Personally I would like this to continue. While I do indeed share Roryx doubts, I will continue where we left should game the continue. Despite the waiting I don't really see a point in leaving.
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All right.
Narunith, who are you attempting to affect with your spell? Marek.
Ping?
Yes, merry Christmas!
"Remember Therie's gifts." she calls out, sounding a bit distant. It may be better to let Therie use her alchemy before everyone charges.
Narunith feels terrible and has her problems keeping it together. Her eyes are slightly swollen and reddened by an allergic reacting and her nose is stuffed up on top of the terror itself. But she wouldn't be do much honour to the Order or her family if she didn't keep it together. "Whatever the men did is horrifying, which is why I can not stray. I carry the beauty of the forests in... Atchoo!... me." She just couldn't imagine any elf would do anything like this, hence "the men", meaning "humans". She could tolerate abattoirs, but this went well beyond that. The thought of her homeland, the lands which she represented amongst men, soothed her greatly and she forced herself to remain aware of the possible arcane aspects of their task. She positioned herself next to the door ready to go in after their front fighters.
"Hatchoo!" came from Narunith as she walked down the stairs. Without any comment she unsheathed her sword again, thus lightening up the room as the light spell at its blade broke free again. She almost immediately regretted it, she didn't really want to see what was down here in all too much detail, but they were still knights. "Alright, shall we move on?" asked Narunith, wondering what that debate she heard through the closed door from upstairs had been about.
Just in case: You do remember that elves are immune to sleep effects and get +2 on saving throws versus enchantments?
"I..." she tried to control herself but coughed at the obnoxious smell. She didn't enter but her elven eyes were keen enough that the light of her blade gave her an impression of death and decay in the next room. "I'll tell Mistress Kodavi about the secret door and that we're going to explore... the last thing we need is her being worried that another dispatch from the guard gets lost in her basement. I'll be back as soon as possible." Rockjaw one hand to help him up while the covered her nose with the other and then left for the stairs, putting her sword back in his sheath as she opened the door. Back up in the lounge are of the orphanage she motioned Mrs. Kodavi to have a private word with her, so the children would not be overly alarmed. "Mistress Kodavi, we found something in the basement which will need to investigate. If we're not back within the next hour* take the children and go to the nearest temple, of Sarendae if possible. I'll write you a note to pass on." Narunith got her ink, pen and parchment out on a table and started to write. And she wrote accurately and took her time; even though she did not want to keep the others waiting, hastily scribbling anything was just beneath her:
Even though it should be quite obvious now she added a sketch with the location of the now not-so-secret door. "Here, take this with you. I suggest you don't read it, but that is up to you." Then she hastened back down to the basement. ----
Narunith takes a step back to give Roryx space and holds her sword out as a light for him. She actually enjoys seeing how their little team of knights works hand in hand, though she doesn't dare to let this thought distract her. Enemies might very well be already upon them, the same enemies who abducted the children.
Narunith steps by Therie's side: "Looks like you found what we're looking for... That must be the way the missing children... and our daring and dashing companions must have been brought out." She added the 'daring and dashing companions' with a somewhat frustrated grumble. She watches the floor and the walls closely for scratches that would indicate how the door usually opens, holding the sword with the light spell on it steadily in her hand. "An opening mechanism is more likely on the other side..."
Narunith follows the others down the stairs into darkness. As soon as she is out of sight of the children she draws her sword - an elegant long and slender elven longsword with a bright silver blade rather than steel. It looks a bit ceremonial, bit it seems weighed and stable enough to be used in actual combat, and the blade show signs that it has been used before. She hushes a few words and the silver blade becomes ablaze with light.* Even though her attention is primarily focused on the room she says with addresses her comrades: "If you smell anything out of place or feel dizzy or nauseated, don't ignore it, tell me at once. There has got to be another way in and out of here, and the scratching must have something to do with it." She pauses briefly. "Found anything yet?" Taking one slow step after the other, she examines the floor.
* Light
Sorry, I am in no condition to post tonight. Just coming home from my company's Christmas celebration, and I am way to drunk and too tired to write anything meaningful. But feel free to skip for now and go on... I'll post something within twelve hours or so.
Narunith follows the others inside, relieved of the improvement of the smell. She smiles at one by one, trying to get an impression of everything, the condition of the building, recent changes, the number of children which live and the space they have, symbols and markings of faith and so forth. As it becomes clear that whoever got lost did so in the basement, she almost automatically lifts a hand, makes a gesture as though she was wrapping herself in with a thread of wool and distantly mumbles in elven: "A web of magic be my armour."* The air flickers briefly up around her. It is pretty evident that they would need to go down there, and that something threatening is there as well, but she still does not wish to interfere with the conversation, but rather use the time to let things make an impression on her, find what's out of place.
