Flurry flanking with Janasen. kama damage vs undead.
Flurry flanking with Janasen. kama damage vs undead.
Tev's words had cut to the quick and, with the added effect that the very tall elf had to bend forward in order to meet her eyes, making her feel like a child as he effectively ripped her mask off and tossed it away.
The first emotion to show across her face was shock, those golden eyes opening wide.
Next was fury. The voices fed off the intense emotion immediately. She could almost see the thin red line across his neck where her ebony blade would quickly sever head from shoulders. She held her sword even tighter as she pulled hard on the reigns of her darker urges.
"Your words are kind, but if you presume to actually know me, then you are a greater insufferable fool than I had originally thought. Yes, I'm doing this because of the professor. Nobody harms a friend of mine without paying with their life. But if I determine that I am too great a threat to our mission, or that I can more efficiently complete it alone, I'm gone."
As she continued to walk the voices hissed in her ears, wanting to know whether her own eyes were blind to the truth of her own nature, mocking that all her friends were and always would be dead, and a quiet voice that wondered at her true feelings for those she was currently allied with.
The turmoil in her head was giving her a headache, and she held the side of her pounding head as she walked.
S - Dead
Z - 9/12
Baris's Kama may or may not have done damage, it's not completely clear. After feeling the air from Janasens blade as it passes by the zombie turns on him, ripping and tearing with his hands and teeth. He get's a couple of good hits in, causing some pretty gnarly damage.
Baris Kama'd the zombie to death.
It was obvious that Tev's words had upset Alyssa, and it wasn't hard for Tev to figure out why. Her mask that he had just stripped away was something she needed to survive in this world full of people who wrote her off just because of her blood. Tev didn't want to make her have to go without it now, either, but he did still want her to trust him.
Even though he had seen behind the mask, it didn't mean that he knew her. He would like to, though. She was probably the smartest out of all the group (including himself), and they needed brains (and not the way these zombies needed brains either). He needed brains too, in the sense that he needed someone to relate to. He was having a harder time of that with the others.
Trying to push this would not engender this trust in her. For now, his question was simply, "How do you think you're going to be a threat to the mission? Is there something about your magic that you can't control?"
She'd said too much. Alyssa realized this as she stopped walking, knowing that Tev would stop beside her again to listen. She'd said too much, and she didn't trust this elf to understand, and with her next words any hope there had been of a friendship between them would be gone.
Even as she prepared to answer his question her mind went back over the memories she had, of causing pain and suffering, of the euphoria she felt at watching blood drip and pool and the sound of screaming like music to her ears. What she'd realized she became when she finally let go of that ever present hold she kept on herself.
"I am not to be trusted." she said flatly. "Being what I am means that I will forever struggle against my own blood." tendrils of darkness twirled around her fingertips as she sunk deeper into the memories. "And if I lose control, there is nothing I can do to stop those urges from driving me to kill every one of you."
Her gaze stayed on their elongated shadows before them. "I have met many Tieflings before, and I would not wish this fate on anyone. But they sicken me with how they revel in their heritage. But what I have seen them do to their enemies is tame to what I have done to those I had called 'ally.'"
She shook her head slowly, sadly. A drop of moisture that might have been a tear fell to the dusty road they walked on. "You are looking for an elf, Tev. Do not let my face fool you." she added in Abyssal, "I am a monster." knowing that he would not understand the hideous language she spoke.
Baris jumps for joy at the quick defeat of the zombies, he goes to both Radim and Janasen to give them a high five. Then he asks Janasen, "Would you mind healing me, or Radim could you heal me?"
Radim sunk to a sitting position on the cobbled streets, drawing his knees to his chest as Baris skipped and leaped around in joy. He let his forehead rest on his knees, and did not look up until Baris spoke. Hie head jerked up, his features pale. He honestly looked like he was about to throw up.
"H-... Oh." Swallowing hard, the little man drew out his wand. Scuffling into a more comfortable crouch, he tapped Baris with the magic device.
And again...
