Nyd nods, and remains quite. Technically speaking it would probably be fine if he revealed his nature to this ship captain. He wasn't a member of House Cannith, let alone the 'military' which had 'acquired' Nyd after his construction.
That being said, Nyd hoped to be as unremarkable as possible as long as he was near a member of any of the Houses.
Nyd nods, and remains quite. Technically speaking it would probably be fine if he revealed his nature to this ship captain. He wasn't a member of House Cannith, let alone the 'military' which had 'acquired' Nyd after his construction.
That being said, Nyd hoped to be as unremarkable as possible as long as he was near a member of any of the Houses.
Artur said "We say nothing. Let them wonder what specifically is going on."
Artur remained seated as the drunks approached the group's table and said "Was your friend stupid enough to attack a member of my mercenary company? If so, is he still breathing and does he still have his limbs intact? If so, then I guess he paid to hire one of my employees to teach him a lesson. If not, well, then I guess he really doesn't need money now, does he?"
Tharivol let Artur deal with the drunks. They were beneath him. He enjoyed his drink and the return to civilization, however civilized this town was.
Briar had been watchful of Artur and the captain, and was completely taken aback when Tharivol burst in to song. The more observant of the group might have noticed her shifting uncomfortably at mention of her fighting.
Briar stood up. The two drunken men tried to stand up as well before realising that they hadn't been sitting and yes she really was that tall and towering over them.
Veratash tried to argue with Artur. "But, but.... We have an opportunity here! This could be... worth the time", he said quickly exchanging the word 'fun' for something more grown up.
Veratash remembered it was rude to stare after being amazed by the half elves. He wondered what sort of stories those people could tell. I'll have enough time on the ship, he thought. The last ship he had taken was in the trip from Sharn to Zarash'ak. Now the destination was the same even specifically in the city, but the purpose completely different. He steadied his mind and resolve. Last time he had been sick on the ship. This time there was no time for that.
Surprisingly for Veratash, he wasn't scared of the drunks. Seeing how Zdravko had dealt with the men last time, the kalashtar felt it comical that his drunk friends would come.... pick a fight?
However, seeing how the captain was watching, maybe he would want to intervene to show how well they were equipped to deal with drunkards. He tried to think what could dissuade them from moving forward, but now it would be harder that Artur had taunted them. Briar certainly seemed scary enough.
He decided to confuse the man with a lie. Projecting his thoughts into the man's mind, he sent the message "HAHAHAH, you've wet yourself. Again!"
advantage helped by Briar
"Was your friend stupid enough to attack a member of my mercenary company? If so, is he still breathing and does he still have his limbs intact? If so, then I guess he paid to hire one of my employees to teach him a lesson. If not, well, then I guess he really doesn't need money now, does he?"
The drunk pushed Artur down back to his seat, "Shut up little man."
The man slammed a fist down on the table, "My friend lost 13 gold and 2 silver. Somebody pay or I break your nose and then take the money."
He looked at his pants for a second and turned around confused to see who had said that but he was too drunk to make any sense out of it.
Artur lets himself be pushed down, waits at the man is turning away, then does a combination of grabbing the retracting arm and pulling as hard as he can while kicking the man's knee with the force of the momentum of his move.
Artur held the man in an armbar and said "you're going to lose your arm over 13 gold pieces?"
To drive the point home, Artur put pressure on the arm bar until the man screamed while looking at Tharivol and gesturing at his rifle.
Got caught up with other stuff; recap tomorrow (morning?).
Game on!
"And won't he be surprised when he discovers that he can't." says Artur with a smirk.
"Why not ask for more precision at the meeting place? He might be in this town." The dragonmarked elf asks.
At Artur's motion, Tharivol asks incredulously, "You need your rifle for him?"
The drunk and his friend, the minstrel suggests, "You are unwelcome at this table. Go away."
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, fail
"Well, let's not make the asumption that the person with the other necklace is the same as the person who tricked Veratash and his companions into going to Zarash'ak. It could be this "prophet" or whatever the hunters called him."
