"Cute." Boomer drolls. "Still workin' on the whole "ominous name" thing, eh? Guess we shouldn't e'spect too much from a guy who t'inks o' walkin' corpses as 'perfect'. Don' worry though, a few classes at a good bard's school an' melowdrama will start getting' a whole lot easier. Fer now ye should probably stick t' not havin' a name. That's actually scarier than callin' yerself 'Nemisis'."
Moves in front of Felisin and says in a serious tone few have heard, "I think Soris is right, we should just let them pass."
Galdor watches in alarm as the situation spirals further out of control.You say you just want to pass. What do you intend to do, once you have.
Isaac, stunned by the sudden appearance of the newcomers, finally draws his morningstar and readies a spell behind his shield. I am not willing to permit this man to pass by. Praetor...well, I disapprove of his art. Tampering with death and enslaving those who have entered it is not acceptable.
Perception
"None of you seem to get the picture. Those guys are not asking if they can pass, their telling. You leave them be and you live, you dont and you die. Bet they even use your body as a new puppet on top of that. If you cant judge your enemies abilities then your a rookie. These are not a bunch of shrimp kobolds or mindless undead. Adventurers dont get to be legends by fighting everything they come across, they get their by knowing when and how to fight. You can heed my warning or join your god in death."
Diplomacy
Isaac does not break his gaze or stance, but answers Soris I stand by what I believe. You wouldn't understand, since you don't believe in anything.
Soris shakes his head.
"Foolish priest you know exactly nothing. You live in a fantasy of lies. I for one am done talking. Make your choices, I have made mine."
He steps aside and crosses his arms. He would let them pass and stay out of any fight. He had not survived everything in his life to die in some hole in the ground.
"Ah got no beef with 'im. If ah started swingin' at everyone who's existence left a sour taste in mah mouth a lot o ye would have black eyes. Honestly, I'd call my feelin's toward 'im a lot closer t' pity than disgust or anger. Ah mean c'mon? Nemesis? Honestly? How in the hell d' we take tha' seriously? "
Stand down Isaac. The party does not want this, and I doubt we would survive this fight in any case. Your god will be better served if you survive. If you want this fight, you need to find a better time for it.
The cleric laughs heartily, and turns to Isaac. "A cleric of praetor, how quint! I would love to see the day when you fall. You should listen to your friends, because faith will only get you so far..." He carefully opens a pouch at his waist and removes a necklace. He dangles it in front of Isaac and shows him the golden eagle symbol upon it. "I was once like you, idealistic, stubborn... faithful! But it always fades with age..." Nemesis laughs and begins to walk down the hallway.
Tierce screams at the top of his lungs "How can you all stand there and let him walk away, he's a murder and a thief and he won't stop until we are all dead!!!" Tierce draws his two swords again charges the cleric and a few feet from Nemesis, the cleric holds out his hand to Tierce without looking and whispers "hold" and Tierce stops in his tracks, unmoving.
The cleric smiles to the group "Well, this has been fun. I left a bunch of nice trinkets for you all in the other room back there. Good luck with your contest!" He cackles to himself as he walks past the group down the hallway, followed by his Burning Skeleton minion. As the cleric passes Darius, he winks at him and then smiles with his fangs showing.
Isaac makes a move towards Nemesis, but stops hard when Tierce is held back. Even he knows when a battle can't be won. That man has great power. And he obviously knows much about our paths. I would follow him, but it would be futile to go alone.
Soris watches the man pass. He was weak once too and to some he still is. A wise man knows the future is a tangle of paths, more then one holds death for the strong by the formerly weak. It was all a matter of timing.
"I said it from the start. We are here for the contest, now I intend to finish. Anyone else?"
Making sure to keep himself between Nemesis and Felisin, Darius does not remove his gaze from him. When the cleric smiled at him, Darius shuddered slightly. Once Nemesis is out of sight, Darius detaches and sheaths his weapon, turns to the group and says, "I suppose explanations are an order?"
