"Oh. Oh, that is nice, dear."
Oleg tries to smile but all he can see is a reduction in his monthly profits. Thankfully for him, his distracted wife doesn't notice his reaction!
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Diceros talks to Jhod.
"Of all the places in these lands I am most interested in, it is this temple, whatever it may be. We ventured far south and east and found no evidence. Perhaps next we will head to the southwest, and have more luck."
Diceros then picks up his new elven branched spear and practices some twirls with it. Wow, it is finely balanced!
Arlen pauses oddly from her greetings for the Levetons. She then laughs while carefully perusing a few items from Diceros' pack.
Arlen decides the silver ring is worth 75 gold, and the spellbook with 5 level 1 spells is 65 gold (15 + 10 per first level spell).
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Sigurd takes the brewery kit and sets it up in an unused corner. He spends the rest of the day boiling water and mashing grains. He mixes in the various additives he's gathered during the group's travels, tasting a bit as he goes.
When he deems that everything is just right, he sets the mash aside to ferment, dubbing it "The Greenbelt Ale".
"Should be ready in one month", he announces to the rest of the group.
The beer should be ready for first tasting on Desnus 10! (take note!)
I need components to make 20 acid and 30 alchemists fire and then I need a hybridization funnel. How much Oleg? Rai says.
"Ye gods, elf! You plan on blowing up the place? That is without a doubt, the singular most dangerous thing anyone has ever asked for. But since you seem to assume I am a walking shopping cart, I can tell you that all of that will run you 600 gold. Gold up front. As always."
The party sleeps in the guest quarter over night and wakes to the sound of Noober crowing at the sun when daylight hits.
(+5 vs charm/compulsion spells/SLAs)
Walking around the keep, making his way to the alchemist table, Rai feels a prickling on his neck. Some kind of unwelcome magical is near him.
Arlen sleeps in very late, her old bones very tired and sore from all the galavanting around the countryside. Then she wakes and begins buzzin around the fort, talking to Rasputin and catching up with everyone but Noober.
Kesten Garess approaches Brokk'r about mid-day. "Sir dwarf, a moment of your time. No one answered earlier when I asked if you all had come across the mercenary known as Falgrim Sneeg. Perhaps if you killed him quickly you wouldn't have learned his name. He was a bit of brute; a criminal in Restov hence my charge to track him down."
Rai forks over 434 gold (600-credit) and raids the storeroom for ingredients. Throughout the day, he cooks up 20 acid and 30 alchemist fire flasks.
However, the tingling on his neck persists, and he asks Arlen for assistance to determine if there is some type of magic aura following him.
Arlen casts detect magic!
damn it Arlen something magical is following me or on me!. Rai points to the back of his neck
"Hmm..." Brokk'r says. "Can't say I remember meetin' anyone by that name. A while back we found a man dead on one of his own reckless traps. Maybe that was him?"
"Hold still! Hold still now! I need a blood sample! Where's my dagger?" Arlen cackles gleefully to herself.
"Kidding! Kidding dear one. Just let me take a look now." She screen up her old eyes to see better and sniffs the air too.
Ike tried out his dwarven skin a bit longer, approaching as a dwarf as he shook Noober, nodding. Ike perked up at the mention of a temple that someone asked about. "What does the temple look like...? And... who is it to?" Ike never considered himself religious... who would he even worship? He'd been defaulting to Shelyn, he heard she was a goddess of beauty and figured his shape changing could let him make tributes to her beauty... but the truth was, he knew next to nothing about her or any deity.
Perhaps... perhaps this was a sign? Did the gods send signs to oozes? Would they even listen if they honored them? "...Mr. Kavken? Who is this temple to? What do they do? ...would you teach me? Do they like monsters like me? I... I want to make a home for others monsters like me... maybe... would a place like this help me?"
"Let's see... Reports have him a big, ugly man. A bushman... " Kesten goes on to describe the very man you found who was killed by his own trap and a little help from a faerie dragon.
With a little back and forth, you both come to an agreement that you had indeed see Falgrim Sneeg's body. Though you didn't technically kill him yourself, Kesten offers you two masterwork weapons- the party can decide.
Arlen and Rai put their heads together and discuss what the magic could be. Arlen opens herself up to the arcane energies in the area... and is shocked at what she sees. There is some kind of scrying spell placed on all the members of the party... but only Rai was able to feel it! Someone... somewhere... is watching you.
Arlen pauses, quieting abruptly. "This isn't good. Someone is spying on us with magic."
Arlen muses to herself. "Whoever is doing this doesn't need to have seen us. A description could be enough, though it would be harder." She considers for a few moments. "The Stag Lord. Some of his men escaped and told him about us. He's the only one we've met that seems he could have the magical resources for this. We must be careful."
Rai goes and looks for the magical statue they found in their rooms and among their things
Ike stared at the ground a little bit, pondering this. Could the Stag Lord really be spying on them like that? Did bandits have that much magic? Something about it felt... odd. He couldn't quite explain it, something in his slime center didn't think that was the case... was there someone else they'd met who might could do that?