Once Tharivol talked the man down, Artur nodded to Tharivol and let him go.
Stalwart though he was, even Artur was taken aback by how fast the Galleon moved once it got up to speed. He had unconsciously grabbed ahold of the nearby railing, and held it in a deathgrip for several minutes before things stabilized, and visions of the staggered and falling walker flashed through his head.
The moment passed, however, and Artur more or less returned to himself.
After trancing for five hours, Tharivol spends the rest of his time magically cleaning every square inch of his clothes and gear. Then, repacking his gear for hard travel again.
The dragonmarked elf genuinely appreciated the craftsmanship of the galleon and its elemental magic. He loved to travel by magic conquering the laws of nature with words and will. Having arrived here by galleon, he assumed his practiced position on deck to enjoy the wind while comfortably braced against a feature of the ship.
Briar shook her head
"At present, we have an advantage with this communication device. And also a time constraint, as we must leave this place shortly. If we say to meet us here and then are not here to be met or ambush them, then we would at most divert some of their efforts. However this would raise suspicion on the wearer of the necklace so our advantage would be tainted."
She drummed her calloused fingers on the tabletop, leaving slight indentations int he wood from her diamond-hard nails.
"We could delay our trip, miss the boat and set an ambush, or just wait for a better time..."
Briar remained standing only for as long as it took to verify that her group were all well, and the drunks weren't coming back. She sat back down and inclined her head at Artur.
"Nicely handled, bloodless. It was good it was you and not me. Would have been messier. I'd probably have been barred..."
Briar stared at the half-elf with the clipboard. Her brow furrowed. She turned to the weasel...
...and turned straight back as she was hissed at in turn.
She glanced at one of the aforementioned cages and leaned in to the half-elf
"Between you and me, the cage wouldn't last five minutes, and the leash not five seconds."
She stared at Liti and sighed
"She needs the freedom, same as I do. As long as she's left alone, no one's in any danger. I can't leash her, but I can stay with her. That's as good as I can give you..."
Briar remained apart from the others as she experienced her first travel on a vessel of such magnitude. The world surged around her, but her vise-like grip on the rail kept her standing in place. Her eyes glanced over at Liti, the weasel snarled and clamped on to the deck with four clawed paws.
"No soldier worth his salt has never been in a bar fight."
OOC: yeah, at first I thought it would be a good RP opportunity but now I see that the potential outcomes aren't good.
If you couldn't put a leash on her then putting her in a cage wouldn't be good. I even thought of a big cage where both of you would fit but that wouldn't be ideal either.
We'll just have Briar be with the weasel at all times.
Maybe Veratash can help. :)
I intend to move things along later today.
Game on!
Veratash heard Artur and Briar's inputs, then said "We don't really know if they don't mean Zarash'ak after all! Anyway, I think we should probe this somehow."
Veratash had absolutely no clue about what had transpired. Nothing about that interaction made any sense to him. But he respected it, hoping he would never be involved in something as crude as that.
Veratash didn't try to get involved with the weasel's dealings, but he was paying attention. Whenever he felt Briar was turning to him, he stiffened thinking of what he should do. But an idea was forming in his mind. If he could enter people's minds, why not animals?
Veratash was thrilled to feel the wind rushing past him. The elemental trick was fascinating to him and his heart pounded in excitement. "Hi! I'm Veratash. Tell me more about this elemental. Doesn't it get.... you know.... unhappy to be bossed around like this?", he asked the crew member who had explained to them about the device.
After the situation in the bar had been resolved and an agreement had been reached, Artur excused himself and made his way out into the city. He returned several hours later with a wooden box filled with a great many hand crossbow bolts, as wells as a rectangular box that took up one corner of the larger wooden box. This box made a rattling noise as Artur navigated the common room and then made his way upstairs.
After the first few minutes watching the ship set out to sea, Artur retires to the group's area in the hold, an odd box of scrap metal tucked under one arm.
