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The journey back to Kalkamedes's cabin seemed a blur to the blond-haired ranger. In that time, he got to know both Kalkamedes and Sulianna better, felt a sense of justice in showing mercy to the captured bandits and hoping that they had seen the light and would turn away from a life of highway robbery. After reaching the cabin and giving his report of what happened to Venture-Captain Heidmarch, he took his turn with the others in receiving Sulianna's gift. "Thank you for the gift you have given me," he murmured to her. "I hope I never have to use it because I would like to keep it as a memento of both you and this adventure." After watching Sulianna ascend into the dark night, fatigue hit Marcel as if a ton of basalt rock had been dropped on him. Spending his last bit of energy to lay out a bedroll and blanket, Marcel collapsed on it and quickly dropped into deep, dreamless sleep. The next morning. Marcel began making his preparations for the journey back to Magnimar and to Absalom from there. As he prepared to say good-bye to the other Society members, he heard Kalkamedes's words to them. "You've given us a reward worth more than gold," he said, clasping the man's hand in his own. "You've given us your respect and friendship and you have certainly earned both from me." "That goes for all of you as well," he said as he looked around at the others and then moved over to Yarricki and Thunder. "You two make quite the pair. I won't forget the way you charged after those bandits and how you didn't back down from those disembodied hands," he said, giving Thunder a couple of pats on the head. "And the way you got that mama bear calm...you are a friend of nature and a friend of mine," he adds, shaking Yarricki's hand. "Your healing faith kept us all alive, including Serge," Marcel says to Malusha as he shakes his hand. "One day, you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren the story of how you personally banished a demon from this world and made it a little more safer." "I'm glad you're still with us," Marcel says as he clasps Serge on the shoulder. "You exemplified bravery back there against Koth'Vaul's monster in protecting a woman in distress, just like in the songs bards sing about. But you won't need a bard now that you have Gamin," he adds, a grin forming for a moment before disappearing. "Both of you take good care of one another." "I hope you're into friends and not dudes, Luurg," Marcel says to the half-orc before surprising him with a hug to mess with him a little. "Because friends hug. I don't know that I'll ever meet someone who is well versed in the art of getting the most out of fruit drinks to ensure mission success. But you're a great protector as well. Kalkamedes might have came out worse for wear, if at all, if it hadn't been for you." Finally Marcel comes to Meredith and Denair. "I think I'm going to miss the two of you most of all. While Luurg made this adventure lighter with his attitude, you kept us focused with your own," he said, shaking Meredith's hand. "You have a gift in being able to do that. And you," he said to Denair, giving the eidolan a hug. "I don't know if I'll ever have a scouting partner as great as you were when it came to keeping everyone at arm's length from danger. After you, anyone else will have some big shoes to fill." "One last round of fruit drinks sounds like a good way to part company," Marcel finishes as he looks over his brothers and sisters in Society arms, committing them and their deeds of the past two days to his memory forevermore. "I hope that our paths will one day cross again, but I want to say something if they do or do not. To each and every one of you........be good to yourselves, my friends."
I had a really epic post for gameplay but I never could get it to preview. An in-character goodbye for all of you, but I'll try to post it later tonight after work instead. I just want to say thank you to all who made me feel at home in my first PbP event. I enjoyed it well, but I don't think PbP is something I'll do on a regular basis, but probably more on a once-a-year thing for a PFS scenario. Thank you, Ladile, for running this scenario for us and thanks to each and every one of you who played that helped make this a memorable first-time PbP experience for me!
Marcel glances over at the circle where Koth'Vaul was once imprisoned. "Well," he says, taking a deep breath. "We did say we'd get him out of there and we kept our word. It just wasn't in the way he wanted to be free." "You're a hero," he says to Kalkamedes. "When you were out mapping this area and got close, Sulianna sent out a magical call for help. You weren't close enough to notice, it got into your mind and it caused you to sleepwalk in order to get here to help her. And you did. You saved her and kept a dangerous demon from getting loose and wreaking havoc." Marcel looks around at the rest of his party members, sizing them up with admiration for the team effort they put forth in this mission. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm ready head back and tell Captain Heidmarch of our adventure. And we also have some bandits to collect and escort to jail. After all of that, to just get some sleep. Without dreamwalking," he adds, throwing a knowing wink at Kalkamedes.
"I'm pleased to meet you as well, Sulianna. My name is Marcel and what Malusha says is true," he adds. "This is Kalkamedes and he's been sleepwalking every night for the past few nights. He doesn't remember doing it or why, and we were asked to watch over him to see where he was trying to go. It would seem he was trying to reach you."
"Don't let him get under your skin," Marcel says as he looks up from the unconscious lass to Meredith and Malusha. "If he has the power to do us in, he'd have done it without help from that thing," Marcel waves a hand at the remains of the long-dead monster. "Let's get this woman healed and maybe she can shed some light on what's going on."
