Zea winces in pain but doesn't back down. I'm tired of this kuztm. I've waited a long time for this.
Zea concentrates as hard as she can to cast arcane mark without losing eye contact with Nox.
But her nerves get the better of her! Nonetheless, she steps forward and strikes at the foul woman as magic pours into her blade yet again.
Nox flinches as the good aligned weapon cuts into her flesh.
You see no cestus and even though she wears a vile grin, you don't think she'll bite. But you're sure she isn't all bark. She also has half a dozen throwing axes on her.
Fhingle moves past Cassius and Blesses the Group.
Cassius, healed, recasts Mage Armor.
Nox easily dodges the lame stab from Saul. "You got me? Let me show you how it's done." Putting all her might into the attack she badly wounds the investigator. And it's sheer luck she doesn't ram it straight through his heart.
The Asmodean steps closer, but he only stays in a defensive stance.
Jarithe manages to cause Nox a big wound. But it becomes clear that she can take it. The You are next is clearly visible in Nox' face.
Zea looks hard at the awful woman and decides it's time to take a risk. She pours the coldest anger of her childhood into her blade, risking being struck by the redactor.
Fhingle watches the heavy blade come down at Saul fearing the end, at the last moment Saul dodges, taking a slightly less severe blow.
Fhingle gives Nox a funny looking hoping to distract her.
Saul shows that he has learned from Nox, even though it is still far from what she does to the party. But the damage adds up and it shows on Nox. Whith her regeneration gone, she'll have a hard time to recover from that, in the face of three potent enemies with a healer as a backup.
As Zea wants to deal her another blow the tiefling is surprised by Nox simply shorthanding the glaive and stabbing her in the guts another time.
Zea can't hold her concentration through that and falls down unconscious. "You're right. You outnumber me. I'll make sure to bring better backup the next time." Nox tells and laughs. Then she steps back and with a word she disappears, leaving you alone with a very unhappy Asmodean.
Zea staggers, nearly fallen. She eyes the asmodean and prepares to attack him.
The redactor stays in full defense and the other one stumbles around blinded.
Fhingle moves up to Attack the Redactor
With everyone missing him, the redactor takes his chances and runs for the exit.
Zea also charges after the redactor!
The redactor acted on the wrong impression he might get away. But halfway through the group he is already struck down by blades and spears. The groupo also makes short work of the other one that is still blinded.
The books Nox has gathered here in the garden are more than mere texts—they are soul tomes that contain many of the thoughts and memories of the archivists who were cornered, captured, tortured, and eventually killed over the past week. The contents of these tomes are scattered and incomplete, but nonetheless represent a wealth of knowledge on not only various historical topics, but also on how to successfully found and run a secret society.
As monks don't need much it is no joy ruffling the redactor's pockets. They got nothing of use on them.
"We take these back but we all only take a few since we cannot get caught all together with stuff like this." Fhingle says picking up a few books and moving them to a table. Fhingle then searches each of the rooms for anything of use to their cause.
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"I feel terrible. But, strangely more competent and powerful..."
Saul slumps to a table by Little Mac, and digs into his page.
"This is what we found in that secret compartment. Let's see if we can make sense of any of it."
Saul drops down the bookplate of recall, the silver magnifying glass, an owl-shaped platinum letter opener, an ivory-and-gold bookmark, and the 10 gilt pages from an illuminated manuscript.
"Any of this stuff magic, Cassius?"
Saul picks up the gilt pages and tries to read them. If the letters are too small, he picks up the magnifying glass and uses it.
Cassius Detects Magic.
Fhingle exhausts almost all his ability to heal.
The only magic in these rooms are the soul tomes ond some of the items Saul puts on the table.
Turning everything around shows nothing more, but the books on the tables which are mostly harmless but still rather interesting historical treasures. Very few redactions have been necessary, and taken as a whole, the books weigh 15 pounds and are quite valuable.
The soul tomes - especially those identifiable as belonging to the Vicotoras - might be interesting for Rexus. Flipping through the pages shows that they contain quite a bit of information about the Silver Ravens that is probably found nowhere else. But reading everything would take too long for now.
"We can all carry some." Fhingle says taking a book with him as he leaves with the rest.
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"Rexus we have found something we think you will find interesting." Fhingle says putting his book down on a table then dropping his gear and sitting down himself with some food.
