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Great job and thanks for running the game. Enjoy the break from GMing.
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Grunting in satisfaction upon seeing the bag and the discs, Shaldinari finally relaxes a little. Closing the secret compartment, she nods her acceptance to continue escorting the discs. "I'll not be letting these out of my sight again until they are firmly in the hands of those who can destroy them." She says to Homwell. Her eyes forgiving the priestesses ill conceived plan, but her tone still expressing a bit of frustration with the woman. But with her mission sneaking up toward success, she takes a moment of two to breath in the fresh salt air and let the sun warm her face before turning to Lesiko. With a feral smile and fae twinkle in her eyes she thumps the recovered captain on the back. "Glad to be back aboard captain." She says. "I hope you picked up some better food for the journey than that stew and biscuits we had last time. All of this saving lives and livelihoods has given me an awful hunger."
With the captain back on his feet, Shaldinari watches with curious interest as Blacklock stands over the captured cultists. Her eyes flick back and forth between Lesiko and the stern faced thief with his deadly crossbow. Grimacing slightly and shaking her head at Lesiko's decision to turn them over to the watch. She had to agree with the rogue's original thought. Better to put these men down now rather than let them continue spreading their evil elsewhere. But it was not her decision to make. "I believe Mother Homwell entrusted you with a package." She whispers quietly to Lesiko, well out of earshot of the prisoners. "I'd be most grateful if you could show me where it is, so I could insure its safety before we set sail."
Seeing Antonio helping Halara, Shaldinari rushes up to the Captain Lesiko. Kneeling down next to the bleeding merchant, she grabs a healing potion from her belt and quickly feeds it to him in an effort to keep him from bleeding out.
With the fog hiding the enemy for the moment Shaldinari joins Jiro and Antonio in racing toward the fallen wizard.
Fury infuses Shaldinari's being as she realizes Galt has killed Halara. She could remember the wizard's kindness as she recovered from that first experience of breathing underwater. Her expert, handling of the winds as they sailed to the city of the merfolk. The fact that Halara was dead because of this ego-filled, banite, pile of maggot meat sent waves of anger flowing through Shaldinari's very being. She channels that anger. Uses it to infuse her Queen's own fae energy. Combined they create a thunderous blast of fury focused on the charging men. Men who would soon be nothing but food for the fish.
Too furious with Homwell to even look at the old priestess, Shaldinari spends a few moments seeing if the thugs carried anything of value or use. Occasionally muttering various curses under her breath. Once done, she simply folds her arms, stands near the door glaring and waiting for the others to be ready to pursue the Banites.
With her first foe down, Shaldinari focuses her ire on the thug standing near Homwell and Antonio. Again she calls up the ancient power of the fae and sends a potent blast of energy streaking toward the enemy.
Seeing the thug start toward her, Shaldinari's eye light with chaotic glee as she flicks her hand and sends a blast of her own eldritch power to slam into the foe. With a satisfied smirk she watches the man fly backwards as her eldritch power strikes him square in the chest.
Shaldinari steps inside and follows Zar's lead by sending a flurry of magic missles streaking toward the nearest thug .
Shaldinari follows the others moving as quietly as she can but her hard-soled boots really aren't made for thieving in the night as they occasionally scrape and thump on the wooden floor of the old warehouse.
"Haha! Hurrah!" Shaldinari shouts while slapping her hand against her thigh when Jarprax wrestles the big Uthgardt's arm to the table. Unexpectedly caught up in the match, she flashes a congratulatory grin at the burly dragonborn and nods with approval as the crowd other wrestler accepts his loss with grace and honor. Before she can say much more, she sees the boy from earlier slip into the tavern and goes with the others to see what he has to share. Her carefree mood disappears quickly as she realizes how dire the lads tidings appear to be. She only hoped they could reach this warehouse in time. She really didn't want to have to tell her Queen those discs had managed to escape back into the hands of Bane's priests because she'd been outwitted by an old woman. "We need to get to that warehouse fast." She says her eyes gleaming with anger and concern.
