Before allowing Vorel to do the deed, the monk approaches the dying man.
"Is there anything you want your wife to know, dear friend? You are not alone. We will save your family, I swear to you on my family's name and honor. Not like there is much left to it, but at least it might give this man some comfort in his dying moments."
Before allowing Vorel to do the deed, the monk approaches the dying man.
"Is there anything you want your wife to know, dear friend? You are not alone. We will save your family, I swear to you on my family's name and honor. Not like there is much left to it, but at least it might give this man some comfort in his dying moments."
His response in incoherent.
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Hailey returns as soon as she can and speaks to Swift-Palm, to allow Mr. V the time to relieve the man's suffering.
"I found blood, and it does lead west," she advises, being quite quiet so that only Swift-Palm can hear. "Do we go on by ourselves, and if we do, I insist that we leave a note behind for our companions to find. Or do we go back to the village and rally a band of men, and women, to help us track down this charlatan. If we wait for the others, we might be too late. Though if you prefer to wait for them, I could scout by myself and report back. In the morning, that is, when I've prepared spells that protect me. What do you want to do? The one thing I don't want to do is go off without telling anyone."
Swift takes a moment to reflect on their options.
"I see the wisdom in your suggestions, Hailey, but I fear leading an angry mob into the woods will only hinder our progress and sow confusion. I have made a promise to this dying man, and I intend to keep it, no matter how we go about this."
The monk absent-mindedly starts stroking his beard.
"We should indeed leave a letter so that our companions know where we have gone. Do you feel confident in your assortment of spells you possess today to venture out into the danger of the unknown? Time is of the essence..."
While they're talking, Vorelloex does what needs to be, severing head from spine in as subtle a manner as that could be done. He then awaits for the talking two to make their course of action set.
He sniffles.
The group outside the chateau gets back on their wagon and heads east. You arrive at the mining village mid-afternoon.
Some of the villagers give you rough directions, but seem wary of actually guiding you there.
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"All quite sensible points, Swift-Palm. I'll pen a letter. As for my spells, my domain spell allows me to understand any tongue I see or hear for a short while. That can be important in diplomacy or strange writings. My other two spells are actually both Protection from Evil," which increases the strength of one's armor and grants defense against some types of evil influence. They can both be discarded at once to cast a hex upon a living adversary. My channeling hexes, all of which unused, also bring harm to living adversaries. So, though I'd prefer to rest a night so I could cast Invisibility to Undead on myself, it is probably best to rely on what I've got and get moving, once a letter has been penned alerting our companions to our current course of action, that is."
And with that, she writes a letter. It will read as follows:
Dear Garekk, Voryl, Sir Rois, and Sister Callie,
We got here and found only one man, one who was on the verge of death due to the severity of his attack. According to what little sensible speech I could get out of him, his family was kidnapped by a necromancer and taken west.
So I went out and looked, and found a path of blood going west, albeit not exactly a fantastic one. So the three of us, myself, Swift-Palm, and Mr. V., will be going west as well. But I'll leave behind markers every so often to help you catch up to us.
Sorry, but the trail grows colder by the minute so in our judgment, we had to dash.
If you are not a member of our quartet of missing allies and happen to be reading this letter, please make a copy of this letter and inform the local authorities.
Signed
Sister Hailey Besh, All praise Nethys, the only true god.
"Ready." Calistria says, determined to get that water. She does not leave debts unpaid but the priest being in a healer's hands eases her mind considerably.
"I am ready as well," Voryn says. "But I wonder why no one is willing to take us there..."
The party follows the map and directions from the villagers and arrive at the location of the temple to discover that it is a cave and it's entrance is about 25 ft up a cliff face.
"Looks like we're going to have to climb," Voryn says, looking up toward the cave entrance above them. "Or maybe there's another way... Perhaps that is just one entrance, or an old vantage point or something. Perhaps there is another entrance at ground level somewhere... Maybe there's a secret entrance..."
Voryn begins examining the cliff wall.
Calistria considers the entrance.
"I do love to travel but I'm not a good climber." she admits. "Maybe one of us could go up and secure a rope for the others?"
She narrows her eyes, looking for alternative entrances or, at the least, a good climbing path.
No other entrance is found. But Garekk gets his grapple placed properly and climbs up then secures his rope.
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Calistria grabs hold of the rope. She tries to climb and fails. Spectacularly.
Calistria grabs hold of the rope. She tries to climb and fails. Spectacularly.
You take damage from falling.
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Garekk calls down to Calistria "Let Voryn climb up and we can pull you up after"
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Voryn hurries over to Calistria's side.
"Are you okay? That was quite a fall..."
He offers her a hand to help her on her feet.
Calistria winces as she bruises a tender spot.
"That was a bit humiliating, huh?" the priestess asks with cheerfulness.
"I think Gareek had the right idea. I'm fine. You go up, Voryn, and the two of you can pull me up right after."
Voryn nods.
He takes off his breastplate and straps it to his back, before he starts climbing.
Calistria settles the loop around her waist and grabs hold of the rope. Then she waits for the ranger and barbarian to haul her up like a sack of flour.
Once she's up she kisses each on the cheek.
"Thank you. For not laughing."
Calistria then touches the rope around her waist and whispers a brief prayer. The rope begins to glow with light.
Garekk/ Voryn make a strength check. (one of you aid the other)
Voryn starts heaving with all his might.
Once Calistria is up on the ledge, Garekk takes a good look around
[dice=Perception]1d20+4
The entrance leads away into the darkness, you think it opens up just at the edge of your darkvision.
The other three follow the occasional blood drops for about an hour into the woods until they lose the trail. The last drop is on the inside of a tree trunk that splits into a Y about a foot off the ground.
"Agreed." Calistria says. "Garekk, you can see better than us. You should go first. Who has a torch? I'll hold it."
Swift will cautiously peer into the tree trunk, ready to jump backwards if something were to spring up at him.
Swift will cautiously peer into the tree trunk, ready to jump backwards if something were to spring up at him.
The view through the Y is different than what is behind it. The trees are different species and it looks darker.
"There seems to be something afoot. Peering through the crook in this tree shows a different view than what one would expect."
The monk inquisitively peers around the tree, looking for anything out of place, apart from the obvious different view through the Y.
"There seems to be something afoot. Peering through the crook in this tree shows a different view than what one would expect."
The monk inquisitively peers around the tree, looking for anything out of place, apart from the obvious different view through the Y.
Nothing else seems out of place.
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"Perhaps it's a portal or something," she suggests. "Do we have a rope or anything like that? If we do, I suggest we tie something to it, a rock or something, and see if it'll go through. Then we can pull it back. And if that works, we tie me up and let me go through. As for why me, that's easy. I'm the lightest. Easy to pull me back compared to either of you."
Concern stretches over his face at the thought of letting Hailey go through first and alone.
"She isn't helpless, you must remember this! This isn't the first time I've had this discussion with myself."
"I have some rope, Hailey. Are you sure you should go first? What if untold dangers await on the other side?"
Calistria holds up the glowing rope and follows behind Garekk and Voryn.
When you reach point that the passageway widens into a chamber you see that a extremely large bat is hanging in the centre of the chamber.
"That's why I suggested we try a stone first."
You find a decent sized tree branch that you tie the rope to. After throwing it into the crook it disappears, though the rope still hangs out on your side of the crook.
Larger than a human.
Vorelloex is stymied by the alien sight before him. It is something he has never seen before, and he does not like it.
"This is... unsafe. We should leave it be and move on... and burn this tree down."
The half-elf Kellid spits on the devil tree.