Putting the game on hiatus is much preferable to losing it altogether. :) Good luck with everything, and see ya round!
Search Posts
*crickets...* Hope all's well with everyone?
Eliaera will simply nod and follow Hiro's lead.
Eliaera sighs emphatically at the dialogue between Ilir and Garridan. "Let's not get caught up in a religious debate. I don't want to hurt others either... but this far most things have been wanting to hurt us pretty badly. Going into the unknown with good intentions and a sword in hand seems the best way to cover all your bases." When Hiro no doubt returns from scouting with little success, Eliaera will frown. "So it's either over the walls or through the gate. We'll have to chance the front entrance, I think." She'll try to help pushing the gate open.
Eliaera returns to the rest of the group and relays her sightings of the castle grounds to them. "There's definitely something in there, but I think it's far away. Either way... if we try to break open the gates, it'll certainly attract whatever's snuffling around out there." "I wonder... does anyone have something like a grappling hook? Maybe back at the caravan?"
Eliaera peers up at the castle, looking for any sign of Spivey's bird-men but seeing little aside from crumbling mortar. "How about I sneak over and have a look around the gate?" she suggests to the group. "If there's anyone hanging around near the entrance, I'll come right back, don't worry." Assuming no protests, Eliaera will sneak her way to the edge of the stone castle walls and inch alongside it right up until the gate. She'll listen for signs of anyone nearby and, if nothing sticks out immediately, slowly and carefully poke her head around the gate edge to have a look inside the immediate castle grounds.
"Ameiko's grandfather stated in his letter that the family's ancient enemies would wait forever at Brinewall Castle. Perhaps these bird-men and ogres are those ancient enemies. If so, they may be the source of Ameiko's affliction. I believe helping Spivey may help Ameiko as well," the Tian man adds to the discussion, glancing toward Ilir to address the paladin's concerns. Eliaera notices the barb in Ilir's rebuttal, and feels a twinge of guilt mixed with some frustration. She seems about to open her mouth and say more before Hiro adds in his own brand of calmness to the pot. Instead, the bard simply bites her tongue and decides not to press the point further, turning her focus to the lyrakien. Looking thoughtful, Spivey says "maybe i could help your friend?" a hopeful look on her face. "i know many spells and healing magic that could help a traveller in need." "If you could help Ameiko, that would great, Spivey," Eliaera agrees with Hiro and Garridan. Thinking quickly, the bard rummages through her pack and draws out her journal. She tears a page out from the back and quickly scribbles a note to Koya to explain the situation, before folding it up and handing it to Spivey. The page is really quite large to the very little lyrakien, but probably not too much of a burden overall. "I am sure that Koya would know immediately to trust you, but it can't hurt to send her a missive as well," she says with a wink. Eliaera moves towards the Desnan statue, looking closely at the pure water gathered in its copper bowl. "Does anyone have anything we can put this water in?" she asks the group. "If we come into contact with more skeletons or something, it could really come in handy." She draws a waterskin from her bag, taking a quick drink before emptying it and replacing its contents with the holy water.
I flagged the duplicate post for the mods to come clean it up :) I think you can also flag the post for "bad BBCode markup" if you'd like to fix that too.
Eliaera stares curiously at the tiny little sprite, feeling a bemused smile grace the corners of her lips as Spivey continues to talk. My goodness, how cute! I wish Ameiko was here to see this... The bard's good mood immediately collapses as she recalls Ameiko's state. She shakes her head a little to clear the sudden tsunami of anxious feelings before joining in on the conversation between Garridan and Ilir. "I want to help Spivey," Eliaera says emphatically. "She healed me... she restored my strength from the reefclaw poison. I owe her. Plus, I agree with Garridan... we can't ignore someone that needs help!" "Trust me, Ilir, I want to help Ameiko so much... you know that. But I'm sure we can look into these bird-men while we're doing so." If the little fey is still hanging around somewhere, Eliaera will call out to her in a gentle voice. "Spivey, are you still there? Can you tell us anything about these bird-men?"
