It's a major bummer, but we had a good go at it, and it was awesome while it lasted.
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Always a busy time for me with friends and family visits. Ready to start up again now though. @Timo Exciting!
Still here and following along, just swamped with work, things will slow down next week. One question I had, and I don't feel like searching back through the threads; did Thorn mention that we would get assistance from one of the other knots, the one we met in the mansion, or am I delusional? If so, Affyria will try and seek them out and see if they've learned anything.
We could also visit a library and search for information on the death cult or the exploits of king Markadian I, surely there has to be some record of him wiping out that cult.
Affyria offers the baron her most charming smile. "As long as you're offering, I would not mind a few bottles of this very exquisite vintage," she says, holding up the glass of wine.
"As for me, I'll be glad to see Mitra's faith fall in grace. Her worshippers preach kindness and acceptance, but in truth they are blinded by their ideals, and their entire dogma is based on their own superiority and the shunning of other views. Once the faith of our infernal lord has again risen to supremacy in Talingarde, the kingdom will be reshaped into a better place, a more tolerant place, where everyone can carve out an equal existence for themselves." Affyria pauses, as if to add weight to her words. "Then we can finally be at peace."
Ugh, epic fail. I could actually hit 40 with a natural 20 and an aid another from Kiffex :)
Affyria offers a thin smile to the baron. "It is true, and I can certainly understand your reluctance into tying your horse to our wagon, so to speak. But remember, that our Lord, among other things, is also sometimes called the god of trickery. Secrecy is our greatest weapon, and rest assured that we will keep Talingarde and the house of Darius in the dark of our true intentions for as long as possible. No one is aware of the part we've played in the fall of Balentyne. No one will be aware of the part you will play in aiding us. I'm sure that our Prince of Darkness will smile upon you once more, in time, and count you among his flock."
As Raven finally rejoins them, Affyria gives him a pointed glance. "Good to see you up and about, Raven. You're looking... well. How do you feel now?" After the meal, and in response to the baron's question, Affyria adds, "The mission that my compatriot refers to will probably see us spending at least some amount of time in Farholde, which is why we could certainly benefit from your assistance, and your connections. The actual details of said mission are confidential for the time being, and is only marginally related with our presence here. Rest assured that we will do our utmost to avoid drawing attention to ourselves, and to you." Affyria pauses to take a sip of her wine before continuing, "Our ultimate goal in Talingarde is bringing about an end to the reign of Mitra and the Markadians, and with it, the House of Darius. I've come to understand there's no love lost between your two houses, and I'm sure the power vacuum that will be created when they fall, could prove very beneficial to a man of your standing."
Affyria does not take a seat, but does help herself to some wine. She saunters calmly about the room, taking in her surroundings. "Baron Vandermir of House Barca," she says, mulling the name over. "He sure seems rather wealthy, at least. Is there anything else you can tell us about him, anything that would be valuable to know?" she asks Tiadora.
Yeah ever since the site got revamped the wayfinder app has been sketchy at best. Most of the times it doesn't update properly.
Affyria arrives at the mansion all gussied up, wearing a laced up leather corset, a heavy split skirt, black slashed through with burgundy, knee high leather boots. Her hair is done up, and tied together with a silk ribbon, showing off her black horns poking through. Around her neck she wears a silver chain, and hanging from it, a pentagram inset with several onyxes and rubies. She grins her needle-like teeth bare as the guard tells them to disarm. She holds out her hands and mewls, "I'm unarmed and harmless, good sir. Would you care to check?" For a second, you believe you hear a chuckle coming from nearby, but you're not sure if you imagined it.
Affyria wanders around Farholde an afternoon, in the guise of a non-descript redheaded human priest. She regards the occasional nuns of the abbey with suspicion. Visiting the Mitran church at Newchurch, Affyria always had a weak spot for the baroque branch of architecture, although she can't help but feel it could be a hundred times more impressive if it was dedicated to her patron Asmodeus. She also visits the trade district in Templeton Rise, spending some of her newfound wealth on a few splendid items for their meeting with the baron. In the evening Affyria visits some of the popular pubs, being positively charming and extraverted in order to glean some information out of the locals.
