Molasbar gives words of approval and encouragement as the others split off to sell or buy goods, or gather information.
For his part, Molasbar looks for a quieter corner of the Bristleback, orders a decent wine with mild cheese and hearty bread. Once settled in, he'll set about flushing out the mapping he started earlier, as well as jotting down notes on who and what they've encountered.
"Yer welcome, but that wasn't what I was asking 'bout. What brought you here?"
Raseri just ignores Reginald and continues on in her warm happy buzz.
Ssss... your gift... Olo seems startled but hopes that Raseri is enjoying her drink too much to notice. "I came here with my friend, Molasbar. Two half-breeds leaving the center of the world to come all the way out here. He was looking for something and his research led him to believe it was here. I'm magically inclined as well and no reason to stay where I was so... here we are." . The half-elf pauses for a moment and looks far off as he says, "It's the first real adventuring I've done..." . He turns to face Raseri fully and says, "Clearly you're not new to this. Somehow those gnolls got to you, but your past has battles in it... and scars?"
Raseri's face goes from happy, to shocked, to sad with surprising quickness. Much more sober, she looks down into her tankard.
"Some deeper than others."
The Ulfen fighter sits in silence for a moment, before speaking again in a soft, quiet voice that seems almost out of place on a woman of her stature.
"Did you ever hear about what happened in Korvosa several years ago?"
She pauses, obviously waiting for Olo to answer.
Back at the gemcutters, Ninivic nods to Bryce. "I think we'd better let Kelgor assess this gem for us since neither of us are experts. What do you think Kelgor? We'll agree to your fee of 10%, but I think we'll pass on taking our chances with having you re-cut it."
|
Kalgor takes the hunk of garnet, adjusting his glasses and harrumphing to himself as he inspects the gem from all angles. In the process he actually takes out a couple of tools, chipping off a tiny fragment and examining it under a magnifying glass that pops out over the top of his already thick-rimmed frames. "Ah... yes, yes. I would say this is worth 250 gold shields, yes, mm. Quite good quality once you work it up, yes, it could make a fine crystal carving I believe, yes, but mostly the size of it, indeed. So," he looks to Ninivic across the rim of his glasses, "my policy is to buy at 90% value, yes. Taking away my appraisal fee, that is 200 gold for the garnet, yes, indeed. Does that suit you, sir? Hmm?"
Odo pointedly ignores Reginald's "ominous" gestures, although Raseri and Olo overhear him grumbling something about "...stinkin' freeloadin' son of a…" Mid-way through their conversation, he brings them plates from the kitchen containing a grilled fish and gratin dish covered with a light, creamy sauce. "Complements of Gumbel the Cook," he says with a wink.
At Olo's question, Odo shrugs. "He's not a local. Guy was part of an adventurin' group that left a coupla weeks back. My guess is he's the only one that came back again, or else he went and chickened out. Not an uncommon sight, really."
Raseri's face goes from happy, to shocked, to sad with surprising quickness. Much more sober, she looks down into her tankard.
"Some deeper than others."
The Ulfen fighter sits in silence for a moment, before speaking again in a soft, quiet voice that seems almost out of place on a woman of her stature.
"Did you ever hear about what happened in Korvosa several years ago?"
She pauses, obviously waiting for Olo to answer.
Olo's brow furrows as for the first time he sees pain cross Raseri's face. Tread carefully, Olo, Korvosans have strong loyalties .
"You mean when Queen Ileosa came to the throne....?"
Olo's brow furrows as for the first time he sees pain cross Raseri's face. Tread carefully, Olo, Korvosans have strong loyalties .
"You mean when Queen Ileosa came to the throne....?"
"Aye. Me and my sisters were there for the whole mess. Would've left, but between the riots, the plague, and the damned Gray Maidens, we couldn't. They came for us, the Maidens did. They thought we were housing people trying to dethrone the queen, or somethin' like that."
Tears begin welling up in her eyes, but her voice remains level.
"We fought back, so they took us to be trained like them. A few weeks later, we were freed, but- but..."
A tear streaks her face, but somehow, she manages to keep her voice from breaking.
"They had broken Alfhildr."
Ras falls into a silence, only breaking it to thank the innkeep for the food. She finishes off the plate with alarming speed before falling back into staring at the bottom of her tankard and brooding.
"Yes Kalgor, that sounds like a very reasonable offer." Ninivic collects the fees from the gemcutter and helps Bryce sell the rest of the goods. "Ready to return to the others? Will be interesting to see if they've turned up any further news to help us. I wonder if any of them thought to ask about Tall Jack?"