After trying to yank her leg free of the reefclaw's grip, Hiro comes to her rescue, effortlessly dodging its counter-attack and smashing Tsutamu's old blade down upon the joint of its claws. For just a moment, its grip loosened, and Eliaera leapt out of its grasp. Avoiding putting weight on her injured limb, she does a half spin, almost as if she were dancing, and thrusts deep into the creature's carapace with a shout. Thankfully, Ilir was there to finish her performance off, for the bard lands awkwardly on her injured leg and lets out a howl of pain. "Ughh," she winces, inspecting the wound. She tries to use prestidigitation to clean up whatever venom might be left around the edges, but the poison seems to have done its job, and she appears surprisingly haggard and weak as they continue, wheezing heavily as she hefts around her gear. She does, however, move to keep up with Hiro. "I owe you one, buddy," she says with a thankful smile. "Or was that your payback from that time in the caverns? Hehe." Passing by the statue of Desna, Eliaera blinks, suddenly feeling a surprising warmth pass through her body. In an instant, the ache from her injured leg disappears. Eliaera looks around from side to side, puzzled, as she inspects her wound. It was... gone? Huh? The Varisian woman looks at the statue of Desna with an arched brow and a small smile. "... thank you," she says quietly, unsure if it was some divine miracle or what. Eliaera gives it a quick look-over on the magical plane, casting detect magic with a hymn she'd heard sung in the Sandpoint Cathedral about Desnan luck. Before following the rest inside the temple, Eliaera rummages around in her pockets, withdrawing what little money she had remaining and places it into the copper bowl of the statue. "Sorry I can't give more."
Eliaera gasps as the vicious reefclaw's snipping claws catch on her leg, whimpering a little as she feels the creature's poison begin to deaden the muscles in her limb. She tries to wriggle her leg out of its vice-like grip but has little success in doing so; the poison seemed to be spreading quickly.
Alright, semester's FINALLY over and all my assignments are done! Apologies for my lack of posts the past week+, everything should be back in order from now on. :)
"... Huh?" Eliaera looks briefly behind her as Amelius rushes by her, calling out something about securing the boat. She frowns in puzzlement; why could the boat not wait for another minute or two...? Ah, the boy could be odd at times. She tries to keep focus on the assailing reefclaw, but the minute distraction dulls her aim somewhat.
I had a quick look around for a better Eliaera one but didn't come up with any. Couple of my other characters got nice shiny new pictures though. :) I did notice that the official Ameiko art is up, though, as well as other art from Jade Regent, so the rest of the NPCs probably have their official images floating around somewhere in there too.
Eliaera grimaces at the rotting carcass, both at its disgusting and bizarre form but also the terrible smell emanating from it. As she checks the thing out, she notices a dark, lobster-like figure darting through the water, and shouts out an alarm to the rest of the group. "Careful! Something's coming!" As one reefclaw approaches her and Garridan, Eliaera prepares to intercept its attack with a piercing parry from her magical rapier. She skewers the thing through with ease, in fact!
Eliaera is initially hesitant to leave Ameiko's side, but in the end leaves her to Koya, trusting in the old Varisian grandmother to protect her better than anyone else could. She's nonetheless obviously very absent-minded with worry as they travel through the forest surrounding Brinewall, occasionally tripping over roots or nearly running into someone from behind. "It is odd that an old, abandoned place like this would still have a ship at the docks," Eliaera nods. "We should be careful though. Who knows what kind of nasties could be around." She draws her rapier with a small flash of purpleish magic while readying her buckler on her left arm.
