"I don't understand it," Matthias said, more to himself than anything. "Why didn't it attack us? What interest does it have in our well-being? And with such an interest, why didn't it speak more plainly?" He helped Hezar stand on his own feet as the ranger began to respond again.
"Always more questions than answers," he sighed, looking back into the foreboding gullet of the tomb.
"I do not know what its interests are," Nijena said, her eyes still troubled. "It was evil, I think, so I would not trust it. But some evil... it... will follow a code, or a structure. There is something of a twisted sense of... honor to some evil beings. I suspect this was one. Or it is possible that it merely sees our enemy as a threat to itself, and thus would have us succeed - or at least succeed enough to weaken the threat."
She shook her head, and shrugged. There is little that we can do about it now. If there is strength for us to gain here by what we may find amongst the less fortunate dead, let us take it, if for no other reason, than to deny it to a force of evil."
Davin stared as the band began looting the dead. He understood, of course, but that didn't make it any easier to watch.
"I was primarily hired as muscle, so I can't tell you their purpose for being here or what they were after. I don't believe they were expecting a mind flayer, though."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"'Mind flayer?' Is that what that was? I have never heard of such a thing. Do you know if the fallen have preferred funerary rites? Perhaps we can take them from here and put their souls to rest."
The big half-orc gets out a rag greasy with imedded oil to clean his sword while Hezar looks for useful items in the corpses' gear. "It could've just been trying to make us distrustful of each other for it's own entertainment." He shrugs. "But I could see even mind flayers hating demons as much as we do. So who knows? It could've been telling the truth."
Well that went well
After dragging the corpse to the entrance, Janiries shoves her rapier into the drow's chest before addressing the group.
"Don't touch."
She then gets to work disabling the traps on the floor, to enable the party to check the corpses found on the trap.
After she's done that, Janiries would return to the Drow she slew, carefully checking the corpse over for anything interesting. Once she's assured that she's got everything she can from the Drow, she'd motion over to Kevkas.
"Mind giving me a hand with this scum? We can use it to warn people away from the area."
Hezar will loot the other bodies before leaving gthe room and take a look around for anything else, also on the former companions bodies
Devin's companions were fairly well-equipped - mostly with masterwork weapons and armour.
Two pouches of coins are also found, totaling 51 gp, 12 sp.
@ Janiries - the DC for disabling the traps so you can examine the crushed bodies is 20. You should be of sufficient skill to take 10 on the check and still succeed.
The equipment on the crushed bodies is generally also mangled and unusuable; however, a few items of note are found. A coinpurse with 65 gp and two small amethysts are found; as is a most interesting silver and bronze ring.
Perception DC 22:
Davin picked up the flail and studied it for a moment.
"Hey, any of you guys know how to sense magic? This looks important."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Kevkas goes over to Davin and looks at the flail. "Just a second."
Matthias, seeing that Kevkas had the magic-finding in hand, went back into the tomb to say a hurried prayer over the remains of the humans.
When he returned, he went to examine the ring they had found.
After the distasteful looting is complete Hezar approaches Davin,
I am Hezar. You? after reply What brought you to these tunnels? Where are you headed now?
"I'm a sellsword," Davin said, expecting the usual judgment. "But I'm very selective about my clients. I only work for people I trust or who were vouched for by people I trust."
"I was brought here by someone I trust named Dawn. She was unclear about the specifics of this job. And I didn't know the other men she brought."
Davin sighed then.
"For anyone else I would have balked. But I trusted her more than most. And then we were ambushed. Despite what that creature hinted, I assure you were given no warning."
Davin paused for a moment, and looked miserable.
"I failed them."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Care to travel with us for a while? We are hunting some murderers, and our friend Belgrin has taken off, care to take his place?
Looking up from the Drow's corpse that she's checking, Janiries replies to Davin.
"Well, we're all following Baron Matthias over there. I'm sure we can pay you if you choose to work for us. Or you could travel with us back to the nearest city, after we deal with the murderers Hezar mentioned."
