Thanks. Hardly feels lucky when my alarm clock goes off at 5am, but the job is decent and pays better than my other options for my field.
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So, I've just started a new job this week and though I figured I'd find a way to balance it with free time, I simply haven't. I work 10 hour shifts and run a commute that's over an hour each way. Basically I have no time for anything during my weekdays for the next 3-6 months. Of course, that means daily posting to campaigns is just extra I can't manage right now when I hardly have time to make dinner before I'm back to getting ready for bed. So rather than lag the entire campaign with my dead weight, I'll just dip out now before it gets worse. I'm really sorry about this, I certainly hadn't anticipated a 10 hour day job when I started picking up campaigns on the forums, but I guess that's just the way my particular cookie crumbled this new year.
Not for the first time does Avaria feel somewhat sluggish as Justinius bolts forward to catch up to Jim who had disappeared around a corner at the end if the cavern. Even Aldern was down the end of the tunnel before she had enough sense to hustle forward herself. Unlike Aldern who placed himself behind strategic cover, she stepped brazenly into the doorway, arrow knocked, raised, and aimed towards the stranger in the room. "I'm seriously going to have to look into some movement encantations," she growled, glaring at the middle aged man as if her speed was his fault.
Sorry. Moved over the new years weekend. Realized I told no one. ... I'm horrible at responsibility. Will post after my first day of my new job.
Avaria was pleased to have everyone come back to her for once. It was a pleasant change of pace to what was becoming the norm. She was glad to follow behind the others who seemed to have more experience with tracking than herself, or at least a unique take on how it should be done. When the signal was given to stop and be still, Avaria froze like a deer in headlights. "What is it...?" she asked softly, her voice barely a whisper.
Instinctively, her hands readied to bring her bow up to draw.
Avaria keeps her hand on Aldern, partly for his safety but mostly for hers. "We're losing them," she grumbled in a low tone though she didn't slow her pace as they raced after the others through the fog.
Avaria does her best to keep track of where the others have gone while looking for signs of trouble before they find her. "Look out for stairs, they'll probably be sticky!" she called ahead.
I'd assume once the holidays are over and everyone's back to the usual 9 to 5s, it'll go back to normal. Holidays are just hectic and what not.
"Bloody hell, where does he get off charging through the fog like that?!" Avaria groaned as she bolted after the others, grabbing Aldern by the arm to ensure he followed as well. She could hear Jim ahead of them, his voice echoing even through the fog, which acted as a beacon of sorts. Or at least hinted she was probably on the right track tho it was hard to clearly make out the shapes in front of her. "Lighting, fog, wards... This is a damn fortress, not a cave..."
Sorry for the sudden disappearance, everyone! I went out of town to my aunt's for the holidays expecting her to have wifi, but apparently after the flood she went wired only (didn't want to replace the router I guess?). Anyways, I'm back now, so I'll get caught up. Again, sorry for the no notice AWOL status. Merry belated Christmas!
Avaria stops in her tracks as the voice booms through the cave, the tip of her slightly elongated ear twitching slightly. "Seems like it might be some sort of magic mouth spell. I've seen them before, though I've never used one myself. But..." she trails off, brows furrowed in thought before she continues. "When you combine that with the illusion on the door and this damned fog, well, you've got yourself the makings of a potential guards and wards spell. Again, not one I personally find appealing, but I certainly know a few recluses who make good use of them." She moves forward in line behind the others, maintaining her dancing lights as they proceed.
"Nicely done..." Avaria mumbles as she runs a finger along the surface of the illusion. "Justinius is right, wall isn't even really there." Avaria pokes her head through to take a peek after Justinius has passed through, conjuring up a set of dancing lights to add some illumination.
Avaria grumbles a thank you to Victoria when she drops her on the other side of the now dead serpent and walks with the others along the narrow ravine. She keeps flicking bits of ice and snow off herself. She'd be lucky if she didn't catch a deathly chill in this horrific weather. At the dead end she pauses, glancing around at the natural wall. "What now...?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. As Justinius disables an alarm that had apparently put in place, Avaria became suspicious of the apparent dead end. "Might it be an illusion?" With the trap disabled, she moves to help Justinius with the search for an entrance.
Avaria looks up to Victoria who was offering a hand and sighs before extending her own to reach up and hold on. She'd never forgive herself for accepting aid from a Hellknight.
