Eseldra's tail lashes with impatience to be on the road again.
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Eseldra looks quite pleased at the gifts and gives Harther a friendly kiss on the cheek. Then she levels another frosty stare (with twitching tail) at Karthas just because and returns to her seat.
Eseldra allows a rare, small smile upon seeing the humble trading post finally come into view. She gives a small sigh of relief when the group finally passes through its gates and into relative safety. Eseldra even finds herself in good enough humour that when Karthas starts shooting his mouth off about "damned spell-slingers", she affords him one of her frosty stares, "slings" a spell (prestidigitation), and Karthas suddenly finds his facial skin turning purple and kobold like.
Are we fading away in this game? Is it just a summer lull? The momentum seems to be fading away. I know I'm partially guilty here as well, there just hasn't really been anything for Eseldra to respond to lately.
"Unless of course, they've been mating with winter wolves. Then all bets are off." She continues to stare at the lustrous pearl.
"There was definitely an illusion aura back here in the bushes. It could have been the kobold, invisible, or the remains of a ventriloquism spell being used to make the man talk. Worgs do not possess that ability, as far as I know."
Eseldra's eyes go from concern and irritation to, dare we say it, glee and excitement as she carefully pries the pearl out of the box, holding it in her hand. Her tail stops twitching like an irate cat and instead switches to the gleeful back and forth of a happy dog. She will spend three rounds identifying the object. Spellcraft: Rather, trying to identify it.
"Be careful!" Eseldra snaps to whomever finds the lead box. "Things are usually only kept inside lead boxes for two reasons: to hide their magic auras, or to contain harmful magical energies." She casts another detect magic to determine which case it may be.
Knowledge (Arcana): "Worgs," Eseldra mutters absent-mindedly as she continues to scan for illusion auras, getting frustrated. "Everybody stop moving around! Those of you with magical gear area screwing with this detection spell."
Esledra casts detect magic again, looking for that illusion aura she had found earlier. If it's gone, she'll scan the worgs to see if there's a residual illusion aura lingering on one of them.
The celestial eagle flies to M9 and attack the Warg there. Claw
Eseldra takes a 5-foot step back and unleashes an acid dart.
Fort: Eseldra finishes her summoning and celestial eagle appears in the square flanking with Karthas (once he stands up). The eagle rakes and bites.
Eseldra then takes a five foot step north east and unleashes a colour spray against the worg attacking Niko. DC 15
Eseldra starts the full-round action of casting a SM1 to summon some fodder.
Eseldra will cast detect magic to see if some more illusions are at work here.
"Let's not get cocky now, Euron," Eseldra says, readying an acid dart for anything that jumps out at them.
Eseldra has a careful look-see as well. Her elven eyes can penetrate further into the gloom than Tyr's. Perception: Oooh! Look! A tree!!
Eseldra keeps concentrating on her detect magic as they make their way down into the cave.
Finding out about the illusions, Eseldra leaves the warrior types to deal with the rat and casts detect magic. It'll take a few rounds, but she'll be able to figure out if the kobold has flown the coop.
If all that stuff with Karthas results in a severely injured kobold, then Eseldra would just fire an acid dart, rather than waste a 1st level spell on a nearly-defeated foe.
If the kobold is down, she would redirect that acid dart at the giant rat, missing it also.
ROUND 4: Eseldra throws a grease spell under the kobold's feet, DC 16, squares JK-0 and 1.
Eseldra backs away from the cave opening as she realizes that her magics will be of little use against a swarm of rats. Actually, Eseldra goes back further, a full thirty feet, and fires an arrow at the swarm when it emerges. Rat swarms take half damage from slashing and piercing weapons, so how about an arrow from a bow? Attack:; damage:
Eseldra backs away before the rats can get there.
"Karthas! Tyr! It's that magic kobold we chased away last time. Everybody, look for a kobold with a vacant glassy stare, drool, and girly features hiding someplace crying in terror. He's gotta be around here somewhere." She pauses her mocking insults to look down into the cave. "Oh, and we have rats."
Eseldra moves to Cinder's position and casts a light spell on the floor of the cavern beneath the opening.
Knowledge Planes:
That being said, Eseldra attempts to climb up the crag enough to get the beast within 15' range for a colour spray (Will DC 15). If she can't get within range, she'll fire an acid blob at it.
Eseldra approaches the prisoners, letting her tail slip out of her blouse. She looks at them all sternly. "All right, you miserable wretches, we've just noticed a sign of some activity up ahead that we have to investigate. It's probably the fourth of those giant things that attacked us last night, living in a cave just past those trees. We can drag you up with us, leaving you at its mercy, tied up as you are, or we can secure you to some trees down here out of sight, with your former prisoners to watch over you. I think you'd rather the second choice, but if you try to escape or make any sort of noise, the beastie in the cave is going to hear you, come down, and make sauce out of you like your friend last night. Do we have an understanding?" Intimidate:
Eseldra shrugs and doesn't knock an arrow. She lowers her voice to a whisper. "Should we investigate, since we obviously don't want the prisoners or Ol' Nell finding out about what's in that cave?"
Eseldra looks where Cinders is pointing and (hopefully) sees it. "We should always proceed with caution, but over-reaction or not, there's one simple solution perhaps," she says, readying her bow.
