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No worries, stormcrow27, and best wishes on your upcoming move. :) Koshon and Eric [and everybody else- past and present], good to have interacted with your respective characters; I'm sure that there will be further opportunities down the line to create/play similar such characters on these pbp boards. :)
With the additional lighting provided by Eric's dancing baguettes, Morelda uses her Detect Magic upon the nearest unopened door- the one to the west, perhaps?- although the likelihood of detecting any magic upon it remains slim. "Shall we try the west door then? I think there was another door that we passed by out in the hallway; to say nothing of the stairway upwards, as well. Those stairs could probably wait though." The Young Wizardess still has her crystal out, just in case... but doesn't bother to use crystal light upon it again if it had already gone out at this juncture.
Best wishes to you on your new job, Lorel. ;)
Now the psychic wizard takes full brunt of the gregori's blank stare. "My romantic life notwithstanding, may we progress in our investigation of this wild goose chase. I'll leave to you ladies to decide ownership of the slippers."It does not appear that anything is actually in the closet, as nothing else is wet...
Looking up towards Koshon's otherworldly face, Morelda's pendantic insistence that someone more suited towards maneuvering around the battlefield would be a far better candidate for the slippers gets prematurely choked-off in a strangled "eeep!" as the Neophyte Wizardess of the Twilight Academy bears the full brunt of the Angelic Guardsman's nonplussed mien of displeasure as she reactively flinches backwards- and hits her back abruptly against the barred doorway, causing the door to suddenly open ajar once more. Instead of another deluge of cold river-water pouring forth from the opened doorway, it merely opens up to reveal an empty closet, nay- a completely dry empty closet- with nary a single drop of water to be found anywhere. Goggling dumbfoundedly at the improbable sequence of events, Morelda hastily scoots back from both the open closet and Koshon before squeaking out, "Wh-where to next?"
Glancing excitedly at the slipper in her hand, Morelda exclaims aloud "Why, this slipper happens to be enchanted with magic; if I'm correct about it's capabilities, it should allow a person who is wearing both pairs to step lightly as a feather upon the ground- thereby moving normally against uneven flooring as if it were unobstructed." Suddenly remembering that her apologetics was very much in the singular and that Lorel also got the other half of soaked slipper, Morelda hastily adds in with, "And while I can't really speak for Miss Lorel's own thoughts on the matter, I'm sure that she may possibly feel the same way, Koshon?"
Politely listening to the Former Galtan Exile turned Guardsman as he recounts some obviously painful recollections of the Past, Morelda is unable to offer much commentary in response to slightly incoherent but still striking events that had occurred over some distant borders, far away from here. Still... By Ashava's Guiding light, Audrahni would've known of just the right thing to say to all of this. I only wish she had chosen to accompany with us alongside to this place..., the Young Wizardess thinks to herself. Opting instead to offer an apologetic to help smooth over some hard feelings between the two town authorities- and by extension, to at least two other fellow members of the party, mostly including herself. After finishing apologetic that up with the names of, ",Koshon and Eric", Morelda will lean in towards Eric and say in a low whisper, "For what it's worth, those earlier experiences of yours sounded really... unpleasant. Perhaps either Father Marphan- or maybe even Miss Audrahni- they might be able to impart some words of comfort for you." after hearing Koshon's spoken acknowledgement.
Smiling back to Eric, Morelda looks back over to Koshon before leaning in and whispering in a lowered voice, "I think it'll be more for your Superior's... sake than anything about my own personal discomfort." If not Prestidigitation, then Fastidiousness would certainly do the trick- but that has to be casted upon somebody beforehand as a preventative measure... Taking one last glance over in Lorel's direction, the Young Wizardess of the Twilight Academy gives a light cough before addressing her apologetics towards Koshon and Eric [maybe just a slight bit more emphasis on her attention towards the Angelic Paragon comparatively]. "Now I do realize that my seconding of the suggestion in opening up that barred door might have resulted in some ineffectiveness upon my part, somewhat, in helping towards having that door reclosed- at the very least though, we now know that any likelihood of attacks coming from that direction is highly unlikely to occur. So you both have my apologies and thanks in that regards, Koshon and Eric." Who knew that having to offer formal apologetics to Father Marphan about my family's past misdeeds and infamy would so helpful in this regards towards smoothing things over.
