"Yes, please let Dorek follow you for safety." Thawm urges.
"Maybe not Ahmose." She explains while giving Ahmose a warning look while rubbing her wrist.
A few sparks fall from her wrist as she clears her throat.
Dorek nods at Aroden's words. "S-sosiel, your h-heart is good, and I k-know you wish to help your friend, but there will be a t-time to speak with him of this. You have already s-spoken with him of this s-shadowblood, yes? Yet s-still he has fallen into his old w-ways. If you c-confront him now, he will be s-safe in the short term, but he may f-fall again."
Just then, he feels a prick in his wrist, and he glares down at the kobold as his tail raises threateningly. "I will s-sting you if you don't k-knock that off. Blood is p-precious - it's not to be b-bandied about without c-care." After a moment, he looks back up at the rest of the group, blinking. "S-sorry, what was I s-saying? R-right... my f-fingers are quick and I can w-walk unseen. W-what if I check Aron's p-pockets, steal his s-stash? When he finds it m-missing, he might s-seek out his supplier, and we would g-get this s-shadowblood dealer before Aron can h-harm himself further."
"Hmmm? Tandyn quickly turns to see the source of his wrist pain. "Ahmose?" He blinks several times. "Ok, I trust you... but a warning would be nice. Also, be careful with that... it's been different since the ward stone." He rubs his wrist.
Ahmose whistles innocently at Sir Tandyn. The Blue-scaled Kobold seems anxious to be about his alchemy business. He is seen taking little steps away from the conversation about what's his name....step....step...step...
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Sosiel seems to be aghast when Dorek mentions taking the drugs from him. He says resolutely, ”No, you will not steal from him. He has to make this choice himself. We can’t force him.” With that the cleric walks back to their tent.
Dorek hears bits of their conversation starting at whispers but slowly growing more loud and heated. ”We can get through this, Aron. We have before. I can remove the physical need for it, I have before. You know I love you, that I’m here for you,” Sosiel pleads.
Aron sounds extremely angry and slightly unhinged, ”No! Now that they know about my past they’re going to exile me or worse. Why did you tell them? You betrayed me.”
Sosiel patiently tries to explain, ”They were concerned about your well being. That’s why they came to me.The knight commanders know you’re a good person. We all stumble a little on our path.”
Aron begins to panic and Dorek hears him packing things up, ”They are the vengeance of the gods made flesh! They held off an army. Didn’t you see? I have to get out of here.” Then Aron rushes out of the tent, Dorek has a few moments to act before Aron escapes into the Worldwound.
As Aron rushes out of the tent, Dorek's gangly legs eat up the ground between them as he moves to aid Sosiel. "Aron, you c-can't go into the W-worldwound! You're not in your r-right mind - I'm t-truly sorry about t-this!" With that, he draws one of his blades, slamming its hilt firmly into the side of Aron's head.
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Aron looks in horror as Dorek appears out of nowhere and cracks the side of his skull sharply. He screams at Sosiel before falling unconscious, ”See!”
As Aron falls Dorek’s shadow moves unnaturally appearing as if to devour the unconscious man. Dorek’s empty eye socket suddenly feels cold as ice, but he doesn’t feel any pain.
Sosiel runs to his fallen lover cradling him while weeping. ”I’m sorry,” he repeats while making sure that Aron is not mortally injured.
A number of crusaders have been drawn to the scene and begin whispering to themselves about what they saw happen.
You recover three doses of Shadowblood.
Aroden watches, horrified, as Dorek's shadow moves of its own volition.
He has no explanation to put at ease the minds of the nearby crusaders.
Is this shadow magic, like the followers of Zon-Kuthon use in Nidal? No, it is something else I think, but the Shadowblood is attracting Dorek's own dark shadow.
Shortly after the commotion, Thawm shows up too.
She doesn't hide her pained expression at seeing the collapsed Aron.
"He wanted to fight that battle alone, I take it..." She says with a sigh.
