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Took it as we were invited to stay the night, but that seems unwise. As does trying to squeeze the horses into the dungeon (we would have to get them out again whenever the mansion disappears. Everyone okay with us camping outside in the significantly less fancy place? And pardon the slow replies :/
How worried should we be about our poor horses?
"The one we slew turned to mmm snow?" Illthir adds hesitantly. She was *fairly* sure that was actually what had happened - but it didn't feel great to have such a trouble with an evil snow man.
"We were ... On edge; I don't think anyone wanted to look into the mirror. Everything else had been more or less cursed; Alia covered it up. 'A chill breeze' is the best I got sorry." Illthir ponders if she knows more about the mirror.
Illthir frowns into the (delightful) cup of tea. "Hmm. Maybe I have a little bit more; at the end when the lich stepped through. A strange stone chamber? And it looked like it spoke but no sound passed through. There were a blue dragon too. Brr. These are things I've tried to *not* think about..."
Illthir frowns and thinks back. "See? Hmm... It was cold, if that helps. Let me think."
Note to future selves! Stroon might be a sorcerer or even arcanist. Someclass that can throw around a lot of lightning but not a wizard. Heck, they could even be a bard - but then they'd have a bit more sense of style :p
"Huh." Illthir wasn't quite sure exactly how the hierarchy of wizardy went, but it was reassuring that neither Dool nor Stroon was anywhere near the top. If Stroon even was a wizard - though the exact flavour of arcane magic font didn't matter much if they were intent to polymorph you into a newt. "I think Dool is new-ish in the area. Anyway; yes, Szam..." Illthir continues the tale.
Illthir pauses her tale to catch her breath, spun without any embellishments. Probably what made her fatigued. It was so tempting to squeeze a *little* fancy into the events - but meddling with wizards that way never ended well. Speaking of bad endings and mages; "May I ask; Imecktus Stroon and Alak Dool - what do you make of them? They were oh so hostile with eachother and, given the times we've run into them; it feels like only a question of time before we end up in the crossfire ..." She offers her most disarming smile. "I'll continue our tale in a moment regardless; I just need a moment to drink some water."
Illthir squirms and briefly wonders if their horses would serve as a good enough excuse to wriggle away. Probably not. Sigh. "We will try, though you will understand that this isn't memories we love to dwell on..." She takes a deep breath and tries to recall as much as she can. The hedge maze, the burning stables. The demon? and the imp; the shapechanger and the pair of grumbling wizards. "Right, so the scene is this. The Lord Mayor called for a meeting about these lands ..."
Little rough on my timelines, but if I remember correctly it ought to be more then a couple of weeks since the manor attack? Though news may not travel fast or far.
"I need no more reasons to avoid the Darklands." Illthir shivers. Nothing good came from that horrible place. Perhaps we could source enough mud to simply fill in the exits? Probably not, but it'd be a convenient way to deal with it all. "As for news ... Have you heard of the debacle at Ser Richard Iannuchi Manor? A simulacrum of the lich wreaked havoc on the meeting." She'll skip the details for now, in case Eldiocesan already were aware. If not, he'd probably ask.
Mm right. So we have a second entrance down to the Darklands here (potentially). Might explain why this place repopulates so quickly with monsters
Oh hmm right, wasn't there drows somewhere? Was it this place? I need to refresh my memory but perhaps there might be multiple reasons to station some armed people here ...