Noting the oddity of the ground remaining dry despite all of the earlier deluge of water coming from the doorway, Morelda moves down from her earlier position upon the staircase once Koshon and Eric have shut the barred door closed and starts using her Detect Magic to see if some type of magic is keeping the floor dry. . Morelda's short attention span at determining the cause of the uncharacteristic dryness of the floor is cut short once Koshon abruptly hands a respective sodden slipper each to both the transformed Pactmaker and the Twilight Academy graduate with his flat-toned- and presumably unamused- remark about their spoils. Absently taking the soaked offering in hand, Morelda starts focusing her Detect Magic cantrip upon the slipper in question. . Once the Young Wizardess determines if the slipper is indeed magical or not, she looks up towards both Eric and Koshon as they're bantering away, both very much soaked to the bone from all that flooding waters... with the Angelic Paragon of the pair holding a decidedly unamused, blank look upon his face compared to the Sodden Skald's ever-conversational countenance. Recalling that she doesn't quite have access to her Prestidigitation cantrip handy at the moment, Morelda does have the sense to seem apologetically abashed as she says to Koshon and Eric, "I'm afraid that I've not have Prestidigitation memorized this day, Eric and Koshon."
Morelda will follow after Lorel in heading up the stairs, though she'll look to Thurin and Grandfather Mossbeard and ask them both, "Thurin and Grandfather Mossbeard, could you both lend Koshon and Eric a hand?", as she does so. A tall Forest Giant and a stout Duergar might be able to help get that door closed... Naturally, being part of the group that had initially suggested towards opening up said flooding doorway hadn't really crossed Morelda's somewhat flighty, magical-thinking mind just quite yet. ;)
Morelda instinctively moves back a couple of feet once the waters from down below start to pour in after Eric and Koshon. So that's what the door was holding back; it is a real pity that I've no Prestidigitation memorized though... "Are you both okay, Koshon, Eric?"
Good to hear that RL circumstances have worked out over on your end of things, stormcrow27. ;)
Having enough sense to have a sheepish look of embarrassment upon her face at Koshon's admonishment of greed, Morelda does offer a half-hearted statement of, "A bit more in the way of curiosity as to what could be behind that door for myself..." but doesn't really bother to hide her occasional grimacing at all of the loud pounding from the frontliner's in their attempt to open up the barricaded door. Those much closer to the rear echelons could faintly hear the Young Wizardess of the Twilight Academy muttering something to the effect of, "If I'd only had known that it would be this noisy to get that silly door opened up..." under her breath although she seems unable to suggest any alternative course of action at this time... A mere acid splash cantrip would do very precious little to help in opening up that kind of door..., Morelda thinks to herself while she watches on as the others bash against the door with their weapons.
"There doesn't seem to be any traces of magical signatures present around the door so it's purely being kept closed by mundane means.", Morelda helpfully pipes up from her position in the rear echelons. "It might not be too far out of our way to give a quick peek to whatever's behind that blocked door. We might not even have to go inside, depending upon what's actually there."
Focusing yet another Detect Magic cantrip upon that oddly closed northern door, Morelda remarks, "Perhaps we'll be fortunate enough if that lock upon the door was truly and well destroyed.", from her position in the rear echelons. .
Doing her part to help light the way for the party as they all venture forth to the unexplored parts of this wreck, Morelda asks aloud to the other members of the group, "Looks like we've some stairs up along with some other doors that we've yet to open; should we stay upon the lower floors for now or should we take a quick look up those stairs?"
Nodding in return to Koshon, Morelda opines, "We'll just have to keep our eyes open for any gauntlets then." The Young Wizardess of the Twilight Academy will follow along after the others in a lookout for anything resembling gauntlets within this place.
"Gauntlets, Eric?", Morelda replies as she furrows her brows in puzzlement, "I don't think I recall seeing anything like that within what we've already seen inside this wreck here..." . After a fashion of thinking it over, the Young Wizardess then asks aloud, "Has anybody else recall seeing any gauntlets in this place?"
