Pontia waits for the scouts' report (or for noises suggesting that the scouts found trouble).
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Pontia leans past Vivian and examines the small crate. "You saw the Effigy in Lepidstadt, didn't you? Would it have fit in that impression in the straw?"
"Hm. That looks like an abandoned saddlebag...not terribly surprising in a stable, but perhaps unusual in a room devoted to food storage." Pontia tugs it out with her staff.
"If everyone is healed, shall we move on? I don't fancy going upstairs or downstairs until we've checked the main floor, hm?"
The wizard gives Sabola a quick smile. "I know little of the healing arts, but I do know that too much blood on the wrong side of your skin is a bad thing."
Pontia looks up at the symbols, muttering to herself. "...interesting, I swear I've seen something like that bef--oh. She blanches. "These look like symbols of one of the Outer Gods. I won't say the name because it's said that some of Them can hear when their names are spoken aloud." HPL Comment: And also because ol' Howard sometimes wore his racism on his sleeve, and it's no coincidence that the second and third syllables sound like that.
I think they have this in hand. Pontia delays, waiting to see if her mystical abilities will be needed to put the creature down.
Figures...it's still up. Pontia invokes her conjurer's art and sends a splash of acid at the giant.
Seeing that the others have the horse well in hand, Pontia checks the saddle and tack for anything of interest.
"Agreed. The rider is probably who we want in the first place."
"As long as the bodies are out of sight, for the moment. Sonny, is there anything you can do to keep a necromancer from reanimating them?"
"You may have noticed that we're not in a big city. The whole of Ilmarsh could drop into Absalom without so much as a ripple."
"I would think that the townsfolk might take it amiss if they see bodies on the street, especially when the dead are known to them. Perhaps we should get the bodies under cover."
Pontia blinked and missed the fight. "Well, this is the more interesting part." She casts a quick cantrip and looks around for magical auras.
Startled out of a long reverie, Pontia shakes her head and seems to return to herself, fixing the young couple with a somewhat defocused gaze. "Ah, you're members of the Order, then. Have you ever seen the Neighbors?"
I thought I'd posted here about my own travels this past week--I was on a business trip Sunday-Wednesday, and didn't get back until quite late. I'm still catching up on things, but should be able to review the plethora of posts that have come in soon.
How about handwaving that we split the party before the current group entered the temple--the three new PCs were following another lead that didn't pan out, and have rejoined Pontia and Vivian.
If Vivian ever has to drop out, it'll become a Campaign of Theseus!
DM RichD is the third, I think--Fuzzfoot took over from Harker, and then RichD and I cut a deal after Fuzzfoot GAFIAted: I took over the RotRL game that Fuzzfoot had been running for Rich, and Rich took this one over.
One of the other players has been slow to respond, and he's needed to break a tie.
I put a few comments on the submissions so far on Nic's Discord channel. Not sure if anyone else is on it now besides me and Nic, though.
Bard8/Inv1, Rog5/Inq4, Wiz9.
I'm about to leave for a 2-week vacation, and will be slow to post.
Re the secret, it varies. I think our bard/investigator's secret is obvious to the rest of the party, but Pontia's hasn't really come up yet.
Agreed. We're all pretty squishy in a fight, and although Vivian and Nic are adequate secondary healers we're getting to the point where restoration spells are much more important.
"Nice job, Gregor!" Pontia relaxes a little, then murmurs a cantrip and looks around the area.
Pontia looses another acid dart at the cultist attacking Vivian.
I dropped Nic a line on the Discord server he set up several years ago to discuss character recruitment, but haven't heard back.
Pontia calls on one of the minor conjuring tricks she learned as an apprentice, sending a dart of acid at the most wounded cultist remaining.
*raises hand* Also, congratulations! I remember those days....
Fingers dancing through practiced gestures of conjuration, Pontia calls forth a mass of webbing that fills the room.
Pontia covers her mouth with one hand and looks away for a moment while she regains her composure.
If she hasn't already done so, Pontia casts mage armor on herself.
"Tie these up and gag them. Then we can deal with the others."
Pontia blanches. She hisses, "Drop them quickly!"
I think it'd work to run it as a nonlethal CdG. Have a great time!
"Let's take down the first two acolytes without magic. Vivian and Gregor, that means you have to hit them hard and knock them out quickly before they can sound an alarm. The rest of us will guard your backs in case the other four hear the fight and come after us."
"Let's do this quickly and without killing them. I don't have a good spell for that, though. Nic, can you charm them?"
Pontia nods in agreement.
Pontia casts detect magic and looks around for auras.
Pontia frowns. "No, they're not usually venerated in Gozreh's faith. Certainly not in the more orthodox branches, and not in any of the less common ones I'm familiar with."
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