"Such a shame. It's a beautiful creature," Avaria mused as she approached the beast after Justinius ensured the wyrm was quite dead. "I suppose I could try to climb over or squeeze by. A slender figure comes in handy from time to time." Avaria has many issues, but apparently self confidence isn't one of them. She takes a look around at her possible routes, ones that don't involve being manhandled by a Hellknight, trying to figure her chances.
Avaria finally emerges from the sleet storm, caked in a crusted layer of ice and snow, just in time to see the beast's last death throes before it went still. "Great. Just great," she says with a huff, lower lip pushed out in the form of a pout. "You've gone and stolen all my glory for once, Aldern," she added as she removed her cloak for just a moment to dust it off before slinging it back around her. "I swear, after this, I'm heading to Absolom for a nice long vacation." She ignores the suggestions of cutting open the serpentine creature, assuming it all to be in jest. After all, who could possibly want to do something so disgusting...
Avaria dusts the snow off her head and shoulders as she continues. She was going to invest in a decent pair of goggles, ice climber's slippers, and maybe a cloak with more clasps to keep it shut. She continues forward, grumbling about missing all the action.
Avaria yelps when Jim seems to very suddenly appear just behind her in the storm. "So glad you caught up!" she calls back to Jim over the sound of the unnatural weather as she continues to push forward.
Avaria moves carefully, spitting vulgar curses that would make a sailor proud as she steps and slides across the icy surface. Progress is slow, but she sticks with it despite the pounding precipitation. She'd have to have a word with the wyrm about manners and greeting someone more nicely at the door.
With not many options for moving forward, Avaria cringes and enters into the white-out ice storm.
Avaria looks about to her companions who remained on this side of the wall of snow. "Should have hitched a ride on Graverattler's back!" she said to Aldern, flashing him a cheeky smile. "But lingering here isn't getting us a wyrm hide! We ought to press forward, and quickly."
"It can't go on forever, but do not risk yourselves for the sake of exploration. If you go too far and run into trouble... well, we may not be able to find you."
Just before Justinius and Graverattler disappear into the solid wall of snow, she points a finger at each member of the party, casting a message spell. "Call for help if you need us. We will be ready to come to your aid," she says, though the last sounds a little less confident as she considers how they'd help without seeing more than a foot in front of their own noses.
"Unfortunately I would need a tangible target to be able to dispel anything and this," she says, waving her hand towards the intense weather ahead of them. "Isn't really giving me that. Do we want to have the pair of you scout ahead, or should we all move in together? I'd hate for you two to run into something in there without us. Aldern might be on to something when he speaks of simply moving around it. Not that I have anything particularly helpful or useful for that."
Avaria follows Graverattler into the valley, her eyes peeled for any more hidden censors, though the snow was certainly not helping her efforts.
"I must voice my appreciation for your magic, Jim. I fear this hike would be unbearable without it," she says as she tries to keep her cloak close around her. She certainly hadn't been expecting weather like this so early in the year. Avaria squints ahead when she notices the opaque wall of snow that seemed to have coated the ground in a slick sheet of ice.
"What on Golarion are we walking into..."
"That proposal seems fine enough. As long as we aren't simply being sitting ducks here." Avaria glances up to the unnatural sky and frowns wishing she could banish the weather. "We should be ready for more lightning. There's no telling how many of those scrying orbs will be about. Or how much lightning will accompany them." Snow and cold, serpents and lightning... This is shaping up to be quite an exciting undertaking.
"I agree with Graverattler. We should find an alternate route or some other way to mask our arrival."
Feeling cold and unhappy about the weather on top of being spied on, Avaria crinkles her nose as the sensor winks out of existence. "Nicely done," she says to Graverattler as she pulls her cloak tighter around herself. "Why on earth would anyone being spying here in particular? You think we just entered someone's territory? Wait, do serpents weild magic in the same way dragons do?"
"I can drop a fog around it. Though our vision will also be obscured," Avaria offers. "But we can simply move out of the fog. Just be mindful of your bearings."
Avaria gives another jump at the crack of lightning, and redoubles her efforts to spot this orb Justinius was talking about. With nothing to attack, she's got nothing better to do than try to figure out what's going on here.