"I guess we tie him up before he wakes. Sorry we'll be confiscating- uh- the stuff."
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Cecily thumps Ahmose on the nose after feeling the little prick at her wrist, her hard nail thwocking off of his nose horn. "Ahmose, ask if you need something."
Then the sudden bout of violence breaks out by the Sosiron tent. She sees Aron running off into the night, Dorek stopping him, a commander attacking one of his advisors in the night, and the gathering crowd of soldiers whispering, speculating, beginning to spread rumors.
She steps up, puts a firm hand on Dorek's shoulder, and brooks no resistance as she steers him to face the group that's getting bigger by the moment. With the type of stern voice she learned from her Father's dealings with criminals in his domain, and worse, the one time after her kidnapping that she had run away, she addresses them. "Soldiers, Advisor Kir will be tended to by our best healers and treated fairly, but let this be a lesson. Out here, run off alone, and you will face worse than death at the hands of the enemy. Desertion is not an option."
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Dorek's eye widens as Aron falls, and he drops his blades as he begins to stammer out an apology. "I'm s-sorry! I'm s-sorry! I didn't m-mean to hurt you - I had n-no other c-choice!" As Sosiel steps in to comfort his fallen lover and Dorek's shadow shifts and flows over the unconscious man, the tiefling steps back, worried that Sosiel will be furious at him for harming Aron.
When Cecily steers him towards the rest of the party, he barely resists - not that the warrior who had wrestled an incubus to the ground earlier that week would have much trouble with the force the lanky Kellid's twig-like limbs can muster. He hears the other tiefling's speech about deserters and how Aron will be treated fairly, but he doesn't register much of it - looking around the crowd of assembled paladins, he imagines an accusing glare on each face, and he ducks his head to avoid meeting the others' gaze. When he speaks, it is almost a whisper, directed to the ground rather than to anyone in particular. "I d-didn't mean to h-hurt him." Clearing his throat, he raises his voice slightly, though it's still hard to hear. "Aron was a-afraid of us. He didn't t-trust us, and I should have t-talked with him."
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"Soldiers, Advisor Kir will be tended to by our best healers and treated fairly, but let this be a lesson. Out here, run off alone, and you will face worse than death at the hands of the enemy. Desertion is not an option."
Tandyn starts to say something and stops himself.
"Aron was a-afraid of us. He didn't t-trust us, and I should have t-talked with him."
"Thank you Dorek. He will be safe now and that's what mattered." He looks out at the soldiers. "This is a matter for our healers. This is a matter for his friends and family. Aron needs our love and support right now. If any of you are feeling overly concerned, come find me. Otherwise it will be Aron's to share if he chooses."
Tandyn helps Sosiel carry Aron back into the tent and get him laying down comfortably. "Everyone stay near. I don't wish for him to be able to run again... but binding him will scare him." He directs Sosiel to hold one of Aron's hands and takes the other himself. "Go ahead and bring him around."
"Aron. We care about you, and we know this isn't easy. You're a friend, and we will do whatever we can to keep you safe. Sure, you relapsed. That happens, but we all know you didn't want to so let's talk about it. I suppose our biggest question is where did you get this shadowblood? Were you resisting temptation this whole time?"
With a concerned look on her face, Thawm displays her trust in Tandyn by pouring healing sparks over Aron.
When he starts rousing, Thawm casts Suppress Charms and Compulsions ("harmless" with a DC 17 will save), just in case.
Meanwhile in his tent, the Alchemist begins whistling while working on wondrous weapons whenever warrants weather warming wonders....
Cecily gives Tandyn a conflicted look before ducking into the tent with the group - a little annoyed at the conflict with her own announcement, a healthy heaping of impressed with how he knew just what to say, and a little envious of that. But she follows in nonetheless, and plants herself on a seat near the entry flap, watching with perfect posture.
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Sosiel casts a number of spells on Aron while he's unconscious before nodding to Thawm, "His physical need for the drug should be gone, but there's nothing I can do for his desire for it."