I'm very much enjoying the game! One of my favourite PbP's I've been in. I love that the pacing is brisk and yet we have quite a lot of roleplaying going on as well, and I'm enjoying the NPC interactions as well. The way you handled the travel is spot on for PbP, I think. Realistically there's not much we could do during the journey (apart from that which we covered in our own posts) so it would've been a drag on the whole. I'm playing in a Kingmaker game and I feel that the GM is dragging out the travelling part a little too much - "You come to a bridge" "We check to see if it's safe" "It's safe" "Okay, we move on" - it doesn't work in PbP. So yeah, I think you're doing well. The combats feel somewhat easy but I don't think that's a fault on your behalf - we seem to get a lot of critical hits and otherwise good rolls! :P
Before leaving Sandpoint Eliaera was almost as excited as Ameiko to set off on their journey, although without the side-effects of a couple of cups of coffee to amplify her cheerfulness, and she returns her friend's hug with a grin. "Nice look!" she says approvingly, eyeing up Ameiko's choice of travelling clothes. The former tavern owner seemed particularly alive, somehow, as if she had been not truly living prior to today. Eliaera can't help but smile to herself as she sees Ameiko go about greeting everyone and making the last preparations for their journey. Lisella, Eliaera's mother, comes to see them off, giving a loving hug to the elderly Koya and Ameiko and an even longer one to her daughter. She spends some time chiding the men on the trip (mostly the Varisian ones), making them promise to take good care of Eliaera, much to the bard's embarrassment; Eliaera turns beet red during the exchange, trying to wave her mother away. Lisella presents the group with a collection of home-sewn scarves, blankets, and coats, all stock from her business, as a farewell gift. Both Casateri women are teary-eyed as the caravans move out of town, leaving only one behind. To Eliaera's eyes, her mother seemed incredibly alone, and she felt her stomach clench with the same guilt that had been plaguing her the past few days. But what she could not see was Lisella's proud smile, knowing all too well of the Varisian wanderlust, and believing in her heart that her daughter would achieve great things out there in the wide world... "May Desna bring you good luck--and bring you back to me someday." ---------- On the road Eliaera adapts to life on the caravan quite quickly, constantly enthralled by the sights she saw along the way. One day she'd chatter excitedly about the sight of a rare bird for an hour or more ("You don't usually see them, they're quite shy, you know?"[b]) while the next she'd spend time attempting to write music amidst the bumps and rattles of the closed caravan. When they stop in at towns along the way, Eliaera makes it a point to have a quick tour of the area and marvel at the sights of the world beyond the Lost Coast. At night, she often performs for the group, and always makes sure to keep a record of the interesting things she'd seen or places they'd visited before sleeping. The caravan's first experience with danger was quite a wake-up call, however; it seemed all fun and games right up until she was awoken from a half-daze by the sound of the giant brute smashing its heavy club through the back-most caravan. Though they were successful at fighting back the assault, Eliaera seemed slightly subdued for a few days thereafter, spending less time marvelling and more time keeping extra watch for threats lurking beyond the horizon. ---------- [b]Approaching Brinewall Eliaera had noticed Ameiko seeming under the weather for a couple of days, but worriedly asking her friend if everything was okay generally resulted in Ameiko laughing the question off. The moment she collapses, however, Eliaera freezes, her eyes wide with shock and her breath caught in her throat. "Ameiko!!" she cries in alarm, dashing to Ameiko's side and crouching down beside her. Something was terribly, terribly wrong, but Eliaera felt that she could only look on with despair. She grabs Ameiko's hand with her left and shakes the Tian woman's shoulders with her right, calling out her name again and again in an attempt to break her out of whatever trance she has been caught in. If anyone (especially Hiro) is nearby, she'll look up to them in a state of bewilderment and terror. "I don't understand fully what she's saying... a bird that can't fly? It needs the key? Her grandfather is waiting in the darkness, and something about a... a demon being destroyed? She wants to speak to someone from an ancient family line?... I don't understand..."