Marcel moves over to Serge to make sure he's going to be all right. "We almost lost you, my friend," he says with concern. "Anyone else standing against it like that would be dead now. It takes a lot of heart to be brave like that," he adds with a note of admiration. "Let's see if we can help this woman that Kalkamedes seems interested in."
Marcel then moves next to Kalkamedes and checks on the downed elfwoman to see if any of the previous aid has helped.
Marcel lets out a sigh of frustration as his arrow goes high. "Keep your eye on the quarry," he mutters to himself as he pulls another arrow from his quiver. "Don't look at what it's doing to others and focus on a weak spot," he continues as he draws a bead on the creature and lets the arrow fly.
"Serge! Fall back and regroup!" he shouts as he sees the paladin has taken a beating. "You may not survive another barrage like that!"
"Oh, dear. Luurg, remind me not to do anything to make you mad," Marcel says with a note of worry in his voice at the impending creature trying to move toward Serge and himself. He sees the crawling hands moving back the way he came, Marcel moves to stand to the right of Serge. "Keep Kalkamedes and the girl safe!" he calls out as he fires a shot at the scaled monstrosity.
As the party members speak to the trapped gnome, Marcel moves over to Luurg and Kalkamedes. Seeing that the sleepwalking man is trying to move past the gnome to another area, Marcel takes a peek in that direction to see if there's anything in the direction Kalkamedes is trying to go.
"Just want to make sure nothing's trying to come in the direction Kalkamedes is trying to go," Marcel says to Luurg as he ambles to a stop next to Kalkamedes.
"Interesting," he pipes up as he and Denair lead the way in. "This is not a natural cavern. Look at all of the different claw marks on the walls and ceiling. Looks like a lot of things worked together to shape this room." Marcel comes to a halt as he sees the fuschia haired gnome inside the circle and hears his pleas for help. Seeing no obvious barriers that would prevent the gnome from just walking to the group, he scratches his head in bewilderment. "Doesn't look like there's anything preventing you from walking to us," he says to the gnome. "Are you stuck? And also, who are you?"
Marcel nocks his bow and takes a look down the tunnel, ready in case anything hostile should approach and then looks to Luurg and Malusha. "I'll keep an eye on the corridor," he says. "Looks like that lever there would send the cage back up. If one of you wants to do that, everyone else can get down here with us."
"I don't believe Gamin would know. He always said Kalkamedes never took him with him when he started sleepwalking," Marcel chimes in before looking around at the group. "I'll volunteer to go down in this cage if someone wants to pull that lever," he says, pointing at it. "If something bad is waiting, the only person that will get hurt is me. Maybe I'll have time to yell out a warning, too." Marcel readies his bow and steps through the cage door.
"Being muscular isn't a great strength for me, but I'll give it a try," Marcel says as he tries his luck with the door.
The blonde-haired ranger tries to open the door. Muscle cords stand out on his neck and arms as he tries in vain to gain entrance to whatever lies beyond. But all the pushing, pulling, man-grunts, and sweat have no effect on the door and he finally sinks to his knees, exhausted. The door hasn't budged an inch and if it was sentient, you could almost swear you heard it horse-laughing at Marcel's feeble attempt to move it.
Marcel is slightly taken back by Luurg's preference in gender, but holds up his hands out in a calming gesture toward the muscular alchemist. "It's not like that, Luurg. I only pitch woo to the ladies," he replies with a straight face. "When Denair stepped up on the dais, she said she felt tired. Remember what the riddle said. 'Their strength is their weakness'. Denair looked pretty strong back there in our fight with the bandits. But there's the second part of the riddle, too. 'Our weakness is our very strength.' My idea is to have the strongest and weakest people in our group go up on the dais at the same time and relate what they experience when they do."
"Enfeeblement makes one weak. Sort of like the way the dais affected Denair," Marcel said. He looks back and forth at the dais and then the wand. "I have an idea, but I want to check something first. Luurg, don't let Kalkamedes up there just yet." Marcel scrutinizes the party, including Kalkamedes as well as himself, to see who is the strongest and the weakest among their number.
"Hmmm," Marcel muses as he watches Denair looking for anything hidden on the double doors. "Let's rule out the direct approach as long as we're trying to figure out what that means." The ranger waits until Denair finishes checking the iron doors and then he will try to see if they can be pushed or pulled open.
"Do any of you know what this writing means?" Marcel asks the group as they move up. "Interesting, Malusha. But whomever tried to hide this place wasn't able to do so from nature. There are a lot of animal tracks. Fox. Skunk. Bear. Mountain lion. All have been here. Maybe Yarricki and I can talk to whatever might be here, like we did with the bears."
Marcel looks in but doesn't see anything immediately threatening as far as he can tell. "No," he uttered to Denair. "But that doesn't mean that there's nothing in there. Look here," he said, pointing to the dried paw prints on the ground. "Animal tracks." Marcel looks at the writing. It's written in something that he can't read or understand. "You don't happen to know what that means, do you?" Marcel looks back down at the paw prints and studies them, hoping to determine how long the tracks have been there and what made them.
