Kells Gryffoncrest's page

Kells rolls his eyes and chuckles at Kessel's comment, but nods "That's the plan."

"Oh, I don't want to imply that we are doing anything immoral or illegal. I don't think we are. Since I'm here looking for investments in mining concerns anyway, I just was letting my mind wander. This could be a good situation for me to set up an equitable mine corporation that is supports its workers rather than breaks their backs and uses them up."

Kells scrunches his nose in contemplation. "I understand your concern, Darie... especially since Daggerford has so many disreputable institutions surrounding the mining industry, but I would prefer to stay within the legal framework. Does anyone know anything about squatter's rights around here?"

Once the hunters return and the food is set on to cook, Kells goes out to get some clean water from the well to wash some of the filth off of himself. Comes back in a much more pristine state.

Kells nods with a smile as his eyes gleam with the thought of a really good meal "Oh, yes! And Tobin and I cleaned out the chimney in the kitchen. We've been breaking down and piling all the broken furniture over there, so we've makings of a nice fire."

Kells stops shifting rock around for a moment and gives a sigh as he rubs a shoulder. "Well, we're not looking for anything in particular. There ia a...trio? I guess? They are out of Waterdeep and one of them is a guy named Auric who's a Champion of Waterdeep and his leader named Khellik, or something close to that. Anyway, Auric was talking about going and looking for artifacts and information from Stirgenest Cairn, and that spurred us to the thought that it might be both a lark and a learning experience to look at the one Tobin and Kessel knew about. It has some old gensai artifacts."

Kells will grab Tobin and set to work cleaning out the kitchen chimney. Once it's cleared out, we can break up some of the rotten/broken furniture and shelves and dispose of it as firewood. Once we get that taken care of, Kells will assist Grond and Thane moving rock wherever they direct.

Kells sighs "Well, while I'm mucked up nearly beyond recognition, I should go ahead and continue to be useful. What other things can we do to this little bungalo? Darie? Tobin? You have any heavy lifting you need me to do? Thane and I can wrestle around some of the bigger rubble if we need to shore up any walls or clear anything out entierly. Grond and Grishnak look like stapping lads who aren't adverse to helping either."

Kayos, what tasks need to be completed to make the mine office more livable?

Thats good to hear, what is it you lads...and lasses, been up to, you seemed kind of grim when we happened upon you?

"No, no," Kells chuckles "We've been doing a little exploration out this way and that's going quite well. I guess mucking out the well left me moody, is all. We have a few days before we head back, I think. I think we can use another couple pairs of hand if you want to go with us next time. Tobin, if you need to attend any family matters, you know we will wait for you to get back."

Kells eye lighten a bit, and he looks more like his normal self. "The search for a mine to invest in goes... nominally. The mining for good hearts and good people is ushering forth a mother lode."

Kells smiles warmly at Thane, but it never completely lights up his eyes. There is an undertone to Kells voice that is usually absent...there is something menacing there. "No, friend, no time for retierment yet. There are many works to be done in Daggerford to lift the miners from the meager existance they serve at the heels of tyranical overlords. I hope to find good people who I can trust to aid me in smashing this cartel of inequity. Smash it like the hammer breaking stone."

Kells looks quizically at Elian then at Kessel. "You're gettine your own bodyguard?"

"Well, I suppose I'm in the best position to offer introductions. This is Thane [indicating the clean dwarf], Grond [indicating the very natural looking dwarf], and Grishnak [indicating the half-orc]. Thane has been a solid friend of mine for many years. And these are my companions Darie, who is not nearly as stern as she might present herself, and Kessel. I'm sure Tobin is around here somewhere, as well, but he very well might be hidden by the verdent weed growth."

"And actually, Grond is looking for Tobin on behalf of his family."

Kells chides himself quietly for staring in dubious judgement of the half-orc. he was casting doubt on Grishank based on appearence alone. Bahamut's draconic visage could be considered as beauteously terrible if one did not know the purity of the Platinum Dragon's soul. If Thane was willing to vouch for him, Kells would give him the benfit of the doubt. He offered the half-orc his hand. "Greetings. Kells...HearthFlame, at your service. I'm looking to buy into a mining concern here and raise the prospects of some of the good down-trodden miners. I'm taking a couple of days to get my bearings and find people I can trust in to point out who are the good townsfolk and who are the dubious ones."

"I suppose that must be a testament to my ability to avoid honest work," Kells laughs. "I've been cleaning frog juice out of the well to make it more palatable. Probably move on to a little rubble patrolling next, to shore up some of the sagging walls. Before you know it, we'll be able to call this place a hovel!"