Eliaera nods in fervent agreement; she seems rather excited that someone else shared her love for adventure tales! "I always imagined what it would be like to be the agent in the Pathfinder Chronicles... the hero that slays the dragon and saves the princess... it's kind of scary to think about what comes next, but you're right, we shouldn't dwell on that. Let's just face things as they come!" ======== Leaning in close to Eliaera, Ameiko says "I only had Koya do that for me once - and that was enough for me. I'd rather just take things as they come - sometimes knowing the future can make you second guess what you do in the here and now." The Harrow reading was quite the curiosity to Eliaera. She'd seen them performed before--growing up around Varisians, it was hard not to--but always felt a little conflicted as to how she felt about them. Though she did not doubt the powers of the elderly fortune-teller, the cryptic vagaries that made up the outcome always left her confused and wanting for more information. Eliaera nods back at her friend. "I don't know where to begin with it... it seems like I'd have less concerns not knowing than knowing at all." She waves to Sandru and Koya as they leave, bidding them good night, before joining in on the partying. She leaves the inn relatively early, professing a desire to get a good night's sleep in her own bed for the last time in quite a while, but actually mostly wants to spend as much time with her mother as she can before they leave...
Eliaera giggles evilly, enjoying witnessing the effect her gentle teasing was having on Garridan. She'd noticed his longing looks a while ago, but hadn't the chance to point it out... He's so adorable! Garridan's counter-question causes the bard pause, however. She blinks a couple of times, trying to evaluate that loaded question. Did he mean like that? Like the way he was all blushy-blushy over Shalelu? No way... Although truth be told, most of her excitement was in going on a grand and fabulous adventure with Ameiko. For all she enjoyed the company of her new friends, if she was honest, she was mostly just glad that her good friend was able to come with them... and maybe juuust a little glad that Sandru didn't seem interested in her either (those rumours had reached her ears after all).
"Uh... Everyone, of course!" Eliaera's face remains completely straight as she says this and she belies none of those confusing inner sentiments. "It feels like we're going to be the heroes of some amazing adventure story! It's so exciting!"
Hearing the elven ranger's story piques Eliaera's curiosity in an odd way. It seemed like a story that could be told by anyone--and yet she knew that the events being told were older than even her mother. Shalelu's childhood would have been at the same time as her grandmother's, or maybe even her great grandmother's. The scale of that life--the sadness that she would have had to experience--before Eliaera was even born... it boggled her mind. Briefly, she feels a bit apprehensive around the elf; however, Shalelu's smile warms her heart, and she feels a strange budding of respect for the woman. "Friends always do what they can for their friends!" she says with a grin. "We won't wind up like this poor guy. Don't worry." ---------- The atmosphere in the tavern was a strange mix of melancholy and excitement, and it causes Eliaera to finally start to feel her own pangs of nervousness for what is to come. She would have to leave her mother, Lisella, behind--and it occurred to her that, in the worst case scenario, she might never see her again. A bird must always leave the nest and all, but it was still a sobering thought for the young Varisian woman. Still... she glances up over her glass at Ameiko, cheerfully joking about being the empress of Minkai, just in time to see her smile at them all. Her heart flutters, perhaps reminded of the excitement of what is to come--or perhaps something else--and she returns the smile with one of her own, trying to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. "I'll miss Sandpoint too," she says after Shalelu, nodding. "But I'm sure we'll find plenty of things to enjoy out there in the wider world too. And I'm sure we'll be able to come back one day and tell all the patrons of the Rusty Dragon the greatest story ever." "... we'll come back, right?" Eliaera whispers quietly to no-one in particular, looking back down into her glass. ---------- At some point when not in the midst of conversation with someone else or otherwise feeling melancholy, Eliaera shuffles over beside Garridan and elbows him lightly in the side with a grin. "You're really bad at hiding those blushes of yours," she mutters quietly to him with a teasing voice. "Bet you're glad she's coming with us too, huh?"
Hope you feel better Hiro! Apologies for myself too - it's the tail-end of the semester and I'm crazy busy.
