Gii raises an eyebrow at Paul's statement. "It would be nice if you were a touch more patient, friend," he replies in a tone that is just the slightest bit frustrated. "But more importantly, what have you discovered?"
Gii raises an eyebrow at Paul's statement. "It would be nice if you were a touch more patient, friend," he replies in a tone that is just the slightest bit frustrated.
Paul turns a look at the doctor.
"I ain't keen on being patient," he says slowly.
He pulls out a smoke and lights it, clearly a little agitated himself.
He looks at Gii squarely.
"Look, I ain't trying to be an ass, but we got a contract with Mister Dalviss - we got a thing to do and I don't know what to do to get all this stuff done."
"If I talk, folk say I talk too much. If I ask folk what they want to do, they don't say much. And if I do stuff and let folks sit back and do what it is that they want to do, most of them don't want to come along but they seem pissed that they don't got nothing to do when they stay behind."
"Which reminds me - "
He tuns to Ayreth and Linndell.
"Thanks for your help; I mean it," he says with a sincere nod to each of them, than glances back to Gii.
"But more importantly, what have you discovered?"
Paul blows a frustrated stream of smoke.
"Nothing worth all the fuss, I reckon," he mutters, shaking his head.
"The priestess ain't got no full wands to sell; the dwarf won't do a deal; the four basterds upstairs were acting innocent so no news there; the halfling's got stuff going on, but because I'm no expert on medicine I ain't sure if it's her having trouble like the lass we picked up, or if it's just that she ain't sleeping good."
He looks at Gii with a look of defeat on his face.
"So the point is that all the shopping, talking, tracking and looking in on folk didn't do much of nothing at all."
"Oh well, bad luck."
He sighs and shakes his head, taking another draw of the smoke.
"So all that said; what exactly is the plan now?" he asks the group.
There is indeed something wrong with the halfling. She has tics and twitches. She also looks like she hasn't slept in a while. There is something clearly affecting her....unless she is....you know..."touched"....if you know what I am saying. with the last comment Linndell makes a motion with his index finger pointing towards his head and twirling it in a circle.
But there is definitly something afflicting her.
Bart looks at Lindell, then to Paul, and then finally to Gii and Blue Heron. A rather terrifying thought occurred to him as he did. "Ya both be havin bad dreams that be leavin ya in bad moods... Be there magic that can be dat? To, maybe, a bunch of people in a town?"
Gii sighs, pondering the news. "It might be the same ailment that plagued our good friend. I would be willing to look at her," he states. The Nethian begins to rub his chin, pondering. "However, we had decided that it would be in our best interests to continue our investigation. We have the momentum, and it would be unwise to let our advantage go so easily."
Bart looks at Lindell, then to Paul, and then finally to Gii and Blue Heron. A rather terrifying thought occurred to him as he did. "Ya both be havin bad dreams that be leavin ya in bad moods... Be there magic that can be dat? To, maybe, a bunch of people in a town?"
Gii strokes his chin even more, not once considering that his poor rest might be caused by something other than frazzled nerves. He sits, speechless as he tries to recall anything that might be relevant.
Bartholomew stares intently at Gii and Blue Heron as this thought of his crosses his mind. He casts his detect magic spell, but this time he uses the trick that Gii had showed him the other day, attempting to peel back the layers of what he was seeing and observe more closely the aura's of magic around his two new friends.
Bart glances to Gii and Ayreth both and says, "Help me out will ya? Tryin ta see if it might be magic like what was botherin Leeara."
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Bart glances to Gii and Ayreth both and says, "Help me out will ya? Tryin ta see if it might be magic like what was botherin Leeara."
"Brat, are you sure you want help from Miss Scary?," Ayreth asks teasingly, starting to break out of her foul mood. She proceeds to concentrate, hoping to help the lad.
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"If you ever run into a person who’s got that kind of trouble – you know, if someone comes to you looking for an aid to poison or something – maybe you tell them to go to the priestess – she can fix them,” he says to her seriously.
