"five is a little more than I'd like... leaving probably fifteen to twenty inside... I hate the idea of sneaky tactics..." Czein paces as he mumbles, following his train of thought through the possible tactical solutions. "open combat, even from an ambush may be foolhardy. It sounds like we could get in and rally a militia. Thats it, unless we see a smaller patrol, we should focus on sneaking in and getting a tactical awareness of our enemy and rally support for a proper assault." the last part addresses all, and he stops as if waiting for applause at his decision.
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"Sneaky tactics are the best, in my experience. Take the enemy out one at a time before they can find you."
"I prepared an elixir that will help me swim for a short time, but that doesn't help anyone else. I also have some powders and ingredients that would prefer not to get wet if it can be avoided." Sutandir thinks for a moment. "Would you be willing to take us to your brother's cabin? It might serve as a base of operations."
"I think I cannot swim. I never really tried except for once last year. Where I come from the water is more in a frozen state, so swimming is... impractical. And on the high seas we use ships."
After speaking, Ragnar again goes to the back of the group and concentrates on his empathic link to Vi. While he doesn't expect her to be back already, he is nervous.
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Crystal shifts from foot to foot. "I can't swim either. Never saw a reason to learn."
Vi's empathic link can't really give you accurate details, but she feels the town is very very quiet except for the occasional loud noise that startles her. One thing looked very dangerous and scared her quite badly. She's not too thrilled about flying over top of the town, but has not been noticed.
"I can swim, and if there's somewhere for me to stand, I can haul your arses over with a rope."
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Flexx was taken aback by the witch's question. At first he wanted to tell her exactly where she should put her question, but then he thought back on his life. There was one instance... when his sword was locked with his brother's... He caught the reflection of his own eyes in his brother's... their green light... just before the winds changed and saved his life. He shook his head. He had long since decided that was a fevered dream.
"Well, ah, what's it to ya? Heh, I mean, it... it sounds like you've got enough power there on yer own, miss." He felt his nose start to twitch. Ohh, not now! Not now! of al the things to start twitching! I'll look like a mouse.... and THEN a pile of dust! Despite himself, his neurons began to hum their excited chorus of their own accord.
The veiled woman regards you curiously. "Pfah, you know nothing. None of them did. This is a waste of my time! Hold still."
As she speaks, you feel a sudden horrid paralysis creeping over your limbs!
With the request to show the group her cabin, the woman, who introduces herself as Marit, leads the group onto a second trail that branches off northwards.
Having relaxed a bit as she walks, Marit babbles a bit about her life in the town. She works at a relatively prosperous textile mill run by a halfling she doesn't really like speaking of. The Countess is never seen by the townsfolk, but her Chateau is apparently legendary as a place full of disturbing magical wonders. People are never invited as guests. Despite the walls, which are hundreds of years old, the town is generally a very safe place thanks to the reputation of the Countess as a dangerous, powerful wizard. Whenever speaking of the Chateau she draws the spiral of Pharasma on her chest, as if to ward off evil.
After a twenty minute walk, the group comes across a one-room log cabin perched on a hillside with a pretty view of the lake.
"My brother is trapped in town with the rest, but I have a key for the door here. He has a root cellar if you need food - anything if you can help the town!"
You attempt to resist the magic but to no avail as your limbs go completely stiff, a single finger on the small, precious safe.
"I normally don't.... develop emotional attachments while doing this. But I want you to know that your death will bring me ... great joy." She lets out a sinister, hissing laughter before reading from the scroll.
And then you are falling... falling...
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You awaken some time later to find yourself in an utterly foreign situation, with the safe beside you. You are indoors in a massive, circular, domed room apparently in the centre of an enormous pointy symbol. Stranger yet, you are in a blue barrier with three tattooed women. A crowd of sinister-looking hooded figures are outside of the barrier, throwing spells at it.
CRACK
A lightning bolt hits the barrier, but seems not to affect it.
"He's awake! Start the spell now, attune him to that living golem!" shouts one of the women as you come to. Another leans in beside you.
"Flexx, we're going to try something risky to get you to safety. Hold still and don't get killed while we sort this out!" One of the women starts chanting a spell while the other two attempt to maintain the barrier.
You are free to act.
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Flexx awakens in a panic. He quickly takes in his surroundings. He barely hears what the woman was saying to him. He stand up, looks at the woman who was apparently trying to help him, and draws his sword.
"Dying wasn't what I intended to do this morning!" He laughs nervously, "Very well, how can I help?"
Crystal pockets the key. "My thanks, Marit."
Admittedly, the news of the Countess being a powerful wizard strikes Crystal as being quite suspicious... then again, in the past couple of days, she's been paralyzed, dumped in the middle of nowhere, nearly gutted by a bugbear, almost became a cave fisher's dinner and now has had a half-elf dumped into her party's lap apropos of nothing.
If anything, perhaps she's being less paranoid than she should be.
"Now to plan for how we'll get inside the town..."
