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Rin steps backward from the minotaur's reach, trying to use the underbrush to cover her movements, or at least slow the giant down.
She raises her left hand toward the minotaur's large skull, twisting it into a fist as the darkness which swirls around her body expands like tendrils in the night's dim starlight. "Flgghs thccg'lu jg tssk!" Aklo:
"know the dark as I do." Rin activates her Gift of Madness ability. DC 15 Will negates.
"What she is trying to say is that your fellows have ventured on past the boneyard. I am sorry for your loss. Rest assured that their souls are at rest in the great beyond." ...that is what ever rest there might be in the dark beyond...
Though Rin's words seem true, a look of doubt shadows her face, undermining her message.
Panting a bit, as the last of the undead fall and the adrenaline fades from her system... "Ghiwk... so. It doesn't seem to last very long when it happens. I..." Aklo:
I think... Rin grasps for a word, walking over to Markus, her white holly wand in hand. "nlkgh fr'gha" Aklo:
"Bring life."
"I don't really think about it. I mean... I don't even really think about what language it is I am speaking. It's like being without words. There's ideas, there's like need... but I don't have words for them, but they just come in and come spewing from my tongue." Rin looks to Boris.
Sense Motive:
Rin seems visibly upset and troubled. Her eyes are beginning to water at the edges and her upper lip lightly trembles. She takes a quick breath in through her nose. She approaches Brob and again channels her wand.
"You said that tongue it is a language where you are from?"
Rin loads her crossbow, and checks to make sure her dagger is still in place. "When things get rough, it is hard for me to understand you -- most of you at least." Rin looks to Boris. He said it was some type of language -- there are people who speak like this? "Just thought I would let you know." "May Desna's wings guide our steps." Rin casts Guidance and Virtue on each person, starting with herself and moving from the back to the front.
Ruin looks at the aged gillman, and tries to understand his intent. Rin grabs at the edges of the cloak, wanting to hang on to its warmth. She draws a scroll from her leather scroll case and begins to read. "Ksflgh'kat" aklo:
understand. Rin casts comprehend languages on herself. "Did This belong to another of your kind? "
Rin takes the cloak and looks it over, drawing a deep breath as she enters a semi-meditative state. "hg'thlatl Aklo:
Speak to me.
Rin shakes her head and blinks, trying to clear her mind from the madness she invited in. "I'm sorry my friends, it refused to reveal it's true self to me." passes the cloak forward. "Perhaps it will be more communicative once it is more familiar with our auras. I don't believe that it means us harm though. It seems to be some sort of guard or protection. I will bear it if no one else will." Looking at the cave carvings...
Breath seems to return to Rin and the deep hollow voice subsides. "We should go. She gathers her quarterstaff and sheathes her dagger without a word and looks toward the others. "And here comes the part where they learn you're a monster and decide to run."
At the sound of more trouble coming through the forest, Rin's pulse quickens and her once soft voice is again replaced by an otherworldly tone. "Szw Yrsogth ll'wrghtha" Aklo:
"Envelop me in darkness." Rin is soon surrounded by a swirling mantle of shadow that seems to pulse and cling to her form with shifting tendrils. She stands her ground as the halfling speaks. The words garble as they reach Rin's ears. "cthlr'sksska YGS'rK llgH"
"Ok. Something's coming...get ready. Rin pulls a wand from her blouse's sash, and sets it between her teeth as she draws her crossbow and prepares to load it.
Encouraged by Janira, Rin steps toward the wolf, still holding her unloaded crossbow in her left hand as she draws her dagger with her right. Desna, please let me be less tasty than the other two. "Rthal'sa d'howeth" Aklo:
"Get around it!" As the wolf steps back, Rin lashes out praying to the lady of luck it won't survive to counterattack.
Nervous and paranoid, Rin's lack of focus shows.
So, the text indicated that Boris closed to melee with the white wolf, which is not in melee with anyone, but then he said he was helping Julia and that's what it shows on the tactical map. Clarify? Also as we approach melee with the white wolf, I'd like to remind that Rin has natural attacks and thus threatens, even with a ranged weapon in hand.
Rin drops her quarterstaff backing away from the white wolf, and stepping behind Boris, and next to Brob as she draws her crossbow from its sling on her pack.
