Rora greets you warmly as you return to the Flour Pot, wondering if you returned to try her new saffron biscuits. She asks if Danicka was able to get the chocolate out of her robes and insists that you all sit down and buy some tea so that she can hear all about what you have been doing over the last couple of days. Eventually she directs you to a nice place to stay, "My third cousin's wife's brother has a delightful little place with his family just a few buildings that way." She winks, "Tell them I sent you, and you'll get a discount."
With only a handful of rooms available, the Harvest Moon Inn is more of a cottage than an inn and couldn't be any more different than the Half-Full Chalice if it tried. The bar connects to a cosy living room with a roaring fire, and the sweet aroma of fresh bread fills the air, definitely an improvement over the smells of that last place. The halfling proprietors greet you happily, first Rani Mooncrest behind the bar, and then his wife, Jinthi, as she emerges from the kitchen. They offer room and board at an incredibly good price thanks to your association with Rora, and you are able to while away the evening in comfort. The next morning, a hearty breakfast awaits you, and when Jinthi finds out you are planing such a big trip, she presses a few extra fresh home-made rolls in your hands, "For the journey!"
Accompanying her notebook entry, Ulisha filled the next several pages with crude maps, complex equations, and further notes. She apparently returned to the Pathfinder’s cave mentioned in her previous entry. By observing the angle of the ridgeline and her current position, she was able to calculate the crash site’s probable location.
The last page on the matter includes a detailed map into Numeria with various landmarks and a destination. An addendum written in recent ink warns, ’Tread lightly. Numeria remains a mystery to the rest of the world. Those who stay too long draw unwanted attention.’
The journey is long, giving Brock and Sinaryn plenty of time to learn new games from eachother, and for the group to bond a little. Almost two weeks pass, travelling by a combination of riverboat and cart, before you manage to enter the foothills of a small mountain range north of Gralton, and from here, you continue up the hills on foot. Ulisha’s map leads up a series of switchbacks rising to a low summit with a phenomenal view. Vast plains extend to the north, where clouds gather on the horizon. To the south, the Sellen River cuts a definitive border between the River Kingdoms and Numeria.
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Danicka blushes, and shows off her robes, recently cleaned with prestidigitation. "It came clean," Danicka admits to Rora. She thanks her happily for the advice.
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When Danicka sees the Harvest Moon Inn she smiles happily. "Oh, this is much better," she says quietly.
Danicka makes friends with Rani and Jinthi before they leave, happy to meet such nice people. She thanks them for the rolls.
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On the trip to Numeria Danicka is nervous and jumpy--more than usual--for not only does she worry about outside dangers, now she also seems worried about most of her companions. She sleeps fitfully, but keeps up with the group.
By the end of the two-week journey, Danicka has settled a bit. She seems to have forgotten, forgiven or moved on from the disagreement in Daggermark, and is back to her usual shy, nervous self (which is much sweeter than her suspicious, nervous self).
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As the group reaches the marked area, Danicka looks around, eventually pointing at the soil along the slope of the hill. "The soil is looser here than it should be," she tells the others as she points it out. "Here, see? Like a rockslide has recently covered it..."
Danicka looks at the disturbed soil closer.
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The next morning, Forrest wakes up with an awful headache. He hides his pain however, and profusely apologizes to the group for any poor behavior the night before. Apparently he has forgotten the whole thing.
As the group approaches the site he speaks up. "Perhaps we'll find some of the famed adamantium metal with this meteor. I know I wouldn't mind a stronger rapier! " At Danicka's pronouncement, he walks off a little ways to explore the disturbed soil as well.
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"Tonk! 51!" Brock exclaims as he slams his cards down on a makeshift table, "that's double folks!" he chuckles happily as the riverboat crew and gurads grumble and toss in the requisite silver and he scoops it across the table.
The trip has been long, but as he spent much of his time as a caravan guard, it was somewhat relaxing.
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Arriving near the crash site Brock walks in the van, with his crossbow out and ready.
"The various guards I talked with say this is a savage land where inly the strong survive. Formed by some star falling or something. Be wary, this is rpugh land."
Hearing Danika's observation he comments, "Well caught, Danika, this much wilderness is certainly not my element"
Internally he curses himself at missing the now obvious loose dirt, he needed to be better, failure of concentration will get them all killed in this hard land.
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While at the biscuit shop, Yaiho eats another impressive amount with his tea before the group heads to the recommended Inn. He waves goodbye with a grin at the biscuit maker as they leave. He is in a good mood as they arrive at the Inn and remains in a good mood. Especially with the hearty breakfast.