Shaldinari pops the last bit of roll into her mouth just as she hears a soft gurgle off to her right. Licking the sticky icing from her fingers, she looks around for the source only to see Blacklock standing there muttering about cats. She rolls her eyes theatrically. "Right...and I bet someone stepped on a bullfrog when we were back there at the stables." She says drolly shaking her head at the thief. Flipping her gaze on Jiro and the others, she calls out. "Okay. Who's turn was it to feed Blacklock? Jiro, I'm pretty sure it's you. Just remember, nothing spicy else you're changing his nappies." She wrinkles her nose as if being assaulted by the odor of a hundred sewer goblins. "Gods know we don't need another repeat of yesterday's symphony of odoriferous horrors."
Having wandered off when her nose picked up the smell of fresh made sweet rolls, Shaldinari returns to the group sinking her teeth into the still warm, sugar and cinnamon coated roll purchased from the little stall just up the street. Too busy enjoying the sweet treat to really comment, she simply nods at the suggestion to look into the caravan company and lets the paladin lead the way.
"Beat it kid. Go find another pocket to pick." She says, tossing the boy a copper as she walks by, completely ignoring his attempts to get anyone's attention.
"Ahhhh....Meluvant." Shaldinari begins whimsically as they arrive at the city gates. "City of...ummm...Incredibly Filthy Streets? No...City of Pox Infected....no,no,no...City of Whimsical Wonders?" She frowns, tapping a finger against her lips thoughtfully. "You know, I can't remember ever being in Meluvant." Her brow furrows a little further as she continues. "Unless it was during that month or two when I had a love-hate relationship with Waterdavian Brandy...hmmm don't really remember much from that time." She trails off then shrugs. "Stables, caravans, they all sound like reasonable options to me."
Dropping down off of her horse, Shaldinari follows the others inside and proceeds to drop into one of the chairs diving into whatever food is on hand. Not relishing the thought of getting back in the saddle, but she knows Jarprax is right and that is they waited it could very well mean more trouble in the end. So while the acolytes run around gathering rations and equipment, she spends a few minutes looking over any maps on hand and talking with whoever Homwell left in charge to see if there are any dangers they should be on the lookout for between the temple and Elturel.
Snatching her gold from the table, Shaldinari turns to leave...stops...turns back around and grabs the gold meant for Jarprax. Then without saying another word she hurries out to catch up with the fuming dragonborn. "Jarprax!" She hollers grabbing the thunder priests attention by adding a crackle and boom of thunder to her voice with a bit of fey magic. When he turns around, she quietly points in the opposite direction he was stomping off toward and tosses him his two bags of gold. "We need to go that way."
"$!@#&%#" Curses Shaldinari hearing of Homwell's deception. "Blasted old woman and her over-cleaver thinking. I neither like being bait on the hook or the thought of the old fool out there alone with the discs." Her jovial and relaxed manner completely gone, as she wrestles with both fury and worry. "Now I understand her...concern and odd behavior back at the temple." She pierces the man with a stern look. "Aye, the both of you were fools it seems. Those blasted discs are like great beacons of evil and my guess is Bane's followers'll have a way to find them even if they are tucked away in the bag. After all if a simple Bag of Holding could have kept them hidden all this time, why all the trouble to hide them away as they were?" She waves a hand in the air. "Bah! I ought to let you and Homwell rot in your own foolishness." She says vehemently. "But as usual it'll be other innocents like those merfolk who'll pay the price if those foul things fall into the wrong hands. So I'll do what I can to bail you out of this fiasco." She pauses for a moment, feels the weight of her purse. "And yes, you'll be paying extra for the service."
"You're Ontharr, I take it?" Shaldinari says to the man, taking in the small sparsely furnished room. "We're here with a deliverly from Mother Hommwell."
Shaldinari laughs out loud at the antics of Jiro, Jarprax, and Zar and adds a giant snorting laugh when Blacklock mentions his need for honey. Still chuckling occasionally to herself as they arrive in Thentia she is finally distracted from the early escapades by the depictions of the moon in the temple and then finally finding the man that is supposed to be meeting them. "You there." She says, waving down the nearest acolyte. "Can you tell me where Ontharr of the Order of the Gauntlet will be? He is supposed to be meeting us here."