Sahriah tilts her head and looks at you with curious pale-blue eyes. "I hear ya, Mister Antairis. I'll check in with Alyssia if there are people ailing in such a manner. Good day to you."
"Ahh, here we go...something to cure headaches and help people sleep. I will take 2 doses of the first and 3 of the latter. Thank you very much, Miss. You have a great day."
"And you as well, Mister Rallos. Nice to do business with ya."
Gii casts his own detect magic and beings to attempt to assist Bart in peeling back the layers of magic to see what is going on.
Blue Heron sits patiently while they examine her. The Tien woman does not believe her dreams were merely bad.
Paul watches the others cast their spells and analyze the others.
He takes another draw from his smoke as he looks at everyone, watching their study.
Flicking some of the ash of the end, he glances at Linndell.
"I speak to ye in thy birth tongue so that thy may know the truth to my words, and so that we do not distract the others from their duties - ye acted as a true friend to aid me, and I thank ye for it."
"For now our allies are doing a reading on dreams and visions... I know not how long that shall take, but I deem that the halfling seems safe for now; surely that is a good thing."
He takes another draw from the smoke but says nothing more as he watches the others.
Paul takes another drag from his smoke and stretches out his legs under the chair as he looks at the others. As he waits, he takes out his best blade and begins to sharpen it in an absent-minded way, as if he's not really focused on it, the butt end of the cheroot clenched between his teeth as he works on it.
When it is sharpened to his satisfaction he places it gently on the table, and removes his other shortsword and begins to work on it next...
Gii frowns at his findings. "This doesn't bode well," he muses, before signing. "There is not much we can do about this now," he states in a frustrated tone. "It is possible that if we continue our investigation, we might come upon a cause for this." The Nethian is clearly actively trying to be vague.
Gii frowns at his findings. "This doesn't bode well," he muses, before signing. "There is not much we can do about this now," he states in a frustrated tone. "It is possible that if we continue our investigation, we might come upon a cause for this." The Nethian is clearly actively trying to be vague.
Paul places his blade down on the table and draws his dagger and sets to work on that next as he listens.
"Seems lots of things ain't getting answered," he says as he works on the dagger.
"Maybe we ain't asking the right questions..."
He squints as he studies the blade thoughtfully, then looks up at the others.
"Don't mean to be pushy, but what exactly are we going to do now?" he says.
"Just a hunch, Doctor Gii, but can we see the orb? I wonder if it might have a link to this."
Paul glances at Ayreth and then to Gii.
He begins to hum an old Sylvan folk song as he tests the edge of the knife on the ball of his thumb, then he continues to sharpen it.
"Maybe we ain't asking the right questions..."
He squints as he studies the blade thoughtfully, then looks up at the others.
"Don't mean to be pushy, but what exactly are we going to do now?" he says.
"I would suggest we head to the mines and see if the cause of all this trouble can be found there," Gii answers.
"Just a hunch, Doctor Gii, but can we see the orb? I wonder if it might have a link to this."
The Nethian reaches into his satchel and produces the orb, handing it to Ayreth.
About the size of large marble, the sphere is 1-inch in diameter and the color of basalt, painted with tiny craters.
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After several moments of concentration, Ayreth sighs in frustration. "Thank you, Doctor. I gleaned nothing of immediate value." She indicates that he can put it away again. "So it seems that we are in agreement to pursue the lead in the Nesher Mine. Friend Dalviss, is there anything that we should know before we leave?"
"Friend Dalviss, is there anything that we should know before we leave?"
"The Nesher Brothers were in town when the supposed meteorite fell and crashed. They said they were going in search of the crash site. They were out in the hills for a few days, I believe. Some folk said they saw them return to their mines. But no one in town has seen the brothers since. The two men have disappeared."
Dalviss rubbed at his beard.
