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Finally finished my specialization project despite the sudden extra workload! *cheers* Sorry for the wait everyone, I'll be catching up shortly. Should have a lot more time to write again now that vacation has begun and I no longer have to worry about that looming deadline all the time...
Dropping a quick note, I am currently very busy with a sudden work deadline which I have to make for the end of next week. As such my writing time is drastically cut until then, my apologies. I'll try to get a catchup post in in the coming weekend, probably tomorrow morning.
"I... didn't expect that to work. Thanks Astella, and good job!" Estelle states, smiling too. Listening to Robin, she adds: "Okay, and thanks to you too, Robin. I'm sure you and Lady Greenbriar have better ways of sorting out those things than we do. If you say we shouldn't bother with the remaining unconscious dwarves for that information then I'll trust your judgment." She stretches and a yawn escapes her, which she quickly tries to cover. "It's getting late... let's return that bracelet and return to the tavern."
Well, let's wait and see what he says then. If he doesn't agree or such perhaps Daniel can weigh in later.
I was unsure what to do. The 'obvious' plan would have been to have Astella and/or Robin covertly steal the bracelet. But that seemed mostly out, this was my second best idea. OOC though I don't mind what we do. It *is* probably highly dangerous, as we are still just level 2. Is level 3 for us imminent now, seeing the newcomers are level 3 as well? So perhaps coming back to this later would be a good idea, if it would take time to track him anyway. Perhaps we can instead offer him some sort of investment in Welnin or a favor from us for it I suppose and call it a day, if he is open to that.
Have a nice vacation! @Others Estelle's plan just now is the best I can come up to profit us in this situation but if you have a better idea, I can still edit it in the next hour.
""What is the meaning of this?" Well, that was unfortunate. Oops. Seems like the stealth plan was out. Sharing a quick look between her companions for someone to start the conversation here, Estelle takes it upon herself. But what to say? What sort of solution would best benefit the group and Welnin, one that this buyer might find agreeable? Welnin needed lots of money so buying the bracelet back wasn't optimal. At the same time, while McFargus was an issue there would always be the threat of him seeking revenge. Then it hit her - or so she thought. "We only wished to talk to you, as we have a proposition. See, you've been set up by McFargus. That bracelet you've bought - it was stolen from a very powerful woman who wants it back. The kind of woman who can make entire patrols of guards suddenly pass out and forget all about what happened in the last few hours, to name just one thing. If it isn't obvious, the four of us are just one group working for her. McFargus is probably happy to be rid of it, as it makes him less of a target in all this at your expense - or so he might think." "I can't imagine you're happy to have lost so much money or that you want to have such a powerful enemy after you. At the same time, we can't really leave without the bracelet. So how about an agreement? We have the means to track him down, courtesy of an entire warehouse filled with knocked-out men he was planning to call on you if things went south. So how about we team up and teach him a lesson? You can get your gold back, we get the bracelet back, and we split whatever else we find at whatever lair he's holed up at. Would you find that arrangement agreeable?"
Glancing between Robin and the others as she shares her idea, which she thought had been the original plan anyway, Estelle nods and takes out her sap. "I say we knock them out and leave them behind. We can't worry about them while we're going after the buyer. Safest for them too, probably." She pauses to consider something. "Though maybe we should take that chest from downstairs before we go."
Once the dwarves are knocked out, Estelle returns to the bottom floor, having drawn her main weapon her bardiche, just in case there was an attack and someone snuck to check in following the boss' remark. When that does not appear to be the case, she relaxes slightly and turns to Robin. "We have a problem. That chest over there... that contains a body. We did our best to fight non-lethally, but we couldn't save them all. An arrow to the forehead killed him instantly, but the fight was short and chaotic and they might not know that. I... think it might be best for us if neither the thieves nor the authorities find his remains and the body goes missing, so that there's at least some doubt as to what happened to him, and they might not seek revenge on us or the town. Even if that's a horrible thing to do to his relatives, if he has any." She admits, feeling rather bad about the suggestion but also figuring her duty was to Welnin and her friends first and foremost. "So, do you have any suggestions? You know this city much better than we. Can we get either the body or the chest with the body out of here easily? Or does Lady Greenbriar have better ways to deal with something like... well this? I'm just a simple priestess who can fight. All this skulldruggery is really not my thing," She admits openly.
"Wait, what? No! No no no no no. I really don't like this idea, Astella. It's suicide! They look tough - much tougher than the guys in the warehouse, not to mention that there's *two* enemy teams and that we're low on magic." Estelle says, making clear she didn't just want to walk into this powder keg when they didnt have to, especially with two hostages in tow. "What's stopping them from teaming up and just taking out the unknown party - us - first? Why are we even risking this in a direct confrontation at all? All we have to do is get out of here and tail the buyer to get a much safer chance at retrieving it!"
