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"I believe so, Aravashnial. Your, uh, eagles seem to be handling things. Horgus, are you ok? Nothing behind us?" She gestures behind them and peers that way raising her light, but somewhat blinding herself in the process.
"I'm afraid I can't see past my own light that way, so we're counting on you sir."
Right, I was wondering how long cleaning up the shrine took us. Sounds like it was a quick job.
I'm good to move on. My week (and weekend) is going to be busy because of the 4th bringing family to town, so I've been phoning in posts, but moving on is fine if the shrine is cleaned up. How much more 'daylight' would we normally have?
Sarah takes the other potion and tucks it into her kit. "The only thing stranger than the attack is these preserved caverns. I wonder how much of our history has been buried, to leave these structures and statues behind with the town above none the wiser?" She'll describe the statues to Aravashnial.
"Belg, sounds like they'll need your magic more than our bows in there. I can steady Anevia. If it's too much, we'll form a fallback position here, you can get everyone out and then Aravashnial can cast safely. Horgus, fall back here. Keep an eye out behind us, but it should be safer on this side of the door if there's truly undead inside." So saying she moves to steady the woman until she can brace against the rocks, and points the elf towards the door.
"Can you stand here a moment, friend? I need to look at her wound." At the old elf's nod, she slips over to the wounded paladin. "You left a gap in your collar. Stop poking it and let me look at. Ugh."
Sarah runs her hand along the wound, then pulls a piece of stone from it. She purses her lips but says nothing else as she lets the paladin go. Making her way back to the elf she can be heard muttering. "Stubborn patients and foolishness, she'd have walked with that in her neck till she fell over, why..." She draws in a deep breath, and puts her hand on Aravashnial's shoulder. "Sorry, you don't need to hear that right now. Give me a moment to calm myself." After a pause, she continues describing the building to him, paying particular attention to anything that might indicate how the door works.
"Come with me, we'll try the door. It's just a fly, I'm sure they can handle it." Sarah moves with Aravashnial towards the door, testing the handle.
"Standing, which is impressive when you think about it. Sarah looks the building over, but doesn't leave Aravashnial unattended. She describes the hammer, and apologizes for being unable to douse for magical auras. "I haven't quite mastered it yet, sir."
She grins at Horgus. "We're quite happy to have you along, nonetheless sir Gwerm. After all we'll need a fine accountant and quartermaster to make it out of here and records are always valuable. Admittedly, it's less than your usual responsibilities, but I'm still happy to know that when we reach the surface you will have a clean record of our travels."
paizo.com seems to lose it's mind once every 2 months or so.
"I'm Sarah. I worked with Mistress Ren, at the clocktower. I use my gifts in service of Shelyn. Keep moving please. We have limited supplies. We can talk while we walk." She continues to help Aravashnial along the path.
Sarah grimaces as the snake moves out, then tightens her hand on Aravashnial's arm as she calls out, drawing him back from the hazard. "Don't let the snake bite you! We don't know if it's poisonous!" Taking a deep breath, she describes as much of the snake as she can see to Aravashnial. "Do you know anything about their venom?"
I think we're ok on leadership - we have a bunch of NPCs to shepherd. Focus on getting out safe, we can work out the dynamics as our characters get to know each other.
As they rejoin the group Sarah relays word of their return to the Elf, including a description of the backpack. "They're just coming back now. It looks like they found, uh, a crusader's backpack. No sign of the crusader though. The passage continues ahead of us, oh and now there's some debris. We'll want to avoid it in case it's unstable I think. Maybe Belg knows more?" She tries to make it across the room avoiding as much of the rockfall as she can knowing Aravashnial can't see it.
I'm sure we'll have several more eventful encounters than bugs further on. Still, a mysterious campsite so near the collapse is strange.
"Follow the left wall, and onward. Careful with your feet it's a bit rough." Sarah murmurs to the elf, then raises her voice to address the Grigori as she continues to guide her charge. "I think so, yes."
"No, they have it in hand. Merely some overgrown bug, nesting in this abandoned camp. We can move forward here, and by the time we get to it I'm sure it will already be disposed of. If you reach left you can feel the wall, I'm right here with you."
Suiting action to words Sarah leads the elven mage into the room, staying between him and the fighting.
"An old campsight, Aravashnial. I didn't realize these caverns were so well traveled. Who lives down here, I wonder." Sarah continues guiding the elf.
Marching Order:
Sabrina->point
Sarah gets the group organized, then double checks that Aravashnial is ready before waving them onward. "Sabrina, take point. You're best suited to surviving an ambush. Belg and Eldric, behind her - you're our offense if we need it, and I'm trusting your dwarven sensibilities to warn her if the rock is wrong. I'll come next with Aravashnial, then you Sir. I didn't get your name earlier, you'll be right behind him. After that, Edmund and Anevia - please keep an eye out to the side and above. Tunnels opening up is something we all want to know about. Lastly, if you would please take rear guard Griffith? Your light travels with you, and endures. Now then, let's keep hope in our hearts, as our heavenly friend says. Forward."
