Get the Hell out of here. Ella replies casually.
Are you joking?Duristan asks with genuine surprise. This is going to be the greatest hunt of my life! he cries excitedly. I don't know these woods as well as Delgros but I've hunted them for months now. Do you know where these wolves gather?
The door opens in the wake of Duristan's question, a haggard looking Vala struck in silhouette behind with Pyth perched atop her shoulder. "Yes, we do. I take it the theatrics have finally finished? Good. Now let's hurry up and be done with this place. If we have to fight our way through five tribes of wolves to get to my niece, then that's what I mean to do."
Kazamir will first check the drawer that drew Estovian's eye during their strained interview, then do his usual, thorough crawl through
the whole room
The room looks mostly intact, with only a specific few areas ransacked. Trying to recall what was in the room originally, Kaz suspects it is mostly books, personal items and things that could be spell components missing.
He checks the drawer and while it is open, it is disappointingly empty.
However, his keen eyes spot something amiss near the foot of one of the bookshelves and bending down, he retrieves a small leather-bound journal that looks like it was accidentally dropped and possibly kicked under there.
"Obviously, to take the heart of the packlord, and claim the mantle for the Way... and thus clear the way to use the ritual of the Dusk Moth to hear the song of the spheres," says Constantin. He gnaws on one of his fingernails nervously. "Estovian's been complicit this whole time, possibly under pressure, and merely pretended to helping while doing what he could to delay us."
Duristan has been hanging around like a child on his mother's coat-tails. He tries to look at the journal over Kaz' shoulder and then repositions to try to force his way into the circle - beside Hazel of course.
Ummm... I don't know anything about a Dusk Moth. he says gingerly. But I know where the Stairs of the Moon are.
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Kaz quickly reads the documents, then, wordlessly, hands them to his companions, starting with Hazel. He exchanges a knowing look with Constantin, then commandeers one of the office's chairs, leaning back into it, legs outstretched, arms crossed, head bowed, and brow deeply furrowed, trying to put together Estovian's information and the bizarre trail Vrood had left across the Immortal Principality.
At Duristan's words, Kaz's head snaps up, eyes narrowed. "How far?" he asks tersely.
He is eager to help...but I cannot help but recall the Harrower's warning of betrayal...
Kaz does his best to bury his sudden, rather unfounded suspicion, below the threshold of the lordling's perception.
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Vala snaps and waves a hand at Kazamir as he sits down and reclines, looking ready to pull him out of the chair by his ear if need be, "Get up this instant! We're not here to relax, Kazamir." She turns to Duristan and spins him toward the door, "Get your things. You're taking us there." Over her shoulder, she barks, "That goes for the rest of you. We're done dawdling in this false bastion of civilization. We've a lot of ground to make up! And Hazel: language!" She storms toward the door, carried on a fervor seemingly strong enough to knock the very walls down should they impede her.
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It's a way. Duristan admits though he is either stopped from saying more or simply too shocked or frightened to elaborate by Vala's impassioned outburst.
"Let me grab my spear and pack," says Constantin as he hustles back to the room.
Aye, I'll go and pack... For the greatest hunt of my life! Duristan laughs excitedly. It's perfect, if the packlord is dead they'll all be vying for position. That means they'll all come together at Highthrone to pick a new leader, I can sneak in and get a pelt of every tribe before they even know what's happening! Then they can have the wood and the damned lodge for all I care haha!
Quiene saddles your horses and with Duristan at your head, you plunge into the woods.
After an hour, the horses are understandably nervous. With the combination of the almost full moon and the thick canopy, the darkness is absolute.
Venturing deeper into the Shudderwood, the long, spidery branches of the towering pines seem to weave more tightly together. Beneath this thick canopy, daylight fades, and the entire forest seems to blur into shadowy hues.
We aren't far now. Duristan says. I know it looks like we could be in the middle of nowhere, but this wood thins out dramatically in a few moments and the Stairs sit in the middle of a clearing. What do you want to do?
"Werewolves are more dangerous at night. Would it be better to wait until the light of morning to enter?"
"What do the Stairs look like?" asks Constantin, doing his best to keep up though he's an inexpert rider. "Are they a big pile of rocks, or carved in a cliffside, or an actual staircase?"
"Zelda can help", Vermundr offers. "The buzzing from her wings is tough to hear if she approaches from high enough."
Events were moving apace, and Kazamir was still struggling to see the full picture. Still deep in thought, too distracted to even answer Vala, he returned to his room, packed his things, and met his companions at the stables.
What is Vrood DOING? he thought, over and over, on the ride, cursing himself for being unable to tease out a prediction of their foe's motives or next step.
This is a trap, of course, but what SORT of a trap? Was the journal dropped? Or planted, so that they WOULD follow, to their deaths? Well, that was a constant risk, and they were going to it armed and fully expecting conflict, so Kaz could not see the advantage there.
Or is it a false scent, and has Vrood already slipped away again? It seems unlikely, given Vrood's sense of the dramatic...he'll want to 'punish' us in person.
As Duristan pulls them up, he regards the hunter again, wondering about the possibility of betrayal.
"If Zelda, and perhaps Pyth are willing to scout, I think that would be a good start."
With a nod from Vala, Pyth takes wing and slips ahead of the group, silent as a breath in the night. As Pyth and Zelda fly ahead, Vala tries to learn what she can of the place. "Maybe Petros knew something of the stairs, Constantin. Give me a moment."
HP: 39/39
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 14
F/R/W: +6/+3/+11 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Healing Hex targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Heavens
Heaven's Leap targets:
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 16: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 17: glitterdust [ ], hypnotic pattern* [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 18: daylight* [ ], fly [ ], lightning bolt [ ] [ ],
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 19: legend lore* [X], greater magic weapon [ ], spiritual ally [ ]
Ongoing Effects
"What do the Stairs look like?" asks Constantin, doing his best to keep up though he's an inexpert rider. "Are they a big pile of rocks, or carved in a cliffside, or an actual staircase?"