Estelle tenses and gestures towards the window, going into a crouch just in case "Voices. Can't make out the details yet." She throws a warning glare at Hands and the Bookkeeper. "I wouldn't advise any funny ideas."
"Ah, um, hello Robin. Nice of you to join us," Estelle responds to the dwarf agent, unsure why exactly Lady Greenbriar had sent the rogue but happy there would indeed have been some form of backup if things went south, which they almost had. "We were about to begin searching this place. Mind giving us a hand?" Knowing something was off about this whole situation, the first place Estelle checks is underneath the desk. Should she not immediately see something, she feels around for hidden switches or buttons.
As the dwarf talked, Estelle was recollecting her weapons and shield, wearing a very noticeable massive shiner over her jaw of which the throbbing pain she really tried to ignore. Still, she listened as best she could to Hands McBeardface's claims.
If he is or Estelle *thinks* he is:
"Okay, cut the crap! I am in a lot of pain right now and I have no time or patience left for any of this." She says, and draws her greatsword. "Tell us where it is, THIS INSTANT, or I'm shaving your beard - ALL of it!"
if he isn't: "Okay... I say we search the place just in case. If it's not here, that's though luck and we'll have to come up with something else." She says, taking care not to look at the dude.
So, not to be the bearer of bad news but with the bracelet supposedly not here, we are kind of screwed. Any combat option with both 'enemy' faction seems out. Also we are low or out of resources. My best idea for a plan is withdrawing, taking what we can then buying Astella an invis pot and hoping she can steal the bracelet while invisible. Does anyone have a better plan? I can think of a somewhat evil option where we trade the lives of 'the boss' men for the bracelet, but i dont think Estelle would do that unless she had no choice. We can ask the guy where to find the boss and tey talking to him yet that seems incredibly risky.
So did we find the jewels downstairs? Orherwise i suggest we search the second floor thoroughly.
"Oh, they're breathing all right," Estelle responds, rather chagrined as she very quickly drops her spear and shield and binds the worst of their wounds - the same thugs that just tried to knock her out. "Tell your friend that he's welcome, and that if he doesn't want me to fight with lethal weapons, he probably shouldn't break my jaw and then knock the sap out of my hand first." If her glare could burn the rest of the smoke, it would. "So we're going to make a deal then? We don't hand them over to the authorities and they compensate us for our trouble and hand over the missing stolen jewel?" she suggests, somewhat surprised Daniel was apparently willing to not arrest a bunch of thieves. Then again, they had no jurisdiction, and her own estimation of the local guard wasn't exactly positive either. Also, there was a dead body downstairs. It seemed to her that the moment the guard got involved, they'd be arrested again themselves, just like last time.
I like how the dwarf disarms me of my sap and then blames me for not fighting non-lethally XD
Hopefully Astella passes the concealment... we could really use a critical hit right about now! Also, I'm not blaming anyone for how things went, I just apparently forgot the information about Lady Greenbriar's agent was never shared with us. My apologies.
With her friend retreating, Estelle does her best to buy her time and strikes at the previously injured dwarf again!
Estelle withdraws her bloodied spear and points it at the remaining dwarf in immediate sight. "You realize you can't win this, don't you? You and your friends stole jewels from Lady Greenbriar. Even if you beat us, the next team will do you in. Run away while you can."
So I just made a post, but I'm not sure if it was my/our turn or not. It seems all enemies and Daniel made their actions, but if not, please ignore my last post and I'll re-evaluate what to do later.
It was rather disheartening to score two solid hits on the enemy leader and barely see him affected. Was it time to run? Daniel would probably be fine - he was Daniel. The two of them, though...
In a moment of sheer luck, Estelle was trying to track Daniel through the fog so intently that she was looking away from the explosion. Now left with no good options on what to do, still swaying, she strikes at the dwarf holding the sap.
"Astella, maybe it's time to call in that backup from lady Greenbriar," Estelle suggests. Seeing her sway, she adds: "Move away from my voice! That's the stairs down!"
>:) *Grins evilly and grows horns*
Astella, if you have any, could i request a cure light wounds before moving in to chase daniel? I have 16 nonlethal damage so the next hit probably knocks me out...
An image of the terrifyingly strong dwarf strangling Daniel cuts through the haze of Estelle wooziness and she stumbles back into melee - but can't see clearly into the fog. And the enemy leader was locked in struggle with Daniel besides, making it difficult to aim. Panicking thoughts of going to miss, of not being good enough, unable to make a real difference and having to be saved by Daniel yet again float through her, and she grips her spear. Her spear... A moment of trainquility cuts through the turmoil, a slight bit of hope as she remembers her training, her initiation into the faithful and their training with the Shaymara's favored weapon. Then, she closes her eyes, striking with it when the time felt right...