"It's an arcane eye," Avaria says once she manages to find the little bugger. "Someone's watching us. Could be up to a quarter mile away, depending on how strong, or at least well practiced, they are with such things." Assuming no one is in her way, Avaria casts burning hands towards the sensor.
Avara moves up closer with all due caution to try to get a look at the orb Justinius was talking about. She keeps an arrow at the ready, string drawn to her cheek, should something more tangible than they exceptionally startling lightning appear.
Readied Attack:
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"You know, this weather reminds me of a spell. The ones used to control the weather. Typically refered to in most magical academies simply as control weather but I hardly think that's creative. I think something more along the lines of--!!" Avaria's horse reared at the sudden and alarmingly close strike of lightning, but she kicked it forward towards the front of the line cautiously, keeping her eyes peeled for the source of it. The sudden onset of weather along with a very coincidental lightning strike was too suspicious in her opinion.
She quickly draws her bow and knocks an arrow, ready to let it fly at the first sign of danger. "Keep your eyes open, watch the skies."
Just wanted to say I'm back and feeling much better. I'm going to be getting caught up with my campaigns and should have a post up today :)
Just taking a moment while I'm lucid to say I am exceptionally ill today and probably unable to sit down and actually write a coherent post. Sorry.
Avaria looks from one person to the other as they all arrange watch shifts. She blinks at everyone's apparent lack of sleep, except for the Hellknight who seems to, like her, require something more substantial than a cat nap. "Err... So, I'll just sleep through the night then, or will common courtesy dictate I ought to volunteer myself to be needlessly up for the watch? I'll admit I'm an earlier riser anyways; have to peruse the spellbook and prepare components after all. So, if it's all the same to everyone else, I'll take the last watch, if you can even call it that when you'll all be awake anyways!" Avaria chuckles to herself and takes her bags to see about that extra tent possibly already set up. Sure, she's got her own, but why unpack needlessly only to have to pack it again in the morning?
Ah yes, I did see it. I forgot to address it in my post, but she's addressed it in my head >.>;; She's read it over and stuffed it in her bag for now lol.
Avaria's morning was pleasant. She had gone to bed at a reasonable hour, gotten a decent sleep, and had woken naturally bright and early that morning. She primped polished herself up, donning finely made clothes more suited for hunting than her outfit she had worn to the festival. She sat on her bed with her spellbook laid out in front of her, perusing the pages for some spells that would be useful in a variety of situations. She was really going to have to keep an eye on her hunting companions to see what spells she may have that would compliment their particular skills and abilities. For now, she'd have to go generic. It didn't take long to pack her belongings for the trip; she kept most everything ready to go in her backpack as it was. She left a silver coin on her pillow for whoever came to clean her room then tossed her bag over her shoulder and headed downstairs. "Ah, Aldern, I see you've taken the liberty of ordering for us!" she exclaimed when she came down to a stream of food already being laid out for the hunting party. She set her bag down and slid into a chair, dishing herself up some of the good eats. "So how far do you expect to make it today? Will we reach our destination within the day, or do expect a longer journey there?" ~ ~ ~ Once breakfast has finished and they are out at the stables, Avaria takes a look over the horses. She inspects their ankles, ears, coats, etc... But of course never their mouth. You never look a gift horse in the mouth. She picks out a strong looking horse with a buckskin coloring as her own. "Sure, I got on: this one got a name?" Avaria asks, gesturing to the horse she's currently swinging herself up on to.
Nah I'm digging the rp here. It's really well written and very well played out. Again, if Avaria's determination to go against Victoria starts to grate just let me know. I figure once walls come down (and they all know each other more than a couple days) she'll warm up to the Chelaxian tin can. Of course, Avaria is Chaotic and Victoria is Lawful so I doubt they'll ever agree on certain things.
"To be fair, one cannot force an argument by themselves. All she did was repeat your own words incredulously with disbelief in what I perceived as a need for clarification from a woman where the likes of you are considered to be a terrorist. I don't believe asking her to elaborate on whether or not she liked your words was you working to put off the situation. Rocks glass houses... Blah blah," Avaria blurts out, finally finding a place to butt in. "Anyways, assuming your views of the situation were portrayed with accuracy, something I have doubts about considering Hellknights have branches that have the specific jobs of purging knowledge that may lead to ideas and values that don't align with their strict and usually infernal views and others who pride themselves on erraticating local natives and their cultures under skewed and slanted positions on what civilization means---" Avaria pauses to catch her breath. "What was I getting at? Ah yes. From the sounds of it, in that situation you just painted for us, you were as much a terrorist as the ones you deemed as such." As her rant winds down, Avaria appears to look relieved, like something that had deflated after too much pressure had built up. Almost like a drug addict who had finally got their fix. The sound of her own voice paired a need to state her opinions and participate in every conversation being the drug in this scenario. She may have a bit of a problem.