Well they aren't actual stairs. Duristan says. There might be inside, I've no idea. It's some sort of building, quite large and mostly intact. The whole place is referred to as the Stairs but I don't know why.
Vala concentrates and summons an image of her old friend the Professor. It is comforting and most welcome to see him sitting at his messy desk, a plume of smoke rising from his pipe and him peering at some lost tome over the tops of gold-rimmed spectacles.
She wishes she could have a real conversation with him but instead her mind is impressed with information about the Stairs of the Moon.
The Stairs of the Moon was an ancient temple of Desna constructed in the Shudderwood during the first half of the Age of Enthronement. For over 800 years, the temple administered to those of Desna’s faithful among the settlers of the Shudderwood, until the Whispering Tyrant came to Ustalav. It is an ancient place of solemnity and quiet power.
During the wars against the Whispering Tyrant, the High priest’s son served as a missionary, but when he returned home some years later he had changed, for at some point he had contracted a particularly virulent strain of lycanthropy.
The priest tried everything he could to save his son. He imprisoned his son in a secret chamber beneath the temple and conducted experiments upon him, desperate to reverse the curse. When his research failed to yield positive results, these experiments turned dark and terrible. The priest developed a serum from his son’s blood that he used to infect his congregation with lycanthropy in order to study the disease’s effects. Over the generations, these aff licted werewolves’ offspring became natural werewolves, and their descendents now hunt the Shudderwood as the
Mordrinacht tribe.
When the temple fell to the armies of the Whispering Tyrant, consumed in mysterious pillars of white fire, death transformed the cleric’s wretched son into the undead vilkacis. The Stairs of the Moon was soon abandoned, and its memory wiped from the world at large.
Now the temple serves as a meeting place and neutral ground for all the wolves of the Shudderwood. It is their most sacred proving grounds and seat of council - now referred to by them as Highthrone - the seat of the one Packlord
Vala sighs heavily, her face darkening as she learns what transpired at the Stairs in the distant past. She shares what the spell imparted with the others, still waiting for Pyth and Zelda to return, then tries to drum up any recollections around a vilkacis.
"I suppose devils like Vrood aren't unique to our day and age," she grumbles bitterly, shaking her head.
HP: 39/39
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 14
F/R/W: +6/+3/+11 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 1/7
Healing Hex targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Heavens
Heaven's Leap targets:
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 16: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [X], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 17: glitterdust [ ], hypnotic pattern* [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 18: daylight* [ ], fly [ ], lightning bolt [ ] [ ],
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 19: legend lore* [X], greater magic weapon [ ], spiritual ally [ ]
Ongoing Effects
"If the Way wants the Mordrinacht in power we should assume it's in our best interest to make sure that doesn't come to pass", Vermundr speculates. "This task will be easier with allies within one or more of the other packs. The enemy of my enemy..."
Vala growls, her impatience beginning to show again as the group waits for their winged companions to return. "Enemy of my enemy or not, if they stand between us and that snake Vrood then they'll regret it. I'll burn the whole wood to the ground if that's what it takes."
In the still night air, every so often you hear the howl of a distant wolf, soon answered by half a dozen others. Each one sends a shiver down your spine.
Zelda and Pyth return shortly after and report that there after the trees thin, there are werewolves hiding in some of the undergrowth. There are three of them and it looks like they are set up there semi-permanently in case of intruders.
"Well, those lurking wolves are our first concern before we can even start worrying about that vilkacis. Everyone have their silver at the ready? If this place is as important to them as the legends suggest, I don't they'll take kindly to our presence whether we oppose the Mordrinacht or not."
HP: 39/39
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 14
F/R/W: +6/+3/+11 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 1/7
Healing Hex targets:
Current Wandering Spirit: Heavens
Heaven's Leap targets:
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 16: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [X], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 17: glitterdust [ ], hypnotic pattern* [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 18: daylight* [ ], fly [ ], lightning bolt [ ] [ ],
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 19: legend lore* [X], greater magic weapon [ ], spiritual ally [ ]
Ongoing Effects
Kazamir draws the long silvered blade out of his cane and nods his readiness.
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Kazamir gives Dusristan a speculative look. "M. Ariesir, how is your horsemanship? DO you think you could, and would you be willing to, ride out - feigning ignorance or overconfidence, perhaps fire an arrow at our lurking hosts, then break for the treeline again - where we would all be waiting in ambush? Do we think such a thing might work, or might we be detected - scented, or such, before we could close the trap. Could a man on horseback outrun a trio of werewolves? "
Vala shoots Kazamir a wide-eyed look, her shock plain. "We're not sending Duristan out there as bait! Are you mad?" She interrupts her burgeoning rant to turn to Vermundr and bring some magics to settle over his chosen weapon. "And we certainly wouldn't do it with him on horseback riding blind through the night!
Ah the old bait-and-switch! Duristan whispers excitedly. Well I'm certainly willing to try, but you are the experts.
He simply seems eager to help and make a good impression on you.
What do you think we should do Hazel? he asks, biting his lip nervously.
Alright then! Duristan says, whipping his rapier from it's sheathe and cutting a swathe in the air, the magnificent blade glittering in the moonlight. Let's find out what happened to your niece, Ms Cross. Together! his hand slides out and slips into Hazel's giving it a sharp squeeze before dropping away again just as quickly. ...ummm that is, if i may be so bold...
Zed steps into the moonlight, knowing their presence is already detected. "It's a good night for some bloodsport, isn't it?"