as well, already wearing his silken robe and armor with his sword strapped to his back. Once on the other side, he starts helping Neri look for mithral shards. As he does so, he wills his clothes to look like a masculine version of Arna's, figuring she's a local, and that's the closest he's going to get to blending in.

Is it possible to use the sleeves to hide our armor? I'm thinking by wearing the armor "under" our clothes.

Looking around outside the wall, there is no staff, and only a few very tiny pieces of mithral, none any bigger than half a pinky fingernail.

No, sleeves only work on clothing, not armor

Lina will gather the shards near the wall in a pouch—they may still function as small coin where we're going.

If you wear armor under real clothes, the whole "tunic" thing might suffice. None of us have real armor, just metallic sashes or leather padding, bulky clothing could cover things—but we can also summon our weapons and armor at will, so it's not a huge issue.

Since Lina can't easily hide her bow, she'll turn her police uniform into a heavy tunic and traveler's cloak to wear over her fancy silk robes, strap a quiver to her back, and do her best to look like an extra from that Robin Hood movie she saw on TV one time.

"Neri—if you don't think this is enough Mithral, can you take us to the town, and scout ahead to make sure there's nobody there?"

Can we ... filter it somehow? Liisa thinks back as she looks up at the wall in wonder. It looked sorta like an Aurora Boralis they had back home sometimes, but so much closer. And - strangely tangible.

"Woah. Shiny!"

She takes a long moment to merely absorb the sight and observe the others pass trough - and to give Selvania time to reply, if she wanted and could. In the meanwhile, she loosened her armour enough for Fluffy to slip in. By the sounds of it, trying to bring anything trough the wall without the armours protection would be messy and she didn't want her first real ever pet explode. That would set a sorta bad precedent...

"That's no where near the full thing." Neri shook his head. "But at least now we know the church isn't as afraid of the wall as all of the folks in the town." he sighs and shakes his head. "That, or the staff was just valuable enough for them to risk their lives to recollect it." He shrugs a little. "I don't know how his magic works, but I think he'll need at least most of the armor to reform it, so both things are moot." he falls off into silence, obviously disappointed.

"Hmm. Just a thought, could we not use the pieces we have to track the rest somehow...?"

I'm a bit fuzzy on your tracking thingy Lina, but doesn't it work somewhat like that =)?

At the very least, it could be useful once we get scrying!

"Or the staff found its way back to its creator," Lina adds. "Or it evaporated. Or there were other servants of his religion, hiding in that church, who followed when you fled."

"And thank you, Liisa—I hadn't thought of that. If the priest is gone entirely, it wouldn't work, but his body..."

Lina lifts the bag of shards up to her face, stares at it, and breathes deeply, focusing. One MP spent. Lina now knows whether the priest is still dead. If he's alive, she knows his general direction and distance. She also knows whether his body is destroyed, undead, or mostly intact, and if his body wasn't completely blasted apart/disintegrated she knows in what direction and distance the largest piece has been brought or buried.

Dead, 123 miles ENE

"They took him northeast of him, a hundred miles or so. Towards the capital, most likely, though I don't know if we ever found out its distance."

"I can keep that link. But I'm guessing we'll want to stay away from the capital, for a while at least. To Demonreach, then?"

"Sure. It's better than anything else we have." Neri nods. "Do we have a way to hide my armor, to make sure the church doesn't steal and break it? Or would one of you like to wear it?" he offers. "I can't really use it exceptionally well."

"Wait. If you can tell where they are based on just picking up one of their belongings... that means the opposite is probably true... good to know." Neri frowns. "So they likely could know where people from Demonreach disappeared to. Can you use that on a body to find out where their belongings are?"

It's just a breastplate, right? And I've been assuming we brought decent sized packs, so

"Does it roll up, or bend at all? You're a pretty small guy, and your armor's sized accordingly... we can probably curl the edges, stuff it into one of our traveling bags, and keep a bedroll or two inside of it so it doesn't get too bent out of shape. If that doesn't work, I'll wear it; it would only slow me down a little. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can figure out how to use magic to craft a proper Mary Poppins bag."

"And no. I can only track creatures that are living, or were once-living, and I need an object with the faintest hint of their scent on it to start the link, but not maintain it. If Demonreach is still abandoned, but there are sheets or pots or furniture or clothing left behind in the houses, then yes, I can track the people. Just... only if it's still abandoned, or else we'd look silly."

"Or we let Luna do what -she- is probably significantly better than me at and let her snatch up things we knew belonged to other people. I kind of hope it's not abandoned, though. There's always the chance they didn't kill -everyone-." Neri frowns, but shrugs as he slips out of the armor. "Anything we do with it is fine so long as they don't get it. I get the feeling that's a great way for things to end badly." he nods for a moment. "Actually, if you have my map, we can check and see if there are any caves nearby to stash things in that we don't want to take through."

If there is anything, that's a simple enough option, though not perfect.

"We're on the other side of the wall. If you think there's even a chance they collected most of the armor fragments... maybe they have some way to detect all magical armor. It would be better to hold onto it, if we can. Remember, paranoia could save us a lot of trouble later."

"And... if the village isn't abandoned, sending in a disguised or invisible Luna could be the best plan. If it is, though, there's no reason we shouldn't all search the place."