Avaria looks back and forth between the Shoanti woman and the Hellknight. At this point, she couldn't help but feel like the Hellknight was intentionally stepping on every set of toes possible. Usually, Avaria would have something to say, but what the Hellknight was spweing out was so grotesquely wrong she felt no need to back up Graverattler. The way that Hellknight thing speaks of torture, it sounds like she thinks its an acceptable thing to use against people defending their homes! Disgusting! She leans back and gives Ameiko a nod for dinner, forgetting about ludo for the time being in favor of sitting next to Graverattler and nodding along with her points against the Hellknight's actions and positions on them. When it looks like Graverattler winds things down, Avaria clears her throat and opens her mouth, then promptly closes it again. She was going to take Jim's lead on this one.
So it looks like Paizo ate the post I made earlier, and I literally just noticed. It's a little late to remake the post now, but I'll do it as soon as I get a chance tomorrow. Probably around midday? I'm so sorry about that guys. Id have fixed it had I noticed earlier.
Avaria glances around the gathered faces, trying to suppress a laugh. Seems the Hellknight's bossy manner was drawing unwanted attention to the matters the Priest had wanted under wraps. And here i thought I was going to be the one to struggle to keep my mouth shut. [b]"I'll hold off on supper to see if my guest arrives. If not, then in a few hours I'd adore such a meal.
With the group regathered again, Avaria sets off back out the main doors and into the streets. "No last minute stops on the way back to the inn?" she asks curiously. Avaria herself, regardless of any stops the others make, will head right back to the inn on the off chance Ludo will show up for dinner.
"Do you often head for bed around supper time?" she asks the Hellknight with a raised brow. "Ah, see now, Justinius has the right idea. Dinner and drinks. Though we should wait for Jim before leaving. He said he went off to see about the magical items."
Avaria accepts the tube graciously, offering her sincerest thanks to the priest. She gives Jim a slight wave as he departs. "Wait for us before heading back to the inn?" she requests. As Victoria makes further inquiries and Justinius asking after the resting place of the other victim, Avaria decides to linger a little longer to hear the answers. No such thing as having too much information in her "humble" opinion. ~ ~ ~ When the moment is appropriate and feels socially acceptable, Avaria will open the scroll tube to see if there's actually something inside it. If so, she'll use read magic to identify its properties.
"Well, they took the old Priest's body. His niche is empty. There was a incorporeal creature down there, too. Probably set as a guard, but I could be wrong. Might have just been attracted to this," Avaria says, holding up the remnants of the alter she had destroyed. "Was a little portable alter sending off not a small amount of negative energy. Inscribed with dozens of evil deities sigils and what nots. Could have been used for any number of worshipers with all that packed in it. Maybe you've encountered something similar before...?" she asks hopefully. "Thought it would be best to bring it out of the crypt after I took the liberty of uh... 'dismantling' it. Much less potent now, if potent at all. Sheriff might want to see the evidence, too. Seems the type of thing he might like."
Avaria gives a satisfied nod at her handiwork. "Now that these are a little safer, should we gather then up for the Sheriff to take a look at? Maybe he's seen something like it before."
Avaria walks about the chamber fetching her arrows, giving the name plates and niches a look over, including the one with the missing body of the last priest. She grimaces at the thought of disrupting a holy man, then heads back to look at the fetish. "Fetish is covered in sigils for... one two three... Ugh, at least a couple dozen evil gods. Portable alter that can be used for pretty much any evil deity you could ever dream of evoking. Dripping with negative energy to boot," she explains as she looks the thing over. "You may not want to touch it, but I'm more of a mind to destroy it. No use leaving it here for it to do more damage to this sacred place." She bends down, and attempts to set the thing alight with a spark. Should that not work, she'll unload a Full-Round worth of adamantine arrows into it. Attack and Damage Rolls (if they are needed):
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