Gul just smiled happily, feeling *great* that she finally got to prove herself. She had been certain that everyone was going to laugh at her after the last fight. But now? Not they all knew that she was a warrior!
"Gromm, excellent strike, by the way!"
Orange talks quickly. "Name's Terisha. She's one of those Tower girls. Said she needed some muscle to back her up when she found this one." He nods to Natalya, "Said she stole from the Tower girls and they wanted her back for judgement."
Yellow is able to be healed by Elena and stares up at her with a pale, sweaty face. "What ever you say Milady." He gasps. "Do limericks count as art?"
Gromm takes off after Red.
But is unable to move very quickly on the narrow, unsteady path over the muck.
What is everybody else doing?
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Yellow is able to be healed by Elena and stares up at her with a pale, sweaty face. "What ever you say Milady." He gasps. "Do limericks count as art?"
"What makes something art is an artist putting her heart and soul into it, forming something truly unique. Only you and the goddess will know if you tried hard enough."
She looks up and sees only Gromm taking off after Red and failing to make the jump. "No! She's getting away! Follow me!"
Elena takes off at a run and attempts to cross the bridge and make it to red!
Seeing that Grom was chasing something, and that Elena thought it was important enough to follow, Gul followed suit.
Axton's mustache twitches as he aims his crossbow at and considers the two remaining thugs.
"Well, assuming neither of you try anything foolish, you get to escape here with your lives. Let's march out of here. Leave your weapons; you can come back for them later."
He turns to Natalya. "Would you care to lead this procession out to the street?"
If there's any shenanigans, Axton will cast ghost sound in his best approximation of a female half-orc's growl, and will attribute it to Gul having stuck around to watch from the shadows.
With great agility Terisha is out the door and heading for the streets. Elena & Gul in hot pursuit. Gromm is hauling himself out of the muck and looking depressed.
What is everyone doing? Remember you have to keep an eye on Natalya as well.
Umazura stops her inspirational tune when the thugs decide to surrender. As the others chase the fleeing thugs, Umazura remains with Axton. "I do believe they are chasing the wind when it comes to that one. If they do not capture her, I am confident we will see her again. I've seen many like her. Those who refuse to be bested by those who they deem lower than themselves. She'll be back. And next time... she'll have more 'friends' with her. Ultimately, it will lead to her undoing. Hopefully for her sake I'm wrong and she'll get out while the getting is good." She looks to Axton and simply shrugs. "We shall see." She then turns to Natalya, "Lead the way, Natalya, this procession is all yours."
Axton turns to Natalya, "Sheila Heidmarch has declared yourself an ally, and has offered you sojourn at her manor! Our friends," Axton points after Elena and Gul, "will know to meet us there and will tell us how their chase fared."
Natalya follows along calmly. Your defense of her person seems to have raised your worth in her eyes.
”This is stupid.” Gul muttered as she gave up the chase, not even bothering to look for the fleeing foe. ”Lets just head back before we run into an ambush, or get lost.”
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Elena looks around the many alleys surrounding them and tries to notice anything out of the ordinary, but can't, and she wasn't good enough of a tracker to find the footprints in the mass of them present. As a last ditch effort, she tries to smell for a scent, but this also fails.
"You're right. I just... hope this doesn't come back to haunt us later. Let's help the others get Natalia to our base."
She turns around and starts heading back to the others, intent on escorting the remaining two henchmen and Natalia back to Sheila. She remains alert on the way there, wary of further ambushes by the tower girls.
Once Axton, Gromm, and Natalya are back on the street, Axton releases the two remaining thugs.
"Don't forget to spread the word about how dangerous we are!" he says in parting. They had to Heidmarch Manor, meeting up with Gul and Elena on the way.
You reach Heidmarch manor without further interruptions. Sheila Heidmarch is very curious to see Natalya again. "We were concerned when you dropped contact with us Natalya?" She politely questions the delusional woman.
Whatever Natalya is about to proclaim is never to be heard. Sheila's eyes widen as she sees the shard the other woman is gripping so tightly.
She brings up the staff she carries and strikes Natalya with it twice, as quickly as she can. Natalya collapses to the floor.
Sheila then uses her staff to push the shard away from the unconscious woman. "What ever you do do not touch this thing!" She orders urgently.