Sarah begins walking, leading Aravashnial to the tunnel. At the grigori's words she just smiles a moment, then continues on. "Right. I know that. It's just, so big Aravashnial. Still, best to begin as we mean to continue. We should all stay together. Where there's life, there's hope. To kenebras."
She gently turns him toward Griffith. "This way friend. Griffith found your book, and what is this?" Sarah takes one of the scales, tears leaking down her cheeks as the vision plays out. "Well that explains why we're alive, and where we are. They killed her Aravashnia. They killed Terendelev." She looks up at the ceiling, clutching the scale tightly. "We'll have to do something about that of course. I've never heard of resurrecting a dragon, but it seems at least possible, in theory. Still, Kenebras needs all the help it can get. We should make what haste we can. There's a pair of passages, let's try the left first."
Sarah looks at the blood from the wound, then the armor, then sighs and puts her hands against Sabrina's ankle. After channeling some magical healing into the paladin, she stands and looks around. "That will have to do. I have good eyes but I can't look through armor. If it starts to swell, hurt, or feel hot let me know. Oh and remind me when we camp to give you enough water to clean the area. Does anyone see a way out of this cave?" Sarah then moves back to Aravashnial. "I can be your eyes, but we'll need a place to go first."
As the light fills the room, and the bandages are settled, she looks up and around the space. "Master dwarf, how far down are we?"
Not a problem, we can always ask again.
Sarah bandages the man's hand, taking extra care as she does to make sure it is comfortable. Better to be overly concerned and keep people calm. "There we go. I'll make some cool water and we can redo the bandage when we decide on a place to camp this evening, but we're going to have to find a way out of this cave. This should prevent any chance of infection."
She smiles and speaks gently to the elf. "No fear brave guardian, my gift is a gift to be shared. It renews itself."
Sarah then looks Anevia over, wincing at the break, but agrees with the Griffith's treatment. She casts about for a handy crutch, but spies nothing useful within reach before the man arrives at her side.
Sarah then turns her attention to the new injury, and patient, running a short bit of magic along it, cleaning, before she examines it in earnest.
"Does this hurt?" She spreads his fingers gently, her attention entirely on his hands. "You have elegant hands, sir. Let me know if any of this feels sharp, or biting, since then you will need a splint as well. I am Sarah, and I serve Mistress Ran in her clocktower, as well as Shelyn."
"Ah. Your eyes appear damaged, although I suspect that were you to find your way to the temple it could be resolved. You also have some tissue damage, which I might alleviate with shelyn's aid. Will you consent to be healed? I know nothing of your faith, or my godesses's part in it, but ours is an easy offer free of debts. We seek merely to restore the beauty in a natural form."
Sarah leads the elf back to Edmund. "If you will follow me, here is my hand. Careful, there is some gravel here..." Settling him with the mage, she looks next to the injured woman, then asks Caisramriel to clarify. "Does she need more than a splint? If you can, bring her here, if not I will come to you."
"How can I help?" Sarah moves to the elf, looking him over professionally, her bow in hand in case the spider shaped rocks move.
"If I had my kit, but if I was wishing for things I might as well wish we were all safe at Mistress Ran's clock and the wound closed." Sarah peers at the burned flesh, then continues in flawless formal Elven, her voice calm and warm. "Let me help you, my name is Sarah and I serve Shelyn. You are among friends, but it is not safe, nor familiar. We are underground, I think. Do you hurt anywhere else? I can see your face is burned, although you'll need to move your hands for me to assess it."
"Mother? Ellit!" Sarah sits up, and checks in her pack for her cat. Finding the animal unharmed, she calms and looks around the darkness. Then frowns and gestures a light into being. It hovers in the debris and dust and she frowns once more before speaking. "Hello? Hello!?" Sarah listens to the echo, then scrambles to look at the coughing dwarf. "Are you hurt? That was, something. Falling? Rocks?" She pauses seeing no obvious damage, then gathers herself and yells. "Is anyone else hurt?"
"Ok Ellit, let's go be brave in the market. Another day in Kenebras, may Shelyn save us from fools and demons." On the way out, she set Ran's tea on the tray. Safely outside, she called back into the house. "Good morning mistress Ran, I'm off to the market." then dutifully slammed the door behind her. Ellit kneeded her back through the pack and she moved out into the street. Behind her, the clock began it's morning bells. As she walked through the plaza, she noticed a clearing in the crowd and headed towards it. "I'll just take a look at the speech Ellit, then we can be on our way. Mistress Ran won't mind."