She casts another spell** and breathes the formula "Whispers in the void." A little piece of copper wire from the many pockets of her bandolier dissolves in her hands. Then she formulates subvocally, with her mouth covered by her hand, to Therie in elven: "What do you think about tiring effect the boy describes? A spell triggered then and there? Alchemy? A static effect or side effect? You don't have to speak out loud; I can hear your whispered answer." Fortunately as an elf, she cannot be compelled to sleep, but she has no idea how to shield her non-elven team mates from that. Her steps guide her ever closer to the cellar door. * Mage armor
To quote old role-player's wisdom:
(Did I mention I own a metal dice set?)
Narunith sighs audibly in relief. Just a protection spell... probably against the cold and the weather, the house wasn't in its best condition. Or it was what was keeping the smell at bay inside. Maybe things are not so dark after all and they will somehow find the children, Dartaniel and Daniel unharmed. She lets go of her sword's hilt - she didn't even remember having grasped it - and focuses on the conversation again.
Narunith's concerns become deeper as she notices the aura around and learns that Dartaniel and Daniel have indeed been here, but have not yet come back. Her greatest worry is for the missing children, however. Still trying to breath through her mouth, so the stench would not distract her so much she focuses on the faint aura around - even though the smell clearly suggested necromancy, she didn't want to utter such a suspicion without evidence. Fortunately the conversation gave her time to get an impression of her magical environment, without alarming the woman or the children even more.
I have updated the spell selection in my profile.
Narunith is quite shocked by the smell as well and while she tries to hide how nauseating it feels, she goes over to breath through her mouth. Maeron is an elf, just like her, and his senses are just as keen. She's puzzled how he can bear it so well. 'This is more than just a dead cat in the chimney she thought. I wonder how anyone can stay in this place.' But the children and their overseers probably didn't have a choice. She keeps to the background and mumbles quietly in elven: "Streams of arcane, unveil and illuminate."* She takes a look around to get an overall impression and takes a closer look at Dalrin's beard as well. At first she had thought Aia had just used a variation of Prestidigitation, but while the spell lasts for an hour, its effects were usually highly volatile. While she is keenly aware how inappropriate it id to stare at Dalrin's beard, she wants to deal with that before they get all too deep in trouble and this prank has went on long enough now. As for dealing with the situation, she trusts Maeron to act appropriately and her outstanding memory to keep track of it, even though she is focused on something else.
* Detect Magic
Seeing how he get himself together, but is indeed suffering more than she thought, she pats him on the back as they leave. "Don't worry, I am pretty sure it won't last long."
Narunith was a bit unsure what to think of the dwarf's reaction at first. As a wizard, Narunith was herself what adventurers typically called a clothy. And while she was a student of the arcane and not one to devote her faith to the service of a deity, she was strongly faithful to Shelyn. The very cloth, namely the dress, she wore was indeed a token of her own love to her twin sister, and thus to her faith for Shelyn. While the two sisters shape was identical and the dress fit her body perfectly, its deep blue color did absolutely not fit her blazing red hair. Thus, whenever Narunith saw her reflection, she also saw Mornith, her ebony haired sister. "I am afraid I can't reverse this right now, Dalrin." she replied carefully, trying to hide her amusement, "but, please, try to bear it with the dignity of the knight you are - this can't stop a dwarf, sober or otherwise, can it?" She couldn't help herself, she certainly did not want to embarrass him more than he already was but mumbled, hardly audible with a suppressed smirk: "The kids are gonna love you for this." To Aia she curtseyed gracefully. "We will take care of the children and get to the bottom of this." She knew that protocol did not require a curtsey, but her heart did. She nodded to Roryx and Maeron, turning to leave.
Even though Narunith has taken great care to hide the effects of her tiredness the best she could, she still looked sleepy. Well tended, but sleepy. Earning the trust of a juvenile was hard work, because Therie got ever funnier ideas the longer they worked and Narunith didn't want to be the lame one who put a stop to it all. A couple of times she almost caused an explosion herself, because she almost fell asleep while working with chemicals. "Good morning, sir... I do have a certain idea, but even if they did... they should be back by now." she shrugged. "Or he simply overslept, he probably has as much reason to as any of us." She grimaced as she suppressed a yawn with all the strength of her will. "Well, Dart did try to talk us into doing it at once in the middle of the night. Either they overslept or they actually tried to do it. Hmmmm... but they should be back by now if that were the case. I don't think they would have been let into the orphanage in the middle of the night... Well, I hope they just overslept... Sir." Military protocol was not her strong side. She always felt excessive protocol a bit ridiculous. They just might haven broken and entered there. Or assumed privileges as knights of the order they did not have.