"Thank you Radim, are you all right? You look sick." Baris looks concerned.
Radim did not immediately answer, as he was glancing about with a furtive terror. "I-i-it's nothing," he finally mumbled. "It's nothing." Still glancing about, he rose to inspect the recently remade dead, inspecting for clues.
Baris stays next to him, investigating the undead, but more so keeping an eye out for other threats. "No it is not nothing, do you not want to discuss it here?"
She despised what she was, and was desperately struggling to keep it from becoming who she was. A fight that she apparently believed herself to be losing. But was it her own fault, or did she just need to not be betrayed for once? She called the Professor her true friend, and rightly so, because Lorrimor had been genuine to her, as Tev was (hopefully) being. Lorrimor's was a friendship that had not turned around on her. Maybe the only one. Tev didn't want it to stay that way. She had a good soul, which he hated to see wasted.
Tev could not understand her Abyssal speech but figured she was using it to remind him of what she was. What she said about him looking for an elf was off the mark. He looked out at the sunset. "The elf I'm looking for is myself, " he said, "because once I find him, I can be whatever I want to be. In that, I think we have something in common. You don't want to be what the urges want you to be; that's why we need a cause like this to focus on, because we find ourselves through trials like these."
He cleared his throat from talking so much and looked back into Alyssa's face. "I don't mean to preach at you, even though I've probably been doing exactly that. I guess all I'm saying is that you don't have to convince me of the risk involved with doing this with you. I'm okay with it, because I believe in you, myself, and our fellow executors. We have our focus, our shared goal, which stems from our shared respect for a man who deserved it. That will keep us together, and I believe we need not fear that."
Radim's only response was a quick shake of his head. "Should move these bodies.." he announced, abruptly changing the subject.
As Radim peers over the last Zombie and skeleton he finds no clues as to their origin, but a little treasure none the less!
You find - a milky orange looking stone, a rose colored stone, a scroll, 53gp, and 25sp.
When you all walk into the General Store you almost run over two young girls chasing each other. As you look around you can see all kinds of goods as well as a descent stock of adventuring gear and kits. A woman stands behind the counter putting up stock as she yells sternly at the girls over her shoulder not to run. A man walks up to you with a big smile on his face. "Hullo! My name is Luthko Avanaki and this is my store. We've seen you around before, you and your party are becoming quite the celebrities! You have taken care of many of the intruders we have in this town. The undead... uhhh!" You can see him shudder at the thought. "No matter! Please, come in and look around. For you who have done so much a discount on anything in the store! What is it that you are looking for?"
Alyssa looked up at Tev while he spoke. At first it seemed that he was talking to himself as well as her. Her eyebrows rose a fraction when he revealed that he was searching for himself, and for a beat she anticipated that he would reveal more, but he didn't. She carefully veiled the disappointment she felt.
Tuoni had shut the door on himself when she had shared with him the gruesomeness of her true nature. She had felt certain that Tev would do the same. And yet here was his unshakable faith in the group and in her.
It both inspired and frustrated her. She wanted desperately to believe that she could trust him, but knew if she did that ultimately that trust would be broken with time.
Not knowing what to say next she gave a silent nod in understanding and continued on their path.
After a minute or two of walking, she was contemplating how obvious it was that Tev wanted to learn more about her. Feeling that there was nothing to lose at this point, she said flatly. "Any question you ask me, I will answer as best I can."
More than questions answered, Tev wanted the chance to spend more time together to learn about her that way, and not even really in a sense if spending time alone with her, just the kind of time where she would be able to act as herself, even in the presence of the other group members.
This was an important trust she was giving him, and he wanted to handle it appropriately. Asking more probing questions than were necessary would imply that he did not trust her and possibly make her think he was going to betray her like the others.
There was a question that he had that the nswer to could offer some insight, though. "I do have a few, if you will indulge me. I'm most interested in your early life. You're obviously at least part-Elven, so I would like to know where you grew up, what your family was like. And also how much you know about the fiend that made you a tiefling?"
