Lorant's eyes seem to shine in the light of Mathus' torch, reminding him of a stray cat staring at him.
Malthus prepares his walking stick to whack any overgrown insect that comes near him.
Prepared strike (Hanbo) for
"Uh--no time to get that now!" Cassiel says as he moves into position, his sword and shield readied for combat. The first insect to try anything stupid was going to get a blade right in its maw!
...or perhaps it'd just get tickled by it.
Lorant advances to Cassiel's side and prepares an attack as well, hefting his morningstar in preparation to smash the bug.
for
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The kobold enters the room, snarling at the multi-legged horrors. He stops short of the entrance, keeping his distance.
The centipedes rush forward, anticipating a meal, but finding only death as Lorant smashes his foe into paste! The other centipede attacks Lorent while his attention is distracted, but cannot bite through the dhampir's boot.
Cassiel spins and slices down on the centipede attacking Lorant!
Cassiel then starts moving towards the crypt door. "Now to get this."
"Hungry little buggers, weren't they?" Lorant says quietly, taking out a cloth and cleaning the head of his morning star.
"I hope no one heard that scuffle. You alright, Mathus?"
His eyes glint in the light of Mathus' flame, in a way no human's eyes should.
Mathus shudders and shivers at the sight of Lorants eyes.
Fi...Fi...Fine, he says climbing off the sarcophagus.
Lorant frowns.
"You don't sound fine. What's wrong?"
Cassiel closes the crypt door and comes back down into the crypt.
"Everything seems fine so far--" Cassiel starts, but stops when he sees Lorant's eyes. "--uh, Lorant... why are your eyes glowing like a cat's?" He asks, confused.
No...Nothing... just something I saw is... well, it must be a trick of the light is all.
Mathus moves to investigate the room and its sarcophagus closely.
Cassiel shrugs and tries budging the sarcophagus cover.
"My eyes, what do you-oh. I didn't realize. Yes. I noticed Mathus' unease around me before, and I suppose an explanation would help with that. I...how best to put this? My mother was human, but I am...not?"
He rubs the back of his neck and smiles a bit sheepishly.
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With a heave, Cassiel moves the stone lid of the sarcophagus aside. Within, you find the stone coffin devoid of remains. Rather, there are several items. There are one dozen silver arrows, four sun rods, six flasks of clear liquid labeled as holy water, a bundle of ten arrows, a bundle of five other arrows, a pair of arrows set aside from the others, seven vials of liquid in a padded leather pouch (five are deep red in color, two are bright green), two leather scroll cases, and a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back.
Cassiel purses his lips and resists the urge to cheer.
"I don't know whether to be offended that somebody removed whoever was interred here to make room for these, or overjoyed at finding stuff that we can use to help the town."
It could be a hidden cache... useful items in hunting the undead. Do we collect these for use or do we report this find to Father Grimburrow? There could be consequences if we do that - we acted against his wishes.
"Hang on--Lorant, did Professor Lorrimor's journal say anything about something like this? I remember it did..."
Yes! You're right - I had forgotten all together, he says as he picks up the wooden case and opens it carefully.
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The inside of the case is padded and lined with velvet. To either side of a central well are five indentions (for a total of ten). The central well holds a wooden spirit board and a brass planchette. Of the indentions, six are empty, but four of them hold iron and crystal vials containing tiny, churning clouds of vapor.
"Looks like Petros was right. Let's get back to the house to examine them more closely."
He frowns a bit.
"Is the revelation of my non-humanness really that unsurprising?"
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Back at the house, you are able to examine things at your leisure.
After a long while, Meenak emerges from his hidey-hole with the goods that you have found. "These are silver arrows, of course" he says, holding up the silver-tipped arrows, "And we already know this is holy water." He sets aside the labeled vials.
"These arrows," he holds up the bundle of ten arrows, "Are enchanted so as to hit things better ."
"These arrows," he says, pointing to the bundle of five arrows, "Can hit things that exist on the Ethereal Plane ."
He lays a clawed finger on two arrows that stand apart from the others. "These arrows will harm undead ."
"These five red potions will heal wounds , and these two green ones help restore vitality ."
"We have a scroll of detect undead, two scrolls of hide from undead, and a scroll of protection from evil."