"Please bind Natalya, and then heal her if you can. She is merely unconscious but will desperately want the shard back in her hands!"
She leaves for a few moments, then returns quickly with a scarlet-and-blue sphere ioun stone in her hand (this ioun stone’s associated skill is Knowledge [history]). She carefully places the Ioun stone on the shard without touching it herself.
Once the ioun stone is placed, it flashes with coppery light and fuses to the shard, and its appearance changes to look as if it were made of the same material as the shard itself?
Sheila clears her throat and speaks to you. “What you have found, my friends, is nothing short of a miracle. Varisia has seen its share of miracles of late—the discovery of Xin-Shalast and the defeat of Runelord Karzoug, or Korvosa’s release from mad Ileosa’s rule come to mind.
But this discovery will soon be remembered as an equal to those events. This is a powerful Thassilonian artifact, a fragment of horacalcum and a portion of the Shattered Star of Xin: to be precise, the Shard of Pride. I suspect that the shard’s current carrier already knows more about it than I do, in fact now the shards curse is removed by the ioun stone one of you should take it up?”
She sees that none of you have touched the shard yet and warns you, "Each of the shards bares a powerful curse. The same as its name in fact. In the case of the Shard of Pride, if not suppressed by the correct Ioun stone the holder is overcome with delusions of grandeur. Seeing themselves as a superior being destined to rule over all!"
Who is going to handle the shard? Hint, someone who has a lot of skills would benefit the most. :)
Shard of Pride (Major Artifact)
The Shard of Pride is made of coppery horacalcum. As long as the Shard of Pride is carried, its owner can use major image as a spell-like ability once per day, gains a +2 insight bonus on saves versus illusion spells, and gains a +2 insight bonus on all skill checks.
Curse: The owner suffers delusions of grandeur, and is sickened whenever she must serve another creature as a subordinate of any sort for as long as that arrangement persists. She cannot gain the benefit of the aid another action, nor can she take the aid another action.
The Shattered Star was a powerful defensive item created well over 10,000 years ago by the founder of the empire of Thassilon, an exiled
Azlanti named Xin. At that time, the item was known as the Sihedron—a seven-pointed star made of the seven skymetals infused with powerful magic.
When the runelords rebelled against him, this item was broken into
seven parts (at least, according to the legends), and the runelords each claimed a shard for their own. In the 10 millennia since Earthfall and the end of Thassilon, the shards have shifted locations, yet they have never been reassembled into the Sihedron.
Over the past several years, Sheila’s become something of an expert
on Thassilon—the legacies of this ancient empire and its monuments and magic are, after all, the primary reason that the Pathfinders have become interested in Varisia.
The story of the Shattered Star is one of the most oft-repeated legends of that time among those who write about ancient Thassilonian artifacts—surpassed only by the Seven Swords of Sin in popularity. Even so, the Shattered Star legend is still relatively obscure, yet Sheila has long
hoped to stumble across the location of a shard.
Never in a thousand years did she even dare to hope that a shard
would simply fall into her lap like this.
The most important thing that Sheila can tell you is that the Shattered Star represents a powerful defense against the dangers that seem to be rising up against Varisia, and that rebuilding the artifact will give the region a powerful defense indeed—both in terms of the item itself and the heroes that the quest to recover the other six fragments will doubtless produce.
As the interview comes to a close, she’ll invite the person who took the Shard of Pride to hold it and concentrate on the Sihedron’s
shape. In doing so, that person receives a powerful vision of the Irespan and Magnimar’s harbor, around one Irespan piling in particular—the Crow. Sheila then explains that each fragment of the Shattered Star is linked to one more fragment in a set sequence, and that by concentrating on the Sihedron while holding a shard that’s been “awakened” with the proper ioun stone, one can receive a vision of the
region in which the next shard in the sequence is located.
Unfortunately, the location isn’t completely exact—but it should be enough to set you on the right course.
Sheila finishes by telling you that you have in your hands an opportunity for great glory.
By questing for the six remaining shards, you can rebuild the Shattered Star into the Sihedron and give Varisia a powerful defense against the dangers the region will doubtless face in the future—and in so doing
prepare yourselves to be some of Varisia’s great defenders!
Questing for the shards of the Shattered Star allows you to bolster your reputation in the Pathfinder Society as well, and while Sheila can’t promise specific rewards for you, she notes that, as word of your quest spreads, your growing fame will bring with it its own rewards.
