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Disappearing back down the tunnel, Mathilde pulls ahead of everyone else. When the rest of the group approaches, she already has a small hammer and a long iron spike drawn from her bag; carefully, she lays the tip of the piton against the inside surface of the stone that had covered the exit and taps at it with a hammer. The spike's tip chips away at the stone, carving the crude image of two pickaxes set into the ground in the shape of the Glyph of the Open Road. My chance to leave my mark, as it were, she chimes in with a smile. And this will make it easier for anyone else to find the exit in future, should they need to make a heroic rescue like we did. Now come on - let's make sure we've discovered all this cave has to offer.
We explored, reported, and cooperated, of course, Mathilde responds to Janira's question with a half-smile. The cavern had a back entrance hidden behind a stone - we found it inside and came out just over there. She points to the crevice where they'd emerged. Fate was on your side today; we emerged just in time to come across you showing the minotaur who was boss. All we were doing was cleaning up, really. The half-smile erupts into a good-natured grin. Speaking of cleaning up, there's one more thing I need to do while we're here. Mind if I go back inside the tunnel real quick?
Here, Mathilde chimes in, offering Janira's bag to Frostwind. See if there's anything that can help her. Once the bag changes hands, she retires a few feet backward, standing awkwardly away from the rescue attempt; she'd never thought much of the lessons in healing her mother had tried to give her, but now she begins to recognize her short-sightedness. If only I'd listened, then I wouldn't be standing here useless right now...I'd be able to do something to help her...
I'll harry it from the cave mouth, keep the way open if we need to get back in! Having hastily dug the potion from Janira's bag, Mathilde re-orients it on her back and rushes toward the tunnel entrance as fast as her stout legs will take her. Whatever was out there threatening Janira, she was ready.
Let him enjoy his eternity under Droskar's whip, then, Mathilde replies, spitting on the corpse. We should be on our guard for other undead, then - but at least, if he's dead, the ones we kill won't be coming back.
Looking up from the body, she glances around the walls of the chamber - and notices something out of place. There's a space behind this stone...it looks like there's some kind of secret passage going back this way. It could be the necromancer's hideout, so it might be worth checking out.
Letting the rock surrounding her hand crumble away, Mathilde reaches for her backpack and draws forth a dagger sheathed in a side pocket . By the neatness of the blade it looks to have been used far more often for roasted meat than living (or unliving) flesh, but she steps forward and slashes out with it all the same, though her balance is off and she swings wide.
While having allies surrounding her lends a degree of comfort, it also restricts Mathilde's movement - she can't maneuver backward to keep herself safe while she throws another rock shard. Instead, she takes a deep breath and presses her hand into the cavern wall beside her, grunting slightly as if she were lifting a heavy weight. A tremor rumbles through the floor, intensifying and ebbing with her breath, and the loose gravel on the floor gathers to her like iron filings to a magnet. When she pulls her hand away, a chunk of wall comes with it, molded to her palm and fingers like a heavy glove; putting her entire body into the effort, she swings at the skeleton beside her, trying to finish it off.
Seeing the shambling undead ahead, Mathilde wracks her brain, trying to remember the stories she'd heard as a child about monster-hunters and the walking dead. When dead ones walk in Katapesh...crush the bones and slice the flesh! she crows triumphantly, remembering a line from an old rhyme. Hastily, she rushes forward to try and get a clear shot on one of the skeletons, using her mind to tear a melon-sized chunk of rock from the wall and fling it toward the animate bones.
Mathilde holds back, clearly uncertain about stepping forward and taking the lead in interacting with the gillman. However, she listens raptly, drinking in his words as he describes the recent troubles. Ask him if he's seen anything of these "dangers", she whispers to Symphony. Or if he knows anything about what the others were doing. Whether they were planning on going further into the cave, that kind of thing.
Mathilde tries to help Obaekwon follow the foot marks, but even after he points out the disturbances she can hardly follow their path - her eyes are drawn instead to the petroglyphs on the walls. Does anyone recognize these markings? They don't look much like any language I know of, but they could be pictograms, or some kind of code...and I wonder if this fungus was put here on purpose? Mesmerized by the carvings and the glow of the bioluminescent walls, she takes up a position near the rear of the group, dividing her gaze between the walls and the tunnel behind to keep an eye out for surprises from the darkness behind. With her sight long accustomed to dark tunnels, the lack of light troubles her little, and her ears stay sharp even as her eyes wander.
Mathilde looks little pleased at turning her back on the courageous Halfling, but she trusted Janira's judgement - after all, she'd been doing this adventuring thing far longer than Mathilde. If Janira said the minotaur was out of their weight class, it was probably true, and if she said she could give it the slip and circle back, Mathilde would trust her. Reluctantly. Still, she can't help but stop for a moment, preparing to pull up a few stones and hillocks to slow the minotaur's progress...until she thinks better of it and retreats behind Locken and Symphony into the cave, grabbing Janira's bag as she goes. I'll carry this, then, she says absently to her surroundings, hoisting the small bag onto her shoulder next to her own. No load ever slowed a dwarf down, and I don't need to carry my weapon at hand.