"Ah, we encountered them. In mutual surprise... And the wards; similar story there." Illthir casts a quick glance at her singed paladin companion. Then she continues talking, sharing the cliffnotes of their current situation. "Fergus blew up most of the mephits but I believe a handful fled deeper into the dungeon." "Did you find anything related to the Lich?" Let's avoid using that name, just in case.
apologies all, I've had a recent issue where I lost access to the boards. I should be back now though. Welcome back! The paizo boards are a little flimsy at times, though I haven't had any issues on that end for a while. Let's hope it lasts :D
Eldioceasan may either be looking into the trolls (unlikely, why would they be here?) or Szam Tass. If we are lucky! If we are not; well doppelgangers and illusions exist :p
"Woah!" Out of all the things she had expected, that wasn't it. Though she was, as a rule, more ready to deal with things in the verbal arena and quickly recovered. "The same could be said for you!" "But since you asked so *nicely*; this place was a temple of Erastil and-" she gestures at Jhod "-it could be again. Better then an abandoned infested dungeon." The skald does her best to banish both sarcasm and accusation from her tone. These were supposed to be friends after all. Though - with recent events in mind - better be a little careful. She held her hands up, empty, but kept her eyes on the other party.
Let's see. Looking back into the past: Stirred from his meditation over the pipe-smoke map, Eldiocesan says "Oh, here and there. Wandering wizard you know." he smile brightly. "Since you and your friends helped smoked out Szam Tass's agent in the Stolen Land I have had quite bit to keep me busy. Perhaps I'll take a break from the hunt and look into this troll business." Then he grows serious and takes Alia's hand in his. "This is serious now" he says looking into her eyes with a piercing stare. "You have made a grim, implacable enemy in Tass. He is ageless, and never forgets a slight. Be on your guard. Now if you will both excuse me? I should be away by morning and the campaigner in me tells me it is time for rest." With a wink Eldiocesan, kisses the back of Alia's hand and leaves for the night. Tamis is friends/companions with the dappled wolf plot that I think was just before I joined. Illthir has met the wizard at least, unsure about Tamis. (Not on screen at least, from what I could find/recall!)
Well, I'm better but now get got that actual weather too :p (Not terribly hot compared to the continent but hot for this place!)
Down under the weather but I'll try and pull myself together asap. (And no, not quite sure if I had the brainpower to pick the correct weapon but looks like it didn't matter much :D)
"Conjuration; that'd be what one would use to summon something like Mephits... Hmm." Illthir ponders out loud. "Maybe one spell to trigger it and another to call?" But this wasn't really her area of expertise. She was all about the heroic deeds and good stories. *Glup* She grabbed her spare sidearm and reached out to poke the disc. "Maybe ... This will do something?"
"Huh. Abjuration; that's wards right?"
"Huh, I got nothing. Fergus?" The Skald ponders for a moment then turns her attention to the second weaker aura. "I wonder if it has anything to do with the Mephits?"
"Weeeell the last thing didn't react to rocks either..." Illthir notes. As for what it was - and what to do - good question. After a few moments to think on it (and noting that Serena doesn't explode for coming close to it) she offers: "I could try Detect Magic too. If Fergus and I put our heads together maybe we can figure it out." Detect Magic!
"Trap finding rock go!" Illthir enthusiastically flings a rock at the ... thing. Ignoring that it didn't really help at all last time.
When Serena doesn't explode Illthir dares to follow. Carefully though! "Huh. That's new?" she glances at the map just to be sure. "Time to fling another rock?"
"*Mwap*" Yeah, she could still hear things. Vaguely. "Well, let's hope there's no further threats to your haircut..." Illthir mumbles, weakly hoping a joke would raise the mood. And if it fell on deaf ears, she'd blame the explosion. "Once is a coincidence, twice is attempted murder. Do you think the 'lich' would be spiteful enough to leave us this? Silly question; probably yes. But could it have time and resources?" That was probably also a silly question. Usually evil undead was just the right people to have time and means in abundance. Darn it - couldn't they have ticked off some poorer opponent... The skald sighs. "There's probably even more tricks then. You said there were two auras; are they both gone or are we about to find out what number two does?"
"So, uh, it didn't care about rocks. Draw lots and the loser gets to find out what it does live?"
Illthir in turn bravely hides behind Serena. Bravely.
"So it's not Explosive Runes.." Illthir speculates. Unless such magic could discriminate between rocks and people. Hmph.