"Just don't move!" The tattooed woman talking to you pulls out a crystal ball and starts chanting, staring at it. The blue barrier continues to shudder. Amongst the small crowd of hooded figures you see the veiled woman who originally kidnapped you, hissing and throwing spells.
"I found her! You're sure she can handle this?!" shouts the woman with the crystal ball.
"I don't know, I think so? Just do it!" responds one of the women holding up the barrier.
The one with the crystal ball grabs your shoulder.
"This is a long story and you'll hear all of it soon when we can find you. Apologise to Raven when you get there, this is going to hurt her. Flexx, we're teleporting you out of here!"
You cling to the safe.
As the group stand near the cabin, listening to Marit explain what she knows of the region, Raven suddenly throws back her head. Energy pours out of her eyes, nose, mouth and her hands snap to the side. A loud, blood-curdling scream rips from the living automaton and there's a sudden BAMF.
A man clinging to a small iron box appears around four feet above the ground, and crashes down heavily. Raven collapses, lifeless, and with skin like stone.
Juid tosses himself to the side to avoid what looks like an assault. When he realizes that he was mistaken, he gets up to brush himself off. "Can we find a more secure place to plan? I'd prefer that a patrol not catch us with our pants down."
Sutandir jumps back as the strange woman screams. Distressed, he asks the others, "Is that how I arrived?"
"GODS!" Crystal leaps backward and levels her bow at the newcomer when he lands on Raven's corpse.
"Anyone else want to fall into our laps today?! Anyone?!" She almost screams, at her wit's end.
"And yes. That's how you got here." She replies to Sutandir.
Czein places his axe deftly inches from the new man's throat. "Yeah but no one died when you showed up elfy." He turns to face the newcomer. "Who the hell are you and what did you do to her!?"
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Flexx is utterly bewildered. He tried to understand what the woman said, and what it meant, he also tried to figure out where he was, who he had just killed, and what to do about the hulking mass in front of him holding a blade to his throat.
"Ah I don't know! S-some woman. Sh-she h-haaaad fingers! And rays! I c-c-couldn't move! Ahh... the vault! And the women that zapped me here! They saved me!" His usual silver tongue seems to have eluded him in this moment.
Ragnar remains at the back of the group. He knows it is better to be on Czein's side and he doesn't plan to ruin his good standing with the half-orc over someone who just popped up out of nowhere.
Instead he takes a closer look at Raven. Could it really be that she just dropped dead?
After a moment, Ragnar detects residual magic on both Raven and the newcomer. The safe does not appear to be unusually magical. The man and Raven were both subjected to powerful spell which shares an identical aura. The spell's residual energy is dying fairly quickly on the man, while with Raven it is dying out very slowly.
Raven herself looks more like a golem than human now; her skin is a strange, mottled grey and the angles of her face and joints are far sharper now.
Crystal listens to the new arrival's explanation, keeping her bow & arrow aimed at his face.
"Take a breath. You look like you're on the verge of passing out." She says, her tone clear and authoritative. "Now, start from the beginning. Who are you and what do you mean about 'women who zapped you here'?"
Ragnas' expertise comes in handy. This isn't a spell he recognizes, and it seems to have originated from Raven herself. She has an aura similar to a wand that has lost its charge. Effectively, this strange man was brought here through a summoning spell through Raven as conduit, and whatever powered her is now gone.
If something powered her in the first place, maybe there are other ways to ... reactivate her, Ragnar thinks, his curiosity awoken.
"I don't think he really knows more than we do," he then addresses the group. "The spell that brought him here was unusual, to say the least, and Raven was used as its power source. As far as I can tell, for now she is nothing more but a golem lacking a power core. That possibly means she is dead."
The words don't feel quite right, but for the short time Ragnar has known Raven, this is the best explanation he has.
"Tell us what you saw before you were brought here," Ragnar tells the newcomer, trying to sound as polite and unthreatening as possible.
Czein lowers his axe, understanding that the new one was not at fault. "Someone is gonna come to pieces for all of this..." and he degrades into swearing in Orcish while he pokes around the cabin, ensuring its security.
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Crystal eyes Ragnar as he speaks before lowering her bow.
She leans against the wall, turning her eyes toward the newcomer.
The pirate-looking man somewhat incoherently explains that a weird woman with a veil approached him while he was "doing some work" in the Shackles, asked him if he had powers, and then next thing he knew he was in a big room with tattooed women fighting a bunch of hooded figures. The women said that 'the others were gone' and that they were saving him, and to apologize to Raven, whoever that is. Then he was here. He introduces himself as Flexx Gideon.
Crystal listens to Flexx's explanation.
Flexx? Who in the Hells names their child Flexx?
"So... you were in the same situation we were dragged into. I doubt this is a coincidence, Mr. Gideon." She stands up straight. "And, incidentally, Raven is the girl lying at your feet."
"I am Crystal Delphi, an inquisitor of the Lady of Graves." She nods and briefly tips her grey slouch hat. "And, my apologies for the... less-than-warm welcome."
Sutandir relaxes and nods. "I am Sutandir Zarill, a chemist. I was similarly abducted and just found myself in this company as well."