Olofire winces as he sees Raseri cry. Although awkward, his subsequent gesture is genuine - he reaches out place a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
"You have gone through much more than I and still fight proudly - a testament to your character. You honor your sister's legacy."
Olo wonders how much he should share of his much-less traumatic past, or maybe even why he is truly here. It is really such a horrible thing to discover what is inside you?
Satisfied with his notes and cartography, Molasbar cleans his pen and puts away writing supplies, making a mental note to get more before they leave the small town again.
Glancing around after he is done, he spots two of his companions at another table. He takes up his gear and his wine, leaves behind his empty plate and moves to join Raseri and Olofire while they wait for Bryce, Ninivic and Reginald to return from their chores. As he comes across the room, he seems oblivious to the deeply emotion component of the conversation he's stepping into.
"Good day." he mumbles as he seats himself.
As Molasbar approaches, Olo nods to his friend. He gently squeezes Raseri's shoulder in a gesture of comfort before standing and offering his seat to the half-orc, "I've been keeping this seat warm for you, friend. I've been meaning to talk to the man there in the corner. I hear he was with a group that went to Rappan Athuk and he is the only one to come back. Perhaps he has useful information?
Olo takes a few steps in the man's direction and then pauses in the middle of the room as he collects his thoughts and plans his approach. He takes a deep breath and then walks towards him, slowly but confidently, "Hail, friend! Odo tells me that you are returned from Rappan Athuk. My companions and I go there as well."
Without seeming obnoxious, Olo raises his hand to get the attention of the bar-keep and signals for him to bring over two beers.
"You have gone through much more than I and still fight proudly - a testament to your character. You honor your sister's legacy."
"Thanks, but broken doesn't mean death." The pain's still there, but it seems like Raseri is okay, for now.
Olo winces. To talk about someone's loved one as dead? What a foolish assumption to make! He opens his mouth to say something but doesn't. The half-elf is embarrassed by his gaffe and hopes he has not offended Raseri when his intention was the exact opposite.
The heavily-drinking man doesn't seem to heed Olo as he approaches and gives a greeting, simply staring into his cups. Up close, you can tell from his grease-stained black hair, dirty red robes and a faint, lingering smell that he has not bathed in quite a while. He ignores Olo completely—at least until Olo mentions Rappan Athuk. Those two words cause him to visibly flinch, and then begin to shake.
Red-rimmed eyes bordered by deep shadows turn to look upon the witch, wide with some mix of fright and despair. "Don't," he whispers, before leaping to his feet and tightly grasping Olofire's shoulders. "You mustn't go there!" He shrieks desperately.
Olo's eyes widen at the man's extreme reaction. He tries to engage him further and says, "It must have been something terrible you lived through..." hoping the man will begin talking a bit more.
The man slumps back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling and mumbling half-incoherently. "All... all of them... gone..."
"First it was Nel... consumed by the dung monster... nothing we could do to it... it always, always came back..."
"Then it was Garidyn... taken by the horrible black skeletons in the darkest shadows..."
"And then Kalen... the tunnel... the tunnel was a purple worm... the tunnel was a purple worm...!!"
"Kohler and I... we ran... but he fell in the rat tunnels... the rats swarmed over him... I... I can still hear his screaming... reaching out for me... but I... I... I just left him... I kicked him away... and left him to die..."
"... why didn't I just die with them..."
Olo nods sympathetically, "But you're here, you live on and you've already given me information to help us survive. I certainly hope we dont' meet that fate. We head out tomorrow. If we come across the remains of your friends we will try to give them a proper laying down...." Olo pauses for a minute and then states, "They say there is more than one way into the dungeon, so far we've only gone down the main route but it sounds like you know much more about the place...."
The man doesn't seem to respond to Olofire much more; he continues to stare up at the ceiling and mutter a few disjointed phrases. "The mausoleum..." is one you hear repeated a few times--probably referring to the most famous entrance to Rappan Athuk in the hills to the east on the coast of the Lake of Mists and Veils. It appears unlikely that you'll get much more out of him in this state.
Olo stands up, seeing that the man is too far lost for further helpful information. "I'm sorry for your loss. If there are any... remains of your friends, we will bring them back."
"Sounds like this place will keep you on you're toes. I think if we're careful we can avoid the worst of it. Just remember not to use all of the oil clearing the room. We may need it to get free if it came from a trap."
