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Somewhere deep in the Margreve, Arianna sneezes as her ears turn bright red. "My apologies," she tells the ancient spirits of the forest here. "You were telling me about Noodle the Mad Goblin and his quest for the Dreaded Moby Duck." "Ah, yes. It was after the devilish drake took his left eye that Noodle the Mad set out for what he believed was the monstrous duck's one weakness, hoisin sauce..."
Old Margreve: Arianna winces at the booming voice. It isn't so much painful as startling. She looks at the trees surrounding her and realizes that her time with the others is at an end. To be honest, she wasn't sure that she could keep up with them anyway. The past few weeks had a few too many close calls for her comfort. She hopes that she'll be able to learn what became of them and their quest, but now it seems she'll be adding yet another interesting tale to her collection, and this one her own story. "Greetings, I am Arianna of the Moonwood Clan. What may I call you," she asks. It would appear that they are on their own. Oh well, that strange woman we found looks tough. Far tougher than I am. Until we meet again, my friends.
Arianna's eyes glaze over as her consciousness is swept away on the tide of a thousand, thousand voices.
Arianna spends some time thinking about what the others have said as breakfast is prepared, she takes some time to cast a spell and speak to the trees.
"Pardon me," she says. "I have heard you are an old and proud forest. What could we offer for safe passage to Levoca?"
Arianna looks to Scram then Ingryd and Gunnar. "Do you think that would be wise," she asks them.
Arianna doesn't understand why everyone seems so on edge, but she follows what Marta, Gunnar, and Ingryd say to do. "This reminds me of some of places my clan would travel through. Old, ancient, and powerful forests that not even a fey lord would dare to cross without care."
"If it is the closest safe town, then let's head there," Arianna says. "The longer we are out here in the wilderness, the harder it's going to be to survive."
"I am Arianna Moonwood. I sing and collect stories on my travels. They saved me from a dire fate at the hands of ghouls and wicked gnomes," she says indicating Scram, Gunnar, Luthael, and Ingryd.
"They did mention that, didn't they," Arianna says. "I think that may rule out Scram's Ice Hyena." She ponders the question for a moment before looking over to the prisoner. "By the way, who are you," she asks.
Arianna raises an eyebrow at Scram's frankly unbelievable lie. She sighs and gets down on a knee to be at eye-level with the halfling. "Scram, please, for me," she asks. --- Later, when they'd arrived at the clearing and gotten the camp set up, the elven bard walks up to Ingryd. "Ingryd, would you mind doing me a favor? The woman we found needs to be kept warm. Do you think you could help with that," she asks. Later, it becomes clear that Arianna was also hoping to take advantage of the bearkin's fur when she snuggles up close to the mighty and compassionate momma bear. --- Arianna is slow to wake up, her mind muddled by the fuzzy warmth of Ingryd's fur. As the villagers discuss the weather and Scram mentions an "ice hyena," whatever that is, she wonders if it also has something to do with the fae they ran into yesterday. "Hey, Gunnar? Do you know of any creatures that could cause this," she asks the dwarf from where she's bundled up next to Ingryd.
Mainly doing it for RP. The GM never said Ras took any damage or had any conditions from being frozen solid. I just figured that even a northlander would be freezing, so no need to spend any spells, I think. I'm not sure what the exact mechanics are for hypothermia, but levels of exhaustion sounds right to me. Anyway, if I'm being perfectly honest, part of it was a ploy to use Ingryd like a big, fluffy teddy bear. :P
Arianna helps the freezing young woman over to the villagers and watches as Ingryd and Gunanr go looking for a good spot to rest and get everyone warmed up. As they search she takes a look at their, prisoner? ward? guest? It's hard to tell, if she is being honest. There is something between her and Scramsax, something that has to do with why Scramsax is now a halfling woman if she followed Scram's tirade, but whatever it is, it wasn't enough to make this one overtly hostile on meeting her again. The elven bard sighs and shakes the thoughts away. One problem at a time. She has to approach this one problem at a time. The most immediate problem is the woman who's obviously having issues with the cold.