Shadinari's eyes narrow slightly and a thin grin creeps across her face watching Blacklock petulantly toss bodies from the bridge. As the bargain is made with Uglariet, she gives the hobgoblin a friendly wink before turning back toward the sullen rogue. "There's no reason to be so upset Blacklock!" She hollers across to the scowling human. "Hiring the hobgoblin doesn't threaten your unique status among our little band at all. You still win the ugliest mug contest hands down!" She whistles softly at the rogues battered and swollen visage. "I mean really, you were painful on the eyes before, but this? I've been meaning to ask all day. What the $@#! happened to you?"
As the last hobgoblin falls, Shaldinari leans back against the cart and listens to the others interrogate the prisoner. Her lips form a thin smirk at Zar's reaction to the paladin's offer to have the mercenary join us. As long as the creature didn't bleed out on her boots, she didn't mind having another meat shield in front of her. After all she had little doubt this would be the only attempt to recover the disc. "Where did this man in the cloak hire you and what exactly did he look like?" She says her mind trying to work through various possibilities. "Did he give you, or more likely your captain, anything besides the gold?"
Gathering eldritch power in her hand Shaldinari then sends the purple orb streaking toward one of the hobgoblins surrounding Antonio.
With her brimmed hat tilted back on her head, Shaldinari is enjoying the blessing of pleasant weather for the journey when chaos erupts with shouted warnings of ambush. With little delay the familiar aura of her fey magic bursts into life in her eyes and hands. Spotting the group of hobgoblins clustered in the bushes to her right, she points with one hand while tossing a chip of mica into the air with the other and uttering a throaty rumble from deep in her diaphram. Moments later the entire bunch of bushes burst with a thunderous roar.
"Ahhh...well...yes. I am glad to be of help." Shaldinari stammers slightly. Surprised by the old woman's touch and the warmth and comfort that seemed to flow from her and up her own arm. "If all is well, then I guess we'd best be off before trouble finds us." She says stepping up into the wagon and taking a seat across from the scowling Blacklock.
Chewing on slice of bacon, Shaldinari listens to the priestess as she speaks of setting off separately. At first the elf thinks little of it all, instead enjoying a full stomach and the pleasant sunrise while trying to determine exactly how many bruises covered Blacklock's face. Squinting for a moment at the skulker, she imagines three of the big black and blue splotches looking like one of those big clusters of sea anemones they found down below the Moonsea. But then her reverie is broken as she notices the way Homwell's eyes keep looking away, how she rushed the blessing, barely waving the ancient sign before the group, her barebones description of their contact. And this nonsense of needing to go off separately...no, something is definitely...off. She thinks. While there was no doubt she the good Mother wished them a safe journey, there was something else occupying her mind, but what could be more important than the discs? "Excuse me, Mother Homwell. Is all well?" Shaldinari steps up to the priestess. "I understand this is an important day for you, yet you seem a bit distracted. Is there anything else we should know? Or perhaps be aware of?"
Taking her leave of Mother Homwell and the others, Shaldinari takes a walk into the garden and nearby forest, to enjoy the relative peace, quiet and solitude of the wood. With the sun sinking further toward the western horizon, she settles down with her back against on of the big oaks overlooking the rear of the church and main gardens. Slowing her breathing, letting the crisp evening air fill her lungs, she meditates for a while on her recent experiences. These discs were a nasty business, from a nasty deity. They each brought destruction upon the ones who possessed them. From the little blue creatures to the crazed dwarves and their kobold victims, to the sad, turmoil and loss of the merfolk. Certainly the discs deserved destruction. However, did she really want to play at guard and caretaker of the malevolent discs of power that are even now being hunted by who knows how many crazed cultists? Really hadn't she already suffered enough, and for what, a little over a hundred gold coins. Bah! Adventuring was supposed to make you wealthy. Instead all it had done so far was nearly get her trampled by dinosaurs, manipulated by bloody harpers, chased through a destroyed city by crazy elemental cultists because of a nutty, lying dwarf captain, stuck underground hunting corrupted dwarves, and dealing with fish swimming in and out of her lungs while fighting undead merfolk under the bloody ocean. And what did she have to show for it, a couple of hundred gold and an aching, tired, sore body. Her head shakes at the sinking sun, there was no way she was going to tramp all the way to Thentia. No way at all. It was time for a vacation, she'd earned it. It