Sven stood outside, as he was unharmed in the attack.
”Got to admit. Not sure what we should be doing here. We’re supposed to take this sphere, but how? All I can think of is backing one of these guilds. Taking over through them.”
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An armed bathhouse guard approaches the side of the hot bath where Ashok has just been pulled into the healing water by Rowena...
Hey! No armor armor or clothing in the baths, please... And did you pay the attendant for a bath, sir!?
An armed bathhouse guard approaches the side of the hot bath where Ashok has just been pulled into the healing water by Rowena...
Hey! No armor armor or clothing in the baths, please... And did you pay the attendant for a bath, sir!?
His wound fully healed by the soothing divine bath water, Ashok climbs out.
Sorry, I fell in...
An armed bathhouse guard approaches the side of the hot bath where Ashok has just been pulled into the healing water by Rowena...
Hey! No armor armor or clothing in the baths, please... And did you pay the attendant for a bath, sir!?
Bugger off, ye nosy turd, or I'll pay the attendant with your teeth... growls Rowena to the Hamam guard...
Bugger off, ye nosy turd, or I'll pay the attendant with your teeth... growls Rowena to the Hamam guard...An armed bathhouse guard approaches the side of the hot bath where Ashok has just been pulled into the healing water by Rowena...
Hey! No armor armor or clothing in the baths, please... And did you pay the attendant for a bath, sir!?
The guard sneers at Rowena and draws his scimita r from its scabbard.
You two! he snarls, pointing his scimitar at Rowena and Ashok. OUT!! NOW!!
Essel sighs, rubbing her forehead, "Can we please stay focused for more than two minutes?"
mydravos after listening to sven talk as he had no need to go in, starts stroking his beard in thought. This may be as simple as we think, we must take the sphere, and what better way to do that than manipulating one of the guilds to help us. So goes the old saying, divide and conquer.
"Agreed. Perhaps the guardsman guild first? Military power would be quite the asset, though they might be difficult to wrangle." Essel comments.
Fully healed from their wounds, Ashok and Rowena emerge from the bath and exit the Hamam to join the other mortals in council over how best to take over the Urban Domain.
We should consider the possibility that this Urban Domain might actually be the hardest one to conquer. Maybe one of the other domains would prove to be easier to pacify? The infrastructure and society here seem complicated. Maybe one of the other domains just has a bunch of monsters to beat into submission, and then we can use them to attack the city? Just a thought.
Sacking a big burg like this ain't so complicated, pretty boy. We just start some fires to get people panicking and capitalize on the mayhem!
”The gods watch. They will surely smite us for abandoning their purpose so soon.”
”Well, I would sooner try to rule a city for our first task than to try and survive the domain of fire. At least here there’s beds, and given the lack of wear on your armor, I doubt you’ve seen many battles.” Essel points out.
now, now let us not devolve into a host of bickering fools, taking this sphere may require more thought, but I think it can’t be far to difficult. People are quite easy to manipulate, I think we can find a way. Using the military guild may be the first step but I think we need some more allies to bring together a true force to be reckoned with.
So, if we are intent on taking this Urban Domain first, let us visit the Guild houses, temples, military barracks, and other important factions, get an idea of what is going on here, yes?
Essel nods, ”We’re sticking together then? I suppose we don’t really have any time pressure.”
”I suppose so. It’s nay the company I’d usually choose to keep.” He said with an obvious look at Essel. ”So, Tiefling. Seems like this is yer mug of ale. Let’s get on with it then.”
What about these Towers of Travail that lay outside the canal, where various outlaws and monsters lair and gather loot from raiding the fringes of the Urban Domain? Might that not be the first places the gods have set for us to try? They are, after all, closest to our central palaces...
Whatever we take from these raiders, we can use to take greater things from the outer wards, nay?
North of here stands a ziggurrat filled with raiders and treasure. Shall we try there? Or do we want to explore this Citystate more first?