After a fruitful afternoon of shopping, eating, resting, talking, and terrifying old ladies, the group retreats to their rooms for the evening. The next morning they are awoken by one of two girls who work the inn with Odo and Amelia--Tallie and Ysbel. (Bryce has some fond memories of Ysbel from the night he arrived indeed; she smiles rather widely when she spots him.) Breakfast is eggs on toast (no bacon, apparently), leftovers from the night before, and a fruit salad.
The trip from Zelkor's Ferry back to the dungeon is uneventful, and the group soon finds itself re-entering the great stone demon maw that leads down into the Mouth of Doom. Their first goal for the day would be to deal with that sticky ooze room...
Inside is 500 gp and 1 sp.
After lots and lots of oil spilled, Bryce finally approaches the chest and checks it for traps, before trying to open it.
Bryce takes 500 gold from the chest and splits it among the party. Then he takes that one single silver piece and examine it in detail.
Molasbar's current spells are:
Cantrips: Presdigitation, Ray of Frost, Detect Magic.
1st level spells: Mage Armor, Color Spray, Burning Hands.
Molasbar gladly accepts the share of coins, and takes interest as Bryce examines the lone silver coin.
The silver coin is unremarkable, although it appears to be quite old judging by the quality of the engravings on it. It's of Brevoyan mint and called a silver link locally, featuring a circular chain link on one side.
"I know that this will sound a bit paranoid, but could someone check if this silver coin is magical in a way? A focal point for some scrying magic maybe or something similar?"
Molasbar casts detect magic on the coin, and reports that there's no magical aura surrounding it.
"Let's get moving. I say we explore the rest of this floor and then decide what we want to do about those bandits."
"I suggest we see that where that small, dug out tunnel leads to that we discovered. Might be a tight squeeze, but good to at least see what's on the other end."
"Before we go, why don't we make sure there is nothing else of value about the chest. Perhaps we can even take it back to town to sell it? But let's move it to make sure there's nothing worthwhile under it."
Molasbar will cast detect magic on the chest as well. Because, well, you never know... :)
Even with Bryce spending a good couple of minutes inspecting every nook and cranny of the treasure chest, and Molasbar scanning it with his ultramagic vision ray, there's nothing else of interest about it. It's either a really patient mimic or a bog-standard treasure chest.
At Olo's suggestion, the party inspects the tunnel they had discovered just before leaving the previous day. The small size of the tunnel forces most of the group to hunch over or crawl on their hands and knees, and even Ninivic finds the going somewhat difficult. The passage is roughly straight, with only a brief twist before it continues back in the same direction. In the end, through a final small opening in the dirt, you emerge into the bottom of a pit trap... a familiar pit trap, in fact, that Bryce discovered in the entrance hall the day before.
Getting up this way is somewhat difficult - you'll need to climb up the pit trap - but it might come in handy some day.
"Here, let me give one of you a boost."
Reginald stows his shield and flail momentarily to clasp his fingers together and allow someone to step on his hands, after which he pushes the person up to within reach of the top of the pit.
As long as the pit isn't too deep, it shouldn't be bad. If there's a real risk of danger, we can just go back through the tunnel.
Raseri takes Reginald's offer and climbs out of the pit.
Then throws down some rope.
"Next."
Reginald grabs ahold of the rope and pulls himself up and out of the pit. While everyone else is following, he decides to open the unopened door at the top of the pit. Why not? What could possibly go wrong? He'll ready his weapon and shield and wait until everyone is out of the pit before opening it, of course.
"Let's see what's in here, shall we?"
Reginald grabs the door handle and yanks it open - or at least tries to. The door seems stuck, and no amount of struggle seems to open it. Looking closely, the door appears to be bolted into the stone wall around the outside. It has hinges, but they hang off the frame, useless.
"It won't budge. I guess we're not getting through this way."
"We may not want to. Why bolt the door to the frame like that if not to keep things out? Or in."
Molasbar gives out a growl of frustration as he tries to puzzle out the door. "Something about this doesn't look right, but I'll give it some thought. I can't quite... Hmmm. I'll consider it while we look elsewhere."
"Heh, we used to use these on the stupid demons. Its a fake door. Just designed to lure you in."
"Oh.. you're right. The hinges aren't even connected to anything. I feel... dumb. That's the first time this has ever happened to me."
Somehow, that doesn't seem likely.
"Well, then."
, he yells at the top of his lungs.