Sheila promises to do some more research about the other five shards and the Sihedron itself, and should have the results of that research
for you to use in several days or a few weeks.
For now, she advises you to remain low-key about your goal. The longer you can keep the fact that you’re rebuilding the Shattered Star a secret, the bigger head start you’ll have against possible competitors for the prize, after all!
Gromm expresses the belief that he is not ready for this level of work and decides to leave for more training. Hopefully to return stronger and able to rejoin you.
Gul took this all in with a mental shrug. It gave knowledge? Who cared about that. As far as she was concerned it was a glorified book. She was sure that someone else would be happy with it, but she didn’t see the big deal. Now if it was a sword, or an axe? Now that would be a different matter entirely! Still, this quest sounded like it would make them rich and famous. So there was some value to it.
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Elena can only stare at Sheila Heidmarch as, for at least this one moment, the woman appears genuinely competent ! Was this the same venture captain associated with so many disastrous deployments of under-prepared and under-qualified teams to very dangerous dangerous they were barely given any information on?
And now she struck down Natalya in just two swings, and had what was probably extremely obscure knowledge on a legendary artefact no one had probably seen in ages, and she recognized it instantly on sight?
What was happening to the world! Were the whispers in the grand Lodge all Lies!?
"Um, sure, I'll take it." Elena says, and grabs hold of the shard during her crisis of faith - before she could reconsider.
And... she felt... different. Like the compulsion to view herself as a destined ruler was dimmed, but lingering thought still seemed unusually appealing. Surely she was talented for having acquired this shard, and one day, if she kept improving, they'd welcome her into the Decemverate itself! And besides-
"Maybe he'd listen to me if I have this," she mumbles, then her eyes glaze over as she receives the vision. When she looks back up, she shares what she saw. "I think I saw this city's harbor... the Irespan piling of the Crow? But... can that really be? That would mean two pieces of this legendary artefact would be present in this very city! Isn't that... really convenient?"
Sheila smiles at Elena's question. "One of the reasons I came to Magnimar was how closely it was linked to Thassalon. Just looking at the Irespan in the harbor shows this was an important place in their empire."
She waves her hand towards the north. "Besides the heroes that defeated the reawakened Runelord Kazoug founds the clues that started everything in a small seaside village just a day away. This area was an important part of ancient Thassalon. The Runelords hated and worked against each other as well. Karzoug himself took the Runelord Zutha's shard of Gluttony from him. Finding more than one is not impossible."
Sheila is animated and excited. She also remembers to personally give you each the 500gp she promised for delivering Natalya to her. Natalya will be cared for and tended until she has recovered from being under the shards curse.
[ooc]Just waiting on the new players character before moving on to the next part. Anyone want to do any shopping?[/b]
Sheila smiles at Elena's question. "One of the reasons I came to Magnimar was how closely it was linked to Thassalon. Just looking at the Irespan in the harbor shows this was an important place in their empire."
She waves her hand towards the north. "Besides the heroes that defeated the reawakened Runelord Kazoug founds the clues that started everything in a small seaside village just a day away. This area was an important part of ancient Thassalon. The Runelords hated and worked against each other as well. Karzoug himself took the Runelord Zutha's shard of Gluttony from him. Finding more than one is not impossible."
Sheila is animated and excited. When news of Kazoug's awakening and defeat reached her she researched the Runleords in depth. Which let her recognize the symbol of their rank. The Shard.
She also remembers to personally give you each the 500gp she promised for delivering Natalya to her. Natalya will be cared for and tended until she has recovered from being under the shards curse.
While the others went and gushed over a psychic book, Gul decided to spend her gold. And spend it she did! Grom had decided to leave under the idea that he didn't think he would survive. Gul's response was to spend her pay under the same assumption. She had her armor refitted, making it actually fit her. It was a world of difference having armor scrounged up and having armor that was suited for the wearer. Unfortunately, she did not have the cash on hand to have make her weapon likewise serviceable. While the gold was burning a hole in her purse, she held onto it, for now.