A worshiper of the Savored Sting, to go along with having a worshiper of Ashava present and this Cave Mother- along with one from the Outer planes of existence and another from Deep below the ground- plus yet another who is one with primeval Nature itself. It all seems so quaint- but strangely appropriate though. Can't seem to put a finger on just why this is remotely so... With a shrug, Morelda offers the suggestion of, "If the Town Council wouldn't mind paying something towards having some genuine tableware of the Roderic's household from the Wreck itself, we might as well put them back into the ruined cabinet where we found them, if they're not interested in such." Looking towards the hallway, the Young Wizardess inquires to those who entered said hallway , "Is there anything of note over inside there?"
"Maybe someone maintains the table. Some sort of shrine or memorial to Roderick?"The table holds no secrets the group can discover, but an overturned cabinet bearby holds a silver dining set, a silver decanter, and six copper mugs all in good shape. No magic radiates from the doorway. Furrowing her brows in puzzlement upon Grandfather Mossbeard's own observations and query, Morelda answers the large Firbolg with, "That should make sense, Grandfather Mossbeard, but there's really nothing remarkable about this table other than it's condition." As Eric starts placing the recovered silver and copper dining set, the Young Wizardess gives the Galtan Skald a bemused grin as she quietly claps her hand in a muted sort of applause at his handiwork. Morelda is clearly impressed by his Galtan-style table-setting skills! Calling after Koshon [if the Angelic Town Representative doesn't return to where the table is], Morelda says, "Look, Eric's set up a pretty impressive Galtan table-arrangement here!", as she tentatively taps upon the surface of the table. Her Detect Magic spell is still likewise active although more focused upon the dining set rather than the table itself.
Morelda mentions aloud, "I don't seem to be sensing any form of magic upon this table", to the benefit for those still in the room with the still smoldering cockroach bodies; those outside of the room should be able to hear her words, albeit a bit more muffled and fainter though.
. "It doesn't really indicate how this table seems to be better off than most of the other furnishings within this wreck; I wouldn't rule out someone or something still keeping it in relatively good order somehow..."
Letting out an audible sigh of relief once Koshon and Lorel burn all the spiders into nothingness, Morelda will still keep a hold onto her acid flask- just in case of an emergency but will cast a Detect Magic on the moss-covered table in the swarm room though. Additionally, she tries to puzzle out any respective differences between Koshon's and Lorel's fire attacks as well. . Possibly an innate ability common to those who dwell in the Heavenly Outer Planes of the Great Beyond?
Keeping her attention half-focused on Eric's words whilst the other half is keeping an eye out upon the rapidly roasting spider swarm, Morelda can only nod along with the Galtan Skald's verbose comparison between his class profession and Bards... though his overly exaggerated somatic motions does leave her a bit puzzled for the most part.
"Cave mother is an ancient ancestor of us all. She was the first to master fire, both magic and mundane. She paid a terrible cost to do so." Lorel is well studied in the history of her spirits and knows that most love to have their stories shared."I could tell you the full tragic story later." Lorel stays near the back of the group as they enter the doorway. Thinking back to when she first discovered Audrahni's moonlight dancing all those years way back when- which subsequently led to the Young Wizardess' own nascent worship of Ashava, Morelda makes the understandably mistaken assumption of Cave Mother being a deity that Lorel must somehow worship as she replies to the Pactmaker with, "That would be quite lovely to hear. Perhaps in a place less fraught with peril then?"
Quite surprised over the fact that Eric wasn't, in fact, a Bard- even if he did seem to look and act the part with his rakish Galtan manners, Morelda can only offer her condolences to the Skald about his lost Bardic friend. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened with your revolution and your friend, Eric." And here, I was so sure that he was an actual Bard- he even looks the part! ”My sword is useless against this.” The Duergar said as he backed away. ”We should return with flasks of acid and fire.” Nodding along mutely as she steps back 20' away along with Thurin and Eric while Koshon and Lorel unleash their respective eldritch attacks upon the swarm, Morelda keeps a hold onto her lone flask of acid- ready at a moments notice to throw it if the spider swarm were to venture too closely.
. Beaming excitedly at Lorel upon witnessing what those odd greenish flames have wrought upon the four formerly living roaches, Morelda says to the blushing Pactmaker, "That was amazing, Miss Lorel; is this Cave Mother of yours a relative that's well-versed in the arcane arts? Those flames of yours seemed like they share much in commonality with what the Evokers will usually use, apart from being much more flammable compared to them." The Young Wizardess isn't quite as curious about either Eric's Song-power or Koshon's Instantaneous Celestial Armor summoning having deduced them to being intrinsic abilities borne to both through either birthright or outright training.