Who else would use them? ;)
As the rest of the group moves to investigate the sinspawn nest, Eliaera stumbles off to the side and empties the contents of her stomach in a brush somewhere; so much for breakfast! She appears rather pale-faced for some time thereafter, but at least feels the aching nausea soon fade away. She takes a long swig from her waterskin and leans up against the mound, breathing slowly as the others dig up a mysterious diary. Eliaera listens quietly as someone else reads it out, doing little but arch a brow at Shalelu's rather brusque reaction to it. At Ilir's suggestion, Eliaera pipes up from her position on the far side of the mound. "Didn't you say it was written something like 60 years ago? His family is likely to have gone to the next life by this time... Although giving him a burial probably isn't a bad idea. Perhaps when we do the same for Tsutamu and his retinue?" Once her sickness has finally quelled, Eliaera takes a look at the enchanted sword and shield they recovered, as well as the gemstones.
Eliaera cries out as the aberrant thing's teeth and claws rend into her flesh, sending sickening visions into her mind. She stumbles a half-step backwards, feeling an unnatural rage build inside of her, relishing in the visceral pleasure of bloody combat and furious hatred. She coughs back bile building in her throat and looks around wearily; she seemed to be seeing half her own vision and half that of a wrath-clouded veneer that dared her to join in. Moving up alongside Ilir, Eliaera grits her teeth against the sickening feeling welling in her stomach and tries her best to provide what strategic information she can to the rest of her allies: "It seems to make you see horrific, gory visions," she calls out. "Be careful of its attacks and cut it down quickly!"
Eliaera is quick to lift her rapier to parry the feral thing's gnashing teeth and rending claws, lightly deflecting it away from her vitals; however, she simply can't land a clean blow on it without opening herself up to counter-attack. Hearing Garridan's now-familiar war-cry from behind her, Eliaera realises that the other sinspawn must have headed up after him...
Rapier in hand sparkling with occasional flickers of purplish energy, Eliaera follows after Hiro, wordlessly mouthing unintelligible phrases. As she does so, the sound of a small group of people stomping through the marsh, armor clanking, and talking loudly arises from the left side of the pile of rotting vegetation, seemingly originating from the empty air.
Eliaera gasps when Shalelu throws the creature's head on the table, and it takes all she has to not vomit at the sight or dash off like Sandru did. She nonetheless averts her eyes from the grizzly remains and appears extremely pale throughout the entire conversation, not speaking except to numbly acquiesce to the ranger's suggestion to investigate the next day. Shortly thereafter Eliaera leaves for home, glad to catch up with her mother and sleep in her own room, far away from bizarro monstrous corpses. She joins the crew at dawn, although is clearly not too pleased about the incredibly early start, and spends much of the journey yawning or half-dozing as they march. (She's obviously not a morning person.) When Shalelu calls them to a crouch and points out the rustling mound, Eliaera draws her rapier and flexes her buckler-shielded arm, trying her best to shake away the last vestiges of sleep and prepare herself for the battle.
I'm happy to stat the caravan up or leave it to the GM, whichever! I don't want to have Phil do all the hard work after all. :)
Eliaera nods and smiles, trying her best to not grin too widely now that Ameiko finally had reason to leave the sleepy town of Sandpoint--that final straw was serious business, after all. Still, she could feel the knot of nervousness begin to dilute with tentative excitement. Whatever dangers might be present at Brinewall to threaten Ameiko, whatever ancient enemies her grandfather was scared of... with everyone there together, surely they would be able to overcome it. Eliaera had to admit--she was curious to know the end of this mystery, too. "Of course I'll be with you! You don't even need to ask!" She smiles gently. "Like I've said before, don't be too hard on yourself. Moving on is hard. God knows where I'd be if you didn't help me find the right path for me, after all..." "By the way... where is Brinewall, anyway? Is it a ruin or something?" Eliaera flushes a little, with a laugh. "I can't say I'm too familiar with Varisian geography... much to my shame. My extended family would probably disown me for that." Eliaera addresses her last point to Sandru. "We still have a few things to clear up in the marsh, but leaving any time after that is fine with me."