I don't suppose there is enough time for another eight hours of rest? (Well, I'll just have to use what spells I have prepared...)
I am done for that night, as far as I am concerned we may move on (not interrupt any ongoing conversation, though).
She raises her head with a quirked look when Narunith asks her to join her. "I suppose so. You're probably the best to help with this anyways. Not sure any of these men have the necessary skills." Therie states, figuring Narunith is likely the most knowledgable of the group. "Of course they don't!" Narunith replied. Alchemy was quite a picture in the given context. "... and if we mortar some bull's genitals it may even have an energizing effect." That was technically speaking even true, though the message was for the boys, of course. However, Narunith did know her share of alchemy and while she was of the opinion that hangovers (meaning the type of hangover you got from too much alcohol, not whatever else the image might have meant to the listener) were meant to be suffered she could easily patch up a proper antidote herself, if need be, though Therie was certainly the better alchemist. She made as quick an exit as she could, carefully trying to prod Therie what she thought about the men on the way back and offered some secrets of her own in turn which she would usually not tell anyone bet her twin sister.
"Good evening and well met, Roryx. As for your question: We should not." Sir Cedric hasn't actually been "adamant" about the time when they commence the mission, only that they take some additional team members along the way. But it is indeed somewhat pointless to do it now and Narunith is getting sick of the debate. The hole point of staying here has been to support and establish Maeron as a leader as far as she is concerned. Which leaves her with another problem: She wants to go to bed again, but can't possibly leave Therie, a juvenile who isn't perfectly in control of her emotions and drives yet, in a room with men like these. Narunith knows very well how she was herself at this age, and leaving her with men like these would have been damn bad idea. "I wish everyone a good night - whatever remains of it." she says and turns to the door. And then as though she remembers how dark and lonely the fortress is at this hour, she turns to Therie: "Therie, would... would you kindly join me?" she says with an insecure smile and offers her somewhat unsteady hand, but gives the lass a wink. Narunith hopes she gets the message even though she's drunk: Women talk. A lovely brat like Therie would never allow anyone to patronize her, but maybe, just maybe, Narunith could simply earn her trust.
I didn't realize that Dart is an elf as well. That's supposed to be an elf, not a half-elf?
Narunith stands in the gathering room and listens to Dartaniel and Daniel with her left arm crossed over her chest, supporting the right elbow. Her right hand alternatingly rubs her temples and hides a yawn while she forces herself to listen and watch out of eyes she can barely keep open. Since the ring at right hand's ring finger is one of the few light sources around, the light flickers and the shadows move with every motion of it. For a moment she considers to charm Dartaniel using a spell, seduce him to follow her to the next best bed, knock him out and let him sleep his crazy ideas off. But since she is firstly too tired to actually pull this off and secondly she wouldn't want any of the other elves, be it Daniel, Maeron or Therie, to believe that she actually did what she would be implying. First she turns to Daniel and addresses him in elven. "The light may shine on your path, friend." she welcomes him formally, but warmly and introduces the group, indicating the respective team member with her eyes: "Therie, Maeron, Rockjaw, Dalrin, Mikhail and I am Narunith" To Dartaniel she continues in common: "We're all knights of the order now, Dartaniel." she answers to him instead. "I appreciate your daring and bold attitude, I really do." Even though I wish you would shove it right up your back end right now. she adds mentally, but continues without a pause. "But the next time you come up with something like this, you skip the cloak and dagger approach and tell us straight what you want. Every one of us has the sense to to respond to an urgent plea for help, though it seems that all but one of us have the sense to not use one unless it is urgent." She isn't really angry at him. She even enjoys his somewhat romantic "cloak and dagger attitude", but this is hardly the time for it and there is no way she would support his leadership. "Now that we are all up and ready to go we might as well do it, anyway. What do you think?" she turns to Maeron. As paladin he is a lot better suited to lead the team as far as she is concerned. She knows that she doesn't make for a good leader herself and wouldn't want to suggest Therie. She can't really judge the dwarves, but they seem like practical types who just do things instead of coordinating a greater whole. Not that she would be above following their lead if they proved themselves.
I thought it was clear to our characters what the "main meeting room of the team" was and we'd simply go there. If it was unclear, Narunith would not have even considered taking the note seriously and have went right back to bed. Anyways, Narunith does there if it is clear where she is supposed to go, as I said.
