The blue-green jar has a slight evil aura...very faint
Once everyone nods their readiness, Delkaneth speaks a few arcane words and points to the yellow-orange jar. It floats over the pit and slowly lowers to the bottom of the pit.
"Here we go....." Not sure if they can hurt whatever's inside the archaeologist tries a gentler approach first, bringing the jar about a foot off the ground and letting it drop.
The yellow-orange jar eventually breaks open at the bottom of the chasm.
There is a swirling mist that soon takes form of a beautiful young woman. she stands there for a moment then suddenly collapses unconscious.
If Tatsuo doesn't stop him in the even she is only pretending to be unconcious, Mickey will roll his neck and punch his left hand with his right, causing a short gust of wind that blows his hair as he gains some mass in his forearms. His arms are now slightly larger and his hands bigger, with slightly thicker hair than he had previously.
With his beast totem in place, he simply climbs down into the pit, gently lifts her over his shoulder, tying one of his sashes around them to keep her on for the ride, and climbs back out of the pit easily.
Like usual, he offers no explanation, simply doing.
Felix trains detect evil on her as well though he does lower his gun a bit.
Delkaneth is about to volunteer to climb down when Mickey starts wordlessly making his descent. Instead he takes a few steps toward the edge to watch as the monk retrieves her.
At least I can offer a soothing word or two, she's probably going to need some time to recover.
Mickey arrives at the unconscious girl. she is alive.
she apparently is out from the sudden shock of being returned to her normal self.
meanwhile Bud and Lou (the gnolls with the group) speak up as they also peer over the edge.
does she have the map? She is supposed to have the map.
getting her back to the top is not too difficult of a task. he is not very heavy and does not carry much equipment.
there is no sense of evil from her (for those detecting for such things)
her only possession is a journal book
Tatsuo eyes the gnolls warily, not liking it when people he didn't trust spoke in a language he couldn't understand. Even if it was the only language they knew. "Why'd we bring them along anyway? It's not like they've actually helped with anything," he mutters to himself.
Instead of rushing to crowd around the unconscious woman, he instead opts to keep an eye on the two gnolls just in case they decided to betray them or run off suddenly.
One at the top, and after a few minutes, the girl begins to wake up.
who are you? Did Peytro send you? Is that Lissette destroyed? she asks as she tries to figure out what is going on.
it is apparent that in her mind she was only recently captured and the last 5 years (the time she was imprisoned) never happened from her perspective
Are you alright miss? We believe it's been a long time since you were in that bottle
Tatsuo snorts. "For some definition of 'heirs' anyway. I don't think any of us actually knew the guy. We just ended up with his keys one way or another."
He continues to watch the gnolls as he and his group talks to the new girl.
You sense no deception, but rather a lot of confusion.
Amelia looks to Conner, My Peytro? Dead? She looks like she is about to Cry.
"As we said, it has been a long time, m'lady. Let's get you out of there."
He turns his head to mumble to the others at the top of the pit. "And put the minotaur bottle down there and leave it. Gently."
Yeah, you've got a lot of catching up to do lady... but first.. we've got another issue to deal with. There's this crazy lady out front that seems to be really keen on getting some kind of map. You know anything about that?
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Tatsuo snorts. "For some definition of 'heirs' anyway. I don't think any of us actually knew the guy. We just ended up with his keys one way or another."
He continues to watch the gnolls as he and his group talks to the new girl.
"I believe my father met him a few times, he had the key before I did"
** spoiler omitted **
Amelia looks to Conner, My Peytro? Dead? She looks like she is about to Cry.
[dice=sense motive to see if she would consent to being touched, take 10]10+5
At the mention of the map, Amelia shakes her head, All I have is this journal, I don't know of any map.
she looks a little confused. Of course I never really looked at this book, Peytro handed it to me to keep safe when Lissette showed up.
she hands the boo to any that would be willing to take it.
She does not seem to object to an innocent hug when Conner offers it.
the journal has lots of disjointed notes, there is a page describing some sort of obelisk with an old Azlanti curse. there is also notes of a crater and a rock made of some strange metal. the notes indicate it is as strong as adamantine, but as light as mithral.