Eliaera heaves a massive sigh of relief when Garridan smashes whatever ancient curse kept these skeletons lingering on this side of life, especially glad to see that taking out their leader appears to have sent all of his minions--or perhaps simply former comrades and troops--back to the grave. Seeing Garridan's obvious pain, she quickly sheathes her rapier and moves over to him, a song dancing along her lips and warm, bluish healing magic accompanying it along her fingertips. Amazingly, his wounds are completely healed from the spell. She then goes back to check on Hiro, seeing if she can remove any more of the scarring from the nasty gash that had cut through his neck.
As the others investigate the ornate chest, Eliaera's gaze is caught by a pair of curious Tian characters on the hilt of the former samurai's blade. 囁き鵙. Whispering Shrike. Only the most well-made blades were given names like this, so it is with some reverence that she picks the wakizashi and inspects it for magical properties.
Upon discovering the old letter in the hidden compartment, Eliaera's eyes widen, and her cheer rapidly evaporates into darkness. Ameiko had not spoken much of the events that had happened a few years back with her family, but this letter, more than 20 years old now, hinted at things than were much, much larger than a group of wannabe heroes traipsing around a swampland. Her heartbeat rises as she reads; enemies? Of the Kaijitsu family? But why? ... did that mean that Ameiko was in danger? Fighting back the urge to run back to Sandpoint, Eliaera silently tries to convince herself that Ameiko was strong enough to protect herself from whatever these 'enemies' were while simultaneously trying to hide her obvious discontent. "I think that these skeletons were all retainers of the Kaijitsu family," she says after a while. "This skeleton here," she gestures to what was once the leader, "I believe was named Tsutamu. I don't know what horrible event caused them all to die here, or to rise and become undead... but I believe they were honourable men and women who deserve to have a proper burial. If we can, I would like to make sure they get at least that... although we might have to come back tomorrow with shovels." ===================== The way back to Sandpoint seemed to drag on forever; Eliaera was too wrapped up in her own bundle of nervousness to entertain them during the journey this time. Today, at least, she was happy to stop at the Rusty Dragon, if only to reassure herself that, no, a band of evil ninjas (or something even worse?) had not descended upon Ameiko in her absence. Seeing Ameiko alive and well took the first of many strains off of the young Varisian woman's mind, and the tavern-owner's infectious bubbliness helped as well. Of course, that made bringing up the letter even more difficult... Eliaera forces herself to smile at Ameiko as she heads over to sit with the Tian woman and her companion. When it becomes apparent that it's her turn to share their tales of adventure, she tries to throw herself into the task in an attempt to get rid of the knot in her stomach at least. "...we found the long-forgotten ruins of ancient Tian vessels, laying beached on the coastline like gigantic whale skeletons..." "...It was an ambush! We were surrounded on all sides, back to back, hearing each other's nervous heartbeats..." "...the entrance was barred by a thicket of nasty nettles, although we were lucky enough to have picked up ourselves an expert gardener the night before...." "...it had fangs the size of my fingers, dripping with poison and screeching like some otherworldly beast..." "...and some unnamed person--their name withheld to save them the shame of admitting it--set the example for generations to come of why one must be careful of fool's gold..." "...he stretched his bony finger out to point at Hiro, uttering wordless words of challenge that would soon see our friend here sent crashing into the muddy waters, limp and losing precious lifeblood..." Upon reaching the end of the story, Eliaera hesitates to add in the one last detail of their spoils--but decides it's better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. "... and... Ameiko? I found this in the sword of that samurai skeleton. I think you should look at it." Withdrawing the letter from her pocket, Eliaera slides the folded parchment across the table for the woman to read. She feels almost guilty for reading a missive between her friend's father and grandfather; it felt like a massive breach of privacy somehow...
Week of hell more or less over! Woot! I was just having a look over all of our characters, and it looks like we have most of the important Knowledge skills covered or at least able to be covered... - Garridan has Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (dungeoneering)
I was thinking of taking a rank in Knowledge (nature) this level so we can basically cover all our bases. Obviously Eliaera just finished reading a book about local flora and fauna, trying to identify the bugs and things she's seen in the swamp... :) Also, suggestions on the loot we found: - 1 cure light wounds potion to each person, just in case.
