Aubrey's Eberron campaign. (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

They might have appreciated that. "Jalana. She was cool. You got a problem with that?"

I think its LB who’s going to knock it out of the park. When he wants to, Mothman can be quite eloquent.

Who’s going to speak for Basher? “Jalana bash!”

I think its LB who’s going to knock it out of the park. When he wants to, Mothman can be quite eloquent.

Yeah, shame he doesn't bother most of the time.

Who’s going to speak for Basher? “Jalana bash!”

I had assumed only PCs would be here, though if someone wants to speak for Basher they can feel free.

I'm really disappointed with my roll, but I didn't have the words, anyway, so it's probably appropriate that Gil didn't nail it.

I think its LB who’s going to knock it out of the park. When he wants to, Mothman can be quite eloquent.

Yeah, no pressure or anything... ;D

Rod steps up...
"Jalana, I didn't know her very long, or as well as some of the folks here assembled. But I miss her.
I think all our hearts died a little bit that day along with her.
Each of us has something they bring to our little crew.
Runzyl brings a nigh undefeatable blade in his hands, along with a nigh undefeatable spirit.
Janosz can shoot an arrow through both of a bluejay's eyes from 200 yards away. He makes arrows appear in the breasts of our foe like a prestidigitator pulling coins out of ears.
But what Jalana brought was a magical music. When she played, or sang, a nightingale in the midst of a hurricane, she made each of us stronger. It was a magic she and she alone had, to amplify us, and make us all greater then the sum of us.
That's gone now, but it lives in our memories, and in our hearts.
She died once in that battle almost, at the front of it with Runzyl, cut down by that villain Galadaes. Her song made me good enough to bring her back from the verge. Runzyl good enough to send that wretch back to a rightful sleep.
But that witch stole her from us at the end. That lich hag stole our music. And for that she shall pay.
Because Jalana has shown us all the way.
She's still here in our hearts, calling that tune we dance to.
She is the singer of our Ghost Song.

1d20 ⇒ 10 +14=24
I know that we shall see this thing put right."

One of the audience claps at Rodergo's words and the Keepers look on approvingly.

Rodergo totters away; looks at LB....the swell and warm feeling in his gut he usually feels after a good preachon is utterly absent, replaced as if by cold sharp grinding stones from a dragon's gizzard.

I had assumed only PCs would be here, though if someone wants to speak for Basher they can feel free.

Have you taken a look at his Charisma score? He’s got a personality just barely better than a toaster.

Lightbringer waits patiently and quietly whilst his companions speak. When all are done, he steps forward, and spends a moment merely looking at his audience, taking their measure, collecting his thoughts. Then he begins to speak.

“Jalana was a true Valenar. Her skill with blade and bow was great, and her courage greater. In our time as comrades we faced dragons, devils, vampires, ancient horrors from the Age of Giants, and fell and evil spirits; she did not waver. She fought every battle with skill, grace, courage and honour. But these things were not her greatest strength.

“My comrade Runzyl had long shown me that the Valenar are true and courageous warriors, but Jalana showed me the beauty of the elven people. It is ironic that we, her friends, stand her struggling to find the right words to do her life and deeds justice, for words, the power of beautiful expression came so easily to her. Her words, her voice, her songs were not only beautiful, but they spoke of the courage and strength of the Valenor people, and they filled us with that same courage and strength. Her words, her songs, enabled us to face and defeat foes that we otherwise could not. But neither were her words her greatest strength.

“I believe that we are all filled with a spirit, an inner strength, a companion to the soul. Some call this the grace of the gods, the spirit of the ancestors, the Silver Flame. Call it what you will, it burns brightly in the best of us, and it was fierce in Jalana. It was this strength of spirit, this devotion that led her to help her friend Runzyl in his time of need. Travel with him across continents, face the horrors she faced … and at the last, to stand by his side against his greatest foe, to help him, lend him her strength, though it might lead to her own death. That was her greatest strength, and it is in that that she lives on in all of us. We will remember.”

The warforged bows his head in respect and steps back to his place amongst the group.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21 + Action point, best of 1d6 ⇒ 4 or 1d6 ⇒ 3

Sir Rolund ir'Kraal wrote:

I think its LB who’s going to knock it out of the park. When he wants to, Mothman can be quite eloquent.