So that's 3390 total I think? Also, everyone okay if I take the cloak? I think most people already have a +1 resist cloak.
Affyria mostly keeps to herself during the sea voyage, obviously irritated at being confined to a ship again for an extended period of time. The tiefling only engages in the occasional conversation, spending more time with Kiffex and investigating the bible she acquired from the commander of the fort. At the meeting with the Cardinal, she gives him a curt nod, listening to his explanation of their upcoming task. Her eyebrow raised, she adresses him, "It is good to hear that the bugbear horde has racked up that many victories in so little time. Obviously the kingdom was unprepared for such an event. My apologies though, but I do wish to express some concerns I have." "First we unleash a ragtag horde of bugbears and other monsters, and now a daemon lord and a deadly plague? I fear nothing will be left of the kingdom by the time we're through." "Also, how do we know this daemon prince won't seek to simply destroy us all? I was under the impression their kind are not to be trusted, and only the foolish seek to bargain with them. Finally, if we're to unleash a deadly plague upon Talingarde, how do we ensure that we don't fall victim to it ourselves?"
Burying someone on a barge seems problematic though. Maybe we can bury him in Farholde, under the assumption that we'll probably spend at least a little time there? Affyria isn't great with knowledge skills (+5 in religion) so she won't know a whole lot about the whole undead vampire curse thing. Daidalos is probably a better IC font of knowledge, and he might know about needing to bury you.
Affyria glares at Tiadora's back as she retreats. "I have to spend twelve days on this stinking barge while I freeze my t~+* off? I think I might prefer the bugbears at Balentyne. This trip better be worth the trouble," she complains as she settles herself in for a cold night. "This reminds me of the time I spent on the streets in Ghastenhall. Keep your head and skin covered, tuck your trousers into your socks, and if you feel yourself going cold, walk around a bit and rub your wrists. That will help warm up your blood and your body," the tiefling offers as advice to the others.
Survival DC 15: Gain a +2 bonus on all Fortitude saves against severe weather while moving up to half your overland speed, or gain a +4 bonus if you remain stationary. You may grant the same bonus to one other character for every 1 point by which your Survival check result exceeds 15.
When Sakkarot and Tiadora have left the room, Affyria takes a moment to glance at each of her companions, letting silence rule the room for a minute before speaking. "Sakkarot doesn't like her, to say the least. I got the impression he's actually quite opposed to her, for some reason. While she acts charming enough, Tiadora is probably someone we don't want to turn our back on." "For now, I suppose we better pack our things and leave this place behind. It will be interesting to see what the Cardinal has planned for us in the future. I do not relish the thought of traveling alongside that she-devil, however, we might be able to glean some information out of her."
"Well met again, Sakkarot Fire-Axe," Affyria greets the bugbear with a grin. "Welcome to Balentyne. I'm afraid it's not all it's cracked up to be. Do not worry, there will be plenty of fights coming for your horde. Did you bring our pet ogre with you as well? I have not yet broken our seal, I wanted to be sure your horde would arrive and perform their assigned duties before moving ahead," She says blatantly, observing his reaction. With that, Affyria will break their seal to alert their benefactor.
I think the website outages were more of a drain on the updates. I'm still liking the posting frequency, frankly, though I agree sandbox adventures are a little bit more challenging in a pbf format. For me, it helps to remind myself not every post has to be a 10 minute well-crafted essay. Even a few lines of text can sometimes move things along.
Affyria casually walks over to the guard captain, her tiefling tail swaying behind her. She cups his chin in her hand and locks his eyes in a steely gaze, picking a bloody lock of hair off his face. "Do not worry, human. Soon, all your sorrow and pain will be gone. Your doubts and your fears will lie in the past, while your land will be reforged in the fires of a glorious new dawn. If you wish to renounce your god and embrace the glory that is our Dark Father, I am prepared to hear your plea," Affyria adds, not really expecting him to take her up on that offer. Turning, she heads up on to the roof, and sets alight the firework that was given to them by Thorn.