When Aron awakes he first looks at the party in fear but then sees Sosiel and the two embrace lovingly. Sosiel says, "I got you. You're safe."
Tandyn's words seem to allay a lot of Aron's fears. Aron quietly answers the paladin's questions, "I don't know. It just appeared in my pack. I discovered it shortly after the battle at Vilareth Ford. I didn't take it at first, but the temptation was too great. I'm sorry Sosiel, I should have told you."
Sosiel smiles weakly at Aron and says, "That's not important now, the important thing is that you're safe."
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As Tandyn steps in to reassure the troops, Dorek nods gratefully to his aasimar friend, following him into the tent as Thawm tends to Aron's injuries. He approaches Aron as the engineer rouses, wringing his clawed hands with a concerned expression on his face. "I'm s-sorry, Aron, I r-really am. P-please understand, the W-worldwound is a very dangerous p-place - it's d-death if you go in alone and unprepared. You've t-treated me with nothing but k-kindness since we met, and I consider you a f-friend. I tried to s-stop you because I couldn't s-stand to know that a f-friend of mine had died, and I had done n-nothing about it."
As he speaks, his eye occasionally flicks to his spider-like shadow, unsure if the strange presence it sensed on Aron earlier will still cause it to... attack? Feed? Reproduce? Frankly, he hasn't the slightest clue what the eerie Resonance-Sharpened-Shadows was trying to do earlier, nor how or if he can stop it if it happens again.
When Aron describes how he found the shadowblood in his pack, Dorek's brow furrows.
"...H-hold on - out t-there, my shadow, it seemed a-attracted to you when you had the d-drug in your veins. Earlier, at Valas's Gift, it seemed d-drawn to Nurah in the same m-manner. Perhaps she k-keeps some for study, but h-however it got in your pack, I think it belonged to N-nurah first." He shrugs, raising his eyebrows at Tandyn. "M-maybe she was s-studying it, or maybe she's an a-addict - either way, she might k-know more about it. What do you t-think, Tandyn - should we ask N-nurah?"
"But... your shadow isn't addicted to shadowblood, right?" Thawm wonders aloud.
"I don't know. It just appeared in my pack. I discovered it shortly after the battle at Vilareth Ford. I didn't take it at first, but the temptation was too great. I'm sorry Sosiel, I should have told you."
"Thank you Aron. Please rest up and resume your responsibilities when you're ready."
"...H-hold on - out t-there, my shadow, it seemed a-attracted to you when you had the d-drug in your veins. Earlier, at Valas's Gift, it seemed d-drawn to Nurah in the same m-manner. Perhaps she k-keeps some for study, but h-however it got in your pack, I think it belonged to N-nurah first." He shrugs, raising his eyebrows at Tandyn. "M-maybe she was s-studying it, or maybe she's an a-addict - either way, she might k-know more about it. What do you t-think, Tandyn - should we ask N-nurah?"
"She's concerned me before." Tandyn looks to Aroden. "But that was for rudeness, recklessness, and reveling in violence... which could just be Cayden's mischief. But this... this was secretive, planned, and destructive. It was evil. Whoever it was must have been preparing for it well before we even set out. There aren't many people who would have known about his addiction at that point, and this was very much against the oath of any paladin. None of this offers real proof though. Does anyone have thoughts on how we should proceed?"
"I would guess that word has reached her of Aron's attempted escape, and she might draw the conclusion that his Shadowblood use had been discovered. So I don't think we will catch her trying to put Shadowblood in his pack again, at least not so soon. If anything, I think she'd be inclined to flee, if she is in fact responsible. But if she doesn't know we are onto her, she may not try to flee just yet.
The spell she would likely use to hide from your abilities is Undetectable Alignment. Tomorrow I can prepare Dispel Magic from one of the other spellbooks that we found, and try to remove it."
Ahmose packs up his alchemy business. The Blue-scaled Kobold decides to get some eats. Walking about the camp, Ahmose mostly stays in the shadows as he traverses around all the business being branded about.