Once in the hold, he finds a flat surface and begins modifying his old pistol to accept miniature bolts, as well as modifying the bolts themselves. It takes a great many hours, with quite a bit of trial and error, but eventually Artur holds a modified single-shot pistol that uses a large spring to drive the crossbow bolt forward.
Artur then tests it a few times by firing on his own armor, but none of the bolts seem to damage the much harder material.
The next morning, Artur takes his new pistol up on deck and test fires a few rounds over the side of the ship, after making sure that there is no nearby wildlife or ships he could accidently hit; A few more adjustments, and then a few more test shots. Artur repeats this process several times until he has it working as he would want it.
Satisfied with his work, he sheathes his new pistol into his old holster.
Surprised at the courtesy of the Captain, Artur gracefully accepted the wine and said "I can explain the military side of things: why certain decisions were made, why I had certain things happen, but I'm far from a good storyteller. My friend Tharivol here, is practically a master of the craft though, so I will leave you in his most excellent hands, but feel free to ask me any questions you might have. I would hate to have you think that I was not intending to keep my side of our bargain."
Briar shook her head sadly
"I understand. I understand you have a job to do, but I already said I would stay with her. We certainly did not need the threat of being put off ship in the middle of the ocean. By the way, her name is 'Liti' and in the right circumstances she'd lay down her life for you. Now if you'll excuse us..."
She moved past the sailor and beckoned to Liti, the weasel stared for a moment, then bustled past Briar. The two headed aft in search of somewhere they could make a den for the voyage.
Briar made sure that despite the close quarters, Liti was ensconced in one corner with a small pile of fish. The weasel chewed through them then curled up next to the bones, one eye opening each time serving staff made any attempt to approach and clear up the food.
The shifter sat awkwardly at the table, and used only the fork to eat. She watched everyone else with her dark eyes, ensuring she didn't breach any etiquette.
She held up a hand to refuse the cigar but sipped the wine and nodded appreciatively at its taste.
"I agree with Artur, Tharivol is most skilled with words and would better serve the listener as a story teller. I fear if I retold the battle it would be rather a short story; we fought, we bled, we won."
The dragonmarked elf nodded at the compliments from his companions. And, when the spotlight shined down on him, Tharivol began, "It all began when Artur and Nyd came looking for me backstage after a performance in Sharn. They made an offer that coincided with my need to take a vacation to escape several amorous ladies whom had learned of one another that night, if you know what I mean..."
Tharivol was obviously the protagonist of his story, which alternated between the dramatic and comedic. Although the story poked a bit of fun at everyone, their actions were truly heroic. He included every scrap of detail of their past adventure with one exception. He omitted Veratash's possession of a dragonshard with a wink. The end of the story dragged into the land of uninteresting, as Tharivol's personal aversion to snipe hunting shone through.
"Collecting stories from your passengers, you must be very well informed. What interesting events have you also heard?" Tharivol asks.
Veratash looked worried when the half-elf replied to him without giving their name. He also felt bad for the elemental, but figured he didn't know enough about elementals to know how they felt. Maybe Nyd would know?
He replied "You mean a flying ship? Or is this an airship? I get confused. How long have you been sailing? How is this life? Don't you get too much sun?" The kalashtar suddenly shut up realizing he was being too communicative, and he had been warned as a child in Adar about that. He breathed and said "Sorry, please don't go away".
Veratash watched the weasel react to people. He was glad he didn't have to interact with it right now, but he was curious how Lítiðogreitt would react to him after being fed.
As the captain offered some after meal 'refreshments' the kalashtar took the wine and cigar. It was clear, however, that he didn't know how to properly light or even smoke it. He waited patiently to copy Tharivol, who he felt was most fluent in proper social behavior. He even imitated the faces and gestures the elf made, in an attempt to look not so green.
He heard the elf's storytelling enthusiastically until the point where he, himself, entered the story. Veratash didn't consider himself worthy of a story, but it seemed the captain and crew were listening and this was worth their ticket.