Alyssa's steps didn't falter when Tev brought up the subject of her early life. She'd been expecting that that's where he would start.
"My full first name is Alymranthiel, and I was born to the proud but fallen house of Faerondalan in the city of Iadara." she began her tale, standing taller and the shadows of a more regal bearing coming through as she gave the names of her father and mother.
This faded quickly, however, as she recounted her mother's untimely death in birthing her, and the apparent hatred her father had felt for her.
She smiled softly as she remembered the servants that had raised her when her father only kept a cursory presence in her life, and noted how they had been the ones to name her, though she did not trust Tev enough to give her full name.
All smile and warmth dissipated when finally she reached the part of her tale where her true heritage emerged. She spared no detail of the night she'd awoken to find herself mutilated by her own genes and all those she had loved in her household murdered by her father's monstrous wolves that smelt of brimstone and moved like shadows. Like it was only yesterday, rather than over thirty years ago, she shared the words her father had said in Abyssal over her before he attempted to murder her in his insanity.
"The truth is that I know very little of my family's legacy or how we became to be entangled with fiends, but the only clues I have are that my father felt that whatever destiny my blood holds was supposed to be his. His envy and lust for power, coupled with the crippling loss of my mother, broke his mind until he could no longer perceive reality. The only other thing I have is that in speaking with other Tieflings, they have admitted to only being able to naturally speak either Abyssal or Infernal upon their fiendish blood awakening. I am able to speak both. Whether that is because of my blood or because of my predilection for languages, I do not know."
"Thank you Luthko Avanaki for the warm welcome. Radim you need anything? We did find those coins, we could use them for any gear you may need. Could we get some stretchers or something to put the undead bodies on, to take to the restlands?" Baris says knowing that he would need more money to get the things he wants. He still looks around at things.Hmmm, perhaps I can look back at the different fight sights and search the bodies. If Radim does not say anything to Baris he will leave after 10 minutes or so, to go move the bodies to the graveyards and look for the other battle sights.
So the items are all off the zombie?
Luthko quickly walks behind a counter, producing a ring of keys from his belt. He leans down and unlocks a chest, rummages through it for a minute, grunts a few Varisian curses, and jerks back up holding the tools. "Ah-ha!" Turning back to you, he holds out your tools. "Even with the discount, these are not cheap. You're looking at..." He looks up into space for a second, moving his lips and counting with his fingers... "Forty-nine gold and fifty silver!" He holds his empty hand out, awaiting the payment.
I am sure that Baris is in the general store by now and likely next to Janasen. "Why do you need a water proof bag?" He asks with a curious expression on his face.
Radim shrugged, handing the coins and baubles over to Baris. "Take it. I don't need it."
Turning to Baris with a serious expression Janasen sagely states"to keep things dry" then after a moment breaks into a smile.
Marveling at Alyssa's tragic story, Tev didn't realize how long they had been talking until they were already back at the mansion. Since there was still a sunset out, he figured they could sit on a bench outside and watch it finish going down while they finished their conversation.
"Iadara sounds just as wondrous as they say it is," he remarked with some envy that she had grown up there. "I've never been anywhere in Kyonin. The closest thing I've seen is Crying Leaf."
Having some knowledge of the outer planes didn't help Tev discern from Alyssa's story what her fiendish ancestor might be. The only clue was the fact that she spoke both Abyssal and Infernal, and even that might be a red herring. Tev believed those languages might be useful ones for himself to learn, but that could come later.
"Even though my family doesn't want me around anymore either, I can't imagine what that must be like. What happened in your family, I mean." He sighed in contemplation of that heaviness. "It didn't take me long to learn to look to myself, but I don't have hostile urgings inside me like you talk about. But I do know that your fate is yours to choose, and I won't let myself or anyone else in this group treat you otherwise."
He shifted in his seat. "Me, I just have this fascination with the stars and the Void that touched my bloodline. It doesn't tell me to do anything except to keep looking into them. I don't know what I can expect to find. Maybe that's where I'll find myself, or something completely different. Or maybe nothing. But it gives me something to come back to when everything else goes away." He had a small smile on his face as he looked back at her. "Maybe you'll find something to come back to while you're doing this."