The spirit board can be used to communicate with, well, spirits. But the glass vials... I'm not sure what they do, but I suspect that it will cause physical harm to a spirit if opened in the spirit's presence, perhaps even destroying it."
Lorant nods as Meenak analyzes the contents of the coffer.
"All very useful...though I am no archer."
He looks to the others.
"Are we in agreement, then? Any of these items that we end up not using, we return to the church after this is over?"
The Church of Pharasma teaches its clergy to use light crossbows so I am not sure why they included so many arrows... maybe for use by a militia of non clergy? Interesting. I too am no archer.
Cassiel cringes. "Well, I'm not much of an archer myself... I only took the archery courses because they were part of Basic Training back at Lastwall. Still, I could make use of them, if only because I've got a bow." He holds out his shortbow.
"Hold on to them then, Cas. If we run into a situation where your sword won't help, your bow definitely will. I'm going to check on Kendra. And make some coffee."
Lorant wanders towards the kitchen and begins rummaging around for a kettle and some firewood.
One for me as well please... actually I'll take a herbal tea. I am ready for bed.
"So my revelation back in the crypt wasn't that big a surprise to you, Mathus?" Lorant says, smiling a bit sheepishly as he works.
"So my revelation back in the crypt wasn't that big a surprise to you, Mathus?" Lorant says, smiling a bit sheepishly as he works.
A great surprise and I confess to some trepidation but I feel, for the moment, that you have control of your heritage, he says with some nervousness in his voice.
Cassiel tucks the arrows away and sighs. "Right. Well, time for me to turn in, I think... got some more things to do tomorrow, and I want to get an early start."
He wanders up the stairs, his armour *clanking* along on the wooden steps.
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Once he's gotten himself changed out of his armour and into clothing suitable for sleeping in, he kneels next to his bed and bows his head.
"Lady Iomedae, Inheritor of Aroden's Mantle, your sword and shield has come to confess. Though I do not know how you look upon today's deeds, know that I shall trust your judgement of their worth. I have enabled our band in disturbing a crypt we believed untouched for many years in the name of searching for ways to combat the darkness that claimed Professor Petros Lorrimor." Cassiel squeezes his eyes shut before reaching for his holy symbol resting against his bare chest.
"Doing so has made me uneasy, but what came after only made it worse. We found that the crypt's former host was cast aside for arrows, trinkets and objects made to better destroy the damned. I'm uncertain as to whether or not I should be outraged at such a turn of events, but for now, I will focus on seeking the truth. For our sake, and for the sake of the professor's family." He lets his holy symbol go at the thought of Kendra.
"For Victory, for the Heart. Amen."
With that, he climbs into bed and tries to get some sleep.
"So my revelation back in the crypt wasn't that big a surprise to you, Mathus?" Lorant says, smiling a bit sheepishly as he works.A great surprise and I confess to some trepidation but I feel, for the moment, that you have control of your heritage, he says with some nervousness in his voice.
"For what it's worth, thank you. Dhampirs like me are used to people turning us away the minute they think something's wrong with us, even if they don't know WHAT that may be. That's what Ustalav's famous for."
He gets the fire going and puts the pot on.
Lorant stirs from the chair he'd fallen asleep in, and stumbles into the dining room following the scent of coffee.
Lorant immediately starts gulping down his coffee like a drowning man desperate for air. When he finishes the rather undignified display, he puts the cup down and his eyes immediately seem to perk up.
"Thank you, Kendra. Nothing revitalizes me quite like this."
Yes. A bastion of civilisation - not sure how one can live properly without it.
We haven't visited the Unfurling Scroll as yet - lets make that our next call.
Cassiel rises quite early in the day, before the others have a chance to wake up. After his morning exercises (50 pushups and crunches in the chilly morning air), he joins the others for breakfast.
"Mmm--bacon? Don't mind if I do." Cassiel helps himself to his share of breakfast as the others discuss where to go for the day. "The Unfurling Scroll? Eh, why not--I'm with you."
Lorant takes a long pull of coffee and begins preparing another cup, putting liberal amounts of honey and cream into it before adding the coffee itself.
"That settles it, then. We're all going."
A small amount of color rises to his ridiculously pale cheeks.
"Where is this imported from, Kendra? It's really hard to find coffee this good this far north!"