Kells stretches out his arm to take the dwarf's offered hand, statling himself with its dirtiness. He pauses to self-concously wipe the grime on his shirt, but then doesn't hesitate to grasp the dwarf's dirty hand with a solid, if damp grip. "Fair day for the meeting, friend. I'm Kells HearthFlame. And, aye, Tobin should be about somewhere."

Kells scoops the last blob of froggy tinged mud out of the well with the satisfaction of a job well done and starts to clamber out of the well. As he's about halfway out, he sees the trio walking down the road. He brushes back a few errant strands of hair as he stands, leaving an algae green streak of color across his forehead. Usually very neat, the young paladin is coated in muck, slime, and bits of duckweed. He looks soaked to the bone. "Hullo, Thane! Who are your companions? What brings you out this way?"

To Thane

A paladin-propelled frog comes rocketing out of the well, followed by a muffled and echoing voice "You are evicted. Out of here!" The frog lands in a tussock of grass and hops off indignantly.

Despite being bone tired, Kells spends an hour or two cleaning his armor and hammer. He dotes on it and buffs all the bug bits off. Afterwards, he takes some prayer time and falls into a deep sleep. In the morning, he goes and gets a drink out of the froggy well and decides that that is his first order of business. "I want to drink and not taste toad. I will scour the stones and scoop out gathered mud in an effort to clean the watering hole.

Kells readily accepts the suggetion to bury the bodies outside. With every trip back in to get more rubble for the small cairns he gives a small sigh as he looks at the snake corpses. He doesn't bear them any ill will, they were just doing what hunting animals do, but they still make him a bit uncomfortable.

He stands and smiles quietly as he and Kessel get the last stones fit. "You were Seekers in life. I hope your souls find peace in the Here-After." He hoists his hammer over his shoulder and wipes some dirt from his face (in reality only smearing it around more). "Ready to tromp back?"

Kells has been a bit silent since finding the bodies, but finally speaks "Before we go back, I would like to take these remains upstairs for a burial. I think that there is enough loose rock from up where then snakes were we can give them a decent burial. If these Seekers are as unprincipled as you say, K.C., it may not matter a spit in the wind, but I would feel better giving them a true 'final home.' Once we get back to our palace, I may be sleeping for a week. That brown mold still has me exhausted."

Kells will gather up as many of the remains as he can carry and hall them upstairs to near where the snakes were and construct a make-shift cairn within a cairn for them. He doesn't hold it against anyone else if they don't want to deal with the dubious corpses.

Probably strange bodies.

Kells nods in sympathy to Darie, then he lifts his hammer and looks at the bug juice dripping head. He pulls a gagging-face at the small hairy legs, goo, and exoskeleton bits covering it and drags the head across the floor a couple of times to clean it off.

The intensely revolting smell to the sea of beetles moving along is bad enough to turn Kells stomach, but the sound of thousands of tiny, haired legs scritching across the floor made him want to vomit. Kells swung his hammer down, crashing into the sea of bug bodies. For a moment the sound of steel smashing carapaces into goo and ringing on the rock floor fills his ears and drowns out other sounds.

When everyone is in the places that Kessel indicated, Kells nods and holds his vial of the viscous liquid in his right hand and his hammer in his left. He runs around the corner and throws throws the vial at the mass of writhing beetles.

He finishes by stepping 5' out of the way (if possible) and passes his hammer over to his right hand and waits for the bugs.

"Fire seems like a good choice," Kells nods, "Worked well with the bugs upstairs. I'll keep my hammer to hand in case that big buggy charges, but I have one more vial of alchemist's fire, also. Get your gear ready and give me the nod when you want me to lead off."

Kells will gladly take his time to avoid getting hurt. He is still down quite a few hp from the mold and is happy to take as many rest breaks as are needed.

Kells steps up and catches Darie in a one-armed hug "I think you saved us and whatever power you're tapping into I don't think it will taint you if you don't let it. I have faith in your ability to choose your own path, Darie. I think I would have felt the taint on you if you were actually using evil. I think you will continue to use your gifts in a positive way."

Kells pulls his hammer back up and situates it to help keep the thing at bay. He makes a half-hearted attempt to smack it, but misses. He calls back over his shoulder "Take flight, my friends. I'll try to keep this thing held back."

Being so low on hit points and a slow mover, Kells is fighting defensively, he took the -4 on the hit to raise his AC by +2 to AC 20.

Kells reaches back into his backpack and pulls out a vial of viscid liquid. He hauls back and throws it. When the glass dashes against the floor it erupts in a flame of alchemist's fire. He steps back toward the sarcophagus.

Throwing Alchemist's fire. Kayotic, could you make the attack/damage for me? Not able to pull up IC at the moment.