"The mines are located about 13 miles southwest of Dustpawn. The mine opening is at the base of the hill -- widened and braced with timbers. Above the entrance there is a painted sign announcing 'Nesher Mines'. You may want to take your horses and the mule. Have you enough ropes and lanterns?"
Dalviss drew a pouch from inside his long coat. He carefully took out the required coinage and handed each of you 25 gold pieces.
"Go see Jodysa at the General Store before you leave. Use the coin I gave you ... for any extra items you may need for your investigation of the mines."
Bartholomew listens to the others talk, but he can't shake the feeling that they had just missed an important clue. His eyes turn to Dalviss for a few moments and he shudders as he see's that necromantic aura a second time. As faint as it was, that sort of magic gave him the chills. And it didn't bode well for Dalviss or his companions. Something big was definitely going on in this town. "Aye, to the mines I say. We won't be needin much in the way of lights, Sir. We have plenty of means for our own. Tough rope would be good."
Bart grins, but doesn't elaborate. The man already knew a couple of them knew magic as it was. He turns to the others, ready to go.
Blue Heron gingerly rises and moves to walk the thirteen miles to the mine.
Once everyone is prepared, Gii retrieves Spark from the stables, the horse looking well-rested and content. "Let us be off, friends."
Linndell grabs his gear and heads out with his companions. Every once in a while, he crouches and examines the trail,checking for unusual signs.
You begin your travel relatively early, nearly the whole day ahead of you. You woke just an hour after sunrise, and left town nearly an hour after that. You gather your things in mostly silence, packing the necessary items in your bags, or on your mount, and exchange a few words with each other, pondering what has been revealed so far, and what left there is still to reveal. Dalviss waves as you leave, a tired but hopeful look on his face.
You follow south down the more traveled path as you had before, along the river, perhaps recalling the chance encounter with a few goblins the day before.You occasionally glance over your shoulder to see the town slowly fade in the distance, hidden in the hills beside the mountainside. After an hour or so, you turn west, with the sun warm on your back on this summer morning.
The movement is mostly flat, though as you get further to the west, the hills become a bit more defined and the scrub thinner, the ground a bit more rocky as you move deeper into the hills. Looking overhead, you see a small group of large black birds flying in a great circle far up in the sky, their bodies merely flecks of darkness in a clear blue tapestry, framed by the thinnest sliver of whispery white clouds.
Finally, just over 4 hours after you had left Dustpawn, the mine comes into sight. It is rather unimpressive, little more than widened cave opening in the base a hill with thick wooden supports. And just as Dalviss had described, it is marked with a simple sign over the opening, hand painted to state "Nesher Mines", the letters written proudly in a once vivid but now weathered red.
Entering cautiously, you see that the cave beyond is relatively shallow, extending only 15 feet underground before it ends. At the center of the cave a hole allows access to the mine proper, a wooden lift operated by a hand-cranked winch mounted on the platform used for descent into the mines below.
Bart, as he had done the day before, rode in the saddle strapped to Alar. Though the sun was still out, Alar continued to insist upon being in his shadowy form. Bart really couldn't argue either. The cold from the creatures body was comfortable in this sort of sunny weather, and the likely hood that a Starry Lion would be remembered was a great deal higher then a shadowy lion. Not to mention... they were going into a mine. Darkness would be both their allies.
As well, Bart was grateful he hadn't yet had to explain much to the group. Everyone but Ayreth seemed disinterested, or at least too focused on the task at hand to care overly much. Still, he knew the questions would come eventually, at least from her.
Upon arriving, Alar lifts his head into the air and takes a very deep breath, looking for any scent that could give an indication of what they were in store for.
Once they arrive, but before they decide to go onto the crude “lift” Paul will pause and examine it for any potential traps or other issues with it:
Also, he’d like to study the lift, using his knowledge of engineering to try to get a good read on its quality…
As Blue Heron walks to the mines she meditates trying to find the "tail" of whatever curse bedeviled her. It was intolerable that something was interfering with her quest for perfection. That it could get into her mind frightened her. She didn't like how that made her feel.