Feeling her neck almost break from the first swing and already disarmed for good measure, Estelle knew there was no running from this, or even a realistic chance of trying to take this foe alive. She'd be down or dead on the next swing, and then he'd go on to Daniel and Astella. Instead, she drops her shield, drawing her greatsword and swings as hard as she possibly can against the enemy leader before going down, taking advantage of the moment he spent boasting to Daniel. "I'm... not... done with you yet!" she manages through the pain.
Not seeing anything, Estelle inches forward slowly, re-drawing her sap and taking a defensive stance, waiting for Daniel to join her at the front.
""Goin' by how pleasantly quie' i' is below, i will assume you're here lookin' fer somethin', uninvited. I am no' wastin' many words on this.""Ain' i'ironic, a thief blamin' others for tresspassin'" Estelle retorts, unimpressed. Then she blinks. "Oh no, now I'm doing it too..." Not knowing what to expect when the smoke comes up, Estelle casts Divine Favor after sheating her Sap. She takes a tentative step forward to the obscured area, holding her shield at the ready.
Estelle heads up as well, either in front or staying a decent amount behind Astella, acting on the elf's wishes. She was a walking weapons rack and if whoever was upstairs had *somehow* missed the scuffle, there was no real way to miss the rinking of weapons and armor. "Let's hope the jewels *are* up there still..." She mutters to Daniel, and checks him over with a look of concern. "Hey, are you all right, by the way? You gave me quite a scare there; I thought you might just bleed out from those stab wounds."
Just to clarify, we searched the entire first floor now with only the stairway up left to go? Or is the door to the west still unsearched? Either way, I would probably advocate going up - there is a fairly large chance whoever is upstairs heard the fighting and is either getting ready to come down and fight us or escape.
When the final foe goes down, Estelle quickly looks over the fallen, finding one dead and providing emergency first aid to the other injured ones while Daniel and Astella hide the body. When she is convinced the bleeding of the other two is under control, she takes the weapons, money and potions and offers one of the latter to Daniel, as he was significantly hurt, and she was down to her last spell.
"I... wish we didn't have to kill that one, but it felt like we didn't have much of a choice," She then says, as her friends search the room. Getting an idea, she moves the unconscious dwarves back over to the playing table and wipes up the traces of fresh blood with conjured water before it coagulated. She fills their mugs with whatever source of alcohol they'd been using, wraps their hands around the cups and smashes another bottle for it if any for good measure, only to let it and its contents then fall on the ground. Hopefully this scene would look like they all passed out from a drinking game or such. "Maybe someone seeing this would approach them and announce themselves rather than run away..." She mutters, then begins aiding the search fully.
Apologies, i'll post tonight. Last two days were very hectic at work. Estelle would stabilize the still living dwarves and help Astella and daniel search the building. Her immediate thought is to place the still living dwarves at their poker table so that anyone peeking in might just assume they jusy passed out during their game/drinking game, trying to hide the blood from view. She'd help place the dead one in a chest and feel bad about it coming to that.
"Daniel!" Estelle calls out as he is struck again, and her focus falters, seeing his critical injuries. She contemplates dropping her weapon or shield again to heal him a second time, but makes one more strike, hoping he could hold out just a little longer...
Estelle hestiates between healing the injured Daniel and attacking the two remaining foes, but tries to push the advantage!
She misses, perhaps distracted by trying to gauge whether Astella just outright killed green.
Sounds like a good ability to have yes! On the past post I made an error on the damage calculation, I forgot to factor in divine favor. It should have been 1d8 + 3(str) +2 (pa) +2 (DF) +1 (inspire courage). So it'd be 15 damage instead of 13. I'm not sure if it matters, though it might. Estelle would try to stabilize anyone she thinks is in danger of dying, and that might make it a bit harder... if that turns out to be overkill.
"Didn't he just- but isn't it more logical to address-" Estelle stammers, thoroughly confused by the near-identical look of the green- and orange clad dwarves, apparently having lost track in between the melee and Astella's admittedly catchy tune. "Gah! Just - focus on the fight, would you!?" She cries, then cordially stabs the chatty dwarf with her spear, scoring her first actual hit of the fight!
"Heh, is tha' yer best?" "You're talking to someone who cleaves giant crabs in half with one swing; he is explicitely trying NOT to kill you. If you can't see that, you are in serious trouble," Estelle deadpans, then strikes her nearest foe with her weapon!