Darkness seems to swell around her, and there's a slight chill in the air that sends hair on end as she begins to chant in a low hollow voice that seems to come from some place far and alien. "Tyra'lyn Sw'lkljidw." Aklo:
"Flee. Run in terror."
Rin casts Cause Fear on the white wolf. Dc 15 will save for shaken.
Rin wakes up early, to watch the rising sun and witness the last of the night's darkness fade in the purple rosey light of dawn. ... Twilight fades. For a moment there is light in the darkness. She makes the sign of Desna as the last glimmer of the guide star sinks beneath the reddening horizon. She says nothing as their halfling guide pulls the bedrolls from her companions, and checks her make up.
She starts another pot of water, this one for tea and washing. As the group begins to walk, she sings a sweet varisian tune, mostly to herself. Song Lyrics:
"Atât de multe mile. atât de mulți pași. atât de mult timp încă să meargă și mergem și să umble și să intensifice peste dealuri și văi. am mers pe jos și
am mers pe jos și
Varisian:
So many miles.
so many steps. so long yet to walk and we walk and walk and step over hills and valleys. we walk and walk and step over rivers and meadows. we walk and walk and step. walk and walk and step. As you enter the forest, her singing stops and she becomes noticeably tense. She tries to stick toward the center of the group, behind Boris.
Rin follows the group at a distance, occasionally falling back or wandering off before letting her long legs catch back up with the halflings in the lead. She returns with a backpack, much more suited for days of travel than her previous shoulder bag, as well as several vials of Alchemical goods , a new scroll case , and what seems to be a large cooking pot and several fresh greens and carrots. She has also found a solid walking staff for the journey.
As the rest of the group sets their tents, Rin prepares her bedroll to lay out under the stars as she has for years now. She boils a large pot of water, from which she ladles out several cups of tea, and then fixes a hearty stew of braised greens, barley, onions and carrots, which she happily shares with everyone. "There's little better for weary feet than a good barley stew." As people settle in to tell stories, she stays quiet mostly, looking to the fire and occasionally upward to the stars above. How long has it been since I've slept beneath the stars like this?...A campfire with stories -- like Varek used to tell. Rin smiles slightly to herself What was that one he used to tell about the big chelish man and his hellspawn lover? Eh... can't quite remember... "I am afraid I am like you Boris, not too many stories of my own to share. But my grandmother used to tell a story of my grandfather from when he lived near Trollheilm." "He and his sister once hunted a white stag through the forest -- for it truly was a hunter's prize. And for years they hunted this stag, and for years it evaded them, escaping from traps, running through thickets -- once it even leap up a waterfall. But my grandfather was a cunning man and he reasoned that a magic stag must be fairykin. And there is nothing that fairies fear more than dark iron wrought deep from the earth. So he bought himself two hundred nails of Iron wrought cold and from them he made one hundred crosses which he fixed to a hundred trees to the far edge of the forest. And after a moon, he came back and moved them closer. And again closer and again closer still. He did this for years, until the iron crosses sat within a bow's shot of the forest's edge. And then on the full moon, as he came to move the crosses -- convinced that the stag had slipped through his net -- there he was, brilliant and dazzling, his antlers shining like 10 thousand stars, his coat as pure and radiant as mid-winter snow. And the stag stood proudly; like a captured lord who walks stately toward the gallows. And my grandfather stood. Bow ready. Arrow taunt. And they stood. And in the winter night the breeze blew lightly and the ice shimmered and danced on the tree boughs and the iron crosses stood like black coffin nails on the white winter snow. And my grandfather looked into the creature's eyes, which looked back not with fear or anguish, but with understanding. And he loosed his arrow. And it flew and flew and flew until it struck white. It flew straight up toward the moon, amongst the stars and the frozen whispering trees and landed softly in the snow. My grandfather let the white stag go. He took down all of his crosses and vowed to never hunt the stag again. When the witches came with their frost-fanged wolves and their terrible huts, and destroyed my grandfather's village, it was the stag who first warned him. The stag that appeared to him amongst the trees at the village edge and lead him away. And as he ran from the terror of that horrible night he swore he hear the wind say 'even' 'even'. "
"I think talking is almost always better than fighting, at least in my experience. People get hurt in fights and sometimes that person is you." Besides, I'm not sure the halflings are going to stay alive if things go south. Better stick close to Boris. "I even have a scroll that will let one of us understand their language - gill men do have language right? Even with their gills?"