After a few minutes have passed, Tierce falls over from his interrupted charge. He looks around and snarls, he makes his way down the passage that the cleric had left down before coming back. He looks at the group and shakes his head. "I don't understand, you gave mercy to a murder..." He shakes his head again before heading off the east passage.
Tierce sees the gem and his eyes widen, he bangs his fists on the table, "I'm too late... too late..."
Our objectives can be served by following them. We have yet to find an artifact, and we can perhaps learn more about these two men we have met. I vote to continue on, following Tierce.
Felisin looks at Darius in horror "Brother?! You are one... one of them!!" she looks away shame and anger filling her heart It makes me sick to just look at him. She hears Isaac's suggestion to move on "yes we should" her voice was sad and shaken.
He looks at Darius.
"That would be nice. Don't want to find out your brother wants to make us "perfect" because we hang around you."
At the priest words he rolls his eyes. Why wont he go off and die in a crusade like every other zealot.
"Sorry but once an artifact is found I am heading back to finish the contest."
He could care less for the problems and creations of Tyrene. That one was once a priest of theirs, which meant he was their problem to deal with. Moving down the east passage he comes across the legionnare having a fit. He studies the room before touching anything.
Perception
Sense Motive
You also sense faint Divination from the book with the symbol of the hammer upon it and faint Necromancy from the book with the weird symbols upon it.
He keeps studying the objects.
Book 1
Book 2
As much as he doesn't care for Soris's attitude, Isaac does not wsh harm on any of his companions. Soris, for Praetor's sake, please be careful. Those books do not look mundane or safe. That necromancer was clearly powerful and he must have had a hand in whatever this is.
Feeling sickened in his heart at the sound of Felisin's tone, Darius follows reluctantly. Well, at least I made it six years in cross. A weak smirk crosses his face. A new record.
Seeing Tierce get upset at the broken crystal, he puts a hand on the man's shoulder and says, "I'm sorry you lost your valuable treasure, but I would advise stepping away from the table." His tone dripping with sincerity.
Have you found what we are looking for? So far, like most adventures, we seem to be having a fit of the unexpected.
Soris slams the book of necromancy shut. Taking a moment to recover.
"Well judging from what we have come across and these books. I can say that one of these is a book of prophecy. Old and somewhat magical but harmless. The other one I would say belonged to that necromancer at one time or another. It has spells and formula's, among which is "blood of madness". I would venture a guess this book is refering to that substance we found on the kobolds. That necklace he left on the table has the same symbol from the case and the potion described from the book matches. Now we know why the kobolds were acting strange."
He takes a moment to look over at Tierce. He did not know what that object was but something of that power was no joke. He picks up the necklace and pockets it along with the books.
"Good thing none of us tasted that stuff."
Tierce shackes his head slightly. "I'm afraid you are mistaken on one part, the books and the gem belong to my family, they were stolen about a month past. Before you try to kill me for a misunderstanding, I will explain...
Tierce takes a long breath before starting. My family name is Vraie, but over a thousand years ago, before the country of Tyrene formed, our last name was known as Truth. For over a millenia, the Family of Truth protected the world from dangerous knowledge and artifacts that had some tie to the Star Prison and the Age of Madness. As to what either are, I have no idea... Tierce points to the shattered gem. "That is, or was a seal on the Star Prison, and it's been broken by the cleric. I assume he's after the others. I'm not sure how many there are, but I had heard from my father in old stories that each country was given one by the gods to protect..."
Tierce sighs and then slumps down on the floor.
He wonders how they will take the statue.
"Oh so you kept a necromatic book that could create a potion that kills you and makes your dead body easy to control in undeath. Would not do something crazy like destroy it huh."
He just sighed. He needed it for the contest after that he would just chuck it into a fire. Somethings should be forgotten and destroyed, mostly to keep out of the hands of those who did not know better.
"Well your family history is nice and all. But if you dont mind, take your story to someone who could do something about it. You know those guys that took over most of the world, I am sure they would hate if someone else did the same or destroyed it."
Well, at least he is serving as a distraction. Darius thought while attempting to remain inconspicuous as possible.