Casually walking by the group still discussing the merits of understanding the chaotic situation that seems to have taken over their current responsibility, the small Blue-scaled Kobold smirks.
Why don't we just pretend this has been resolved and watch her more carefully for a bit.
A slight tummy rumble escapes from him.
Getting ready for dinner. Any more preparation for our continued trek on the morrow? Demons, Cultists and Dresden and all that.
"Tomorrow I can prepare Dispel Magic from one of the other spellbooks that we found, and try to remove it."
Why don't we just pretend this has been resolved and watch her more carefully for a bit.
"Check for magic, dispel it, and check for evil. Got it. That could work. Let's have that ready in case we need it. It won't tie her to the shadowblood, so I also like the idea of acting like things are back to normal. Perhaps she'll make a mistake while we're watching for it."
Getting ready for dinner. Any more preparation for our continued trek on the morrow? Demons, Cultists and Dresden and all that.
"I think that about covers it. It's been a day. Let's eat."
As Tandyn leaves the tent he offers his hand to help Cecily up. "I've never seen anyone cow paladins, but they do follow their hearts."| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The night passes mostly without incident; a number of paladins report their bedrolls were invaded by large maggots with mouths full of sharp spikes that bit into their flesh. But there was no lasting damage done as the sores were painful but not one became infected.
Early the next day, after showing healing sparks on a few maggot bites, Thawm calls upon Nurah and brings her to Aroden .
"Please inspect us, Aroden." Knight Commander Uhturj asks imperiously.
"We want to make sure no one is spying on us first." Thawm explains with a nod.
She waits for Aroden's arcane ministrations before pulling out the confiscated shadowblood and asking the army's world-wound expert about it.
Aroden will cast Detect Magic.
He expects to find a Faint aura of Abjuration on Nurah. Does he?
Ahmose just stand silently still during the interview. He appears to be chewing on some freshly cooked bacon....
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All of your officers line up for inspection. Aroden indeed detects magic on Nurah and nearly everyone of your advisors. He also sees a whisper of arcane power on Nurah's lips and her hand retrieving something from a pouch. Thawm isn't sure if its the tone of her voice or the fact that Nurah heard about last night's ruckus that tipped the traitorous hafling off but she's about to flee!
Suprise!
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Spotting as Nurah draws something from her spell pouch, Dorek scowls, charging forward and slashing at her with his short sword. "Traitor! Your d-demon-magic won't let you escape!"
"Not so fast Nurah! We need to talk!"
Tandyn rushes forward and attempts to knock her legs out from under her.
"I was getting to the talking part!" Thawm asserts, clearly flustered that Nurah figured out that the knight commanders were on to something so soon.
Dorek easily catches Nurah off guard as the other advisors and nearby soldiers look on in confusion. A moment later Tandyn knocks the halfling over.
What the shit f~&% shit is going on right now!
Ahmose only stands still with a stoic (forced) reptilian looking expression on his draconic face.....
Nurah, with a look of determination and perhaps insanity, keeps her eyes on both Tandyn and Dorek towering over her. She finishes pulling a small bit of tree gum from her pouch and speaks a word of power before she vanishes from sight.
Suprise!
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[ooc]Horgus
Round 1
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Invisibility? Thawm realizes as Nurah weaves her spell.
"Ah-" Thawm explains while reaching out to stop the halfling and wishing she could do something.
Entirely accidentally, Thawm casts Faerie Fire.
A purple glow envelopes Aravashnial and the no longer invisible Nurah.
"Hah! You can't hide from the light of The Dawnflower!" a very surprised Thawm explains.
Ahmose watches Nurah shake some fingers and talk funny, so the small Blue-scaled Kobold shrugs.
If you are a demon then this won't hurt you much.
Cecily wanders over to the group to see what's going on.
"Traitorous fiend, I knew something was wrong with you for years!"