Juid shakes his head at the uncanny similarities, yet finds himself clueless as to what they mean.
There is clearly something about all of us that drew the attention of whatever band of mischievous magic-users was scouting us before we were magically transported. As I look around me, it is clear that this common element cannot be the timing or location of our birth and is very unlikely a common heritage. Might we all have been born under a certain arrangement of the stars?
"Possible, but I guess we won't find out here," Ragnar says. "But since the ruler of this settlement is a mage, maybe she has something to do with all if this?"
Very far-fetched, but it might be good to keep our spirits up, He thought.
"Either way, as long as our new companion is willing to help, we now have another blade against our newest enemies."
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While the group talk with Flexx to sort out what exactly has happened, Marit calls them over.
"I've drawn you a bit of a map, I hope this helps..." she trails off as she gestures to what she's drawn in the dirt.
"Say that's north. It's not really, but for the map it's north. That's the lake. The town is up against it like a big square. With gates here, here, and here." She draws parallel lines in the wall to indicate gates in the west, east, and south. "We're east of town right now - according to the map."
She then fills in a few crude details. "Most folks are in their houses, the inn, the temple, or the textile factory. The temple is right by the east gate, same with Mr. Silversleeves' factory. Town square is in the middle here. Inn is across from it. Armory and barracks are north of the inn!"
Sutandir looks at the crude map as the girl describes the town. He takes out his notebook and a pen and makes a copy.
"So are the gates closed now, with the hobgoblins inside? Might it be possible to use a boat to get inside?"
Marit nods absently as she adds some details to the drawing. "I reckon so. You need a boat and a way to avoid notice."
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Flexx didn't know what to make of all of this. He was scared, but the serpent curiosity has a potent venom. His premonition to flee was weakened by the need to learn more, despite having had his life threatened on several occasions already.
"Maybe we should stick together then, if you've all had similar occurrences. You all seem to have gotten along just fine. Now, I should very much like to find this... witch that we're after, but this safe followed me all the way here, what's say we give it a peek first?"
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Aye, I must confess to being mightily curious about it.
"Hm, won't be easy to cross a lake unnoticed. Is it foggy in the mornings?" Ragnar asks. "Also, you said your brother is Mister Wiggun's apprentice. Who is that and what's his occupation? Could both help us retake the town?"
I could myself conjure a small patch of fog if I prepare the spell for tomorrow, but on a clear day, that would be most suspicious, Ragnar thought.
Marit nods slowly. "Aye, it's pretty foggy. Not every day, but it can be."
Flexx's safe has an expensive-looking lock on the front with four delicate dials that turn from 01-99. Flexx has seen a lot of locks in his time and never something of this sophistication. It's around a foot and a half square and weighs around thirty pounds.
Juid admires the technical wonder and shrugs his shoulders. We have talented friends here who might get past that device, but I haven't a clue. I can, however, provide some spiritual guidance.
Juid casts guidance on whoever feels he or she can get the lock picked.
Sutandir studies the box. "That's pretty involved ... let's see ..."
He takes a small wallet out of a pocket and reveals several slender tools. He slides them into the dial and tries to find a way to determine the right lineup.
Crystal just stands off to the side and lets Sutandir do his work.
"So, now that we have a layout of the town, I wonder which area we should deal with first--the temple, to guarantee ourselves a source of healing? The armoury & barracks, to see if we can free prisoners to help us? I'm open to ideas."
Sutandir plays with the dials and tries various ways to get his tools behind the dials to pop them open to fiddle with the bolt. He makes no progress whatsoever.
After several minutes, Sutandir puts the box down. "Well, then. This is going to require more expertise than I have ... or the actual combination."
To Crystal, he says, "If we can get in, I like the idea of helping the temple first. As you say, having a priest to heal us would go a long way."
"You evaded my other question," Ragnar says calmly. "Who is this Mister Wiggun and what is it he teaches your brother? We need to know who could help us free your town and what skills they can add."
Marit blinks and looks up at Ragnar. "Oh, I'm sorry! Mister Wiggun is a wizard who runs a shop and is an educator. He's very old but he does have magic spells. I know where his shop is, but can't tell you if he's there or not."
"Thank you Marit," Ragnar responds, then turns to the group. "I also think the temple is a good place to start, but first we need to get in. Marit, is there a fishing-village somewhere nearby maybe?"
Marit shakes her head to Ragnar. "No, Douleurs is the only village on Lake Raiteso I know of. But there are many people who live on their own. We can probably find a fishing boat along the east shore... and it's owner."
The group exit the cabin and make their way towards the east shore of Lake Raiteso in the hopes to come across a boat. As they make their way through the forest towards the main path towards Douleurs, the sound of harsh voices alerts pretty much the whole group to danger up ahead! Through the trees, a group of four hobgoblins can be seen making their way down the road, grumbling at each other in their language. They do not appear to be aware of the party.
In alarm, Juid gestures to the others to stop and be quiet. He looks around for obvious places to hide himself AND a mule, thinking that diplomacy is out of the question with this sort.