Veratash thought I'm sure Tharivol tells better stories than this. Is he scared? Or just bored? after a while. He realized it would be very bad if the captain didn't enjoy the story. He decided to act. As the elf got to the part of the displacer beasts, Veratash said "And they looked like THIS" as a displacer beast jumped on the table, although without producing any sound or knocking off any of the dirty plates.
After the initial scare, it was clear that the kalashtar was casting an image on everyone's mind, and there was no true beast on the table. He winked at Tharivol and sent a telepathic message saying "Let's give them a story they'll never forget", opening his mind to Tharivol in case he wanted to talk back telepathically.
After that, Veratash exhausted his creativity, creating rain, the dolgrim, dolgaunt and the shifter children of Thistle . He purposely left out the gatekeeper's ancient rune, claiming he forgot how they were, and also the divine stones of the druidic circle. He didn't know if the gatekeepers would feel comfortable with a ship captain knowing details of their magics.
OOC: Nyd is trying to be as unremarkable as possible. :)
All kidding aside, Nyd? You're still with us, right?
I intend to move this along later today.
Questions?
Game on!
OOC: No, no House Sivis station here in Yrlag but Tharivol found out that "...the Orien Coach was due in a four or five days and that’s where messages where left for snail mail."
I would also imagine that more urgent messages could be left for the occasional elemental galleon to carry to Zarash'ak where there IS a Sivis Message Center. However, there is no set schedule for the elemental galleon and they still take 5 days to get to Zarash'ak.
Questions?
Game on!
Nyd is greatly relieved to be underway. Emotional conflict like those around town were far from his forte.
To pass time he begins to study the rune he wrote down at both the standing stones and the seal, trying to determine commonalities between the two.
Unfortunately, aside from some basics he doesn't immediately see connections. He theorizes that the standing stones helped create the seals in a more, mechanical way, almost like having a proper tool kit on hand. Sadly, it was a tool kit Nyd did not know how to use, yet.
At one point while everyone is asleep and Nyd is on watch, Nyd will turn to a random page in his spell book and use a quite casting of detect magic to read marks on the page. Nodding slightly, Nyd carefully writes a few notes on this page and closes his spellbook.
Artur shook the Captain's hand and thanked him for his hospitality. He then collected his gear and made his way down the gangplank and onto the docks to wait for the others to come down,
Once everyone had finished their business aboard the ship and had gathered, Artur turned to Veratash and said "Okay, lead the way."
"Would appreciate knowing the name of your latest crazy who worships Khyber spawn. They might be involved in our story and threaten us all." Tharivol politely requests some information.
During the trip, Tharivol uses his charm, music and some coin to milk as much information from the crew (away from the officers) to make up from the reticent captain.
The dragonmarked elf follows Artur thanking the captain and disembarking the galleon.
"Would appreciate knowing the name of your latest crazy who worships Khyber spawn. They might be involved in our story and threaten us all." Tharivol politely requests some information.
Captain Vennet smirked, "You know the saying about the moth and the flame, right? Well in these parts it goes something like this... 'Attracted like Khyber lovers to a hole in the ground'. There's plenty crazy in these parts so watch out."
He added, "The last I heard is that there's a blind orc druid, a Gatekeeper nonetheless or former Gatekeeper that has been praying to the Master of Silence. I heard he's trying to gather a following in town and makes his brothers take a vow of silence. Some even say they rip out their tongues and sew their lips together. Go figure."
-----------
OOC: House Tharashk and House Phiarlan have an 'overlap' in activities and given that this is Tharashk country, there isn't a permanent presence of House Phiarlan in town.
What sort of info are you trying to get from the captain/crew?
Veratash raised his glass with the captain.
Veratash spent the rest of the trip talking to the crew, following Tharivol's example. However, he was looking for some sneakier information. While the captain was true to his word and keeping what he knew about Khyber followers to himself, his crew might not be so 'secrety'.