Rin thinks for a moment. ...Eccentric elf with long blonde hair... where have I...OH crap that's Kreighton Shaine, master of scrolls. Better not make a fool of myself...
"Absalom is the largest city in the Inner sea, and one of the largest trade hubs, second only to the markets of Katapesh. Absalom is famous for the cathedral of the starstone in the center of town as well as its prestigious schools such as the famous Arcanarium. It's ruled by a bunch of trade princes, or guild masters" I think that's what they are called..."And Absalom has never been invaded, though hundreds of armies and empires have tried." Rin hopes that her misdirection to talk about what she does know goes relatively unnoticed...
Rin turns to Boris, as she finishes stacking the cards "We are surrounded by the spirits of the past, by the potentials of the future. Everything that can happen has and everything that will happen can be. The cards represent parts of our lives, our shared history and our communal future. They are the memories of all peoples. By quieting ourselves and listening, we can remember what has been, see our own lives from different perspectives and even learn of the future." Rin pauses for a moment, looking as if she's about to start a sentence, but then chooses a different one. "We move through life like a boat on a river. Just as water flows from a spring so too do our actions and choices flow from one another. Harrow is an art of reading the river of our experiences and seeing to those things that lie beneath the surface of our thoughts and memories, so that we can better prepare ourselves for shoals and rapids that we all must face." She looks toward Boris, hoping her explanation made some small amount of sense... She then interjects into the conversation between the other Varisian and Garr. "I've heard of this lightning thrower -- she's a local myth in the shingles. I always assumed she must have been some rogue wizard from the academae, but they do seem to have more of a love for binding things." I wonder, if such power can come from our blood, what does that mean for me? Is it really in my blood...Can I ever escape her? What's that saying that grandma used to mutter..."Veren puhelut verta"....
Rin looks somewhat closely at Lissa, as if trying to understand something... "So often, our most startling gifts come from within." "Nu există nici o cale ca cea pe care o mers pe jos" Varisian:
"There is not path like the one you're walking" "All the same, we should count our blessings and our talents -- wherever they may come from." Rin puts her deck of cards away, her hand lingering over the liar for a long moment before she sweeps it up with the rest. "Boris, you seem to know very many tongues for a man of your background. Are you learned, or just linguistically gifted?"
Rin smiles, seeing the crowd of attentive onlookers and with great ceremony begins the final pillar.
"The final pillar is known in varisian as 'Scara nebunul lui'. Translated this means 'the fool's ladder.' Remember as you look at these cards that though they show your future, they show only a single point amongst a thousand stars. You will is powerful -- I can feel it, and you alone have the power to shape your destiny for weal or for woe." THE PEACOCK
Description:
This card depicts a haggard cocktrice. It bears iridescent colorful feathers that fray and tatter towards the ends, and its dragonoid wings bear holes. It holds its beak open lazily and at its feet lies a humanoid head, frozen to stone. This card bears a silver key, but it is not placed near any border. THE THEATRE
Description:
This card shows a puppet show. In show's foreground a hand-puppet knight in gold armor faces down a comically large-headed dragon over a clearly flat treasure horde. Control sticks and ties are clearly visible. Before the theatre's curtains hang a pair of matching tapestries, marked with the star of Desna.