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Yaiho doesn't notice the rockslide until Danicka mentions it. "Huh..."
Yaiho keeps ready for trouble as the group makes it way toward the destination, expecting a monster to jump out to be crushed at any moment.
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Umbru kneels beside the soil, grabs a small bunch and runs it through his finger. He looks up at Danicka and nods, affirming her assessment. "Your eye is most keen, Danicka Raburnus. Indeed, it is best we take caution. There are more than landslides alone that can cause loose soil like this." He then retreats to the rear of the group.
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Danicka informs Forrest that while he was drunk he was rude and terrifying. She's clearly displeased with him, and has no problem telling him so (surprisingly).
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Danicka roots around in the loose soil with her bare hands, curious if there's something in there, or if there's something mixed in with the soil that might be a clue to what caused it.
While Yaiho, Brock, and Umbrutani keep a wary eye out for trouble, Danicka and Forrest investigate the area of the recent rockslide. With a beautiful clear blue sky overhead and a strong mid-day sun, it doesn't take long before Danicka notices the glint of something shiny as she roots around in the loose soil. Forrest, on the lookout for adamantium, joins her and brushes away some of the dirt, uncovering a solid metal surface buried below the surface. Together, they continue the excavation, and soon reveal an ovoid pod, just over 10 feet in length and 5 feet in diameter at its widest point. The metal is strange and unfamiliar, but it appears to be relatively undamaged. Its surface is scratched and dented but unbroken, and a 3-by-5-foot section of the side appears as though it could be opened on a hinge. Danicka realises that the pod is constructed of an alloy of iron and adamantine. This is certainly no meteor!
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"This is not meteor," she tells the group. "It's made from metal--an alloy of iron and adamantine... Looks like it's man-made. There's a hinge here... Like this could open up and out. Door, or a hatch. Looks a bit stuck."
Danicka digs her slender little fingers under the hatch and pulls up with all her might.
Unable to budge it even a bit, Danicka looks at Forrest. "It's stuck tight."
"Could you help us please, Yaiho?" Danicka asks, knowing her big friend is always happy to help.
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Danicka lets out a little giggle at she AND Sinaryn's feebleness. It doesn't last long, though, as her eyes go wide at the thought of Sinaryn blowing up an important discovery.
"N-n-no, we couldn't do that! We have no idea what this is. It could be an important discovery!"
"I've certainly never heard of anything like it..." she adds quietly. Realizing from Sinaryn's laughter she might be joking, Danicka blushes brightly.
Together Brock and Yaiho easily force the hatch open and you hear a *Shwump* as a puff of air bellows out from the opening. The inside of the wrecked pod is cramped. A single chair made out of the same strange metal faces the hatch, dozens of straps hang inside the device, and an array of levers and buttons lines the interior on one side. Several dozen palm-sized metallic discs and an unadorned silvery bracer lie scattered across the interior. It is otherwise empty.
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"Oh, my!" Danicka exclaims as a whoosh of air shoots into her face and hair. She waves her hand back and forth in front of her face, and then peers inside the strange metal pod.
Danicka slinks into the pod and picks up the metal discs, passing them out to the others. Then she sits in the seat and looks around the pod.
Danicka picks up the silvery bracer and examines it...
She also clicks some of the buttons and pulls levers, trying to figure out what this strange contraption might be...
Sitting in the pod, Danicka easily spots every single disc, 35 in total, that had been scattered all over the floor, and passes them out to the others. Unfortunately, she has no idea what either the metal discs or the bracer could be, and has no idea what they're worth. She then starts pushing buttons and has a bit of a shock when, after pulling one lever too many, the hatch closes on her, cocooning the poor wizard in total darkness.
Brock tries to reopen the hatch, but it's stuck fast and his fingers slip out the join almost sending him tumbling like Sinaryn earlier. Fortunately Danicka isn't trapped for too long, as the hatch pops open again after she pulls levers and presses buttons in the reverse order of moments ago. After a few moments to calm down, and with a little more experimentation, it becomes clear that only the lever to open and close the hatch does anything at all.
The bracer definitely isn't magical in nature, it emits no aura and Danicka is sure she would have recognised if it were. However, during her brief moment of solitude in the pod, Danicka did hear the faintest of humming coming from the silvery device. It is active, but not magical...
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Brock picks up one of the small disks and looks at it quizzicaly. "We certainly can take these things and the bracer. Seem strange enough to be worth something."
Looking over the big egg, "Seems pretty big to drag with us, I wonder if it is worth it. Anyone know if its made of that ad.. ad...adam... unobtainum stuff? Seems like it might be worth something for scrap if we can't find an alchemist or wizard or something who wants it."