Yeah, shame he doesn't bother most of the time.

true dat

Ezreal clears his throat and says, "Jalana died defying Erandis d'Vol, the Queen of the Dead and last scion of House Vol of the general she sought to reclaim by obliterating the soul of Runzyl Steelsong. Her fearless defiance was a true testament to your people and helped to hold in check an evil your ancestors first destroyed so many centuries ago. I can't claim to have known her well, but I respected her skill with a blade and her copious knowledge of your history through song. May she join your ancestors proudly."

Privately he couldn't help thinking her spirit would not be resting at all and is worried about what happens now. The crone did not kill her out of spite. She said she was claiming a new champion and thought Jalana had the mettle she was looking for. Wherever Jalana's soul was, it was not riding off into the sunset with her ancestors and Ezreal couldn't help keeping all of his worry and uncertainty about this out of his comments.

1d20 ⇒ 9

The Keepers smile at Lightbringer's oratory. Surprised that a warforged could speak with both passion and eloquence, the watching Valenar pause before applauding warmly. Ezreal would have trouble following that anyway, as well the handicap of wearing a uniform of the Karrnathi military, and his rather cursory speech draws more scowls than any other reaction.

The Keeper running proceeding gives Ezreal a cool look before addressing the group as a whole. "You have spoken of her deeds, and in this place they will be remembered eternally. We will now take her mortal shell to place outside the city where its elements can return to nature. May Jalana take her place with the ancestors, and may her deeds be remembered in song and action for ever more."

The Keepers of the Past gently lift Jalana's body from the stones and move it to a nearby hut to prepare it for transportation. The onlookers begin to drift away.

500 xp each. Anything else you want to say or do?

Jalana’s equipment. What's to be done with it?

After the ceremony, Janosz wanders off to get some more tattos.

I still want to visit the deathless loremaster and give him an update. Beyond that, I can't think of anything else to do here.

Jalana’s equipment. What's to be done with it?

Unless you state you want it, the Keepers will sell it for temple funds.

After the ceremony, Janosz wanders off to get some more tattos.

Janosz struggles for about an hour to find a tattoo parlour in the city. It appears the Valenar do not ink their skins in the same way that Westerners do, and responses to his queries run the gamut from bafflement to revulsion.

And you don't speak Elvish.

Everyone else want to go and see the dead guy?

Unless you state you want it, the Keepers will sell it for temple funds.

I know I don’t want it but I certainly don’t want the temple to sell it unless it’s paying for the cost of her funeral. Perhaps we can hold on to it to return it to Caerlyn once we get to Sharn, so he may find a worthy successor to use it.

Everyone else want to go and see the dead guy?

Yes, let's go.

Sounds like a plan......go see the dead guy.

I'll want to buy some scrolls as well, but loremaster first.

Aubrey the Demented/Malformed wrote:

Unless you state you want it, the Keepers will sell it for temple funds.

I know I don’t want it but I certainly don’t want the temple to sell it unless it’s paying for the cost of her funeral. Perhaps we can hold on to it to return it to Caerlyn once we get to Sharn, so he may find a worthy successor to use it.

Runzyl would request her double scimitar, but nothing else. He intends to give it to Caerlyn that he may pass it on to another worthy warrior.

I wish I'd remembered my action points. Oh, well.

Gil stays quiet, following the others. If they split up, she will accompany Rolund.

The Keepers surrender Jalana's scimitar to Runzyl, and the group moves off in search of the deathless they spoke to before.

They arrive outside Joraeyel's house and proceed through the overgrown gardens. The door is opened by the same Aerenal woman, Joraeyel's "daughter", who regards the party wordlessly and without visible emotion.

Janosz gives the weird elf a nervous look. "Ah, we have returned from the Grey Cairns. We thought, uh, since your father has something of an interest in that place, perhaps he had a few questions for us."

Her large blue eyes glitter oddly as she turns her blank gaze on the Shadow Marcher. "I see. Come."

She leads the party through the dark mansion until they reach the library in which they previously met Joraeyel. He still sits, propped up in a chair at his desk, and it is hard to tell if he has actually moved at all since the last visit.

"Father," the elven woman calls to him, "You have visitors again."

With a rustle like parchment being unrolled, the deathless painfully turns his head and his dessicated lips pull back from the broken stubs of his teeth.

"Who...?" he rasps, "Who...?"