There is no map in the book that you can find.
There is a hidden pocket on the inside back cover.
Tatsuo takes the journal, reading a couple of passages out loud. "Something about an obelisk and a curse. And some hard metal rock." As he reads some more, he turns his back to the gnolls. Still with his head down, he uses the finger he had been using to keep his place as he read to point out the hidden pocket to his companions.
Without removing the map, he flips back to the beginning of the book and tries to use his orb to look for hidden writing on any of the pages. His actions look slightly exaggerated. Finally, he shrugs, pulling out some paper and an ink pen from his bag to take a few notes on the contents of the journal. At some point if no one else attempts to do so, he'll try to surreptitiously remove the map and trace it.
Meanwhile, Sora alternates between peering curiously over his shoulder and glancing at the gnolls.
As the group discusses what to do, Bud and Lou talk among themselves for a bit.
then Bud addresses the group,
You have map?, we will take it now, yes? We give to master and we go away.
Bud holds out his hand as though expecting something.
Can anyone talk to those furry monsters? Felix says looking at the gnolls with disdain.
Since he can't speak gnoll and has his back turned to them, Tatsuo ignores the gnolls, trusting Sora to watch his back should they attempt to attack. He continues to copy the map/book.
Tat makes a fairly decent copy of the map, as he does so, the gnoll with his hand out steps closer.
Daresh waits, there is no time, give us the map as promised.
the other gnoll appears to get a tighter grip in his javelin, like he is preparing to defend himself.
these gnolls appear to be afraid to fight you guys and are hoping to avoid a fight, but they are ready to defend themselves.
If Daresh was present, they may be much more aggressive as they fear her even more.
You sense that they may be open to negotiations if you could break the language barrier
Sense Motive
"They don't want to fight us. Don't think they want to do this. Think she's making them..."
Mickey smirk at the thought of the witch bullying and manipulating the hyena men for soldiers.
"I'll take your word for it. Can anyone speak that language? If theyre being forced maybe we can change their minds?"
It all comes back to the lady Felix agrees with Mickey. Too bad we can't talk to them to get them on our side. Let's just get out of here and get Amelia back home.
Tatsuo lets Conner take the copy as he stretches out the fingers of his writing hand. He then slowly gets up, tucking the map, journal, and his notes in one motion in to his robe. As he moves, he stretches out the rest of his arms, pausing to scratch Sora's head.
"We want to help you. Is witch making you do this?"
Mickey does his best to try and have them understand us.
Bud takes the offered map. the two gnolls seem at ease and start to turn and leave but stop when Mickey tries to speak to them. They listen for a bit then look at each other then turn and run out the cave.
Tatsuo hurries after the gnolls, calling back to his companions. "Let's at least make sure their companions don't plan to seal us in this cave."
"Would they do that.........?"
"Yeah, they probably would. Can you walk, m'lady? Because my companion is right it is time to leave this place."
Mickey will offer to carry her out if she can't keep up.
Yeah let's go with them. Felix hurries back just a little ways behind the gnolls.
You hurry out of the cave and discover that Daresh and the gnolls and her "bodyguard" are all gone. You have Amelia with you. She is still a little woozy from the magic but she is recovering fast.
right now you can easily make it back to the manor without incident.
If you return to the lizardman village instead, let me know....
(possible chance to liberate the lizardmen from gnoll occupation.)
Hope we haven't done something horrible. I don't trust that woman one bit. Miss Amelia. Would you be fine with us trying to help a tribe of innocent lizard folk before we get you home?
Delkaneth looks toward Amelia. "Im no healer but she looks like she needs some care."
"Besides.....while the lizardmen ARE innocent Im more worried about what Daresh can do with that map. We should spend some time studying it and try to figure out the woman's next move."
Both sounds good to me. The lizard folk have not done anything to deserve their fate
Tatsuo shrugs, just happy not to have to deal with a cave-in. "We don't actually know that they're going to do anything sinister with the map. I'm far more concerned with dealing with this debt we've found thrown upon us."