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Forrest peers in the orb curiously, but does not enter. He looks at Brock. "The note just said we had to find it. Perhaps if we drew a good enough map, that would be worth some coin. I'm not sure if something this large is feasible for us to carry! In the worst case, the Pathfinders will be curious enough to send amother team. "
He grabs on of the silver disks, sits down on the ground and examines it. I'm sure I've seen something like this before. Perhaps in the Master's house. He stares at it for quite some time, wracking his brain.
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"It's an alloy of iron and adamantine," Danicka repeats for Brock's benefit.
"I suppose it depends how big it is..." Danicka muses aloud.
Danicka points at the bracer. "That is humming, but it's not magical and it's not natural... Perhaps we need a historian, or an engineer to have a look at it.... Or, I suppose we could just try it on."
Danicka climbs out of the pod and puts the bracer on her left wrist. Then she waits to see what happens.
Forrest sits, contemplating the silver discs, but distracted by Brock and Danicka, all that comes to mind at the moment is the value of the pod. He remembers that while adamantine is very valuable on its own, when alloyed with iron it's less durable and pretty much worthless as scrap since it's almost impossible to separate the two metals again. The value it may hold for the Pathfinder Society, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.
The bracer is a little dinged up, but () actually makes for a rather pretty silver bracelet. When Danicka's slips it over her left wrist, she feels a strange tingling sensation in the air surrounding her entire body, and all the hairs on her arms stand up on end. It's not an unpleasant sensation, just very very strange.
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As Danicka puts the bracer on, Forrest quickly stands up. "But... what... no! You can't just put on strange items! Especially if they're ticking! " He sighs. "Well, I'm not getting anywhere with this thing. Can't remember if it's valuable or not. That pod however, won't be worth our time. The society will care about the coordinates, but alloys like that aren't worth the sweat to drag it back. "
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Danicka pats at her poofy hair in embarrassment. "It's not ticking, it's humming," Danicka assures Forrest. "Besides, who would put on a ticking bracer?" Danicka blushes deeper. "A-a-actually, I would."
"Hmmm... I feel fine... There's a tingling sensation in the air around me... Interesting." She looks at the bracer. "It does look quiet fetching, doesn't it?"
Despite everyone's worry she makes no move to remove the bracelet.
I suppose you're right," Danicka admits to Brock. "Burying the pod for proper excavation later is sound. I'd like to draw if first, though. Just in case."
Danicka sits on the ground, pulls out her writing supplies and her journal, and begins drawing the pod, its interior and the site itself. She makes notes about how the pod operates, and it's location.
After her records are complete she packs her things back up, stands, and dusts herself off.
"S-s-s-sorry to keep you waiting," she tells them quietly. "I'm ready now."
As soon as Danicka is finished making a thorough record of the find, the group spends a few minutes reburying the pod so that a proper excavation of the site can happen at a later date. They then start the long descent back to their awaiting boat, Brock leading the way with his crossbow out, closely followed by Yaiho. Brock was right to be wary, though, as barely a minute after setting off he spots some movement on the sides of the path.
"Stop there," a Kellid woman demands as she steps out of the surrounding brush, hefting a massive blade, "You’re are not from here, and those things are not yours. Give us the silverdisks, all the gold you have, and anything else you found there. Then you may live." As if to punctuate the threat, three other Kellid’s appear from the brushes and fall in behind her, blocking the path with their large frames and even larger weapons.
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"Eeek!" Danicka exclaims as the Kellid woman appears out of nowhere threatening them with a big blade.
"T-t-that's not very nice!" Danicka exclaims.
I have had more than enough of threats on this mission!
Seeing the other Kellid's appear, Danicka shrinks back a bit.
"These things are ours, and we'd like to keep them," she mumbles, nervous now. "I-i-i-if you please." She curtsies politely for good measure.
Oh, dear, they're going to try to kill us. And then my friends will kill them. These poor people!
Danicka pulls a piece of paper from her scroll case, and holds it in shaking hands.
"Y-y-y-you really should leave us be." she adds bravely, hoping to convince them to leave before they get hurt.
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Brock smiles at the 4 kellid that appear on the path before him.
And just as I was getting bored
He scoffs at the threats made by the leader, "Maybe if you only asked for what we found you would have had a case. Taking our gold makes you nothing but common brigands, and I know how to deal with those." he adds his nastiest smile, "so, a counter proposal, you drop your weapons and walk away and I won't be looting your corpses in about five minutes."