If they have the bridge covered with arrow fire I can get us there under cover of darkness. I don't know if we all have darkvision, but I can drop the spell once it's not needed anymore. Another thing I would like to do is to use some summon monster II and III spells to summon a few hell hounds and send them through the gap first. They have a breath weapon so they're pretty good against regular soldiers. I agree that the siege engine is probably overkill. We don't want to risk damaging the bridge, which would pose problems for the bugbear horde. Also, unrelated, but I just came across this gem of a spell: flesh puppet.
I can probably use stone shape to provide us with a way in without little trouble. So the current tasks to be completed seems to be:
"So what's the plan? We could probably make our way back to the secret passage and come back tomorrow unseen, or we can try and take the rest of them now? With the way this night has transpired, I wouldn't be surprised if the survivors have deserted in the morning." Affyria says. "Word of warning though, I am out of spells for the rest of the night. This keep might be ripe for the taking though, two things I can still think off is to burn that arrow storage and open the gate somehow. They seem to plan on fortifying that place however."
Two-year old with a cold here as well, and both me and my partner took it over from her. :)
"Stand fast," Affyria whispers as she lays a hand on Timo.
Affyria grits her teeth as she is blasted with electricity. "Nnggh. That sure wakes you up. And here I thought paladins deemed themselves too honorable to mess around with devious traps." Upon seeing the contents of the commanders lockbox, however, she seemingly cheers up. "My, Commander Havelyn, you shouldn't have," the tiefling grins wide.
Affyria picks up the bible, casually flips through it, and stows it away in her pack.
Affyria looks about the painting and the shrine built around it, going so far as to take it off the wall to inspect the back for an artist's mark or possibly an identifier of who the painting depicts. Glancing over at Daidalos, she inquires, "What's in the box?"
Affyria will heal Raven, as well as herself, before heading up to the commander's quarter to have a look around for herself.
"Let's be quick about it, we probably only have a few minutes before reinforcements arrive. I'll have a look around his laboratory. Raven, you check out the magister's quarters, the rest, check their bodies for valuables before we head upstairs," Affyria says before she heads into the laboratory where the golem broke out of.
"If we clean our weapons we might be able to bluff our way out of it, pretend we're the first ones to arrive at the scene? We've crushed their command structure in any case, it's possible we can convince them to abandon the keep altogether. For now, I agree with Daidalos, and we should check out the magister's quarters."
Affyria lets loose another burst of her miasma of infernal energy throughout the room, healing the wounded.
The site may be working again but I think their dice roller is broke now.
Affyria notices the elf getting hurt pretty badly, and glances down at her hand, as if contemplating something for a moment. Seemingly reaching a decision, she lays a hand on the elf and mutters a few words.
Affyria winces as the cold blast from the golem washes over her.
Affyria wrinkles her nose at the smell of Morthos' burnt skin and looks down at her hand curiously. Alright, that was a bit unexpected. Let's see if this works better.
Yeah I do have that ability. Also my channel ability will heal them also since it doesn't qualify as positive energy.
Oh damn, well good thing I didn't do a cure moderate then :D
Affyria takes a few steps forward and invokes her divine powers to heal Morthos' wounds.
I'm here and ready to go again.
Yeah they seem to have had a huge amount of problems with the website the past weeks.
Affyria narrows her eyes at the escaping guard and issues a simple command to Kiffex, "Stop him." She then unslings the crossbow she carries, and sends a bolt towards the golem.
Kiffex then flies down after the guard, and whispers some words of his own at him. "What if the commander was still alive? I should go back and defend him, every second counts."
"Villainy? We are merely the harbingers of a new age of enlightenment. All change brings with it a measure of misunderstanding," Affyria says as she brandishes her (un)holy symbol.
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