Grace swings her sword at the creature buzzing around her, looking for a place to land on her :
"Nope! It's a bastard offspring of a bat and a mosquito," Allysen shouts back.
Allysen's sword tears through the nearest creature, which drops lifeless to the ground. Belros tries to connect with his shield, but is too slow to hit the quickly moving target.
Wolfram has more luck, as his magic burns another creature to dust, and Moves with Great brings down another.
At the back end of the attic, Isagoras finally manages to climb up the rope with remarkable speed, surprising even himself.
Allysen: Queen of Clubs
Belros Sunwalker: 3 of Hearts
Isagoras: Joker!
MWG: King of Spades
Wolfram: Jack of Clubs
Creatures: Jack of Spades
Allysen turns to her next attacker and tries to do the same to it, but her aim's thrown off by the flash of light that announces the death of another of the strange bat-like things.
While Allysen's aim is off, Isagoras blasts another creature with magical fire.
Grace swings her sword at the last creature buzzing nearby :
But fails to connect.
The last of the strange creatures flees for its life through a hole in the roof, leaving its fallen companions behind.
"Ha, these old buildings are all the same. I have bats in my belfry, too," Wolfram muses. "I suspect there will be one or two interesting trinkets amidst all this rubbish." The Reverend assists Allysen with rummaging through the piles.
Argyle looks around the rubbish and is rewarded for his interest: among the dust lies a ring made of a silvery metal that is inscribed with runes of warding and forbearance. It also carries a sigil that looks like a tree hung with stars.
"Ahh look, I found a little silver ring. Very interesting. Isagoras, can you read these runes?"
"Wolfram, I can seek insight into its nature through Pelor."
PP 7/10
"Of course, Lord Belros, what do you think of it?"
"So, are those things like crows, ravens, and magpies, then? Collecting shiny things for their nest?"
"I mean, I know they're not crows. They're stirges, like big overgrown mosquitos."
"So, have we searched the entire house now, from basement to attic? I don't see anything terribly sinister here that would give it it's haunted reputation."
"You're forgetting the ominous stairwell into darkness. The best is yet to come."
As Belros examines the ring with his magical sight, an amazing sight appears before your eyes. A beam of light shoots forth from the king, illuminating a section of the roof above. The light seems to contain both brighter and darker patches, and begins to focus into an image projected on the ceiling. As it becomes clearer, the image sharpens into a form, that of a person curled up in a small ball. Suddenly there is a loud snapping sound and the light disappears, but the image of the humanoid form is left behind, quickly coalescing and growing into three dimensions: that of a small human child or perhaps a halfling. Seconds later, the image takes on real form, and the small person drops to the floor with a loud bang and lets out a deep groan.
"Where... where am I?" the figure attempts to stand, but the room spins and she drops to one knee. "Who are you?" she asks, looking around the group. "And what happened to the party? I don't remember having anything to drink."
The figure is a halfling lass, about 2-1/2 feet tall. She has auburn hair and brown eyes and is barefoot. Her clothing is badly wrinkled and also out-of-date by a wide margin. A sturdy leather backpack is settled on her back. She is disoriented but otherwise physically unhurt.
Wolfram taps the ring. "Hmm, can you do that again? Maybe we can create more of them! A little bit taller for the next one, perhaps."
He looks at the halfling. "You now, that's too many questions for which we have no answers. What's your story?"
"I see why your parents named you Wolf-ram now," Allysen smirks before turning to the newcomer.
"You're in an abandoned mansion with more than its fair share of giant bugs and some spooky stuff going on in it. Just call me Shade for now. The party is probably long over unless you want to start one now," she answers in rapid succession.
"I'm...ungh...Katherine Sunnymeadow. I was at a noble's party and I must have blacked out. That's...OW....that's the last thing I remember."
"Well, up until a minute ago, you were in a ring. I'm sure that's bound to give anyone a headache," Allysen says. "Are you thirsty or hungry?"