Sam impatiently taps a finger against an arm, waiting for someone who wasn’t a servant or Sheila herself to come through the parlor doors. Gods, save me from another mouthful of this disgusting tea. The cup sits untouched on the edge of the tastefully-decorated table near a set of silver candleholders and a golden bowl. Everything in the room fits together in perfect harmony. Everything, save for two - the muscular fighter in a simple dark tunic and pants, and the long iron nails piercing through from the backside of a beautifully-painted red and white metal shield propped up against the wall..
If she’s trying to butter me up for something terrible, she’s doing it all wrong. Mother at least always made sure there was someone on hand to keep their eyes on you. Sam glances at the door and scowls, then shrugs. Whatever. She’s a Pathfinder - it’s probably some moldy tomb or something and she thinks I’ll back out if it’s not to my taste. If only I could back out of this tea as easily.
So then this is protecting some scholars? Yeah, I can do that. Wonder how many jobs it’ll take before she’ll finally ship me somewhere else. Unless… Oh gods, she’s gonna try to milk my family connections. Can’t wait for that one to backfire when she remembers I’m not part of the family anymore.
Sam glances at the offending teacup again, scowl deepening. Wonder what’s keeping all of them…
Finished with her shopping Gul walked in. Tall, green and covered in corded muscle, she wore leather armor studded with metal plates and had a pata-blade on her right hand. Seeing Sam, she looked the woman up and down, sizing her up. Not seeing any clear weapons or armor, she said ”So you’re the replacement?”
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Walking next to Gul is a magnificent mustache attached resting on the upper lip of a young man in Varisian attire with various adventuring accoutrements sticking out of his pack. On the young man's shoulder is a magnificent set of whiskers resting on the nose of a large, brown rat.
”So you’re the replacement?”
"And if so, what is your capacity for VIOLENCE?!" the young man, who's name is Axton, asks.
”So you’re the replacement?”
Sam sizes the half-orc up and down in turn before answering. "Sure. Probably."
"And if so, what is your capacity for VIOLENCE?!"
At the young man's loud question, the dark-clad warrior grins. "Too much for a proper noblewoman, but I'll let you judge for yourself." One foot nudges the, uh, modified shield that rests propped up where the floor meets the wall. The heavy nails protruding through the painted steel seem to unbalance the armament, causing it to rock back and forth wildly for a few seconds before slowly returning to equilibrium.
"Name's Sam. Sheila hired me to guard some agents poking around some old ruin. That you lot?"
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"Ow! Not so loud, please, Axton? My head still feels like a cracked egg from the shard's visions earlier..." a female half-elf says, having just entered through the main door.
Her unusual cyan-green hair colour, violet eyes and songbird pendant pretty much instantly gave her away as a priestess of Shelyn. Though this one at least carried practical light armor in addition to their usual tasteful yet subtly curve-emphasizing garments. While the garments had local pretty Varisian patterns and were enhanced by various kinds of similar accessories, her otherwise most eye-catching piece of equipment was a many-ended spear strapped to her back.
The priestess' friendly gaze settles on Sam. "Oh, hello. I don't believe we've met yet? My name is Elena - it's a pleasure to meet you. We uh, yes, that could be us. Though the same can probably be said of most pathfinder groups. Didn't she give you specific names for your team...?"
"And I am Umazura," responds the other female half-orc who appears more fit to entertain guests than to entertain combat. "And yes, I would gather that we are 'you lot' that you speak of," she responds simply.
Natalya is depressed, but her madness ended when the Shard was activated by the correct Ioun stone. She is despondent and depressed
not only by her recent actions but also by her failure to achieve her haunting dream of conquest.
She is morose and communicates only grudgingly, but persistence will get her to admit that she found the shard on a skeleton inside a secret chamber she discovered in the Crow.
She further confirms that the Tower Girls have since moved their hideout to the Crow.
Anything you wish to ask her?
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Elena apologizes to Natalya for what is was worth, saying she thought the woman was in danger and that this was the best way to keep her safe. When the former Tower Girl shares the information and she realizes the new base was around their next destination, she sighs.
"Natalya, do you know if the Tower Girls were actively looking for another shard? Is there some way we can avoid their detection or at least further conflict with them? Some passcode that we could give if we meet them again? Assuming that woman who attacked us isn't with them, of course..."
If anyone thinks to ask, Natalya can provide a rough map of the parts of the Crow piling that she is familiar with along with information about numbers and locations of her former gang members.
She knows that the Tower Girls hope to find more rare and powerful items in their exploration of the Crow.