"Where is this raven you speak of?"
"They were so ordered," Eseldra says, relaying what she overheard the creatures saying.
"Tell that to this guy," Eseldra says, casually wiping dead prisoner off her boots. Then her head snaps up as she glares malevolently at one of the prisoners. "Hey, stop that! The things are dead. No more escaping! Give me that dagger right this instant or we'll wake up one of those things and feed you to it!!"
Eseldra launches another bolt at the creature.
Eseldra will instead throw a bolt of acid at the thing. Touch attack: (there's a square of the creature that is more than 10 feet away from a melee combatant, so no penalty)
Just in case I'm out tonight when posting comes up again...
ROUND 6: Stunned too? Sweet! Eseldra grabs the dagger and cuts another prisoner free. "It's stunned. Get your friends out now before it comes to its senses!" Then she takes a five-foot step south, planning on leading the blinded creature away from the prisoners when it comes to its senses.
Round 5: Eseldra moves towards the creature until she can catch it with a colour spray. Will DC 15.
Eseldra will take half a second to decide which prisoner would be the most considerate of his fellows, cut that guy free, drop the dagger, and say, "Free your friends." Then she backs away thirty feet.
Eseldra moves as if to free the prisoners, then casts a Mage hand to disturb some bushes to the east like there's somebody trying to sneak up on that creature. She draws her dagger as she moves.
"It might help to scare them off." Giant: she shouts.
"After all, we all know that ogres have tiny di&$@!" Ready to fire again. ; damage
"Horse $@#%! I don't think they're buying it anymore." She steps out of the illusion back to T16, letting the giant fade away as she readies an acid dart for the first creature that appears. Touch attack:
Bluff:
GIANT:
"Of course Tartuk didn't warn you about us. He has betrayed you and sent you to us as a sacrifice. I would accept his sacrifice, but I would rather eat him instead of you, and this Manunk who doubts me and my power. This is your last chance. Sacrifice Manunk to me and bow down, and I will spare your lives. Don't, and I will enjoy feasting on your flesh." Initiative: Perception: Eseldra will delay until she sees an enemy before deciding what to do. I assume you can't fire a bow and concentrate on an illusion at the same time?
Giant: "Padunk! Kachunk! Heed not your friend, for he's leading you into destruction. I do not rule these parts simply because I don't wish to. I am merciful, but there is only one hope to escape your destruction - sacrifice your misleading companion to me, and I will spare you. Kill him, or die yourselves!"
"Let the others know what's going on," she whispers to Jameison and Cinders. She steps forward towards the whispers form the bushes, casts a prestidigitation, and shouts out in a loud voice in Giant. "We hear your pathetic ramblings, and you should be grateful we have, or you would have just made a most serious error in judgement. We are not just 'puny little humans'; we merely adopt this disguise when travelling through these lands." She raises her hands above her head and causes colourful illusory sparks to start swirling about her with the cantrip. "I am Vash-Ti, queen of the Valknori, and these are our prisoners." She casts a silent image through her ring and creates some sort of fantastical form of a 60-foot tall humanoid with thick muscles, skin of magenta scales which glint in the fire light, and eyes of vibrant red which mirror her earlier sparks. The image rises up from her position to its full height, and holds a massive 4-pronged trident in one hand, and a flanged mace in the other. Eseldra hides herself within one of the thick legs of the image. Will DC 15 if interacted with "Your one chance at salvation - come out from those bushes you cower in, kneel at my feet and worship me! Give me your allegiance here and now or my minions will feast upon your flesh while I fill you with unholy fires so hot your meat will sere and your bones crack!"
Not too bad, I guess.
Eseldra goes over to the others on watch and whispers, "Giant-kin in the bushes planning on eating us. Ogres I'd guess by the grammar."
Hidden also in the bindings is a folded piece of parchment which just happens to have the identify spell. Eseldra is much happier now with this book and sets about learning this new spell. Spellcraft: Then, once she identifies the feather tokens, she's back to being surly and grumpy. Holding them up for others to see, she announces, "These are great items to have...if you're out in the middle of the ocean or a big lake. Same for the spells in the book. I'm guessing whoever owned it before us liked water magic. Unfortunately, we're not really in a position to use magic items meant for ocean vessels, although this one will instantly make a very nice boat out of nothing that will last all day."
DM Max:
spellcraft checks to identify both items:
Feather: Other: Eseldra pulls a swan feather and another small object from the binding of the book and hunches over the pair of items, studying them carefully. Any questions are met with a curt shush.
Eseldra peers intently at the spellbook, her twitching tail freezing mid-thrash. She hops down off her rock and goes over to the spell book, staring at it. She casts detect magic.
DM Max: Perception:
While at camp that evening, Eseldra can be heard muttering to herself in ever-increasing volume, until she finally just tosses the spellbook down in disgust, her tail making another violent appearance. "What a stupid, worthless, pointless collection of spells! Most of them aren't even worth the paper they're scribbled on. No wonder the wizard who owned this spellbook is likely dead and butchered if this is the kind of magic he filled his stupid head with."
Here's the google doc I made for dividing loot. Anybody can edit it without signing in. Eseldra has no interest in any of that loot, other than the spellbook (which isn't really loot). She would like to buy some stuff, however, so selling stuff would be good.
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