is at that point that a tiny creature with elegant wings flits up to the meditating elf woman. Keeping her eyes closed, Shaldinari hopes the sprite will simply fly on, but no, it doesn't. The wings continue to buzz near her ear, that high pitched whine so like a mosquito. "Ahem...." The sprite speaks. "A message from her Royal Majesty to Agent in the field number 274983." It was always amazing how the queen's messengers put so much arrogance and self importance into their voices. The creatures were simply intolerable to nearly everyone in Her service, yet there wasn't really anything to be done. Mostly because it was strictly forbidden to kill the dang things. It was actually one of the first formal laws drafted by the queen and her court. It came after royal messengers suffered a nearly ninety percent death rate. Not from predators, enemies, or unholy demons, but so that agents could claim they "never received" unwanted or unappealing orders. Effective, but costly to the queen since the messenger's union kept demanding higher and higher hazard pay. So now the little creatures were untouchable. Of course, the death rate among agents was much higher now...there were always trade offs. "Alright. Alright. Quit buzzing in my ear." Shaldinari grumbles, cracking an eye open to look at the six inch tall sprite, garishly dressed in that awful lavender and daisy colored uniform marking her as one of the Service's priority messengers. "Let me see it, as if I didn't already know what it going to say." "Voice authorization recognized. Please remove your hood and lean forward for complete facial recognition..." The sprite says, her face serious but with a mocking light twinkling in her eyes. "Ugh! You annoying little..." Stopping herself. Shaldinari takes a breath, flips back the hood of her cloak, and leans forward slightly. "You know this is unnecessary? You already know who I am otherwise you wouldn't have revealed yourself, right. Can we just get on with it?" "Sorry." Responds the sprite with not even a hint of actual apology in its voice. "Queen's orders. Must follow the laws after all." There is a pause as the fairy swoops within a couple of inches of Shaldinari's nose. Its tiny eyes flicking rapidly back and forth. "Facial pattern recognized. Although you really should be careful scowling so much...your face could stick that way." The sprite adds flittering away before Shaldinari's hand can slap the creature. "Now, now! None of that or I'll be forced to report you to Fae Resources." "Just give me the bloody message you little..." Before Shaldinari can say anything further, the sprite waves her tiny wand and a line of elven letters appear in the air before her eyes. Twinkling like gold dust in the setting sunlight, they slowly fade away, but give Shaldinari plenty of time to read, memorize, and curse the message before it ceases to exist. "Message received." She says, her voice flat. "Acknowledged. Have a nice day!" Replies the sprite with a devilish grin and then flits off into the trees. Sighing heavily, Shaldinari stands, stretches, and starts to walk back toward the church. It seems she'd be seeing this thing through to the end after all.
While I'd really like to see that 5th level, this has been a lot of fun so far, and I like the fairly quick format. So I'll skip another level up and go ahead and continue.
Shaldinari spends the trip back, enjoying being on the surface of the sea rather than beneath the waves. While the undersea world offered its own beauty and fascinations, she felt little desire to return to the chill depths again any time soon. Upon returning to the church, the elf greets Mother Homwell and helps relate a bit of the tale of the merfolk king and the foul effects the disc had upon that sorrowful soul and his unfortunate, unsuspecting subjects. "If it be within your power Mother, Torm may win some friends among the merfolk if they received some boon for both their help to us and what they suffered under the influence of the disc." Frowning a bit, she looks at the priestess. "Out of all those we've encountered, they were the most helpful to our cause and seemed to have suffered the most from the secret hiding of such an item among their people. Their city all but abandoned and desolate, their people scattered and their leaders and best defenders dead at the heads of their own king. It was a foul deed the wizard did to leave the disc in such a place."
Carefully...very carefully...climbing aboard Shaldinari is ready for the unpleasant evacuation of water from her body this time. Letting the foul fluid fall over the side of the rail she leans back and blushes slightly as she tries to wave off Antonio and Jiro's complements. "I'm just glad to not be fighting a bunch of sharks while I flail and float around with all the grace and speed of a pickled egg." She says with a snort. While drying herself, she watches Halara and the captain closely waiting to see how they answer Blacklock's question, before she reveals the shell case. Unfortunately her judgement is hampered as the heartburn from the ending of the water breathing spell makes for an annoying distraction.