Linndell holds up his hand to halt the party.
Wait here a little bit....I will be back soon. He whispers as he sneaks towards the mine opening.
When he gets to the mine shaft, he checks for traps and for any noise from inside.
After his scouting trip, he returns to the party.
Linndell takes point, going into the cave and nearly vanishes once he is under the great many shadows within. After a search he comes back, having heard nothing and found no traps in the area.
Paul takes a second look, also inspecting the lift itself, but find no traps either, and that the lift is serviceable and of solid construction.
Gii gingerly holds his weapon after tying Spark to a nearby tree. He feats the horse some oats from his free hand, before returning to the party. "So far, so good," he says, but the Nethian still looks worried.
Before we head down, we should tie a rope to the top in case something happens to the lift. And maybe we go down 2 at a time maximum....no telling how strong that thing is.
Before we head down, we should tie a rope to the top in case something happens to the lift. And maybe we go down 2 at a time maximum....no telling how strong that thing is.
Paul looks at the lift; he glances at Linndell.
”Well, if there’s a trouble at the bottom of the shaft and we send two at a time then those two are in trouble while the rest wait above,” he says to the elf.
He looks at the lift and the shaft thoughtfully, then back to Linndell.
”You know, the lift seems pretty solid, but if you don’t trust it, why not just look at the length at the rope and gauge it; the shaft shouldn’t be deeper then the length of the rope that's used to lower it.”
He glances into the cave.
”If we want to go as a unit then stealth probably won’t matter and maybe we could just get some light… I don’t know; maybe cast a light spell on a rock and toss it down the shaft? We can gauge the depth of the shaft if we do…” he says with a shrug.
”If we want to go stealthy then maybe someone could – I don’t know – use some magic and summon a bat, send it down the shaft to check things out, and then have it come back and report before we go down below,” he says to the others, glancing at Bart specifically, at least after he mentioned the chance to summon something magically.
As he studies the rope absently, he glances back toward Linndell.
"If you're planning on going down, I'd recommend watching your step... there's been people here recently... I don't know how many there are; but they've been here in the past few days; they may be down there now," he adds.
Without a place to hide the horses, Ayreth will use the shade available.
"How many can it hold? I do not mind going down before we bring it up."
Paul moves over to the horse and takes a short length of rope and wraps it around the horse's rear legs in a kind of "figure eight" pattern, effectively hobbling it and preventing it from being able to run off no matter what it may be tied to.
As he works, he looks at her.
"I reckon you shouldn't go down first, or by yourself - if there's trouble down there you could get hurt if you go alone..." he says, then suddenly glances at the others, then back to her.
"Just saying, the way I see it is we need the healers safe if there is anything dangerous below..."
He glances at the group in general.
"If someone gives me a light, I reckon I could go take a look," he says.
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"I reckon you shouldn't go down first, or by yourself - if there's trouble down there you could get hurt if you go alone..." he says, then suddenly glances at the others, then back to her.
"Just saying, the way I see it is we need the healers safe if there is anything dangerous below..."
He glances at the group in general.
"If someone gives me a light, I reckon I could go take a look," he says.
"I am not as fragile as one might think. Unlike most, I would be able to return without the lift if there is trouble."
"I am not as fragile as one might think. Unlike most, I would be able to return without the lift if there is trouble."
Paul scratches his chin absently.
"How you going to do that?" he asks her, then he shakes his head.
"You know what? Never mind, you do what you got to do; I ain't nobody's boss here, just didn't want you - or any of the healers - on point and sneaking around alone is all."
I will go down first, that way I can scout the immediate area for any hazards. I shall tug on the rope twice, pause then three times for the all clear. If I tug on the rope more than twice....well, let's not think about that, shall we?
With that Linndell ties a section of the party's rope to the structure of the lift and lowers it slowly. He then heads down on the lift, his guard up and rapier ready.