One of my first roleplaying game experiences was an old boxed module of d&d that I played with some cousins. Their dad had given them his milkcrate of old gaming stuff, and we'd retreated upstairs to try and play some of it. We didn't know anything about it, and worse yet we had no idea that his stuff had a couple of different systems all loosely bound together in binders because the books had fallen apart. This is how I ended up playing a dwarf from 1e, with a skill package from 2e, wearing armor from GURPS. We had no idea what we were doing, but since one of the weapons said "massive damage" we used one of those golfball dice - maybe it was a d30? We ran over whatever that old module was, and were run over in turn. Whenever a character died we had a second just wade in, pick up the first character's stuff, and continue the fight. We didn't know how to level up, so a progressively larger death toll mounted as the waves of 1st level characters got destroyed in battle. I couldn't tell you the name of the module if you paid me, but I still remember how on a rainy summer vacation at the beach my cousins and I were throwing dice into a box and laughing every time the massive damage die instantly killed one of us. Eventually, we won. We had an entire garbage bag full of dead character sheets. My cousin carried it out of the loft like his own bag of holding, and we gave the milkcrate back to my uncle. He told us, very gravely, that we were heroes but the next adventure awaited. He took us out to swim the next day, and I went home shortly after.
Yep! Looking forward to it.
Sounds great - Sarah's familiar on the paladin side is just a 'cat' on the oracle side. I bought her with starting gold on the oracle build, and she has no magical powers beyond "hide in backpack" and "demand tuna". It's why Ellit's saves/ac are much worse on the oracle stat block.
There's a couple of good ways to do grids - I like google drawings as per this post:
If you prefer, you can use roll20 and just screenshot->upload to imgur. (You can also give players access to roll20 directly, but some players are playing from phones which cannot access it).
Won't the gods answer our prayers?I'm reading through the campaign notes now. I'm generally not a huge fan of gestalt, but this seems like an appropriate use of it. Looking through the character information and such now. I'm committing to taking over another AP, but this might be worth doing two. Thanks for looking us over!
We have important mysteries like "WHY ARE WE IN THIS CAVE" and "WHAT HAPPENED" to answer!!
"We seem to be alive, do you have any injuries besides the burns? As for what is going on, hell might be an appropriate answer. If something from the wound attacked the city, that might explain our sudden descent. Although why would we survive in that case? In any event, my Name is Sarah. I worked with Mistress Ran, of the Clocktower. We have some gifted with us, and so we have light to see, but no clear path out, nor obvious landmarks." Sarah continues, describing their surroundings to the elf as requested.
The problem with this scene as a place to stop and wait is that there is literally nothing for the characters to do with each other. We've got a pile of NPCs, an an ill defined space, and maybe we're in combat? It's hard to say. It's natural to Ask The DM for interaction and clarification here. Even just short replies along the lines of "the man stands up, he's wearing blah blah blah" that don't really advance the plot at least give the PC and player something to keep posting about.
GM:
Sarah looks away from the elf for a moment as the distinct sound of arrows fills the room, but immediately goes back to treating the burns after she realizes they're not under attack from the archers. Even still, she flinches with each twang. At the angel's offer of help she smiles, and grabs his kit gratefully. Elven"Sir, can you understand me? You are among friends but we are beneath or below Kenebras in some kind of cavern. If you cannot understand me, we will do our best to carry you." She tries again in Common. Sir! Can you understand me?" Finally she takes a long breath, and tries once more in flowing Sylvan. "Sir, you are among friends but we are beneath or below kenebras in some kind of cavern. If are unable to respond soon, we will do our best to transport you in comfort."
"How can I help?" Sarah moves to the elf, looking him over professionally, her bow in hand in case the spider shaped rocks move.
"If I had my kit, but if I was wishing for things I might as well wish we were all safe at Mistress Ran's clock and the wound closed." Sarah peers at the burned flesh, then continues in flawless formal Elven, her voice calm and warm. "Let me help you, my name is Sarah and I serve Shelyn. You are among friends, but it is not safe."
Yeah I think we're waiting on the GM to give a description of wherever we are before we start walking. I can post another "Sarah looks at the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the air" style prompt in gameplay but it's the weekend and I'll wait till monday night I think.
"If anyone has a torch, I could light it, but lacking that..." She gestures, and a rock flies to hand, another gesture and it lights. "Ah, this will do for now."
The rest of the nearby rocks shift, either settling or disturbed by the passage of the first rock.
"Ah, I'm Sarah, and this is Ellit." Sarah looks up, peering at the ceiling. "How? I don't think we're in Kenebras anymore."
I noticed you but it's an even split between casters and martial, so I'm ok either way. I'm also going to play Sarah as a very different paladin than your Iomadaen, so I'm not worried about twins. She's focused on redemption, you're focused on vengeance. Should be fun. I'll start as oracle if it makes you feel better though.
Sarah groans, then sits up abruptly calling out into the darkness. "Ellit!" Ellit, none the worse for wear, meows. Sarah calms down visibly, for those with darkvision. When the halo pierces the darkness she gasps. The sound seems to echo into laughter, and she shivers, pulling her things around her. "No, Yes, I mean I'm here. I'm Sarah, and this is Ellit. What happened? The last thing I remember I was leaving mistress Ran's clock." Sarah stands and looks around again as her eyes adjust. After a moment, she pulls the last of her pack together. There's not time to count it, but it seems to all be there. "Where are we?" Ellit settles in Sarah's pack.
I think we're waiting on the opening post.
Hi all. GM did you have a preference between Oracle or Paladin start? |