The ring is a ring of spell knowledge I
The flail is a +1 Courageous flail
I had forgotten about the scimitar, medallion and scroll! Anyone want to take a crack at them?
@ Janiries - the Drow is not particularily well-equipped, wearing only rags. Scrawny and emaciated, it had likely been a slave of the Mind Flayer for some time.
"Baron Matthias? I know of no such house."
But then he sighed.
"It doesn't matter. You've saved my life when it would have been easier to abandon me. I am in your debt."
Matthias looked up at the mention of his name - and his new title. "Don't mind the Baroness, we're all Barons here," he said with a grin. "Of Talonhawke, if that matters. I don't think you owe us anything, but if you want to join the herd of cats, even if it's only until we reach the next town, you're very welcome - we could use a little luck! Maybe Tymora will smile on us with you among us." He came over to clasp Davin's arm. "My friends are Hezar, whom you've met, and Janiries, Miss Osuki, and Kevkas. Can we have your name?"
Davin chuckled awkwardly.
"I suppose I did forget to introduce myself properly."
He tilted his head as if he were bowing.
"Davin Greyhill. At your service, milord."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Kevkas laughs. "I like that. 'Milord.'" He shakes his head and points at the flail. [b]"I think this flail will make you braver." The big half-orc grins. "Not something I need." He gestures at the scimitar. "Let me take a look at that."
Matthias only smiled at the title. "Well met, saer Greyhill." He offered Davin his arm to clasp again, then looked around. "I don't suppose there's any point in checking the rest of the tombs, if that creature is guarding all of them? Though maybe checking the entrances might prove fruitful. Hezar, can you find any tracks at all that look like they belong to our targets? Otherwise I think we should move on, keep hunting."
"Before you decide if you'll be heading out with us, I think I should tell you we're looking for a pack of nasty customers," he explained to Davin. "Demon worshippers... among other things."
. Survival add two to track humans
Hezar nods and begins to look for tracks
Davin frowned when he heard about the Demon cult.
"I had to root out a cult of devil worshippers, when I was a guardsman in Athkatla. Messy business that."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"If we're done here, I'd like to stick this.." Janiries points down to the drow's corpse before continuing "..outside some place visible, so people know to avoid the area."
"I don't know if there are more Drow about. But the Mind Flayer certainly suggests this is a path to the Underdark. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand stand the poetry of propping a dark elf corpse for all to see. But I imagine a simple sign written in Common, would be substantially more effective."
-Posted with Wayfinder
The medallion is a mind sentinel medallion.
The scroll contains the 2nd level wizard spell knock (CL 3rd)
The scimitar is a +1 flaming scimitar.
Everyone is also due an xp reward of 967, including Davin, even though he wasn't around for the disarming of the trap. I BELIEVE that should take everyone to 6968 xp.... unless my calculations are wrong.
"Why not both?" Janiries shrugs.
Nijena looked over from where she'd been helping Matthias examine the magical gear they had... recovered. She slipped a ring onto her finger, blinked a few times, then frowned.
"The corpse could be used by those who we are seeking to destroy, could it not? Why would we deliberately leave a potential weapon lying out to be used by the enemy? We should bury all of the bodies, consecrate the graves as best we can, and move on - quickly."
"Before we go, however," Nijena said, giving Davin an appraising gaze, "You appear to still be hurt, saer Greyhill. Would you submit to my healing fire?"
"Healing what?" Davin then looked around him to see that none of the group around him were at all shocked. So he shrugged.
"Uh, sure."
"Healing what?" Davin then looked around him to see that none of the group around him were at all shocked. So he shrugged.
"Uh, sure."
Nijena nodded, and gave the man a slight smile, even as her eyes flashed with silver-green fire, brighter even than when she had tapped into the Weave, for this power came from within her, and carried with it the touch of the Heavenly blood passed to her from her ancestors.
Almost instantly, her hand blazed with the same green-and-silver flame. Before Davin even had time to suck in a breath, she leveled her open palm at him, sending the fire leaping across the intervening distance. It surrounded the sellsword from head to foot, swirling like a silent inferno, despite there being no wind.