Veratash looked at Artur a little guilty. "Well, we were collected at the port and taken there. I, uhmm, didn't really pay attention to the way there. I just remember that the mansion was close to some body of water... And also the doors and windows were painted a dark blue hue. Surely that place must be known by the locals?", he said.
He led by walking about trying to find a suitable person who might know such a mansion.
Disappointed, Artur shakes his head and mutters "Stay Alert, Stay Alive" to himself before he also turns and starts helping Tharivol ask around about the house too.
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Finding out that Zarash’ak was not friendly to Phiarlan, Tharivol switched his identification papers. Tharivol Galanodel d'Phiarlan went into his forgery kit, and Gilavar Throndel went into his pocket.
At the bottom of the gangplank, the dragonmarked elf gathered his companions around him and introduced himself to his companions. "This city is no friend to House Phiarlan, so please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gilavar Throndel, wandering minstrel." He held up his identification papers with his portrait to emphasize the point.
"It will only injure our mission if you don't forget who is Tharivol Galanodel d'Phiarlan until we depart this city."
Assuming there were no questions about his identity, he started asking the locals for a house matching Veratash's description.
I'm going to let Nyd and Briar have a chance to post and recap tomorrow (probably tomorrow morning-noon).
Questions?
Game on!
"You say the strangest things Gilavar." chuckles Artur.
Briar raised her glass and drained it in response to the Captain's toast. That it was her fourth glass spoke to her resilience.
"...and may you have many more nice sailings in your pretty boat!"
She stood and headed out towards her bunk, pausing only long enough to confirm Liti had roused herself and was following.
Briar nodded at 'Gilavar', she understood the need for discretion.
Having not visited Zarash'ak before, Briar took her time to familiarise herself with the bustling metropolis. She inhaled deeply of the scents, sharp spices vied with pungent raw food. Liti sneezed and whirled to snarl at a nearby pepper seller. Briar interposed herself without even looking at either party, bumping the weasel with her leg to move her on. Liti opened her mouth to bite, but instead narrowed her eyes and hissed as she followed.
"Well, we're here. That's a good description Veratash and yes, it's good to hear a suggestion to speak to the locals. I have always found it odd, some people's preference to not ask for help, even from a source best placed to give it."
Nyd doesn't drink but at least raises the full glass when the others do.
Nyd nods at Briar. "Quite true, though one has to find those sources first. My own personal ambitions has been frequently stymied by sources being unwilling, or unable, to assist."
Artur looks at Veratash to make sure that this is the place. Once he get confirmation, he will make his way to the door.
Once the group was left to it's own devices in the main room, Artur turned to the others and quietly and quickly said "Split up, but stay within sight of each other. I get a feeling that when whatever happens happens, it's going to go down quickly."
Artur then looked pointedly at Tharivol and said "I know it's been a while, but don't go seeking companionship. It would be an extraordinarily bad idea."
Nyd doesn't drink but at least raises the full glass when the others do.
Nyd nods at Briar. "Quite true, though one has to find those sources first. My own personal ambitions has been frequently stymied by sources being unwilling, or unable, to assist."
OOC: you posted for last turn. A new turn is out...
Both Briar and Liti stood still for a moment as they took in the exotic sights and smells of the revealed area and the revealing dress of the hostess.
She turned and impaled Veratash with her gaze, thankfully Artur beat her to it in enquiring more subtly than she would have done as to whether this was the right place.
Not entirely sure what she was doing in such an estabishment, Briar tried to find somewhere to sit where she could be out of the way. She ordered a drink as Liti snuffled under the table and curled up again, though her eyes remained open this time.
Veratash looked at the orc as he led them and thought I didn't realize this would be this easy. As they entered the place, the kalashtar was taken aback with the decoration, people, well... everything. He didn't notice Artur nor Briar's judgemental gazes. If this was the right place, then Veratash was pretending to be there for the first time particularly well.
After realizing the implications of the situation, he looked defensively at the others shaking his head and lifting his hands. He was clearly scared they would judge him. He sent a psychic message to each of them individually saying "This is definitely not the right place".
"What do we do now?", he asked confused.