Seeing the sharks Shaldinari tries to remember what the merfolk had said during their tour of the deep only a day ago. Unfortunately for a moment all she could recall was dropping and playing dead, which she was pretty certain was for bears, not scavenger sharks. Then it comes to her, that bit about apex predators and the sounds the high pitched whining and other sounds the man made that supposedly were similar to the orcas that frequented many ocean waters. Setting the sounds firmly in her mind she focuses her eyes about 20 feet in front of the group and with a wave of her fingers the calls of an orca pack begin to drift through the waters.
"Because the gods are all basically #!@%^# up in one way or another." Shaldinari says with a shrug to the former king as he fades away. She then looks around the throne room, ignoring most of the treasure. "Anyone see these remains he wanted buried?"
Nodding at Antonio's suggestion, Shaldinari taps out the word 'compassion' on the letters carved into the shell.
Taking the shell from Jarprax, Blacklock, and the offending crowbar, Shaldinari looks closer at the shell. "Huh?" Is all she says at first, while taking a few more minutes to examine the writing on the outside of the shell. She turns the object over several times, brings it closer to her eyes, then taps it against her chin while her eyes stare at the far wall. Finally seeing the growing annoyance of the others, she breaks out of her study, blushing slightly. "Uhhh....sorry." She says. Then points to the elven writing. "But this reads 'Sympathy.' Not a word I would have expected on an object of Bane. These outer letters must be the key." She points out each one while saying the letters as she goes. "O N S C P O S M I A"
Holding her side with one hand, Shaldinari simply stays quiet. Her fingers gently pressing against her ribs, testing for any sign of a crack or break. It didn't feel like anything that serious, but it still felt like that blasted undead mer-thing hit her with a tree trunk. As the former king reveals his story, she has relatively little sympathy for the pathetic creature. After all the I poisoned all my people but botched the job on myself defense really wasn't very endearing. But if King Pufferpot could lead them to the shell quicker and with little trouble, all the better, because her ribs really did hurt.
Not interested in drawing the creature back to her side, Shaldinari lets the skeleton near her flee down the shaft.
Cursing in a flurry of bubbles as one of the skeletons slips behind her and gashes her in the side, Shaldinari starts to strike back but the the creature starts to flee the holy magic or Jarprax and Antonio. So instead she focuses her wand on the enemy she hit before
Already wary of Blacklock's supposedly safer entrance, Shaldinari has her wand in hand and ready when the first undead merman twitches forward. With the thief churning up the water as he scrambles back, she focuses on her target and calmly activates the wand. Three bright bolts of red force fly through the water leaving little trails of bubbles as they rapidly track and strike the first and closest of the skeletons.
Glancing back at the front of the castle-under-the-sea, Shaldinari simply doesn't trust the supposedly abandoned look of the place. There was a reason those other mermen were afraid of the place, and so far none of these Baubles of Bane were just sitting around unguarded. Then again it's unlikely this supposed backdoor would be completely unprotected either. It might be easier that the front just as long as it wasn't simply some lair for one of those giant eels the merfolk had warned them about during their scouting trip. Nasty things hunkered down in a nice innocent looking hole and waited for something to pass by or wander in to become that days lunch. With a shrug she nods toward the back entrance and then makes sure she's well behind Blacklock as they start to swim inside the cave.
Content to let Blacklock and Antonio scout out the palace of the merking, Shaldinari watches some of the other cave openings for any signs of activity or potential danger.
Shaldinari's eyebrow arches in surprise as Antonio deftly takes the captain aside and persuades him to give her group another day of rest. For free! It was a remarkable turn of events. Perhaps too remarkable? She wonders to herself. Her eyes narrow and with a quick blink her vision shifts. Suddenly auras envelope those people and items on the ship with magical qualities. As she concentrates a variety of soft colors glow gently around Halara, Zar, Blacklock's cloak, the usual things she had seen among her party and the crew all along. Her gaze shifts to Antonio. Nothing unusual there either. No new charms or hidden items of thought control or manipulation. Thank goodness." She breathes a quick sigh of relief. But someone who could turn a person's mind like that just with words, deserved...observation. Blinking again, her vision returns to 'normal' and her thoughts are distracted by the announcement of another trip under the sea for a scouting excursion. "Must get back on the horse and all that." She says to Halara's inquiring look when she steps volunteering for another go around of the water breathing magic. "Besides, I'll just hurt worse if I lay about all day. Better to keep the muscles working." This time the shock of the spell and the chill water aren't so surprising. With the expert guidance and advice of the merfolk, she actually finds herself enjoying the exploration of the underwater realm. She's thrilled by the sudden swirling arrival of a school of several hundred small silvery fish and watches, fascinated by the almost hypnotic motion as the entire school moves as one big group. Near the seafloor, she tries to memorize the amazing view of the tall kelp 'forests'. Their deep green undulating stalks drifting with the currents as numerous fish and other creatures flit between and around the lengthy plants. The graceful beauty of large ray flying along the sandy ocean floor. She does her best to take it all in. The time flies past and she is surprised when their guides give the signal to return to the surface. It isn't until she climbs back aboard and begins to dry herself that she feels the cold in her bones and the hunger in her stomach which is severe enough to make even the ships meal of hard biscuits and some sort of stew look appetizing.
