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"I've only got one more fireball left until I have to recharge my spells," Sheva says, "so spread that oil as much as you can and I'll light it up." She says a quick silent prayer to Selûne. She then summons her pact weapon to her side not as the usual rapier but as a large, ebony greataxe inlaid with metallic flames along the dual blades.
"I agree, let's get moving. I'll stay on the outskirts of our light since I can see farthest in the dark."
Sheva reflexively fires a pair of eldritch blasts, each at a different zombie.
It's been that kind of week again. Post is up, with requisite fireball and snark. :)
"Fear not Galador, we'll protect your divine and immaculate rump from harm!" Sheva says with a smile. She then hurls a fireball at the group of shamblers in front. "M҉y ͜F͘͢a͘ç͟e҉ ̶҉i̶̧͘n̡̛ ̸t̴ḩ̵͞e fi̷r͟͝e̵̢ m͜҉̀ý̛͜ ̶͘͠fą̶i̵͜t̶̀́h̨̀͢ ̛i̵̧͟ņ̧ ̸̴t̡̨͡h̷͞e̷̛ ̴̢f͘͝i̸̡̛re"
"Remember to stand behind Galador the Meat-Shield when we get attacked." "I also couldn't throw fireballs when we last met the wolves. We may have a second helping of roast beast tonight."
I'm traveling on a brief road trip today and tomorrow. I'll have spotty internet access and limited time to check on my games until Friday night. Please bot me as needed.
"Believe me," Sheva says, relaxing, "we are definitely enemies of Strahd." She motions to Galador to stand down. "If you have information that can help us destroy the vampire, then we have much to discuss my friend." "My name is Sheva. With me are Galador, Vasilios, Casdin and Victor." she adds, gesturing to each in turn. "What may we call you?"
"Let's stay back for a second. There's something unusual about this zombie." Sheva mutters to Galador.
"You've done us quite the favor with slaying these wolves. Yes, please allow us to help. Or at least to thank you. We're not your enemies." She's prepared to cast eldritch blast just in case, but keeps her pact blade sheathed to give the impression of being non-threatening.
"Agreed. We have nothing to lose by helping. If we're going to be here for some time we may as well amass as many friends and allies as we can. Selûne knows we'll need them." "Plus it'll be nice to be thought of as heroes for once."
"I'm with Vasilios. I'd prefer not to be a wolf's dinner tonight. We can start fresh in the morning."
"I've nearly been a wolf's dinner more times than I care to recount, so I suppose this is only fair." Sheva says as she helps herself to a steak. "So Strahd might have a plan for us, perhaps to serve as his entertainment. I'm more than happy to make him regret that in time." She takes a bit of the wolf steak and pauses after chewing and swallowing. "Well, that's certainly ... unique. I can't quite place it." she says, keeping a straight face and glad she's hungry enough not to be finicky. "We thank you again for your generosity." "I suppose we should discuss where we head next, since it appears we'll be staying in Barovia for a while."
"We had to cross the mists as well to get here." Sheva responds to Casdin and Victor. "But we were in a tavern when somebody at the behest of Strahd hired us to come to Barovia. So that means that either some can cross the mists to leave, or Strahd has agents on the outside and a way of communicating with them." "Thank you for your generosity, Davian. I think I could use some more wine now." she adds with a grave look on her face as she realizes the scale of the current predicament.
Sheva takes a deep drink and recalls her lore of the undead from her younger days. "Strahd's a vampire, which makes him amongst the most powerful of the undead, save perhaps for a lich. He's difficult to kill, but not impossible. He must have some kind of weakness." She takes another drink. "Several days, maybe a week ago, an old woman did a card reading for us. She foretold of our meeting and said, and I quote, to 'look to the wizard of wines, in wood and sand the treasure hides.'" "So either the treasure she spoke of is the book, or perhaps there's something else useful around here?" "She also spoke of a weapon, a sword of sunlight. Have you heard of such a thing?" "Also something about a village drowned by a river and an entertaining man with a monkey who could help us." Sheva pauses to recall the words, which seem to have been uttered a lifetime ago. "Also ... also something about a father's tomb, in reference to Strahd. That this would help us find him." "I was ready to dismiss all of it as the ramblings of a crazy old woman, but here we are. And clearly we have a very mutual interest." "So any answers you have would be quite valuable. Also perhaps a bale of hay where I could sleep for about a week?" she adds with a laugh.