Marcel watches Meredith, Luurg, and Yarricki make their preparations for whatever might lie ahead. Not having anything he can really do in a similar vein, he goes with the practical approach. "Time to earn our keep," he comments to no one in particular. Slowly nocking an arrow to his bow, he moves ahead silently toward the one entryway he can see into the stone structure, keeping a close eye out for danger.
"I agree with Luurg on this," Marcel chimes in. "I'd take them to the nearest town and turn them in. But we don't have time," he adds, glancing knowingly at Kalkamedes. "Helping Kalkamedes is our mission. Tie the robbers to a tree and leave them for now. They would be helpless, but they might escape, either on their own or if their partners grow spines and come back. If we succeed and they're still here on the way back, we can bury the dead ones and hand these two over to the local authorities." Not having found any arrows, Marcel does take note of the potions that the highwayman were carrying. "Serge, you and Luurg look like you could use one of these. Thunder, too," he adds as he notices an absence of feathers and an ugly cut in their place on the axebeak. "These bandits won't be needing them."
"Thank you, Luurg," Marcel replies as he steps out of the trees. "They were waiting to jump us. The ones that are running now know how it feels to be ambushed," he stated dryly. Seeing Denair, Luurg, and Meredith moving back in the direction they came from to check on Kalkamedes, Marcel moves up to where Malusha is searching through the downed bandit's belongings. He looks around, seeing if he can find the one arrow that missed its mark.
Spotting the telltale red fletching sticking from the leaves of a snowball bush, Marcel plucks it out, checks it and returns it to his quiver, satisfied it can be reused. He then moves to each fallen foe, checking to see if any are still alive.
Marcel shakes his head at the determination of the highwaymen in fighting on, yet the gesture earns a token of respect from the ranger. I really wish they'd surrendered or fled. It's either us or them he thought to himself as he saw Luurg being surrounded by more robbers, one of them inflicting a nasty gash wound in the alchemist's arm. Drawing another arrow, he aimed and fired at the robber on his companion's left.
With allies now close, Marcel attempts to move and the realizes how tough it would be stay silent in the scrub brush under the trees. Distracted, he isn't able to draw a bead on the fleeing highwayman as he takes cover on the opposite side of the path and his third arrow sail wide of the bandit. Non-plussed by the developments, Marcel nocks another arrow to his longbow and shoots at the closest target that he can see.
"You are overmatched!" he yells toward the group's attackers. "Give up now or share the fate of your friends!"
Marcel silently motions for Denair to drop back and warn the others of the ambush on the path. Then he silently drops back five feet to either a tree or bush next to the path and uses it to both hide and give himself a sniper's position on the bandits. Taking careful aim at the bandit farthest from him that he can see, he fires a surprise shot in the hopes that the sudden attack will cause confusion among the bandits and make them give away their position to the party behind them.
"My mentor Benton taught me a little bit about being able to communicate with wildlife," Marcel replies. "I've used it a time or two to talk with birds and squirrels. This is the first time I've used it to talk to a bear. First time I've seen one up close, too." Marcel looks around at Denair. "Shall we?"
Marcel steps up next to Yarricki, possibly being the only other person in the group who knows what she's trying to do. "Please listen to my friend, mother bear and hear the truth in her words. We mean no harm to you or your little ones. We only wish to pass through."
Marcel gives Denair an apologetic look for drawing the attention of the bears to them and then surveys the situation with the big bear and the two smaller ones.
Although Marcel is fairly knowledgeable about the outdoors and wild animals, he's never dealt with a bear up close and in person, let alone three of them. In fact, this the first time he's ever seen a bear, period. "They're just bears. And they don't appear to be acting aggressive," he states. Noticing Denair motioning him back, he nods. "I'll let the others know that they're here."
"I'll go up first," Marcel volunteers. "I'll just need someone to switch out with me to help Thunder so that Kalkamedes doesn't try to climb the cliff on his own." Marcel releases his hold on Kalkamedes and walks over and begins to walk up the cliff face using the rope.
The blonde haired ranger moves up the rope with a certain degree of body grace and reaches the top. He pulls himself up to a sitting position, wipes his brow and stands up. "All in a night's work," he remarks to Denair as he readies an arrow in his bow and takes in the surroundings at the top and then back down toward the bottom of the cliff and the rest of the group, watching for any signs of danger.
Marcel wastes no time in getting the rope looped around the tree and making sure that it's tied securely to the bottom portion of the tree trunk. "Ok," he calls out to the others. "I've got a rope ready for those of us who need to climb down." He watches as Luurg saunters over, downing a couple of vials along the way. "I'm going to let everyone else go ahead of me. That way," he continues, readying his longbow and nocking an arrow, "I'll be able to cover everyone as they descend."
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