Morelda will attempt to use her Entangling Ectoplasm (DC 15) upon an Unengaged-in-Melee Giant Cockroach by spending a single Psionic Power Point to help the novice Wizardess of the Twilight Academy lob an ectoplasmic ball of 'goo' upon it's dark carapace, thereby saving her 1st-Level Spell Slots for later use. .
Witnessing four enormously-sized bug-thingy's that look very reminiscent of roaches emerging up from underneath the floorboards, Morelda is both simultaneously relieved that they don't appear to be like your typical massed swarm of tiny-sized vermin and disgusted at the unnerving appearance of the big bug-monsters... complete with waving long antennas. Fortunately, Eric's rousing Galtan singing, along with Thurin's preemptive warning of their arrival, has helped the novice Wizardess in mitigating some of the general feelings of fear and disgust inflicted by the very presence of these creatures! .
At the mention of possibly of fighting some manner of vermin swarm, Morelda mentally reviews her memorized spell output for the day and comes to the unsettling realization that nothing that she has memorized will be of much use against a determined swarm. Clutching at her lone Acid Flask, the Young Wizardess tacitly admits, "None of my memorized spells are likely to be of much use against something like that..." I'm not even sure if my Entangling Ectoplasm spell would even affect such a swarm in the first place...
But this reminds me of une thing, you see, I believe that Galt is as messed up as it is partly because its history gets constantly rewritten by whatever a@!#&$%$ is currently in power. By all records, Sir Roderik was a brave man, perhaps his house should be restored, so that the citoyens of Roderiks cove may draw strength and inspiration from it? It is the purposes of archeology after all to uncover the truth of the past, so that it even becomes possible to learn anything from it... He trails off. Mulling about the general state of disrepair inside of the 'wreck', Morelda concedes to Eric, "At the very least, Sir Roderic's Ghost would have a place to linger besides the Circle Marketplace..." The remains of a snap desk lean into the northwestern corner of the room, a desk drawer awkwardly protruding out as if pleading for help against the passing of the ages.Lorel moves carefully into the room. She does a quick search of the desk.True to his word, Eric lends aid to Madmoisselle Millerson as she performs her search, covering her from any yet unseen attackers.Silently Thurin kept his eyes and ears open. He saw no need for idle chatter. As both Lorel and Eric search about the old desk drawer, the Young Novice Wizardess opts to hang back and observe for any magical phenomenon or auras as she does a casting of the Detect Magic cantrip. .
Giving the newly made hole in the floorboards a very wary glance, Morelda gives it as wide a berth as she could manage in order to pass around it although she does give Eric a nod of encouragement as the Galtan Bard-turned Guardsman attempts to mend up the freshly made opening for the sake of the rest of the party. Following in the Giant-sized, Nature-focused Mossbeard's casting of illumination upon his large-sized club, the Young novice Wizardess does likewise by taking out her purchased discount bargain-market prism crystal in one hand [her other hand still clutching at her disguised Bladed Scarf, thank you very much, oh eldritch arcane mysteries of the psychic mind!] from her newly purchased discount market-bargain bandolier and with a brief release of inner concentration, expends her psionic focus towards lighting the crystal up with her Crystal Light cantrip-leveled spell so that the group has some light emanating towards the rear echelons. Taking another few seconds by realigning her psionic focus, Morelda hears Lorel's spoken reply of "Let's clear this floor before heading up" to Koshon's silent, unspoken motioning towards the direction of the stairs leading upwards. Noting that Eric was still fairly busy casting some arcane mending cantrip upon the very hole that he had inadvertently made, Morelda asks the Pactmaker-to-the-Cave-Mother Lorel, the Sternish, Dark-Dwarven Thurin, the aforementioned Granfather Mossbeard [with his pet dinosaur still presumably lurking in the river depths below], and the Other-Planar, Lead-Guardsman Koshon, "While Eric's getting that floor fixed up, should we have someone else keep an eye out on those stairs while we check to see if all of the rooms down here are clear?".