Sheva enjoys the wine but her demeanour quickly darkens at the question from Davian. "Yes ... the vampire. Some of us have ... met ... him. We didn't exactly hit it off." she says with a soured expression. "We saw the tome upstairs. How did you come to possess it? Do you have more information about him?"
"Why Galador my dear, I didn't know you cared so much!" Sheva feigns jokingly before resting her head on his shoulder. "But in all seriousness, thank you." "I'd hug you but I'm still too sore, and you have so many metallic pointy-things on you." she adds with a wink and a smile. She then turns her attention to Victor. "Thanks Victor. I think we all need to take a look at it. Between me, Vasilos and Casdin, surely we can figure out what it is. I'm hoping for a wine-conjuring staff!"
"And Casdin, thank you for the healing. I owe you some drinks once we're out of this mess." "Ok, I'm going to sit now. Ow."
Sheva darts awake with a heavy gasp as the dust settles and sits straight up.
The sudden jerk of sitting up aggravates some of her injuries. "Ow. I don't feel like we won. Please tell me we won though." she quietly mutters. "And Galador better have been ridiculously heroic in avenging my near-demise." she adds with a smirk.
As Sheva is struck by both warriors she falls to the ground, unconscious and clinging to life.
She hears a faint voice amidst the darkness. N͡ot ͜ye̸t chi̛ld.͞ ͢We ̸ha̧ve̢ ͘mu̴c̴h ͝t̕o ͘d́o.
Sheva responds to the attackers by lashing out at each with her pact rapier.
She casts booming blade with her second attack, dealing additional damage as her blade connects.
Sheva gets caught in the ice storm and tries again to focus past the pain. She fires a pair of eldritch blasts at the two nearest approaching druids.
"Crap. I wasn't expecting that." Sheva casts counterspell at the druid to disrupt his spell.
"Why don't you come down so we can talk?" Sheva taunts at the druid as she fires a pair of eldritch blasts at him to assist his descent.
"So much for the wine." Sheva quips as she follows the others.
Sheva looks over Casdin's shoulder and skims the pages carefully without saying a word, or displaying much emotion at all. "The vampire misses his dead lover. We should help reunite them." she says coldly, as she continues reading. "The pages write of a sword that he fears." "When that woman did the harrow reading for us ... she mentioned a sword of sunlight. Located someplace where sickness and madness are bred." Now Sheva eases up and cracks a faint smile, as though her rage has quietly passed as quickly as it rose. "That should be easy to narrow down in this place." She then remembers more of the harrow, and quietly adds with a chill to her voice and a blank look, "She also told us that we'd find this book here ..." And then she smiles wickedly, not saying anything further.
After Sheva recovers from the previous encounter, she makes her way up the stairs to check in on the others. She looks around and sees the crest. "I figured I'd join you boys up here to make sure you aren't getting into any--" She falls silent and starts to quiver with rage. Her eyes glow with eldritch sight. "W͘h́ąt̨'͘͟͞s͟ ̕th̶͢͝ą͞ţ̕͜ ̶͞d͜͏oi҉̨ņg ̨͠he͏̴r̕ȩ̡?̷̴" she growls in an inhuman tone.
"We should definitely catch our breath before another wave arrives." Sheva adds, wiping away blood and picking out needles from her skin and armor. She leans against a wall and slowly slides down to the floor. "I badly need to recharge my magics. That took a lot out of me. But damn, it felt good!" she grins wickedly.
Sheva feels better after Casdin's healing and seeing the destruction wrought by the fireball. She runs forward and fires a pair of eldritch blasts at the two blights by the stairs.
"Keep fighting! We've almost got them cleared out!"