"...Nyrissa." Ike murmured. He remembered her. And she seemed to fit the bill. She vanished in a flash of light, and she could change herself into other shapes. That was magic, right? And she certainly didn't seem to like them... not that he could guess why. And more importantly, she had the chance to meet them. That night at the campfire.
"It's that Nyrissa lady. The elf lady. I... I bet she's the one watching us. I can't explain it, but I've got this... this feeling. Like an animal." Could oozes have animal instincts?
Arlen nods thoughtfully. "A very real possibility and one I overlooked." She considers very carefully if she knows of any way to break the scrying spell.
As far as you know, the only way to prevent a scry is to bend your willpower to defeating it. It appears that only Rai was able to stop the scrying and feel that it was happening... it seem likely that everyone else is being followed by some unseen eyes at this very moment.
After about twenty minutes or so, Arlen's detect magic spell shows the scrying has disappeared.
While the commotion over the scrying starts to die down, Jhod spends some time talking to Ike about his questions.
"You have to understand, Mr. Sir Ike, I am only a low ranking cleric myself, so my exact knowledge may yet be flawed. I say this so you understand I am not the end all of knowledge for you."
"I am a worshipper of Erastil, god of the hunt and home. He is most often worshipped in small rural communities, as people look to him for divine assistance in raising successful crops and bringing home a successful hunt to feed their families. Would he be a god of monsters...? I wonder. He seeks to help homes and households, and you wish to provide a home to those that the world sees as monsters. I am not sure, but I would not be surprised if he looked with kindness on your ideas. Perhaps you should learn more of Erastil yourself. I will be happy to continue to teach you as much as I can!"
Jhod continues to sit with Ike and go through the basic tenets of Erasil worship, if Ike is interested.
Arlen ponders through serious situation. "It's gone for now. But the only way to stop it will be through constant alertness to feel and throw off such intrusions. We must be careful..."
Ike sat entranced as he listened to Jhod speak about Erastil. A god of homes... a home he wanted so badly. A place to belong and call his own like he had before. Somewhere that others like him could come and find refuge from a world that didn't understand them. The traditional things seemed a bit... hard. Not unappealing, but given he was a sentient ooze, he suspected those traditions might not all apply to him so easily... still, the idea had his attention, and by the end of Jhod's lecture, he wanted to be a part of this so badly.
He just... didn't know how. How do you venerate your deity? How do you show you want to be part of their faith? Ike didn't know... but he knew someone who did!
"Thank you, Father Jhod! I'll find that temple! I promise! ...Sigurd!" Ike called, bowing back to the priest before running off to find the war singer. "Sigurd! Sigurd, how do you do the faith thing? Like... how do I show I want to follow Erastil? You know religion too, right? I mean... I don't think I can be a priest like Father Jhod... but you have divine power, right? From Gorum? So... how do I do that?"
Rai thinks of the magical statue, which was left behind after the party last left Oleg's Trading Post, and goes to look for it in the guest quarters.
Thankfully, it is still there.
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Rai will bring the statue to Arlen to have another look at with detect magic and spellcraft and arcana.
Arlen let's try to figure out why the dairy Queen wants this so bad
Arlen ponders the statue and considers what might be involved.
The statue emanates powerful magic that Arlen has felt before fighting and talking with the various fairies and gremlins the party has run across; the magic of the First World! But beyond getting a taste that the magic is powerful and ancient, she can do little in deciphering how the statue should be harnessed.
Arlen shrugs. "I can't figure it out right now. I'll try again later. Let's head out!"
The day passes peacefully enough, though you all can't help but be paranoid of unseen eyes watching you.
Rai gets all of his alchemical creations finished, and Sigurd fills the fort with the smell of boiling grains.
Ike holds deep and long conversations with Jhod as he tries to learn more about Erastil.
Arlen spends the time staring deep at the magic statue... when she gets bored of that, she switches to her ring... which is still spouting off bits of nonsense here and there.
Diceros goes through the parties equipment, gets the party's food and water supplies in shape, and does various other business with Oleg.
Brokk'r spends his free time sleeping...
***********
The next morning dawns, and it is surprisingly quiet. No Noober caws out his morning ritual.
The first person awake gets up to see Kesten standing on the walls and staring out into the distance.
"Blast it all. We have a man AWOL. Private Noober has disappeared! Well... I can see the tracks of his horse headed south and west. But why did he leave? This is unauthorized! I'll see him back in manacles!"
let's take the statue with us Rai says as he packs all his new achemical equipment leaving 20 acid and 20 alchemist fire behind in his shop
Rai goes to grab the statue. It is gone! He swears it was sitting on the nightstand just the day before!
Hearing of the disappearance of the statue and Noober, Arlen cackles and cracks her knuckles. I won't cry if we have to end the little twerp. "Let's track that horse. Make sure no human prints split off." She glares at the tracks and grins. "Let's get 'im."
The party springs into action. Equipment is grabbed; horses are mounted. Kesten Garess is right there with you.
"Onward friends! Let us find the traitor and bring back your magic! For Restov, and the Sword!"
He wheels his horse about and gallops off, following the tracks of Noober going west.