"Yeah," Kells agrees, "We've come a ways, I would hate to leave off now. Let's check out what happened. Maybe just another lifter/lowerer device." He picks up the everburning torch in one hand and his hammer in the other and walks toward the green lanterns tunnel.

Kells nods and gets into a braced position to push. "Sounds as good as any other option."

Once we all fall into place, Kells leads the group back to the tube and rises back up into the main room. Once there he pauses to look at the sarcophagas. "So do you think that we can turn this and make a different lift tube work in one of the other corridors?"

Kells nods at Darie and ambles behind her. "We probably should maintain the marching order, Darie. Even in areas we've already been through it would just be safer."

Eyebrow arched, Kells shrugs a minor agreement. "I suppose so, but it doesn't look very appealing to me. Any stories about the ancient wind folk having banquets of amber earwax?"

Kells looks at Kessel in disbelief as he licks his finger "So you think this is some sort of nectar fount? I guess it could be, but couldn't it also be some sort of wierd lubricant for the tools or something?"

I'm sorry Kayos, I've lost track. Do we have an updated map? -AND- I trust you are feeling better?

The smile falls from Kells face and his eyes darken "You... you mean I have to be both more likable AND better looking? Gods, man, the pressure you place on me!" Unable to keep a straight face any longer, Kells erupts in a fresh bout of laughter.

Kells erupts in laughter over the exchange between Darie and Kessel.

Kells gives a little chuckle. "Just a title? I'm not sure. There sure seems to be a lot of air movement here that's keeping this from being a stale old crypt. They might very well be genesai (sp?) or even more than half djinn. 'Wind Duke' might have been something more than just an honorific."

Kells eyebrows shoot up as he listens to the more learned members of the party discuss lofty topics. "We dealt a little with the planes in my religious instruction... how souls go to their spiritual homes, but your depths of knowledge is so much greater than mine. I would never think of things like that. It's amazing stuff!"

Kells taps the head of his hammer on the floor "Bravo, Darie! You need to quit selling yourself short!" He raises the everburning torch and heads to the area that she has just cleared of mold.

Darie Billown wrote:

Darie has a few hangups about her magical nature, and has kept it quiet up to this point

That's what I thought ;)

Kells is mostly basing his statement on the fact that she seems to have some knowledge and opinion about the cairn and the items. When you are funtioning at 0% understanding of a topic, a person with 3% knowledge of the topic still far outstrips you. :D

"Huh..." Kells looks impressed at Darie, "How do we find them out then? I mean, I suppose we could try to get Khadath to investigate. Do you think they give the right someone the right knowledge when they hold them? Tobin, give Dairie or Kessel that frost wand... see if they can make them work! That could solve two of our problems."

Kells is a complete arcane idiot. He doesn't have any clue whatsoever about how the magic that mages do can work. Just that it does work.

Kells nods in appreciation of his companions impressive knowledge. "Nice! These architects had quite the impressive array of tools!"

Kells nods as Darie asks about grave robbery "I've been thinking about that, as well. And I feel pretty much the way Tobin does. This unfortunate explorer came here looking for adventure or treasure or danger and found at least one of them. But he came here of his own free will and fell in the process. We're going to give his mortal remains a fitting repose. If I were to fall here, I like the idea that my hammer might be found and go on to do good works."

Whoot!

Kells gives Tobin an obvious wink, and takes a swaggering step toward Darie while hoisting his hammer to his shoulder. "Oh, I don't know, Tobin. I can see us getting into a friendly little bout over 'goods redistribution.' What do you say, Darie? Little combat with best two out of three swings getting the share?" Still weak from the encounter with the mold, Kells knee buckles and he almost falls sideways. "Of course, the way I feel now, you just might take me... That stuff packs a powerful punch."

Kells looks down at the broken remains. "Ah, I shouldn't be making jokes. At least not yet. I'm going to put our unfortunate predacessor's remains over by the lifter tube. When we go back upstairs, we can take him and make a nice little grave. We'll try to speed your soul on, friend."

Kells kneels and picks up as many of the bits of bone as he can, even sweeping up the smaller pulverized pieces and takes them back to make an obsenely small pile by the elevator. When he comes back he is more that happy to try on the armor. In all honesty, he's happy to take a break because each moment not pushing on is resting slightly from the aching cold he still feels in his bones.

Kells still rubs his hands getting circulation movin through them. "Well, there's still the side that Tobin is busy on, and it looks mold-free behind this obstruction. Anything back that way, Tobin? Or in the open room to the east?"

"Really," Kells asks, "what kind of mail? I think we should take his remains up top and bury them, at least a cairn from some of the rock the snakes were behind."