"Huh. That's not on the map is it?" Illthir points at the glyphs. "Careful, it might be a trap." Or a glowing review. But surely not. Unless someone has a better idea (and fast!) Illthir will pick up any random stone or pebble and fling it at the glyphs. Just in case they intended to disintegrate her.
"Huh. So it does ..." Illthir squints at the map and the wall, seeing nothing of value. Luckily though it didn't seem like they were dependent on her eyesight!
"Huh. Would it have killed them to write that down on the map?" Illthir pondered with a frown. It was times like these she wished she had a beard just so she could scratch it. Hmrmph. "Right. We have to find it. Hopefully it opens from this side too." But maybe it didn't. Also seemed like something to write down on the map ...
"Right. Let me take a look on the map. Hmm. Maybe this way? And keep your eyes open! There might be more nasty stuff."
Re mending + hair - that's an interesting question...
Illthir bites down and keeps the comments about the hairy situation inside. "Patch up and press on then." she summarizes the plan.
"*Cough*" Illthir groans and tries to blink away the last of the dust in her eyes. Better. Only mildly so but better. "*Sniff* *groan*" she pats herself down searching for a handkerchief in her pockets. "Maybe we could *corner* them; there's not that many exits in this place. But do we really want to?"
"Do you think someone placed them here, as guards or lookouts?" she adds to Fergus train of thoughts. Perhaps it was naive, but hopefully she added. "Maybe they just liked this old dusty place ..."
Flee!! Illthir moves even further away.
Welp. Sounds like Fergus has a plan for this retreat atleast! Illthir legs it again.
Illthir was more then eager to display her better part of valour, at least if her comrades withdraw first!
It looks like Serena and Jhod is still bolded, but I'm guessing Illthir is up :)?
Happy (delayed) new year to you too:) I hope 2025 is treating you all right so far.
I did look into Mephits a while back. My findings were that there no monster called a Mephit anywhere except dnd or dnd derived stuff. The word is approximately "noxious vapours" and connected to some goddess somewhere (that, unless I missed something; were not a tiny elemental spirit .p). So that a "mephit" is an elemental annoyance spirit is probably a dnd original creation (or some other game dnd stole/borrowed from; but couldn't find it if so). So if one wants their IP to be distinct from wizards dnd changing the name makes sense. But "Mephit" > "Elemental Scamp" any day of the week :) And merry christmass, happy holidays or just a generic nice time to you all! --- Oh and hmm so these mephits may be angry flowers from our boney friend? Or perhaps intended for someone else and stumbled upon by us, but that seems too much of a coincidence. ...Still, Mephits are cool; if this can be solved non-violently that may be good. But perhaps a bit of violence is needed to make sure we aren't murdered first :p
"Magic *cough* weapons. Or maybe words" Not sure how much Illthir knows about speaking with them, but they are speaking A language at least.
Oh darn. Mephits! One of the coolest critter of the Improved Familiar family. (And dust mephits are like the perfect familiar for a cobwebbed wizard and their vast library :D) Would Illthir's knowledge roll be good enough to know that mephits are 1) usually not evil and 2) often do speak common? (Assuming these are still true here of course :))
"*Cough cough cough!*" Illthir retches and tries to expel the dust from her lungs, but mostly fails. While the denizens of other planes wasn't something she was an expert on, as a skald she had certain insights still. And she knew scene kids when she saw em. "Mephits. Goth mephits." she shares between the coughs and wheezes.
"..." That couldn't be good could it? The skald briefly considered trying to figure out what they were chanting, but she suspected that it would soon become apparent in the most horrible way. So instead, let's kick open the door and hope they can deal with whatever *it* is.
"Always." Illthir lied with a s@%+-eating grin. As her first action she moves a few steps east, which if she remembered the map right should let her watch both exit paths of the secret room. Then she readied a Hideous Laughter in case anything hostile came into view.
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