Looks like there is quite a lot of things I messed up. I'll try to focus some more in future.
Narunith is a bit annoyed by the disturbance as someone hammers against the door and struggles to become fully awake, cast the fragments of dreams from her mind and sort out what is real. "One moment!" she calls out in common. She casts a light spell on her ring and grabs her travelling cloak hastily. With a glance to Therie she mumbles in elven: "Thisbettternotbeyourdoing..." but fails to hide the fact that she actually considers the thought that Therie might have a not-so-subtle admirer charming and is rather amused than upset. To her amazement she finds no one on the other side of the door as she opens it, but she does find a note on the floor as she steps on it. She picks it up and reads it aloud, translating it to elven on the fly. Afterwards she hands it to Therie without comment other than a half-smile. Destroying things is Therie's privilege and Narunith would not dare to contest it. She gets dressed and ready to follow the invitation, along with Therie should she wish to do the same.
What confuses me a bit at the moment is... I thought that Maeron found the note and the rest of us doesn't even know about it yet.
The wording was:
I think you might as well come with Cedric's son the other day... you might be a friend of his and you rather spend the evening doing a pub tour with him - you are chaotic after all. (Reconsidering the above statement I think I overlooked something in my play. Narunith would have definitely been amused by a human referring to her as "child". I don't know whether he is actually human or how old he is, but it seems likely that Narunith is old enough to be his grand-grandmother assuming an average human generation timespan of about 25 years and it might even be physically possible for her to be his mother if he were elf and no older than 40.)
Hm... alright. Here are the spells I intend to prepare tomorrow... I don't write them in profile just yet, just in case anything happens tonight and I don't have eight hours of rest: Cantrips: Light, Detect Magic, Open/Close (DC 15), Whisper
Narunith glances only briefly after Maeron when he depart. She had the hope that she could discretely invite him to her room while she kept Therie otherwise busy... but the way he behaves towards her feels almost like he is trying to court her, in which case he might get it the wrong way. So, no friendly good-night intimacy at the eve of battle. Well, their first assignment, anyway. (optional) Narunith's considerations on elven society:
She has long learned that the difference between a graceful elf and a contemptible one was not what they did, but how they did it. There is a reason that Calistria was an elf and that almost all elves, even those who primarily revered a different deity, like Narunith did, revered Calistria on some level. Elven society had complex rules, not all of which were to be mentioned. The one most fundamental rule which was implied in everything, but no elf would ever speak out loud in that context was: "Don't get caught." Well, that's a simplification, anyway. Actually it was more like: "An event which does not affect the presence cannot have occurred in the past." As complex and multifarious, often contradictory, as the rules of elven society were, they were more like a game which elves played than a strict code. She excuses herself shortly after Maeron left goes straight to the room which she shares with Therie and opens the window shutter to let the air of Therie's experiments out. Hopefully the lovely lass would be drunk enough, but not too drunk when she got back, so she would be able to realize that more experiments tonight would be a bad idea. Narunith slips into her nightdress, folds her attire, puts her spell book on top of the stack and puts everything in a relatively stout coffer which would not catch fire all that easily. Then she goes to sleep.
Don't worry Dalrin, we can always throw in a cart and take you with us to the orphanage. I may be strong enough to throw you as an improvised thrown weapon. *squints to Dalring* *taps with a foot**squints again* Pssst! That was you cue! "Nobody tosses a dwarf!"
As Maeron rushes around to not stray from his side more than absolutely necessary Narunith can barely hide a grin behind a hand. She looks perfectly serious, even somewhat concerned when she removes the hand again, though. When there is suddenly talk about leave right now she looks a little concerned. "I need to sleep... and study my books... I..." she sighs. "Well you do have a point there, even though I would prefer to prepare different spells for the task I can make do with what I have." Very unlikely she will need a contingency like Feather Fall in an orphanage as long as there aren't any bottomless pits beneath it or she tries to scale the roof. Neither does she require to trick anyone regarding her identity, which renders the Alter Self useless. But whatever there was, she wanted to be prepared for a fight. "It may be a bit tricky to find someone to let us in and show us around at this time of day, while the kids are sleeping. We would have to be extremely discrete." She hasn't done that intentionally, but at the word discrete she fixates neither of the two dwarves, but Therie. She shakes her head and continues. She head to throw the distracting thoughts of and continues: "If the kids notice we're there they might become anxious. Or worse: curious and nosey. If we come by day our presence will be much less unusual and we'll draw much less attention. Sooo..." She pauses and takes a look at Maeron to catch his thoughts. "I would advice against it. But that not to say I wasn't eager to get going..."