"Well duh! Did you buy something new besides the bag Janasen? Also can you detect magic?
To the clerk, "Luthko, you did not answer me, hold on a moment." Baris then jumps up onto the counter to make sure he is seen. "Could I get a stretcher or something to put the undead bodies on, to take to the restlands? Also could I trade in some of these coins for higher denominations?
Baris pours out the coins, the gems are in a different pocket. "Also how much are these beauties worth?" He says showing the gems. A milky orange looking stone, a rose colored stone, a scroll, 53gp, and 25sp.
"That my friend...is a secret" Janasen responds to Baris' question in a sing song fashion.
After Baris' jump up onto the counter Janasen quickly apologizes to Luthko and especially his wife who is standing behind it.
Baris sits down for the sake of Luthko, he then looks at Janasen with a frown and big puppy dog eyes. "You would leave me out in the dark?"
If that doesn't work Baris goes back to his normal happy go lucky personality and says to Luthko, "I will take those winter blankets then for 9 sp. Do you have some platinum to trade the gold up or perhaps some alchmist fire and acid. Thank you for your suggestions I will go talk to them once we are done here." Baris smiles, moves 9 of the silver over.
Acid (flask) 10 gp 1 lb.
Alchemist's fire (flask) 20 gp 1 lb.
Antitoxin (vial) 50 gp —
Everburning torch 110 gp 1 lb.
Holy water (flask) 25 gp 1 lb.
Smokestick 20 gp 1/2 lb.
Sunrod 2 gp 1 lb.
Tanglefoot bag 50 gp 4 lbs.
Thunderstone 30 gp 1 lb.
Tindertwig 1 gp —
Baris asks, "Then how about a Climber's kit?" 80 gp 5 lbs.
"Well I got, 53gp, and 16sp here. So I will keep the 6 sp." He palms those and puts them in a pouch. "I owe you... 19 gp"
Counting on his hands.
"I will bring more gold in a while, no other cash on hand at the moment." Baris smiles and jumps off the counter.
Janasen waggles a finger at Baris' puppy dog eyes "sorry friend but this will be a surprise worth waiting for." after he holds his hands out toward the scroll.
If Baris hands it to him - "The old wizard in my village used to carry lots of these around. He would always go on and on about how the right one could save you much hassle. While telling this story Janasen unfurls the scroll.
As they'd been talking and watching the sunset the first stars begun to dot the violet sky. Alyssa looked up to these stars as Tev spoke of his own family having been touched by something he couldn't yet understand. She was surprised and contemplated for several moments his words about her fate being her own. All her life even she had never considered that she could step off the trail of what everyone else said she was created to do, though even that wasn't clear.
She turned her head and watched Tev watching the stars as he spoke. It took several beats of her heart to realize that she heard no whispering voices, felt no darker urges. Everything was still and calm except for a burning in her chest that she wasn't familiar with and didn't want to dwell on.
And then Tev turned and smiled at her "Maybe you'll find something to come back to while you're doing this." He said, and she felt her cheeks grow hot as she quickly turned her face back to the sky and nodded.
"Maybe." was all she could squeak out. Her throat suddenly felt rather tight, her heart beating too fast.
Yeah I think we are about done, Baris gives Janasen the scroll to identify. Baris will also go get the gems appraised by the female dwarf at the forge. Hopefully Janasen goes with him so that the diplomacy check is done by him and not Baris...hurrying right along...
Tev almost didn't recognize Alyssa's blush for what it was, and wasn't sure what it meant. He wondered what it was about what he said that caused her to do that. They had just opened up a lot about themselves and yet were still sitting here comfortably and still talking to each other after having done so. That was probably something Alyssa was unused to. So that was most likely it. Tev didn't want to call attention to that, lest he embarrass her further. It was more important to be sensitive to her feelings and earn her trust. No one really gets how I feel most of the time, either, he reminded himself.