Perhaps the most important bit of information she can convey to you is the fact that the leader of the Tower Girls, Ayala Javeski, is a
wererat—she’s turned a few of her favorite underlings into wererats as well.
If you are thinking of confronting her, you should bring some silver weapons.
If you ask Natalya where she found the Shard of Pride, she tells you she located it in a secret room (area B23b) inside the Crow, further explaining that there were other treasures in the room but that she didn’t have time to gather them—the shard’s curse compelled her to
abandon her allies immediately.
The Tower Girls
The primary enemy group you will face in the first portion of the Crow is the Tower Girls. This Sczarni gang directly controls areas B1–B23 of the Crow.
The Tower Girl guards automatically notice any open approach to the Crow via boat during the day. An attempt to approach the Crow more stealthily (such as by approaching at night, or during the typical early morning or late evening Magnimarian fog) requires a Stealth check as you approach.
In her gratitude for being freed from the curse of the Shard Natalya also gifts the party with her wand of Mage armor (11 charges).
What now?
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***
"Name's Sam. Sheila hired me to guard some agents poking around some old ruin. That you lot?"
"Indeed it is we. Us? We? We. We are the lot.
"My name is Axton Vendian, and I have the impetus of generations of Thassilonian forebears driving me forward into destiny. These three each have the constituency of multiple bloodlines driving their purpose."
He stares at Elena, Umara, and Gul for an uncomfortably long time.
"Magnificent."
"Now, if any of you wish to partake of Captain Heidmarch's offer of weaponry, I suggest you do so, and then we should go hit some girls.
"...
"Specifically, some Tower Girls. Not just any girls. That would be strange."
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"Possibly profitable, too. Depending on which girls we hit. We should head to their territory in the early morning, when there is fog. Anyone on watch will likely be tired as it would be the end of their shift. Most likely way to get in unseen before we put a blade into their collective faces." Gul said.
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"My name is Axton Vendian, and I have the impetus of generations of Thassilonian forebears driving me forward into destiny. These three each have the constituency of multiple bloodlines driving their purpose."He stares at Elena, Umara, and Gul for an uncomfortably long time.
"Magnificent."
Elena shifts a bit under the intense scrutiny, but smiles in relief when the floating mustache considers her worthy!
"Thanks, Axton! Even if I'm honestly not entirely sure what that means," the priestess of Shelyn cheerfully replies.
She turns to Sheila. "You have a silver weapon of any kind? Even a spear like this?" she inquires, and if so, gladly borrows a silver dagger and branched spear.
"Though, I have to say that despite me killing all those goblins and sturges yesterday, I'm not entirely comfortable going in with the express idea of making war on a gang. After all, isn't this about obtaining the second shard instead of starting some huge brawl or bloodbath...? Yet, I realize we probably don't have a choice in the matter, given their agent managed to flee. Gul's plan of arriving under cover of mist sounds like a good one."
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Gul smiled a toothy grin. "It does, right? But yeah, I think that we need to go in there with blades drawn. We don't know how many of them there are, but we're dealing with something really valuable. They'd happily kill us for it if they had the chance. So we need to do the same. It's like...if a dwarf comes to Urgir, do you shake his hand and ask what he's there for? No. He's come to kill you, so you kill him first. It's nothing personal, but everyone knows that someone has to die. Same thing, right?" She finished, pleased with her foolproof logic.
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"A, haha! Yes... why else indeed? Though, um, aren't we skipping past a lot of possibilities like them being merchants, or lost, or mercenaries for one of the tribes, or... well *anything* really other than them appearing in your homeland specifically just to kill you?" Elana replies, sweatdropping. "And I thought Grask Uldeth was trying to encourage trade with foreigners, last I heard of your warlord. Or am I mistaken?"
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”Yeah. But it’s a dwarf.” She said, as if that explained everything. Seeing that it didn’t she continued. ”Their people drove mine out of our homes onto the surface. So mine drove theirs on the surface out for a new home. And they want what’s theirs back, but now it’s ours. And everyone fights and kills because both sides think that it belongs to them alone. It’s the way of things. When everyone thinks that something belongs to them, and them alone, then the only way to stop the violence is to be so much stronger than the other that they give up. So in this case, it wasn’t needed to kill every last dwarf. Just, what, twenty, thirty thousand? And then the ones who came after to take it back. Enough for the rest to give up. It’s the same here. These rocks are really valuable. The Pathfinders claim them. This gang claims them. You can’t share what isn’t shareable. So we need to kill enough of them that the rest realize how pointless it is to try and get the stones. It doesn’t matter whether we, or they, has a better claim to it. It just matters who is strong enough to take it.” She finished, feeling certain that there was no possible way to argue against the truths she had spoken.