Apologies for the belated postings over on my end- been busy with RL stuff and all. Still having the delayed posting bit on the message board although it's really only noticeable with each initial new posting. One way to tell if your post does go through [but is on 'delay' mode], is to check on the recent threads part directly below the posting area/box; the updated thread will show with your username listed in the relevant thread that you've posted in. :) PS. 'Probly' takes a few minutes to be visible for regular viewing; subsequent editing of the previous posting goes much faster too. Might be some kinda new-fangled, anti-babaji device for all we know. ;p PPS. also depends on the length of time editing a post via backtracking time-counts.
Taking a firmly comforting grip upon her still-disguised crystalline bladed scarf, Morelda presses on with the others as the party makes their way towards the interior of the Wreck. The Young Psychic Wizardess does hold an inward gasp at whatever it was that caused Eric to dodge masterfully out of the way of, however.
Taking a moment during the aftermath of combat with the stirges, Morelda takes a deep breath and psionically focuses herself before following after her party-members closer towards the backline. "If all we have to face is just only these buzzing nuisances within the wreck, we should have to count ourselves as being very fortunate indeed." .
Heartened by the initial dissolving of one of those flying creatures via a well-timed acid shot by Lorel, Morelda's earlier panicked-thinking-mode starts subsiding to more manageable levels now. From what I can tell, we've got them outnumbered; hopefully the others can get the remaining ones dealt with in short order.
Morelda frantically tries to see just how many buzzing things there are that the party was dealing with- all the while the running thoughts of Should I go with a spell attack on a single target like Lorel just did or should I try to take out as many as I can with a mass spell? echoed repeatedly throughout her mind.
My apologies for not posting. Couldn't log in for a few days, and just had surgery on my ankle yesterday (no walking for 6 weeks). At home recovering now. Sorry for the delay. Best wishes on the ankle recovery, Thurin.
The combat suggestions by Eric sounds fine by me. :)
The semi-amphibious Stormborn plows into the river and disappears beneath the water's surface... Seeing Stormborn go dipping into the river as well as seeing the others step into the Wreck itself, Morelda reluctantly follows in after them. Hopefully, Grandfather Mossbeard's sizable... pet will be of help should we find ourselves falling into the river... As Eric pushes open the door, the buzzing of wings attached to the bulbous bodies of stirges appear in front of the party. Roll for initiative ! Hearing the buzzing before actually seeing the striges, Morelda takes a step or two backwards in preparation for dealing with the bulbous bug-like menace. .
The house slumps in one corner, nearly ready to fall into the river. Boards studded with nails hang off the house like so many leaves in a broken tree. Morelda peers uneasily at the unbalanced wreck of the old riverside dwelling and asks aloud with a tentative voice, "This old house... it isn't going to fall into the river if we were to step inside, will it?" .
Nodding to Eric, Morelda finishes up her Damsel drink before adding, "If this Wreck-place is truly that big, we wouldn't even have to go inside of it; we could just examine the outer perimeters- maybe if there's a nearby smaller building... perhaps something in the yard or a stable, we could take a look inside those for now."
Morelda, upon getting Audrahni's suggestion about interviewing Ms. Kelstrop for tomorrow, thinks on something for a good minute before speaking up with, "Should we let Ms. Kelstrop know tonight that we want to speak to her about the previous gang fight in the Market so that she knows to clear her schedule for us tomorrow?" Furrowing her brows a bit, Morelda also continues on with, "I suppose that we could also try to familiarize ourselves with the location of this Roderic's Wreck place if it's some ways away from town. What do the locals say about that place, Audrahni? I would've thought that the town leadership would've taken better care of that place since this town's named after him, after all."
Morelda gives a nod of affirmation to the others about going off to question Mrs. Kelstrop at the Smokehouse. "My current spell memorization for today was slanted a bit towards acting against some more active hypothetical attackers, so there's very little that I could assist with magically... but I'll do what I can to assist with any inquiries that can be made."
Being unfamiliar with the interior of the morgue [having had only seen its' exterior from the outside at a comfortable distance away], the Young Wizardess glances the area about with some amount of curiosity. Seeing Eric casting the familiar spell of Detect Magic upon the tables though, Morelda opts to follow along with her own casting of that very same spell. . "Is that magical signature what I think it is?"