THE RAKSHASA
Description:
The figure of a crocodilian humanoid, garbed in fine tailored clothes sits cross-legged while preparing a fine tea from a chipped ceramic tea cup, dominates the panel of this wood-cut card. He rests, sitting on the naked prostrate body of a humanoid male, whose eyes are closed and figure tense. Rin pauses a moment as she takes in the final cards, seeming to contemplate their meaning, her hand hovering over the bottom row. "It is as I feared. Your lower tier is much stronger than your upper. That is troubling." There's a pause before she begins to explain. "The Rakshasa is in alignment -- He represents being enslaved and dominated, perhaps physically; but more likely given the alignment of the other two in his tier..." she motions to THE LIAR and THE MIDWIFE, each representing an aspect of charisma and wisdom respectively. ...you will be a slave to something much more subtle. Perhaps you are bound to an idea, to a cause or an ill-founded hope." She points to THE PEACOCK as she continues. "The peacock represents the fragility of beauty. He was once a magnificent courtesan, but now he is cursed and decaying. The statue's head then represents to us the folly in trying to hold on to the fleeting and ephemeral. You will see and experience many great things, but they will not last. Do not worry though -- the theatre represents true knowing, seeing through presence and lie and reaching deep understanding. Holding both truth and fiction in balance, understanding that each has its place. Perhaps through these experiences, you will come to know your hidden truth and hold it in balance as the Dancer." "Stay hopeful my halfling friend." She points to the symbols on the edges of the cards. 3 crowns, 2 books, 2 stars, 2 keys and one shield. "If you will it, your cunning and your wisdom will lead you to truth."
THE DANCE
Description:
This colorful wood cut shows a woman balanced one leg holding a silver staff. She seems to be in the midst of a full pirouette. Around her spin glowing orbs, one red, one blue and one green. A symbol of a silver key lies on the card's upper left corner. THE SICKNESS
Description:
This startling card depicts a zombie dressed in regal furs holding a ruby in its left hand and clutches a bunch of green onions in its left. Behind it radiate, four blood red leaves.The symbol of a shield is set in the middle of the bottom edge THE MIDWIFE
Description:
In the foreground of this card a plump halfling woman stands in a small pool of blood holding a naked newborn boy aloft by his left ankle. The child has red skin, pointed horns and a tail. Her right hand shimmers with divine magic. In the background, a human man buries his face in his hands. The symbol of a brilliant star is centered on the upper border. "Your present is full of difficulty and potential. The dance is aligned, emphasising the need for balance in the face of adversity. Perhaps the dancer calls us to look above ourselves, maybe to the gods, perhaps to the stars. This much is certain, the dancer warns us that we must stay in motion, and any misstep could prove disastrous. The midwife is misaligned. As a power of creation she sees the good in everything, and warns us to judge others not by their past and to instead see their ultimate potential. Perhaps she represents the many difficulties that lie before you, perhaps , as the sickness warns, your health is in danger,perhaps she represents the consequences of previous indiscretion. Whatever she is, she seems strongly tied to her tier -- you carry the burdens of your past even now."
Rin leans in toward the two halfling, trying to build up the atmosphere of suspense. "The second pillar is the pillar of the present. It represents the environment, the people, situations and problems around you now. These are the tools, obstacles and players who can help you understand your past, the burdens that now hang above you for good or for ill."
Seeing the others gather, Rin smiles slightly before turning over the first column.
THE CARNIVAL
Description:
This card depicts a small bewildered child holding a half-eaten candy between two carnival tents, fleeing from a masked jester and a dark robed figure on stilts with its head obscured in shadow. A star rests on the middle of the card's right most border. THE HIDDEN TRUTH
Description:
This card shows a bearded scholarly man, holding aloft a single flaming finger on his left hand while his right hand points to a large ornate tome. He looks forward wide-eyed through spectacles. THE LIAR
Description:
A bare-chested woman with the body of a serpent, long flowing black hair, elven ears and cloudy eyes smiles from the well oiled wood of this ancient card. She holds a bouquet of desiccated dying roses and wears a crown of silver. "The Liar is strong in the past. Something is not as it seems. Perhaps you were betrayed by someone close to you, or perhaps like the child of the carnival you were lost and you were left without guidance. The Hidden Truth counsels us that often that which we think hidden is often in plain sight, and that it is insight that sets apart the wise and the foolish. The Liar also represents love: the hot consuming love that burns all it touches and leaves nothing but ashes in its wake. I feel perhaps your past is full of ashes no?" She pauses a moment soaking up the attention of those around her before she continues. "Regardless, as the scholar shows us, all things hidden will eventually come to light."
Shuffling the worn deck of thin wood cut cards, she lays out nine cards in three columns before looking up toward the halfling and revealing a tenth.