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"Thanks for the healing, Little Mac. You did good. All of you did good. I feel like our team is really coming together." The gruff old gumshoe thinks again of all the people who have fought with him over the last month. Too many transients. But this team is solid. A group to rely on. Now we can start making a real difference.
He too grabs everything he can and heads back to the Longroads Coffeehouse.
Finding a book that looks oddly familiar to her, Zea opens it and flips through. Then she hurriedly shuts the book. What? Why's there a little book about me?!
Zea does her best to help identify anything which is magical.
She agrees with the others "This is priceless. I've always wanted to know more about the Silver Ravens. What tiny bits of information I could find are what inspired me to help in the first place. Let's all take something back."
She nods when Saul speaks of teamwork. "Yes that was good. But boy... that woman was scary... I bet we're going to run into more of the same as we continue down this road..." She shudders with dread.
Rexus looks at the books the group brings along and breaks into tears as he finds all the memories of his parents written down in the soul tomes. It takes a while for him to brace himself.
And it takes even longer to read everything together and to extract the information within.
• The Silver Ravens were established in 4606 ar in the wake of the chaos that swept over Cheliax after Aroden’s death to help protect the city of Kintargo from oppression.
• The person who founded the Silver Ravens was a mysterious elf known only as “Jackdaw,” a figure who, before the advent of the Age of Lost Omens, built her- or himself into a sort of Kintargan folk hero who fought for the rights of the city’s downtrodden.
• Many of the Silver Ravens were adventurers or worshipers of Milani. Jackdaw, was the most powerful and influential of them all, but others who rose to particular prominence among the Silver Ravens were Amyreid - a female half-elf cleric of Milani, Ba - a male halfling enchanter, Kyda a human bard, and Brakisi a male human of unknown profession.
• The Silver Ravens defended Kintargo from being conquered no fewer than a dozen times during the Chelish Civil War: five times from power-hungry noble families, four times from agents of Thrune, once from an invasion of skum from the sea, once from a cabal of Nidalese vampires, and once from a blue dragon named Rivozair.
• The Silver Ravens maintained their main headquarters in and below the Kintargo Opera House; unfortunately, no information in the documents indicates any other safe houses the group may have maintained.
• The Silver Ravens were said to be able to use something called the “Song of Silver” to defend Kintargo when it was attacked by enemies, but sadly, no additional information as to what this mysterious song was can be found in these notes.
• The leaders of the Silver Ravens had seen the proverbial writing on the wall—they knew House Thrune was likely to seize control, and had come to the difficult decision to surrender should this event come to pass, hoping to prevent Thrune from razing Kintargo. Indications exist that the cache of treasure and documents hidden in the Fair Fortune were intended to serve as a sort of time capsule, should Kintargo forget the Silver Ravens with the passage of time.
"This Song of Silver sounds like a key element, that you should persue." Rexus tells.
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Saul is enthralled with this wealth of knowledge. He soaks it all in, reading and re-reading.
"Okay, new codenames! I am Jackdaw... of course... But to be true Silver Ravens we need an Amyreid, a Ba, a Kyda, and a Brakisi!"
"If their headquarters was below the Opera House, I would love to get in there and look around. One problem: That's the Thrune's new home."
Zea sits silently, mouth open in wonder. "Wow... this is what I wanted... I can't believe this is happening to us." She focuses a little when Saul suggests new names. "Um... Amyreid would be good for me, I guess."
She nods at the mention of the Opera House too, with a shudder. "That sounds like a fantastic, horrible idea, Saul. I'll see if I can figure out a way to make us stealthier." She begins thinking over her rudimentary magical powers and mechanisms by which this poor tiefling girl could try to alter the fabric of physics in new ways.
"Guess I go by Ba since he was a halfling as well?" Fhingle says listening to Rexus through half open eyes
"Aw, man! I worked on that mirror s*~#!" Cassius chuckles ruefully.
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"Brakisi... Brakisi... I'm sure you can do something with it. But don't you agree, it makes sense! Five of them, five of us! They saved this town in its most troubled time. Now, it is our turn! We are the Silver Ravens!"
"Little Mac has one already, but here..." Saul digs through his bag and pulls out the Silver Ravens that used to belong to the old party members. "We found these in the Fair Fortune, mentioned here in the text. Now we each have one. The Silver Ravens."
Zea beams with pride as she accepts her Silver Raven. [Smaller]"I always dreamed I'd be part of something important... But I never thought it would happen..." She falls silent again, her eyes misty.
"They can deliver messages around if we need them too." Fhingle says his hope building.