Eliaera distracts the skeletal champion with a quick feint, ducking and weaving beneath his sword blow to thrust her rapier into its pelvic area. Her logic: if spears could go through its ribs, attack the part with a reasonably wide surface area!
I suspect that I'll be the big problem here... :) Between university, work, and timezones, I don't have a lot of availability that matches. You basically add +14 hours to get the time in Australia, so that means that I essentially only have a chance on (converted to EST timezone): - late Monday nights (10pm onwards),
NOTE: There will be times when I'll have very different availability, namely during semester breaks, which might make things easier if the live games are infrequent... First of two midterms today~ *sings inspire competence* :)
Going to be busy this week with midterms. I may or may not get a chance to post. Go ahead and move for me if necessary.
Eliaera follows through with Garridan's order, thrusting forward with her rapier on command. However, the movement causes her to lose her footing in the mud of the shallow pool, and she gasps in surprise as she almost falls head over heels. It's only through her acrobatic prowess and sheer luck that she doesn't land face-first in the muck or stab Garridan in the side with her thin blade.
Eliaera winces as the sharp Tian-make blade carves its way through Ilir's armour into his flesh, although the devotee of Shelyn seems to manage to stay standing despite it. With the skeletal champion coming ever-closer, the Varisian woman feels trapped between a rock and a hard place, wishing she could run away and hide under her bed where none of this was happening... No... I have to be strong! Eliaera tightly squeezes her rapier's hilt and lets her voice rise into the air, shaking at first but gradually gaining confidence. "C... Come on, friends! We can do this! We fought off the goblins before, we can fight off these undead now, too! Our journey will take us much further than this cave!"
"HIRO!" Eliaera looks on helplessly as their newest companion falls in an instant, downed by the sickly-curved Tian blade, seeing his deep crimson blood mingle with the cloying cave water. It had all seemed like fun-and-games until now. The heroes in the stories she had read did sometimes get injured and did sometimes die--but it was always so distant. It was never happening here and now in the flesh. The sight of his crumpled body caused Ilir had stepped forth to attack the skeletal champion, summoning forth the power of his faith as he did so. Trusting in the paladin to protect her in the meantime, Eliaera slips behind him, splashing through the shallow water and kneeling beside Hiro. She gently lays her hand on his forehead and begins to sing a song; it is one familiar to the both of them, one of Ameiko's favourite Tian songs that she often played, a song that connected the two of them together. As she sings through the first few stanzas, the first few lines, a blueish light gathers at her fingertips and coalesces into his wound; it sews the wound back together as if it was not there in the first place, although the skin remains pink and tender and he would no doubt feel a little weak from the blood loss. Eliaera worriedly (but gently) shakes Hiro's shoulders; "Hiro? Are you okay?"
Can you believe it? I'm on 1,979/2,000 XP thanks to the bonus 400 XP from being friends with Ameiko... Gahhh! :)
"I'm not fond of disturbing the dead... but if they're undead, I guess that's a different story." Eliaera moves to one of the skeletons and, after a few moments hesitation, brings her rapier down to smash the fragile bones of its neck in an attempt to sever the head from the body. It seemed to her to be the logical way of stopping the skeletons from 'activating'. "I'm sorry," she whispers afterwards.