"Magnificent."
Raising an eyebrow at such a "deep" discussion, Umazura shakes her head at the ridiculousness of it all and quickly interrupts. "Elena! Dear, um, I believe Gul has explained things quite clearly and really see no sense in further elaborating her point into any form of greater detail," she explains as she looks DIRECTLY in the eyes of the elf, a wide-eyed look that easily says: "PLEASE do not feed the fire of this inane discussion because it will only get worse and you would have a better chance at winning such an argument with a dead horse." "Wouldn't you agree?" she asks, smiling pleasantly.
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Elena just nods slowly. Very slowly. And tactfully takes Uma's implicit advice to not press the issue. "R-Right! You'd know better than me, being a warrior and from the actual region, Gul. Let's prepare for tomorrow and set off for the Crows in the mist of dawn."
She nods again to Sam in welcome and, unless stopped, being heading to her quarters at the lodge. If the plan ws to be up and about *that* early, there wasn't much time to sleep.
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"My name is Axton Vendian, and I have the impetus of generations of Thassilonian forebears driving me forward into destiny. These three each have the constituency of multiple bloodlines driving their purpose."
Sam raises an eyebrow at Axton's declaration. "Oh? Multiple bloodlines for the others, but only one for you? Had a cousin like that too - parents were so concerned about maintaining 'noble purity' that his family tree was a wreath. Couldn't even feed himself once he turned twenty." A smile cracks the warrior's lips. "Hopefully your 'destiny' doesn't involve as many diapers as his."
Begrudgingly Sam asks Sheila if the noblewoman has something silver that can be used to punch people. "Maybe some sort of glove with silver plates on the knuckles?"
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Sam raises an eyebrow at Axton's declaration. "Oh? Multiple bloodlines for the others, but only one for you? Had a cousin like that too - parents were so concerned about maintaining 'noble purity' that his family tree was a wreath. Couldn't even feed himself once he turned twenty." A smile cracks the warrior's lips. "Hopefully your 'destiny' doesn't involve as many diapers as his."
"That mustache seems very well-bred, though... or is that just me?"
The previous owner of the mansion has an extensive collection of silver weapons. A story of an ancient family feud with lycanthropes. He was found dead in a whorehouse with his throat ripped out so there may have been something to the story?
You set off just as the sun is rising over the harbor, and the mist is rising as the waters grow warmer.
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"I hope they're really too groggy to see or hear us coming." Elena quietly remarks, lowering her voice to where she thought the hired gondolier wouldn't overhear. Then again, it probably wasn't necessary as the very unusual request and time probably already put him in the mindset of not asking too many questions.
Sam shifts restlessly, shield scraping across the boat’s hull. “Me too.”
Gul sat silently in the boat as it cut through the water. She glanced at Sam and raised a finger over her lips and then pointed at her shield.
"As do I, Elena, as do I."
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"ARE WE THERE, YET?
"...
"I THINK WE'RE GETTING CLOSE!"
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Looking to the sorcerer incredulously, "Axton, dear, should we paint a large target upon our backs so as to make it easier for them to spot us?" she asks, the sarcasm obvious. "Because I'm thinking it would be quite unkind if we were to make it too difficult for them," she finishes, the sarcasm still very obvious as she rolls her eyes.
B1. Boat Dock
A tall lancet arch at water level leads into a chamber at sea level within the side of the Crow. Inside is what was once a small, stepped terrace, now filled with sea water to the level of its top step.
Three rowboats are tied off to heavy stones placed on this step. Above, the ceiling rises almost all the way up to the top of the monument—an opening leads off this shaft to the west near the ceiling. At the west end of this room lies a small alcove whose floor shows the stains of countless campfires—the back wall of this alcove has broken through, revealing a passageway beyond.
You leave your hired boat and the boatman hurriedly rows away.
No sign of opposition. How are you proceeding?