Seeing Daniel take a gruesome wound in an instant, Estelle gets the sinking feeling that there would be no real way to subdue them non-lethally. She drops the sap and attempts to heal the damage done to him, thinking he wouldn't be able to take another one of those hits and praying the thief had just gotten lucky.
A very confused Estelle looks around at these instructions. "I don't speak dwarf. But... what's the point anyway? They already saw you, right? Otherwise, how did they figure you were an elf?" She glances ar Daniel and nods, signifying she was ready to strike.
Estella held her sap with baited breath as Astella moved forward. If anything, it was a miracle whoever was in that room hadn't heard them approach yet. Of course, that was the exact moment a loud creaking noise, disrupted the relative silence and Astella's cover was blown. "Well, here we go..." She mutters to Daniel, mentally praying to Shaymara things would go better this time around as she advances to help her elven friend.
Welcome Severa and Strom! Good to have you with us. I'm still slammed with work at present, will try to post tomorrow.
Hey everyone, I am in a bit of a busy period the coming six weeks, as I have to write and perform a scientific study for my work with a number of hard deadlines. This week especially though I need to spend the week away on training next to this. I tried to but can't find time/energy to write next to it. I'm sorry and hope to be back next week.
Having failed to locate the messenger bird merchant the Innkeeper on the way here had been speaking off, Estelle eventually abandons the idea and instead asks around for a weapons instructor. She could see and feel her new bardiche was an expertly crafted, well-balanced polearm, and the excitable recruit deep down couldn't wait to test it. In fact, any royal halbadier would probably be proud to handle something like this! It was much better than the standard issue gear handed out three years ago. ...Yet her face fell as she remembered those better days, of bootcamp in preparation for the war, when Flynn and her other friends had been with her. When their idealism over the coming war and defending their homeland from evil was quickly broken at the harsh reality of the front. It was before it had gradually become clear to her that their commander was all too willing to sacrifice his men in the sake of glory, before losing most of them one by one and being relegated to the Cutters and the Soothsayers, away from the front - which had been even worse. But worst of all, before Flynn's betrayal at the end. Why or how he could ever have supported Kirrus after his crimes against the nation would probably never stop bothering her, even if she somehow ever found out the answer... She'd stopped fighting with her habard ever since, and it felt alien to wield again. But she had to put aside such hestiations for the sake of Welnin and her friends, she figured. So maybe there was someone around who could help her re-familiarize herself with the basics, like Sergant Thunderhoof back then?
Estelle tried sneaking around as best she could, which as expected didn't go particularly well. Her plated movements were noisy and pretty much a tell-tale sign that someone was coming. Still, she tried to hold to Astella's and Brunhild's advice of how and where to move while keeping a lookout.
"All right, thanks for the information, Zahfir. We'll convene and see what we can do. As said, we lack magical weapons at present, and perhaps doing this is simply too dangerous without permanent ones for everyone," Estelle says when Astella leaves. "If we decide not to, we can try again later perhaps." She looks at Daniel and Brunhild to see how they felt about the magical weapon requirements issue for the Barrow Downs. Something about what Zahfir said stuck with her, and on the way out she convenes with Brunhild. "Maybe there's something to the notion of not having to go ourselves... we may lack magical items at present, but perhaps we have enough gold to hire one or more better equipped mercenaries to do the task for us? Does the city have reliable ones?"
Afterwards, finding herself having a bit of free time, Estelle would try and locate the messenger bird trainer the group had been informed of so long ago. Having means of communicating with Welnin on the road would probably prove invaluable in the future, or so she figured.
Estelle looks around the group. "All right... well, since Brunhild tends to attack the most often and hardest with her bow, perhaps it is worth lending her some money and making her weapon permanently magical. The rest of us could perhaps get by with scrolls and oils, or a partically charged wand for now." She glances at the merchant. "That is, do you happen to have such items on sale here, Zahfir? Oils or a partially charged wand? And would you be willing to offer a partial discount on such purchases as we would be forced to invest heavily in magical weaponry to undertake this quest for you?"
"Oh! I just remembered... speaking of the Barrow Downs, I was speaking to the smith with Daniel a few days ago. It seems there are reports of flying, incorporeal undead, which do require magical weapons to injure. So if we go there, it would probably be a good investment to buy some magical weapons, or at least scrolls and oils to temporarily provide such benefits to us." As the group discusses what to do, Estelle takes another look at the unidentified jewels to try and gauge their worth. She wasn't particularly adapt at this, or so she figured, but gems were a frequently used commodity in AvLee, as well as a constrcution material for the Pegasi's enchanted springs. As a priestess, she had seen a fair amount of them change hands growing up.
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