"This card is your signifier; perhaps it represents you -- perhaps it represents your greatest worry; perhaps it represents your greatest enemy." THE TYRANT
Description:
This card depicts a blue dragon encircling a world, its talons gripping into its surface, drawing blood. A crown is set on its bottom left border. The tyrant is a card of control -- of a figure in great power. Perhaps he represents a parental figure. As a charisma card, perhaps it represents your desire for control, for stability. Perhaps it represents the will of another for control over you. Be warned, stability and power often come at a great price.
Rin grabs her plate of soft cheese, boiled eggs and fresh bread and joins the other assembled pathfinders. "Ah, so you must be the group I'm here to meet." She extends a small curtsy and offers her free hand. "I'm Rene Whistledown, but please call me Rin." She takes a seat at a nearby table and begins shuffling a ornate deck of cards. "If we're all here for a confirmation, I figure we could all use as much luck as we can get." She makes the sign of Desna over her chest before knocking on the wood table and raising her glass to the Shrine of Cayden Cailean above the mantle. Spreading out the cards in front of her she smiles."Would anyone care for a reading?"
Not to muddy the waters, or obscure the point, but I believe that alchemists and alchemist type characters (investigators and poisoner archetype rogues, but oddly not underground chemists) can use craft alchemy to make alchemical items, but can't trade or sell them to other players, though they can give them to be used during the course of the adventure.
There are over a dozen Pathfinders here. Wasn't the Grand Convocation a while ago? What are all of these field agents doing here? There's that rumor going around about something in blood-watered meadow... Rin speaks to Ellena, but mostly to herself. "Isn't there an old andoran saying about cooks and kitchens, or spoons in pots?" She points to the group of Pathfinders each struggling to get a shot in on the training dummy. "Do you have any loaves yet, or am I too early for that?"
A pale woman of uncertain ethnicity with a noted Varisian accent. She tends to wear layered skirts and blouses in dark blues, deep purples and black. She wears her hair down, with her angled bangs hiding her left eye, her right gleaming a bright green. She seems to only carry a dagger with a carved bone handle. Biography: Rene Bjornsdauter of Whistledown was born on the 21st of Kuthona, 4691 AR, on a Longnight when even the moon refused to shine. She was found by her father during the lunar eclipse on his door step, covered in blood and still attached to the afterbirth, guarded by a raven holding a single harrow card: The Liar.
Though her father and grandmother raised her well, Rin has always found trouble, and she grew up plagued by the rumors surrounding her strange birth and off-colored eyes. As a young teenager Rin ran away from home, joining a traveling Varisian caravan. Amongst other outcasts, Rin finally began to feel at home, and befriended a young fey-touched sorcerer named Varek. While traveling through the depths of the Santos Forest, one of the travelers who were traveling with the group for protection revealed herself as Rin's mother and called her to join her...she refused, and her mother showed the price of disobedience, forcing her to watch as she slowly decapitated Varek and placed his bloody head and the wicked dagger in her lap. When she could, she ran blindly through the night, the darkness of the void surrounded her. Mother searched for her, but she was not found. Knowing what she was, and the danger her mother would pose to her family, she traveled to Korvosa, living as a vagrant in the shingles. It was here, living amongst the rooftops, looking surrounded constantly by the swirling dark of the star-speckled night that she began to call upon the black to shield her. She abilities made her an accomplished sneak, and soon she found herself involved in one of the many small gangs that rule life in the shingles. After a job turned south and with yet another companion's death on her conscience, she approached the Heidmarch manor and though she wasn't able to secure a field commission, she was able to plead for a chance to enroll in the grand lodge in absalom, and secured immediate passage. She views the Pathfinder Society as a powerful organization who can help protect her from her mother, and help her gain power and safety for herself.
A pale varisian woman with her straight black hair dangling in an angle over her left eye, seems to glance around for a moment before entering the Wounded Wisp. GM Spoiler:
Rin is actually a changeling, but would really rather not talk about it. Seeing all the people whacking the training dummy, she tries to figure out who they all are, or at least who they are affiliated with.
Better play it safe. Even if they are Pathfinders, no reason to run in if you don't have to. Rin saddles up to the bar trying to stay out of the way. "Hey there, can I get breakfast still or is there some sort of event going on?"
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