Augh! As the snakes begin to slither over the party's feet, Mathilde swings her hands in a wide circle, digging her feet into the ground. From next to her, the ground begins to shift, forming itself into a melon-sized clump of dirt and rock that follows the movement of her hands and slams into the ground where the serpents writhe .
Replace "porter" with "miner" and you've got my story pretty much locked! Mathilde responds to Janira's query. My folks would've preferred I stayed and settled down into something more "responsible" than the Society, but after... Suddenly, she catches herself mid-sentence. Well, after a while I decided staying in the Five Kings Mountains and popping out lots of little dwarflings didn't suit me. So I worked my way down south on some mining jobs, until a Pathfinder called Olvin Tolraandor hired me to help him reinforce and widen an entrance to an old mithral mine. After hearing his tales, I decided the Society was where to be when it came to keeping excitement in my days! Knowledge (local) DC10:
She tries to make her departure from the Five Kings Mountains sound voluntary, but her name gives her away - the slag suffix at the end of her surname is given only to those who have been exiled from dwarven society.
Mathilde listens carefully as Janira explains the particulars of the mission, then as her new teammates talk about plans and abilities. Well, I'm...uh...I'm not quite sure there's really a name for what I do. It's not magic per se, not like a sorcerer, but I can...I don't know how to explain it. She concentrates for a moment as she swings her hand out from her side, and suddenly the stones along the side of the road begin to roll, rushing beside her in a jumble and keeping pace just below her outstretched fingers. Earth and stone listen to me - I can feel them, understand them in a way. I've been able to do it ever since I could remember - my mother called it "stone-singing". It's a good thing it doesn't involve any actual singing, though...that'd probably just start an avalanche, she finishes with a chuckle.
I think that's the first time I've heard of someone playing humans so rarely they forgot about the bonus feat, haha. In my IRL group that bonus feat is almost the default assumption, and everyone thinks of it as going a feat less than what they "should" have when they play a non-human.
Music to my ears, the dwarf woman nods at Janira's rousing words. Pleased to meet you, Janira, and all the rest of you! I'm Mathilde Goruunslag - remember the name. You'll be hearing more of it, she finishes with a wink that inexplicably turns to a slight wince. Though I could do without the very last bit of that name. As Janira approaches, Mathilde eagerly opens her backpack, producing each item as the Halfling woman mentions it. The collection is perfect - a little too perfect, as if she'd shopped off a supply list, and most of the equipment looks unused or nearly so.
Of course there's work to be done - why d'you think I was asking after the drink? the dwarf woman jokes back at the Taldane priestess, but further conversation is interrupted by Master Shane's...dramatic entrance. Pfft...elves. Wisely, though, she keeps her mouth shut and lets the Pathfinder great continue...though as he finishes, it's clear she can scarce contain her enthusiasm. So they have noticed my work, then. Finally, Confirmation, and it's cave exploring at that! She'd always had a love for caves, even beyond that of most of her dwarven kin - the stones were almost like friends to her, and they would listen, tell her their secrets, even obey her commands. Swinging her feet to the ground, Mathilde readjusts her pickaxe in its strap on her backpack, as if subconsciously trying to prove herself up to the task. Do we have a guess at the extent of these passages? Did the entrance look to be natural, or was it dug out or worked somehow? Is there any history of excavation we know of in the area? Suddenly, her face twists of its own accord into a good-natured smirk. And if a dwarven rune was to...I don't know, appear in the wall of the deepest cavern, that wouldn't be such a bad thing, right? After all, the Society should leave its mark on the world.
The door opens so hard that it bounces back with a bang off the wall that catches it, and a dwarven woman enters, her steps pounding on the slightly creaky floorboards. Her clothes are utilitarian, a simple wool dress with a leather overtunic and a cloak that bears several hastily-mended tears and a good deal of dust. Red hair hangs in a curtain of small braids bound in brass clips just above her shoulders; the ends are unevenly cut, as if the grooming was done by someone with no great skill at the task. Her face is ruddy, as if freshly scrubbed, but dirt still crowds the tips of her fingernails. An iron-bound pickaxe and backpack bounce against her back as she saunters in. The slightly battered knapsack bulges at the bottom, where the weight of its contents tries to pull its way to the ground, but she seems to notice the weight little as she yanks a chair next to the tengu away from the table with her foot. Jumping slightly to clear the seat, she throws her feet onto another chair next to her and lets out a small, satisfied sigh. Wine? At this hour? It's breakfast time - what you need's somethin' that'll stick with ya, a good strong stout!
Woohoo getting going! :D I've got Mathilde set up and registered now, with a character sheet in her profile for your perusal. I'll do some quick-and-dirty shopping in the next few minutes for her equipment. PFS ID: 200250-1
That what you need? |