He gestures with his loaded crossbow, "Off you go"
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Forrest steps forward and draws his rapier. "They ain't mine, but they ain't yours neither. Besides, my frizzy-haired friend called dibs. You wouldn't be infringing on her dibs-ing rights, are you? " He smiles and waves his rapier in a little circle.
"The lady's right. You really should leave us be. "
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Sin stayed mostly disinterested during the pod affair after she was sure Danicka wasn't trapped. When they headed out she watched their rear with pistol drawn.
When the Kellids confront them she moves forward with the group. Trying to get a viewpoint. Once in place she joins Brock in his retort.
"Listen to my reasonable companions. Brigands and murderers only get one chance to stand down then they are put down." she adds with her pistol drawn.
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"Hmm, interesting. I've seen discs like these in a curios shop while passing throuogh Lung Wa. They are Numerian “silverdisks,” a form of currency. Rather valuable."
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Umbru withdraws his vial of cognatogen and downs it quickly. Seeing his teammates moving forward to threaten the Kellids, he also chooses to speak, hoping that they would see reason. "Please, there is no need for violence. For one, we found these items solely on our own effort, and if you make attempts to remove them from our possessions, you are no more than robbers. Besides, we seem to have you outnumbered. So please, just let us be on our way."
Their apparent leader glances at Danicka when Forrest talks about her dibbing rights, spots the shiny silver bracelet on her wrist, and anger flashes in her eyes, "That does not belong to you!". The large Kellid woman looks ready to strike, but hesitates for a moment suddenly looking unsure of herself as the Pathfinders advance and make demands of their own. Their threats worry her enough that she actually considers Umbru's words for a second, but anger wins out in the end and she barks out commands to her comrades, "Get that bracelet!" Her voice wavers slightly which only serves to fuel her rage even further, "Kill them all!"
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[ooc][/ooc]
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Yaiho lets the other talk but smiles when the Kellids seem to only get angry. His smile widens as they get more angry and when the leader yells to 'kill them all' his smile widens to an even more menacing size as he walks toward the leader while his Rage builds. With earthbreaker in hand, he simply looks down at her and says, "You die now." and brings his massive weapon down on her.
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Why do they insist on taking the items? Do they have a rightful claim to it?
However, the time for talk is past and Umbru, sighing a resigned sigh, moves up to get closer, but not too close. He whips out a vial and, figuring Yahoi and Forrest would make short work of the leader, tosses the bomb at the next in line.
The Kellid leader easily steps aside from Yohai’s clumsy swing and smiles, "You first orc!" She retorts, ready to reply with a hefty swing of her own oversized weapon, but distracted by the big half-orc she failed to notice Forrest swiftly move in behind. Her smile quickly turns into a look of horror as she coughs up blood and turns to face the halfling who had just sunk his blade deep into her side. The wound would have felled a lesser mortal, Forrest knows, but the Kellid leader just screams with an unbounded fury and swings her massive sword at him instead of Yaiho, "AAaaaaaghh!"
Meanwhile the Kellid with yellow warpaint is engulfed by the flames from one of Umbru's bombs, "Kolga, fall back!" His comrade in purple warpaint yells as he nocks an arrow and aims at the wayang, "I'll cover you..." The arrow flies as Kolga retreats, patting out the flames on his chest. However he only makes it as far as the lean and tall Kellid at the back, "Cowards!" She yells in anger, "Get the silverdisks, I'll get the bracelet." As she runs off at a blistering pace towards Brock, the man in yellow warpaint rallies and shoots an arrow towards Sinaryn.
The tall Kellid with green warpaint comes screaming towards Brock, whirling her heavy flail above her head, "Out the way!" She crashes into Brock, sweeping at his legs with the heavy chain in an attempt to knock him off his feet. She seems pretty shocked, and mildly impressed, that the man doesn't fall to her heavy assault.
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Brock grins in savage glee as the barbarian attacks him, his nimble feet and combat honed reflexes allowing him to avoid her attack with relative ease.
Tossing his crossbow aside he rips his sword out and salutes the rager recovering from her swing.
"Ya wanna dance? Then lets dance." raising his voice to his party, he roars "This one is mine, back off"
He then wades into the combat, flashing blade first.
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Danicka moves closer to the battle, muttering arcane words quietly as she forms complex sigils with her right hand. She waves her arm at the terrifying woman and a blast of white energy flies from her hands, striking the Kellid in the chest.
"Get back!" Danicka calls out bravely--or rather, bravely for Danicka--her voice is loud enough to be heard and it barely even wavers in fear!