His smile broadened in response to her hopeful, one-word thought. "I hope so," he concurred.
It was getting time to go back inside. They still had to reconvene with Kendra and the others. Tev stood up from the bench and offered his hand to help her do the same. "Whatever we find, I'm looking forward to it. And doing it together will be a lot more exciting."
"What are you looking to find?" Baris says as he walks up in his carefree happy way, he also is carrying a large bundle, it appears to be a winter blanket or two, possibly with something in it.
After a few more steps his mood changes drastically, dour and downcast, he slumps his shoulders but it is hard considering his load, it probably looks pretty comical. "Oh never mind, you two are talking again, don't have room for Baris, I may just take a few days off." He trudges on as quick as he can and slams the door, he disregards anything they say.
He would have taken care of those bodies then washed the winter blankets, so they don't smell, and he can use them again if needed.
Alyssa hesitated for a moment before accepting Tev's outstretched hand. She had the unexpected but pleasant feeling of a tiny jolt of electricity just under her skin at the touch. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before.
She'd been about to ask Tev if he'd felt that when Baris emerged suddenly from up the road. Alyssa had been so absorbed in their conversation that she hadn't even heard the halfling approach. She turned her uncustomary smile towards him, eager to share with him the information they'd found that day and ask if the others had been able to speak to any of the council members.
But suddenly Baris' demeanor changed, and before either of them had a chance to say anything to the halfling he was gone.
But Tev is different... He's giving me a chance. her own voice replied in Elven.
Only until he learns what he wants to know. They're all the same, only more so when you rip off their skin. Abyssal hummed in her blood.
What do you have to return to when everything goes away? Infernal laughed mockingly.
Alyssa quickly snatched her hand out of Tev's and kept her head down as she headed to the entrance to the mansion.
As she inspects them she starts talking without even looking up. "This milky orange looking stone, hm... it's a Sardonyx, worth about 20gp. This next one, the rose colored stone, it's a real pretty type. It's called a Star Rose Quartz. It's called that because in the right light," she beckons you over to take a look as she picks it up and moves it around near a lantern. You can see a sort of star shape, more like a point of light in the center with five beams shooting out in a different direction away from the center. "It's still only worth 23gp, though they are really pretty they don't have much practical value." She hands you back the stones and goes back to her bellows. "Come back if you need anything else."
As the three of you happen to make it home, Tuoni catches up with you, having been off trying to do some of his own research but coming up empty handed. When you walk in the door, you see a man sitting in the living room and a slightly annoyed Kendra. The man was dressed in a similar manner as Tuoni was when he arrived at the funeral and he was holding a small scroll with a unique seal on it. "He just came here asking for Tuoni," she said quietly to you just out of his range of hearing. "He wouldn't say why, but when I told him you'd be back later, he just sat down and wouldn't say a word."
When Tuoni saw him they both locked eyes and nodded briefly. The man stood up and walked over, handing Tuoni the small scroll. Inspecting it, his eyes widened. "This is the seal of the Watcher-Lord!" He quickly broke the seal, his eyes scanned every word. As soon as he was done he rolled scroll back up, walked to the nearest fire and tossed it in.
Turning back to the party he looked troubled. "I've been recalled, I'm very sorry but I have to leave, now." Before anyone can protest he walks purposefully to his room, gathers his things, and he and his friend are out the door without another word of explanation.
Kendra looks baffled. "Well, I guess it must have been important. I knew he was a Paladin, but to be recalled in that manner... how strange! Well, I'm working on dinner, I know that you like to help Baris and it would be most welcome." Shooting a quick smile at Janasen, she says "And is there anything I can get you? A drink perhaps?" She then looks at Radim, asking the same thing, but lacking the same... longing in her voice."
As the sun begins to dip you begin to wonder where Alyssa and Tev are off too. Eventually as you quiet down after eating dinner you begin to hear familiar voices on the porch. You recognize them to be your two missing party members.