After a quick examination, Arianna believes she knows what's going on and how to resolve it. "Luthael, Scram," she calls out to the two not looking for a spot to get a fire going, "I need your help getting her out of the armor and wrapped up in something warm and dry."
Arianna puts her bow away and calls back to villagers. "Get a fire going!" She moves up and helps the recently frozen woman to her feet. She can feel the chilled armor through even her own layers and hopes it's not some ongoing curse causing the cold.
That's alright. I eagerly await Scram's reaction to this.
Arianna relaxes somewhat when the strange woman surrenders. "Shouldn't we get a fire going? The poor girl looks like she's about to freeze to death," the bards observes.
Of course! Arianna isn't going to let you just run around covered in muck. :D
Oh, sorry. I guess I should have made it more clear that Arianna was casting prestidigitation on Ingryd to clean her up before healing some of her wounds. She's less bear from hell and more bear from the salon at the moment. :P
Arianna is about to answer that she has no idea when Scram draws her knife with fell intent. She readies her bow and nocks an arrow before turning to the silver-haired woman. "I would suggest surrendering. We might be willing to talk our friend out of taking your scalp."
Seeing that Gunnar and Luthael have been buried Arianna tugs on Ingryd's arm and pulls her towards their two companions so they could help dig them out.
"I agree, but that doesn't mean you have to walk around covered in vomit," Arianna says as she finishes up and follows along as she tries to mend Ingryd's wounds.
Arianna rushes over to where Ingryd is and checks to see if she's alright. "Ingryd! Here! Let me clean you up," the young elf says as she casts a spell.
Arianna mutters an elvish curse she'd overheard from her father once as she sees the snowterror trying to escape with Ingryd. "Save some of that for the other side, fellas! These aren't the only ones we need to worry with," she calls out before moving as swiftly as she can to give herself a clear shot at the snowterror and avoid the apparently soon-to-be-collapsing snowy hillside. "Back in the trees, the hillside's going to be coming this way," she calls back to the villages as she nocks another arrow.
Arianna keeps moving away from the snowman as it chases her down.
Okay, finally decided on animate objects for my new spell known. Sorry for taking so long on figuring that out.
Arianna points towards the other wall 150 feet away before letting fly two arrows at the snowman trying to eat Ingryd. "Over there! They have another one of those snowmen," she warns.
As the arrows strike home, she moves to get some cover. Hopefully, these fey will focus on her and the others instead of attacking the villagers. "Ingryd! Show that thing why snowmen are no match for a bear's fury!" Arianna's words ring out with a spark of power that twists the strands of fate.
"Ow!" Arianna stumbles as the snowball nails the back of her head. She looks around and quickly realizes that they've walked into a trap. she shouts as she readies her bow. There's a lot of them and the five of them have more to consider than just their lives. She doubts this will work with Ingryd already in a fury, but she has to give it a try, or at least give the refugees they are with time to take cover. she calls out.
"Do you want me to see if I can find anything," Arianna asks.
"What if they are using magic to track us? I mean, they'd almost have to be to know where the ale wound up," Arianna observes.
"Why lie? It's exhausting to keep everything straight," Arianna says. "It's why most fey don't bother and the rest consider it the idiot's way out. I say we tell them the truth, you used a dangerous magical item and flooded a now destroyed house with dwarven ale. In the meantime, let's find someplace that looks like they can land and maybe they'll be kind enough to take us all to Luthael's home."
"Are you certain that you weren't named Scamsax?" Arianna bats way Scram's hand as she narrows her eyes at her.
Arianna almost believes Scram, but only almost. "Scram, I've only known you for less than a month and even I know that you don't have the discipline to pursue any martial art," she sighs before something else falls into place. "Wait, that beanstalk... THAT WAS YOU?!"