Tierce shakes his head, "You can not destroy something that powerful so easily, but if you want to try, go ahead. My priority was the gem, and that is now destroyed." Tierce nods to himself solemnly. "If you will not assist me, then I believe our time together is at an end" He gathers up what remains of the gem and puts it into a pouch. He holds out his hand to Soris for the two books.
"Can you be trusted with these books a second time. They were stolen once and their secrets already gotten out."
He pulls out a vial from the kobolds stash.
"Maybe you did not try hard enough to destroy them."
Regardless he hands them over. Too powerful, right like that gem was too powerful. Didn't take that other guy much work or maybe he just had better drive.
Spellcraft
Tierce takes both the books and nods to Soris, he walks past Isaac and pats him on the shoulder. "Interesting group of friends you have..." Tierce begins to walk towards the exit of the room.
Hey! Hey! Wait up! Isaac had never felt this way before. For the first time, he felt that he was truly involved in a great adventure. This time, he was not overestimating his situation. He jogs to catch up with Tierce. You said earlier that you were on a mission given to you by Tyrene. Then, you disparaged the name of Praetor. Now, you tell us that you, or at least your name, out-dates Tyrene entirely and that you are tasked with preventing some sort of...what...age of madness? What are you getting at? Did Praetor not bring order to the world? How can there be madness?
Boomer was tired of the strangeness of the day. Whiny priests and necromancers with silly names were not what he thought he'd be getting into when he decided to enter the competition. His ears were still ringing, and he was glad for it. It helped him ignore the voices around him. He looked at the statue, shrugged and lit a cigar.
Soris taps Boomer on the shoulder.
"Any idea how we going to get this thing out of here?"
Hearing the priest speak. He bends close to Boomers ear and whispers.
I think that we have learned of horrible things today. I feel our best course of action is to finish today's mission, and then make the militia aware of what we have found today.
"Sure. We tip it onto th' middle o' a pile o yer cloaks, loop th' cloth over an' fasten it t' make a soft litter, an' we drag it."
"Think if we tell him its a holy relic he will drag it back?"
Listens to Isaac questions to Tierce. Given the events of today I'm inclined to say, no.
Tierce smiles briefly to Isaac's question. "Let me ask you this, as a cleric of Praetor, how did Praetor create the world?"
Tierce smiles again, "From your blank stare, you either don't remember or you realised that there is no such story. The unified religion of Praetor is only about 200 years old. So is the world only 200 years old? I hold a book in my hands that is much older then that." He holds up the book on prophecy to inflect his point. "So what was the world like before? No clue myself, I'm not that old. And since this book mentions the age of madness, we can then assume that it predates Praetor. As for what the age of madness is, I have no clue, why do I fight it? Well it sounds bad, and my family has been trying to prevent it for a very long time"
Tierce moves closer to the cleric and slaps him on the shoulder, "Finish your contest, you pledged yourself to it cause and you must see it through. Once the contest is over, if your interested in helping me, make your way north to the Capital city Tyr, and we can start from there" Tierce gives him one last nod before leaving.
Come to think of it, I don't believe I've ever heard one.
"There is no mention of Praetor creating the world!!!" she sighs "Goodbye Tierce"
So, perhaps, Praetor did not create the world, but rather brought it to order? If that is the case, and I cannot imagine any other reasonable explanation, we must stop that man, Nemesis, from doing his work. I will come to find you in Tyr.
He then turns back to Soris and Boomer working on moving the statue and says Come, let us return this to Cross. Surely it is the best prize that has been claimed.
He proceeds to assist them however he can to carry the statue.
Galdor helps to carry the statue out of the caves and the party works its way back to Cross.
Survival
Survival
Survival
You are able to pick up your trail quite easily and you begin to make your way back to Cross. Twilight begins to fall as you make your way home.
"What the..........Drop the Statue and make haste." Darius announces while running towards Cross, assembling his weapon in the blink of an eye.
Perception
He see's the smoke, unlike his comrade he does not lose his head and jump to assumtions.
"Someone scout ahead, no need to walk into something or drop this thing."
Truthfully he was in no hurry to deal with something a town full of life long adventures could not take care of, if it was the worst.