"Alas, I don't recall anything further about her apart from the reveal of that strange... weapon, I think? It was frustrating enough to try piecing together what might've possibly occurred with all those Grey lights and flitting shadowy things just through mere educated presumptions but in truth, I really couldn't tell you anything definitive about whatever kind of magicks was actually used, if any. That spell that was inspired from that past event isn't even in the right color of appearance, being a bit more greenish than I would've liked...", the Young Wizardess almost grumbles to herself as she takes another swig from her Damsel drink.
"It's truly a pity that nearly all of my memorized spells were geared towards dealing with a fight, otherwise, I could've had some Prestidigitation prepared for this very trip to the Morgue- and I've already used up my bond to put up that Mage Armor earlier... we did get a nice dinner and drink out of it, so things can't be all that bad; Thank you again for that, Audrahni."
Some further prompting by Eric about conjurations/illusions/fear/death magics has the Young Wizardess concluding that, "There wasn't any traditional use of any verbal spell components that I've noticed; possibly there were some somatic elements dependent upon physically striking down an enemy similar to that of the Magus traditions, perhaps. There are ways yet to cast a spell without needing to chant or speaking aloud though- all them through varied, differing methods." "As to any artifacts that could cause such a thing, it might be possible but items of those nature tend to be well-storied, almost approaching towards being legendary and known in their own right; very rarely would such a thing be so obscured as to be almost unheard-of." . .
"I don't think that any of the other shoppers or vendors close-by got involved in that fight, although some had scurried off to get the guards, I think. I lingered about to witness the very beginning of that fight though- the real fight, none of the posturing or verbal threats that preceded it like the one that happened today before Roderic's Ghost showed up. Even got chewed out by both Audrahni and Father Marphan for staying around like that though I kept a sensible distance away..." After getting some verbal prompts to continue on with her recollections, Morelda continues on with, "There was this Woman though, she must've been the Leader of the gang that was facing down the Horned Fangs- she was being all up front and in center of the whole fracas, and she wielded this... sword, I think? It was all invisible though but that wasn't the whole of it; as soon as she swung that oddly imperceptible weapon of hers- the very first blow to land upon one of the Fangs at that... that's when all the strange occurrences happened; there was this ghostly greyish light that appeared along around the fight area with all these shadowy images of nightmarish creatures that was flitting through or around all of the gathered Fangs. Those strange shadowy images must've been enough to do some real damage based on how all of the Fangs that were present got absolutely ravaged from being caught within that strange effect. It was quite an effect though- wasn't enough to cause any nearby people to flee like what happened with Roderic's appearance earlier today but nobody was foolish enough to venture any closer to those shadowy phantasms though." "The fight didn't really last very long after that... all of the gang members either disappeared when that Grey ghostly light with all the shadowy creatures ceased to appear anymore- that was mostly those being led by that woman with the unseen sword or were scattered away without any fanfare- which happened to all of the Fangs that were lucky enough to survive. I stayed around long enough to get in a single casting of Detect Magic going before the Guards had everyone clearing out of the Marketplace; there were corpses left behind- all them Horned Fangs members if I recall correctly." Morelda then rambles on a bit about how she was 'inspired' by that all of those strange effects caused by the female Gang-Leader's weird choice of invisible weaponry into further spell research involving the occult phenomenon.
Trying to piece through her recollections of that ominous week before, Morelda answers Eric's questions as best as she's able to. "I was bargain shopping at the Circle Market that past week in much the same way as I was earlier today. At the time, I found an excellent deal on this crystalline prism for my spell-research," as the Young Wizardess proudly taps on said crystal ensconced in her brand-new bandolier before continuing on, "I hadn't been paying any mind to the nearby surroundings at the time, so I didn't exactly see who exactly was all there or how many actually participated at the start of that fight but there must've been a sizable number; I did hear something of a ruckus going on but didn't think anything of it until the Jeweler that I purchased the crystal from warned me that a fight was about to break out nearby. I didn't have any offensive spells memorized at the time- just the analytical ones like Detect Magic- so I helped the Jeweler and his assistant to quickly pack all their inventory away while doing our best to keep a low profile behind all the nearby tables. Other folks were doing the same." |