Aroden moves up to Nurah while drawing his sword.
Not including the modifiers for Prone.
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Tandyn's eyes narrow as Nurah casts a spell. "So it is true..."
His glare intensifie, and he takes a few steps around Horgus. "Pardon me, Lord Gwerm."
"Were you really the sole survivor or did you betray them too?"
He stabs radiance at the her shape in the purple flames.
"Surrender already."
Thawm lights Nurah and Aravashnial on fire, not burning them but revealing Nurah. Ahmose takes this opportunity to light a random crusader slightly on fire and stick them to the ground. Cecily and Aroden threaten the halfling. Tandyn thrusts his sword at the prone halfling but she manages to roll away at the last minute and Tandyn only catches her chain mail. She gives Tandyn a look of desperate defiance but doesn’t answer him yet.
Dorek scowls as Nurah goes invisible, his eyes casting about for any sign of the halfling's location...
...then Thawm points her out. Quite well, in fact. Shrugging, Dorek brandishes his gladii, moving in to attack as Cecily comes up behind the traitorous halfling.
The tiefling's blades flash out twice, targeting vital areas wreathed in Thawm's ethereal flames - he goes to attack again when Ahmose's hurled explosive lands on an unfortunate passing crusader. Distracted, Dorek looks on for a moment, horrified, before glancing back at the rest of the group. "...Are we going to h-help that one? In a m-minute? In a m-minute - got it."
Ahmose is seen pretending to tie his shoes as the sticky Crusader seems to be mostly fine...
The Blue Whisper shrugs
It's what I heard.
At the absolute violence brought by the rogue (blood, bits of her spleen and that looked like a liver punctured), the Alchemist puts on his completely appalled face....
Irabeth moves out of the line up while drawing her longsword, she stares intently at the melee and yells out, "What's going on? I don't sense any evil on her."
Anevia on the other hand doesn't hesitate, "I never trusted her." She draws her bow and fires at Nurah sending her arrow through Aravashnial's legs but catching another link in Nurah's armor.
Nurah pulls a strip of vellum and begins to read it. The sword of Aroden strikes true as the halfling leaves herself open.
"Someone sabotaged us, we asked everyone to line up for a scan, and she does...THIS!"
Cecily growls an answer to Irabeth and shoots Anevia a knowing glance as she attempts to knock whatever Nurah is retrieving out of her hand.
"What's going on? I don't sense any evil on her."
"Magical tampering can fool it... so we looked for that. Nurah here..."
"decided that meant she needed to leave right away. Surrender and explain, Nurah. That's an order."
As Cecily and Tandyn attack the prone halfling she finally goes limp from the pain of her accumulated injuries. Nurah is at your mercy. Sosiel casts a spell removing the faerie fire but none of the other spells. He yells out, ”Sorry! Her magic is pretty strong.” You’re able to wait out the invisibility easily however. Aravashniel suggests, ”I may be of assistance if you require it. I know a similar spell.”
Cecily holds her hand out and says "Rope." and will send increasingly threatening glares at passing paladins until a rope is placed in her hand, which she will use to tie up Nurah.
"We should check her tent as well. It may have more information, but as it is," she turns to address the other advisors, "someone tried to poison one of our number. As Knight Commander Tandyn explained, we asked all of you to assemble so that we could check for magics to hide intentions, and Nurah clearly did not want that to happen. We will try to get more information out of her and her things shortly, and we welcome your involvement."
Thawm rushes over to the collapsed Nurah, patting around the again invisible halfling, she asks "Anyone have a mirror?"
"She might just be under some compulsion, she didn't react like this back near the destroyed village." Thawm frets.
Thawm determines that Nurah is alive and stable.
Your army has gathered to view the spectacle some take your explanation at face value while others are unconvinced. Irabeth demands, "We need proof not speculation."
Aravashnial suggests, "If she used magic to conceal her allegiances they will run out after a day. It's not unreasonable to hold someone captive under such suspicion, so long as those conditions are humane."