"Um, Ingryd? These aren't the ones that brew the beer. These are the ones that enforce the Brewers Guild's rules, and they are very, very scary!" Arianna's voice cracks as she puts her hands on the bearkin's arm and gently turns her to face her. "We heard all sorts of stories about them in my clan while we were traveling, and no one, I mean no one wanted to mess with them! They fly a black flag with the Guild's crest on it. I've heard they chased those that violated their rules into the abyss and dragged them out. We aren't going to get away."
I do hope the GM will forgive me if I am being too over the top. I thought with a 20, she would have heard some of the more fanciful tales. I did have fun writing that part of the post.
Arianna studies the ship for a moment and then goes deathly pale. If there is one thing that Dwarves take seriously, more seriously than metalwork, masonry, craftsmanship, and reaving, it's booze. The stories of Regulatory and Enforcement Arm of the Brewers Guild of the Ironcrag Cantons had reached even her clan wandering the Fey Roads and the Moonwood. The tamer ones told of enforcers spending a century tracking down those that had counterfeited a middle-ranked member's mark and sold barrels of cheap rotgut to a band of kobolds, an arbiter giving notice to a red dragon that the next time he even puffed the smallest of flames in the general direction of a field of barley near his domain that was used to grow one of the main ingredients of one particularly renowned brew, it would be the last time he breathed fire, and a group of enforcers marching into Hell itself to recover a stolen cask of Thor's Courage from an Infernal Prince's hoard and coming back with it and their souls intact. The mysterious geyser of fine dwarven brew in the house suddenly takes on a much more sinister air. "S-s-scram. H-how d-d-did that ale geyser wind up in the house," she asks in a very small, very frightened voice. "Because I think those dwarves are going to want to know the answer to that really, really badly."
"Where are we going to? If Gunnar and I can find one of the shadow or fey roads, I could guide us there more quickly. At the very least we wouldn't have to worry about the cold as much."
There's the issue at Nargastal that y'all were looking into before I joined with Kalisuel. There's also the young godling, Katrina. There might be more, but those are the two points I remember. Main question for me is whether I swap Arianna for Kali. I had intended for Arianna to move on when Kali had a chance to rejoin, but at the moment, I'm not sure what I'll do. GM? Any thoughts?
Time was midsummer, so we've got 8-10 months, I think. I don't think there was a place, perse.
Didn't the rug unravel?
Arianna manages a smile at Gunnar's wise words. "Very well, my wise friend. We still have half a day before us. Where do you say we go? To this Nargastal?"
"I-I guess," Arianna answers in a small voice. She looks young indeed as she hugs herself and tries to banish the chill she feel. "Even if he was a wicked slaver, I-- I don't feel right just leaving him there to suffer."
Arianna returns three days after setting out. She doesn't sleep at all as she pushes through the night after investigating the village, or its ruins rather, and finds the others around noon on the third day. "Well, my ploy worked, but--" her voice trails off as she pales. The sight of that gnome and the priestess were going to haunt her nightmares for a long while. After getting something to drink, something strong if available, she relays what she saw and informs the villagers there's nothing left to return to.
Arianna's Road Trip: Seeing the activity, Arianna decides that she should probably take a closer look. Casting Invisibility on herself, she sneaks into the ghoul-haunted village.
Happy New year!
I think this is valuable enough that Arianna would go investigate. If for no other reason than to confirm that her ploy worked and they aren't going to be chasing the villagers and us. Anyone else want to chime in before I potentially get my character killed?
There's a part of me that would love to play Raseri again. I think she and Ingryd would get along well, if for no other reason than they both have a pretty straightforward way of dealing with problems. ;)
Oh, I was thinking it could only hold 3 spell levels. If it can hold 5, how about Dimension Door?
Arianna does have invisibility if Scram wants it. GM, thinking about the down time, would Arianna have enough time to reconnoiter the village and see what the aftermath was? She'd be extremely cautious and stay invisible for as long as she was anywhere near the village. I don't want to go into the village, just see what the aftermath was like and if there is anything still going on.
I do have Deep Magic Vols. 1 and 2. Would both of those be allowed, GM?
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