"Um, ah, good morning, professor! Do you remember us? We were here a few weeks ago, asking about the Grey Cairns. Well, we just returned from there and thought perhaps you would have an interest in what we did, who we met, what it looks like, that sort of thing."

"The Grey Cairns?" He swivels eyes like sunbaked raisins in Janosz's direction. "I was there. I was there when they laid Galadaes low."

"We just did it again.....he came back...then the Lich Queen took Jalana. Killed her in Runzyl's stead."

"You cannot go to the Grey Cairns, it is forbidden. Who is Jalana?"

"Galades is dead. We killed his ghost and scrubbed his memory from the cairn stones."

"Jalana was our compatriot....a valenar woman. A battlesinger.
We went. Did battle with Galadaes. It is done."

"Ah, so Galadaes is dead."

Pause.

"I was there."

"How do you mean? We did not see you..."

pleased to meet you, won't you guess my name...but what's puzzlin you is tha....nature of my game...

Janosz steps back and walks over to the female elf. "Bad day, or is he always like this?", he whispers.

The elf woman gazes at Janosz and, though her face and voice is devoid of emotion, the reproach is clear. "Father has experienced centuries of existence in the same way you would live through individual weeks. Can you remember all that has passed in each them, even in the most recent? He studies the Prophecy and dreams of ancient times. If you do not ask of him the right question, you will not get the answer you seek."

"Yes, ma'am." Janosz walks back to the undead loremaster. "At Galades' death, there was a dragon, right? Do you remember its name or colour?"

"Ah, the scions of the Emerald Claw, both he and the half-breed witch. Brother to Vol and her implacable nemesis. Jade his colour, of the deepest green. Calastrilix his name."

"We spoke to that dragon...." to both the daughter and the corpse; "he made Rolund reveal his dragon mark. Said it was the Gaorhaxithreza.
We wonder what this bodes for Eberron amongst other things.
Since the Professor was there mayhaps he knows..."

To everybody; "what is to be done with Runzyl's blade? Falla Caesenri? "

"Calastrilix still lives?" Joraeyel appeared vaguely animated at this news. "I wondered. After the battle he disappeared, and little was known of what became of him. Some said he had passed on but I thought his will too fierce for that, while the witch Vol remained abroad.

"The Gaorhaxithreza? That surely cannot be. That sequence of the Prophecy faded when the giants defeated the quori incursion. I have read ancient tomes in places of which it is best not to speak which refer to it, but they all stated that it had disappeared in the wake of the fall of the Giant Empires. The crushing of the invasion from Dal Quor saw to that."

"He looked plenty alive to me......flame but he was huge.
Yeah; he seemed pretty surprised that the Gaorhaxithreza was manifesting in modern times. He told us what it was, otherwise, we wouldn't know...
He's been watching over those cairns a while. Asked us what we wanted up there. Think he was kinda bored.....we intrigued him I suppose, like a kid playing with ants.
So, this being the Gaorhaxithreza, well, then what the flame does that mean? Quori coming back?"

"Not only is the dragon still alive, it dwells in the Grey Cairns. We spoke with it at some length. But now that Galades is finally destroyed, perhaps it will move somewhere else?"

Rolund frowns at the new turn the discussion has taken. His aberrant mark was his secret and shame not to be shared lightly with a stranger. He mentally curses the Purified and his loose tongue.

“Tell me, ancient one. The dragon spoke that the mark could not be removed short of death. Did it speak falsely?”

Gil stands alongside her countryman, looking at him appraisingly as his secret is shared by someone else before turning to listen to the conversation closely.

Lightbringer is silent for the moment, not comfortable around this ancient elf who seems so much like one of the undead.

"What Calastrilix may do is unknown to me, but he was always active in the world before his disappearance. Perhaps this presages a new period of activity.

"But the Gaorhaxithreza? Such a return of a sequence in the Draconic Prophecy is unprecedented to my knowledge. If it is true, then it may be an indication of a new time of upheavals in the world at large. But I must consult more if I am to be sure. As to whether a mark can be removed, I have never heard of such a thing. Why would one wish to remove such a thing when it would prove so fascinating to study? May I see it?"

“Because this mark is death!” Rolund shouts as he steps menacingly forward. “And it has brought nothing but sorrow to my family and me.”

Rolund hastily opens his uniform shirt in irritation and reveals his mark which has further spread since the last time he revealed it at the Grey Cairns. Defiantly, “If you want to study it, take it.”

bumpumpum!!!