"A ring? Well, that would explain the aches and pains. But that still doesn't tell me how I got here or who all of you are. The last thing I remember was being at a social function. I made a comment that I probably shouldn't have and then I woke up here. And by the way, wheres 'here'?"
"Ever heard of Saltmarsh?"
|
Isagoras suddenly looks very interested and pipes up. "Oh! A being from an inanimate object! Are you a Djinni? I assume so. Very well, here are my three wishes: I wish for everyone to always be young and healthy, I wish nobody ever had to die if they didn't want to, and I wish for everybody's intelligence to gradually increase at the rate of 1 IQ point per year."
He smiles, as if he's waited a long time to do that.
"Alright, you can go back to what you were doing now."
Allysen sighs as she pinches the bridge of her nose.
"And the madman is Isagoras. He's harmless, for the most part," she says with a resigned chuckle.
"Ever heard of Saltmarsh?"
"Never heard of it," Katherine affirms. "Last thing I knew, I was in Niole Dra. Well, that answers the 'who' and 'where' parts, anyway, and I think the 'what' seems pretty obvious. As my Daddy used to say, that just leaves the 'when', 'how', and 'why'."
"That sounds like a fine mystery. Niole Dra! Well, we don't get visitors from your parts of Keoland often. Actually, you're the very first to my recollection! So Katherine, what do you do when you're not offending wizards at social functions?"
"Well, I'm pretty good at finding things that have been lost and I know a few tricks that can both entertain and be useful."
Lord Belros blinks in surprise. Once he realises what has happened, he says:
"Welcome, Katherin. I am Lord Belros Sunwalker, servant of Pelor. Perhaps we can aid you with your questions. What month and year do you last recall?"
"Well, you certainly found yourself," Allysen says with a chuckle. "We're almost done here, I think. We can help you get back to Saltmarsh once we've finished seeing what other creepy-crawlies are about, Then maybe we ask Kat when and where she's from."
"Well met, and so forth. Let's proceed to the spooky cellar, shall we?"
"Aye. Let us do that."
"The last thing I recall, the date was the 23rd day of Ready'reat, in the year ," Katherine says, falling into line. She saddles her pack into a more comfortable position and says, "I'll stay with you if you'll have me. At least until we get back to civilization and then we can decide, I suppose."
"Let's check out that one room on the ground floor we haven't been in on our way to the cellar."
The group makes its way back downstairs from the attic via the rope secured earlier. Katherine nearly falls through the hole, finding her body does not quite respond as quickly as she remembers. With some help, everyone eventually makes it safely to the second floor and from there back go the ground level.
Moves with Grace and Allysen listen and check the last unchecked door, and after hearing naught, open it to reveal a room that was once a writing room or study. Against the wall under the windows is a large wooden writing desk partially broken and riddled with damp rot. There are three drawers in each pedestal and a large central drawer; the latter is closed but the others are all open - two obviously broken open forcibly.
Lord Belros' face would take on a serious mien but that is his default. He replies:
"Katherine, that was two centuries ago. You are welcome to remain with us for now."
*********************
The elf lord readies his sword and shield and advances into the room carefully, watching for foes.
When no else is looking, Allysen takes a knee and gives Katherine a hug.
"These are good people. They'll do right by you. Name's Allysen, by the way,"
"Two hundred..." her voice trails off. "That means that everyone I've known is likely...my family is..." She stares at nothing for a long moment.
If physically possible, Grace will try to open the closed drawer with her sword, from a distance; if not, she will use her hand. She finds...?
Moves with Grace manages to pry the closed drawer open with her sword. Finding it empty, she searches the other drawers and finds that one of them has a false back.
Inside she finds two small vials of an unlabeled liquid.
Seeing Katherine grow despondent, Allysen gives her another hug, comforting herself almost as much as she was trying to comfort the half-folk.
"At least you have someone to remember," she says, "some of us weren't so lucky."
Lord Belros maintains watch as Grace searches, looking up, down, and around in case of foes.