I'm a little taller than Neri, and a few dozen pounds heavier, and I just measured—a breastplate fitted to my torso would be just too small to fit into the backpack I bring to work, but with a big pack and a small breastplate there should be no problem.

"How active to you think these 'gods' are? If they're like us, maybe they still lurk about, in which case they'd probably know that we/the wall aren't really as dangerous as perhaps they say we/it... are/is. And maybe I should have thought that sentence out better before saying it. But anyway, my point is, they could've ordered people to come pick the stuff up anyway."

Johnny stands up from where he had been examining the ground for metal shards, brushing off his hands as he does so. "But anyway, let's go ahead and check out this village. I'm not the sneakiest of people, but I have some skill for it; you don't exactly want to be loud when you're breaking in somewhere to plant some bugs after-" He trails off, suddenly remembering that one of his companions is a former cop. "Because, y'know, then it's not a real test of their security system'n' all."

He hurridly claps his hands in a 'it's decided' gesture. "Anyway, off we are to the village. We can decide what to do once we see if it's abandoned or not. Not much point standing around jibber jabbing about what to do when we don't even know that much." He decisively starts off directly away from the wall but stops after a few yards, aware that he doesn't actually know where the village is.

If someone plans to scout ahead then if they want it, Johnny can make it so that they can see through plant matter as though it were transparent for 1 hour. Although the actual tree trunks will still block sight.

I guess it is now or never then... Liisa takes a deep breath to steel herself, then steps trough the wall.

"Well, if we can be powered by strange gems in a cavern - surely they could have something similar. But they would need some source of 'Elder Souls' ... Do you think there are others like us recruited for the other side? That would be weird ..."

Off to the village then . )

"Yeah, I think they probably do, Lees. Or they just keep bloodlines pruned enough to maybe keep fit soldiers in the bloodlines who can use the powers, maybe? As we can see... families appear predisposed towards specific abilities."

"I'm not sure 'families' here work the way we're used to... or 'bloodlines', or 'birth', or... genetics, even."

Lina discusses marching order with the others, coordinating disguises as much as people want to.

"Alright, Neri, Luna—you're the only ones who actually know how to get to Demonreach. We'll need to keep an eye out for road signs, too; any soldiers are likely to march along the road from Demonguard, which might very well be between us and... I don't know, Demonwatch might be a decent next destination if we can't find anything better."

Neri adopted the apparent appearance of a hunter, as he spoke, "If we stay on the other side of the road, and people notice us, it's simple enough to say that we didn't want to be too close to the wall."

Neri shrugged slightly, and slipped forward quietly, sticking to the treeline where possible, and crossing to the other side of the road once they reached it, then following it towards town.

For use when first applicable:
stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Luna followed behind Neri. "Should we have our weapons out in case?"

Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28
Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Ironically, that should have been a +9 perception, giving Luna and I matching rolls.

"Sure, but best not to summon them if we don't need to. The gear from the gems may give us away." he says quietly. "It's all of exceptional quality, after all."

"Odd, they fear the church but were willing to put up barriers against them instead of coming with us.

"Yeah. The town... didn't really make any sense. At all. We offered to take them behind the wall, to protect them... Or maybe get them out of here... but they'd rather just die here. Mahb was wrong to say they wouldn't follow us because we were afraid... but I can't really speak for why they didn't at all... I can't help but think it's because some of them died..." He sighs and moves into the town, slinking about near the edges thereof. "Think this was magic that blew stuff up? Neri asked as he examined one of the craters, trying to ignore the smell.

Can luna make a alchemy check here to see if they used any explosives nonmagic?

Alchemy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

If she knows it was nonmagic: "No at least not entirely, they used something explosive but that won't mean much since we know magical explosions are entirely possible and they will likely have more magic than us."

If she thinks it was magic: "Looks like, probably showing off to scare the town if they are organized it wouldn't take them more than a few minutes to just set the barrier on fire and trap the villages if they really wanted them dead."

Johnny somewhat reluctantly dismisses his sword. Hopefully I'll successfully be able to get that back if it's needed. On the bright side, most of my skills don't really need it.

While he's waiting for Luna and Neri to get done with their scouting, he casts Message on the remainder of his companions and walks to the other side of the road where he finds a tree a short way off the path to lean against. He attempts to appear casual as he keeps a lookout for anybody approaching on the road, casting Detect Magic every once in a while in case someone sneaky with magical items approaches. Or someone invisible.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15 +1 if it's an opposed check

Non-Magical explosions Slammed, post tonight

"If all of this is alchemy... this is a lot of money, yeah? A very large amount thrown away to rip up this place... I think they expected us to still be here." Neri frowned, guilt showing on his face for a moment, before he forced himself to passive once more. "I guess we move forward." He says as he presses further in, keeping quiet.

Looks like 3 or 4 bombs went off, not that much alchemy required.

See map above

As the two move into the village, they can see where defensive positions were set up. There's also black dirt scattered everywhere, no doubt blood soaked and dried.

There are a dozen wooden poles set up in the center of the village, each with a dead and rotting body pinned to it. Mostly adults, but one child, age indeterminate, but likely early teens or late preteens, also hangs on the poles. Each body is about 6 ft off the ground.

Neri growled beneathe his breath as he whispered the words that allowed him to see magic. His irises flashed crimson as he waited, turning in a slow circle to see if there was any magic nearby... there were probably some curse words mixed in as well.