With the amoeba put to rest, Eliaera sighs in relief, letting her shoulders relax and calming herself down by thoroughly inspecting the crystals. Fools gold though they may be--although Eliaera would never admit to foolishness!--they were still nice to look at, and certainly better than the embarrassment of facing the rest of the group after getting herself into trouble. Once she finally catches her breath, the bard picks up Amelius' spear from where it wedged in the rocks and wades back across the pool to the other side. She smiles apologetically at Ilir's comment. "Good enough, but it's only because of you - and Hiro, of course - that it didn't do any damage to me. Thanks." Eliaera spends a little bit of time before moving on humming a quick little ditty to herself . As she hums, she gestures at parts of her clothing; every gesture causes a section of her cloth to magically wring itself out and quickly dry. The end result is not nearly as perfect as it would be if she had the opportunity to strip out of them... but Eliaera was hardly going to do that with all the men around! "Would you like me to help you with that, Ilir?" she asks the paladin, noticing him shivering from the cold and feeling a slight bit guilty at the fact. If he agrees, she'll do the same to the rest of his clothes, leaving them feeling warm and mostly dry. Moving on from the cave with the amoeba, Eliaera is on high alert to notice anything else dangerous in their path. When she spots the mud-splattered curve of skeletal skulls and ribcages, she gasps, grabbing the attention of the group and pointing them out. Her injuries from the battle earlier that day still smarted, and the prospect of facing more skeletons was unpleasant, to say the least. "Let's back up a little... we shouldn't let ourselves get surrounded by them again." She nods towards the back wall of the cavern, and takes a couple of steps towards it, buckler at the ready and rapier in hand.
Amelius is surprisingly lucky when it comes to stabbing things with his spear and not so lucky when it comes to actually affecting things with his spells. Maybe he picked the wrong profession... :)
"Why meeeee?!" Eliaera cries as the strange jelly creature ripples out of the water like an enormous bubble that just didn't pop, half irritated the the crystals were a lie, half scared because she was now incredibly alone against the... thing. "Argh, damn it all!" She whips out her rapier, sending a small stream of water splattering over the amoeba, before thrusting into its gooey exterior with a flash of arcane energy.
Eliaera eyes the crystals curiously from the edge of the water. Unlike Garridan, she's much too fascinated by the natural beauty to simply leave it alone without looking closer. "I'll go check it out then," she says with a light sigh, not really looking forward to getting wet either! Directing her dancing lights close to the surface of the dark waters, she tries to penetrate the gloom, looking for anything dangerous. Assuming it all looks safe, she'll take off her boots, tie back her hair with a ribbon, and swim out across to the island with the crystals. "It's so c-c-cooold," she whines after entering the water, fully cognisant that it's her own curiosity that caused it.
Eliaera chews thoughtfully on the information gleamed from the study of the holy symbol and Scribbleface's ramblings, but in the end simply files it all away to deal with later. "Indeed. Lead the way, Garridan."
Eliaera shivers quite profusely as the spider flees back into the cavern, happy to see the giant arachnid gone but disturbed at the thought that it might come back. "Nightmare fuel indeed. Gods I hope they don't get any bigger than that." With the others busy investigating the crevice, Eliaera takes it upon herself to undertake the rather gristly task of checking out Scribbleface's corpse. She uses the hilt of her rapier to roll him over, discovering the stack of papers and small sack of coinage still clutched in the goblin's dead hands. The bard hurriedly grabs both, retreating to the far corner of the cave away from the corpse with a shudder before she has a look at them both. "Huh. This guy was a real author. I didn't know goblins could write?" Eliaera mutters, casually flicking through the pages. She's especially curious to find out if her guess about the goblins finding the fireworks in the Tian shipwrecks was correct. Upon getting to the end, with the details of their planned deaths, she frowns, feeling incredibly cold all of a sudden. "He... he wanted to trap us and kill us here," she says with a stutter. "It looks like the spider got to him first, but we don't know what he had planned to do to us... we'd better be careful." When Ilir asks about the holy symbol, Eliaera shoves the goblin history into her backpack, tosses Garridan the copper coins, and moves closer to check it out.
Eliaera shudders as she watches the many-limbed giant arachnid skitter across its lair and lash out with poison-dripped fangs. "Ugh... and I thought house spiders were bad enough..." She moves forward, attempting to strike at the spider's softer underbelly or sides, but misplaces her aim and instead hits its harder chitinous exoskeleton to little effect.
"I don't fancy going swimming," Eliaera says with a laugh, "so the drier path is fine with me."
|