In a moment, the flames were gone, flickering out of existence with one last, windless swirl of the hair on Davin's head. His wounds, while not completely healed, looked much improved.
Nijena, as the fire in her eyes flickered out, leaving them the original, dark jade, gave the man a much larger smile.
"It healed him. He is no friend of evil," she informed the others. Then she gave Davin a nod.
The blast of divine energy surprised Davin, and nearly knocked him off his feet. It engulfed him and for a moment he felt the warm caress of magic through every facet of him.
He opened his, and took a ragged breath.
"It healed him. He is no friend of evil," she informed the others. Then she gave Davin a nod.
He blinked for several moments. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he closed it with an audible snap.
"I -- I think I need to sit down for a minute."
Kevkas looks up from the enchanted items at the blaze of light from Nijena's healing fire. He smirks at Davin. "At least it didn't burn you. She tried that on me once. I'm pretty sure I still have the burn scar."
He stands up and nods at Nijena. "Whatever we do, 'quickly' is the operative word. I doubt that squid-face is going to give us more than a second of the agree on time before coming back and blooping us all into idiots again."
"It didn't burn you," Nijena sniffed at Kevkas. It only burns evil. If you hadn't screamed and jumped like a scared rabbit, you wouldn't have fallen into the campfire and dumped the stewpot on yourself. Don't blame my holy fire for something you did to yourself."
The tone of her words may have been a bit acidic, but the smile on Nijena's face indicated that this was not a new argument.
Kevkas laughs and grins at Nijena. "Hey, you tried the fire trick on me and I got burned. The way I tell the story is better."
Davin sobered at Kevkas' reminder that they were still in danger.
"I don't think we'll have time to bury the dead. But perhaps a pyre? It isn't much, but better to be put to flame than to be brought back as an abomination."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Janiries looked to respond to Nijena's comment, before being rather taken aback by the Kara-Turian seemingly throwing fire at the newcomer, to the point of grabbing the hand crossbow from the small of her back.
However, as she saw the newcomer emerge from the fire unharmed, even improved, she returned her hand crossbow to it's holster, hoping that the joking banter between Nijena and Kevkas would provide ample distraction for her to do so.
Once the conversation turned back to the corpses, Janiries finally spoke up.
"Lassathor has brought the dead back from even the pyre, so that alone won't help matters. If consecrating the remains would help, we should do that. Though don't expect me to like this thing.." Janiries looks down once again at the emaciated, ragged corpse of the drow. "..getting such a holy blessing."
@ Hezar: There are definitely tracks all over the site - some human, some not - but aside from fresh tracks that (upon examination) turn out to be from Davin's group, no new tracks appear on the ground in this area.
Hezar leads the party through the woods to the mound
Matthias, who had been startled out of his contemplation by Nijena's strange display of power, finally spoke up. "I'm afraid I've only asked Helm for the ability to consecrate a single body, rather than an area. But if that... thing in there is evil, it likely wouldn't remain consecrated for long in any case." He looked about the gloomy area and shook his head. "Even if I did consecrate this place, it would only last a few hours. Unless one of you has the ability to do better, I think the dead are better off with the pyre."
Very well, then; the bodies of the dead are placed upon a pyre. The brooding atmosphere of the woods warns against the felling of living wood, so much time is spent gathering the dead and fallen to provide sufficient fuel. The woods around you go silent - utterly so - as the fire is started and a pillar of smoke rises into the air.
Your trip to the elven mound, though only just over half a mile, seems to take forever. The trees almost seem to close up in front of you; sign you had passed minutes before appears before you again.
Nature DC 20:
Perception DC 20:
As the group traveled through the oppressive woods, Nijena's sharp eyes scanned the treeline.
"We're being followed," she said, quietly. "I cannot quite make out the shapes - some humanoid, some... not - but they are pacing us through the trees."
Proving herself useless once again in the woodlands, Janiries is able to spot that there are trees in this forest. Looking up from her naval-gazing, the sun-elf responds quietly to Nijena's comment.
"Can't see anything. You sure there's something out there?"