I say we raid this ziggurat first, one needs a position of power to gain leverage from.
Mydravos says looking very content with himself that his opinion was asked for.
The journey to the Ziggurat from the Urban Domain is about a day's walk. The mortals spend the first night at an inn in the Free Citystate of Pandora called the Night Hag's House, where they enjoy a hot meal of fried stirge wings served with warm baguettes, fresh-churned butter, goat cheese and mussel chowder washed down with ale or red wine. They sleep until dawn, rise and break fast on boiled chicken eggs, more goat cheese, berries with cream, and fresh squeezed orange juice, then equip themselves for a day of trekking north over the Courtyard to the Ziggurat.
I’m going to swap out one of my spells, I’ll change it the character alias when I decide which one I’ll pick
Sven makes his way to a temple to Thor before leaving, to see if there are any resources that the clergy can offer in the way of healing. A simple skirmish had left two of them near dead, and the last thing he wanted was to have this divine game end because someone bled out too soon.
[dice=Diplomacy]1d20+5
Sven makes his way to a temple to Thor before leaving, to see if there are any resources that the clergy can offer in the way of healing. A simple skirmish had left two of them near dead, and the last thing he wanted was to have this divine game end because someone bled out too soon.
At a shrine dedicated to the thunder god in the Temple Ward, Sven tries to finagle a cheap wand of healing to no avail...
I'm afraid I can't let any of my wands of cure light wounds go for less than the usual worth.
Pooling their gold, the mortal champions purchase two potions of cure light wounds from an apothecary in the Gate Bazaar on the morning of Day Two...
Mydravos goes to give one to the large female, you’re going to need this, you probably will see a lot of fighting. he then gives the other to the Suli holy man, with an smirk on his face, hopefully you’ll accept this from one who is less holy than you.
"Well, we're all chosen by the gods, aren't we?" Essel points out, "Doesn't that kind of make us all holy? Or are we all damned?"
”A difference that comes down to who does the answering.”
Mydravos smiles with several more pointed teeth than what’s normal for a human. I for one know my own wickedness.
Who knows what the gods were thinking when they devised this distraction? We are a diverse lot, with differences in ethos and morality, to be sure... Perhaps this will make it more interesting to them for us to be challenged by our differences when we most need to cooperate, and empowered by them when the time comes for us to compete.
Ashok accepts the healing wand from Mydravos without hesitation.
Good... Evil... Just words, mates. Just words.
Rowena takes the healing potion and secures it in a pouch at her hip.
The mortal pawns of the gods set out north from the Gate to the Urban Domain toward the Ziggurat later in the morning of the second day, trekking across the cobblestones, past lone homesteads consisting of a cottage and shed, or perhaps a farmhouse with barn, stable, pen, etc. They seem to come within sight of such a homestead about every two or three hours of walking, giving the impression that the Courtyard might not be as vacant as it first appears...
The first hour out of Pandora is uneventful, the mortals encountering only tiny rodents such as hares and squirrels, birds such as sparrows, robins and thrushes, and the occasional herd of sheep or goats herded by lone herdsmen...
The second hour of marching is also uneventful...
...as is the third...
...and the fourth...
The Sun passes its zenith and begins its slow fall to the west...
As the mortals draw nearer to the lonely Ziggurat, they encounter fewer animals or homesteads, until by three hours past noon, when they stop encountering any living thing or sign of civilization. Only the occasional skeletal remains of some beast or humanoid that perished here or there, grim warning signs that the traveler has entered hostile territory...
In the last hour before the mortals reach the ominous Ziggurat, they have a random encounter with one of the Ziggurat's denizens...
A pack of Greenscale kobolds are out looking for prey.
There are six of them, green scaley dog-headed pygmies armored in hide and bits of bronze and other metals, armed with little green spears!
Six scaly green pygmies with dog-shaped heads, clad in piecemeal armor and bearing bronze spears, appear on the horizon.
Round 1
Sven’s shield starts to glow.