Thinking about it... I believe I spent only 3k gold, even though the "rich parents" trait should have given me 900 more...
Narunith nods to Cedric and think about it for moment. Then she looks around their little quintet. "I am inclined to agree with you, Maeron. Given the circumstances and assessing the possible threats, orphan children which depend on ..." she interrupts herself, realizing that she's hiding behind her academic discipline again. For a heartbeat she closes her eyes. Just try to be yourself she told herself these are good people and even though you may have little combat experience they will accept you for what you are. It helped a little to picture the Silvertree mansion, the home she was missing. She had been quite a homebody in the past, the hole point of leaving was to get out of her shell, not to replace it by another. Considerably softer and more compassionate than before she says:
Narunith is actually amused by Rockjaw but doesn't show. A drinking contest with him would definitely go too far. Apart from the fact that he'd probably win. "Indeed." she says thoughtfully, aligns her cutlery accurately next to her plate and addresses Cedric: "Ser Cerdric, what further could you tell us about the prisoner? What makes him so dangerous to warrant a squad of trained adventurers?" She with a somewhat cold tone, trying to mimic militaristic precision at the cost of her usual warmth.
Hadn't seen your reply when I wrote mine, Maeron... but it sounds like we agree so far. I think Narunith would not want to rub it under your nose in an obvious way. She certainly would not embarrass you in front of others. But she might drop a sly remark every now and then.
Narunith didn't like the militaristic attitude of this place much, but her choice to stop being an apprentice and start being a wizard who fights for she believes in, the perils that seemed to threaten their kingdom of all races, and last but not least the fact that her brother dealt with it every day, had driven her to accept it and stick with it. She did not want to make a decision in haste. With an elegant motion she picked an apple from the table. However she liked the smell of the fried ducks at the table. She remembered how she liked it when men saw in her less of a lean noble maiden, but more of a lush young elven woman. So she decided to skip the noble demeanor for tonight and enjoy herself, she was already getting leaner again and some more meat to the bone would make her feel more comfortable. There must be a comfortable middle ground between excess and distant aloofness. "I am somewhat concerned of the orphanage, actually" she said in common after she swallowed the first bite of the juicy duck. "I think we can make do without blowing it up. But, if there were explosive gases I'd like to know about it. The case with the village sounds mysterious, though... I'd like to find out about it." She put another extra large chunk of the duck into her mouth. By Shelyn, after passed trials and with the prospect of fighting for the free world tomorrow, letting just a bit go felt liberating. She glanced to Maeron at her side though to get an impression how he felt when he saw behaving so... mundane.
I was thinking about this, too. I thought I had posted it actually. I was thinking a former teacher or mentor of Narunith's might have talked about Therie and the two got to know each other that way.
That sounds good to me. If you wanted anything specific from Gwendir, Narunith would have offered you to deliver the message, but certainly not insisted if you wouldn't tell. Given your charisma, she certainly would have danced with you if you asked her, but shied away from further intimacy. Questions about her more recent history would have been answered with a mysterious smile. And she would have been curious about life as an adventurer - she is shy about talking about it, but she intends to break out of her shell. Even though her greatest achievement so far is being struck down by a gnoll.
I made some fixes to the character story, and linked it as both EPUB and PDF instead of just dumping it as text. The last chapter still needs corrections. Be careful, as Maeron needs a mate. Not sure he can handle you, though, and there is this cleric in the Order... Well, there is a reason that Narunith has a reputation of being a virtuous young maiden. And that reasons is discretion. Consequently, I'll say no more. :D
Well, my background is long. :D If you don't want to read a drama on three siblings I can provide a condensed version. Or format it for ebook readers so you don't have to read it on a computer screen.
I have a habit of keeping things simple. The perfect character as far as I am concerned has one core class, no class combination and no prestige class. But I think I may actually need some help with the feats. I thought it would be meaningful to stick with item creation and metamagic as a universalist but I can't see a clear path yet through this forest of feats yet...
Technically, since my character's name is based on Sindarin, it's not meant to pronounced as would be obvious either (the "th" at the is not pronounced as an English "th" but simply as "t") but I don't care either way. In the case of Therie I am just curious whether that is supposed to be three syllables (The - ri - e) or two. And, well, whether it's supposed to be Sindarin as well, in which case the same as in my name would apply: The "th" is simply a "t". It's gonna be curious to see how it turns out of elves do indeed constitute the majority, but aren't the only members of the group.
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