Nodding her exhausted thanks to Halara, Shaldinari sleeps the night away and awakens with the others in the morning. "Gods!" She cries out as she first tries to move. Muscles she didn't even know existed before now announced their said existence with a level of soreness and pain she hadn't encountered since riding in the dinosaur races of Port Nyanzaru. But that was only her backside. This, this was seemingly every part of her body, and that didn't even take into account her swollen nose from the fiasco on the deck. Now not only would she have to breath underwater, but it would be with swollen nasal passages as well. With a heavy sigh she forces herself out of the hammock and up on deck where she could at least do a little stretching to try and limber her tight, tense body. The from Jarprax rattles the rigging near her and she suppresses a wry grin. Sounds like I wasn't the only one to wake up feeling the effects of yesterday's excursion. When the thunder priest climbs on deck to confront the captain, she watches quietly seeing who would win the battle of wills. The exhaustion of the dragonkin or the innate greed of the merchant captain. Having known many a merchant and even a few captains, her odds were with the captain. Besides, she certainly didn't have the coin available to hire a full ships crew for an hour better yet a full day.
It must be something to do with the underwater environment. The odd quiet and peace of this cold, dim realm. So different from the surface or even being underground. Whatever it was, it made Shaldinari unusually quiet during the journey back to the ship. Simply content to listen to the merman's story and let Jarprax do the talking. Climbing back onto the ship she notices several stares from admiring sailors as the sun glitters off of her wet, scantly clad body. Smiling coyly she throws back her long hair in a great wave as she finishes the climb up the rope ladder. She could practically feel the multitude of hearts racing on the ship, and decides to soak the moment for all its worth. With all of the grace and poise of an elf, she steps over the railing, to masterfully finish her return onboard. Only she forgots about her big floppy, flipper, shoes. The long 'webs' catch the rail and instead of a glorious graceful arrival there's a loud Thwack as her face slams into the deck. Nose bleeding, but fortunately not broken, she gets onto her hands and knees only to suddenly have her stomach revolt as all of the water in her lungs and guts comes flooding back out. The seemingly massive pool of foul water covering a large area of the deck and her front. A single fingerling flops around, which she promptly flicks back overboard wondering How did that get there?! "Can we go back to the bloody kobold cave." She mutters, her voice a bit nasally before she staggers down to her hammock, the laughter and 'eeewwws' of the sailors still echoing in her ears.
Watching the big sea creature flit off into the darkness of the sea, Shaldinari feels no need to pursue it further. We probably surprised it as much as it did us. She thinks to herself. Besides, she did not harbor the same bloodlust against innocent wild creatures that obviously lurked behind Blacklock's beady eyes. But squinting in the direction of the thief's warning look, she had to admit, if only to herself, that his beady eyes seemed to be better than hers in this underwater realm. She could see nothing but rocks, kelp and a few flitting fish. "Faces?" She says, her voice muffled by the water. "Where? I don't see anything."
Cursing as another blast of eldritch power disappears harmlessly into the inky darkness, Shaldinari swims back several paces hoping to either draw the creature out of the protective cloud or simply wait until the ink disperses in the current.
Not wanting to spend time reloading her crossbow, Shaldinari sends a blast of purple-green eldritch force toward the octopus. The chaotic fae orb, generates a comet tail of bubbles as it travels through the sea toward it's intended target only to be lost in the swirling black ink. |