Sheva nods in thanks to Casdin for the healing as she continues to focus through the pain and the realization that she's covered in her own blood. "I'll see if I can clear this entrance and maybe give us some breathing room. Or an exit." She turns back to the blights at the western entrance and using her remaining magic she summons forth another fireball and hurls it out into their midst. "M̴͘͝y̴̡͢ ̴̛͜F̛́a̸̕c̀e̶͟ ̴̷i͏n͝ ̡̡̢t͢he̢ ͘͡͞f̀i̴r̡̕e̷ my̷̸͡ ̸͠f͜a̴̶͞i̵͠th̀͜ ͏̸̨ín̵҉ ͢͏t̢͠h̢͠e͝҉ ̀f҉̸i̶̸r͞e͝"
Sheva tries to ignore the pain from the needles and slashes at the two blights in front of her with her pact blade.
"I'll take that as my cue." Sheva runs to the door on the left and conjures a large mass of infernal flame just outside the door into the mass of blights. "W̛͘i̴̴̡ţ̨̛h ̧t̵́he͘͠ ̴f̶i͝͞r̛͟e̵̡͢ ̵͝f̢́҉r̶ò̵m͡ ͠t̵h͘͠e̵͘͘ f̶͜í̡̀ŗe̛wòr͏k͘s̴͠ up̵͞ ̶͢͞a̡͘͡b̷o҉̵ve̵͟͞͠"
Sheva positions herself between two doors and readies herself to meet the creatures head-on.
"Just be a dear and tell me when it's time for a fireball." Sheva smirks at Galador. "We might just get to burn down something yet, Victor."
Sheva activates her Devil's Sight.
"What is it with the ravens in this place? There was one watching us at the windmill as well."
Sheva joins Casdin and helps close and bar the upper doors.
Sheva welcomes a tinge of fiendish bloodlust as she readies her blade. In the back of her mind she begins to recall the words for her fireball spell. Just in case. Despite the imminent danger, she can't help but crack a smile. "B͞r̨͢i̕n͝g t͝͞he͠m̕ ̢ơn͘͡.̕͏͠"
Sheva makes her way back to the winery with the others, keeping her blade ready.
"Oh $&@#." Sheva calls forth her eldritch blast as she summons her pact blade. "W̷̸̡h̷̕ȩ̡̛́͟r̀́e̢͟ ̀͜t̷̨h̸̡̕͟è̶̴ ́e̸̡̢̛͡m̡̛e̢͟͞҉͢r̵̴̶a̷̸̡͞͠l҉̷͢͡d̸̸͡ ̕͟͢͠͡g͞l̴̀í̴͢͞͡s̨̧͞ţ̶̀e̶̷n̶̡͢͢͢s̷̴̀͜ ̷̡̕͝t̵̡͜͝͞h͏͏r̴͜͞ó̵̶͟u̷҉̷̀g͞h́́͜͡ ̷̶̀̕͠t͘h̸̵̛e̕ ͞d̶̢a҉̨͟r͏̸̕k̶̴͢͜͞n͝͝e͟ś͘͘͜s̷̢͜͠͡ ̷̢͠͝͡a͏͏ģ̸͏̷̀à̧͏į́͟n͏̵́͜͢" To her surprise two streaks of dark energy fire from her hand instead of one, both aimed at different blights.
I'm sorry for your loss. I think this game will still be here when you're ready to get back to it. Take your time.
"Yeah, burning down their winery doesn't really solve their problem so much as just replace it with a new problem." "Victor, I don't really have any spying magic so much as distraction and hiding. I can create simple illusions or a cloud of darkness which even Elven vision cannot penetrate. My ability to turn invisible was replaced by more powerful spells when I last, uh, met, with my patron." "Raz, you and Vasilios still can cast the invisibility spell though, can't you?"
"You fine folks have all your, uh, nibbly bits, right?" "Seriously, Galador, how do you come up with these things?"
"I said 'hi' to him, Galador." Sheva smirks. Sheva then listens to Davian Martikov's response. "Huh! Evil druids? I thought druids were just indifferent to anyone that wasn't a tree." "So we're here to see what happened to the last wine shipment, and I guess, evil druids happened. Fortunately we're a group of brave and somewhat foolhardy adventurers, so rather than turning back, I'll ask a simple question of you, good sir." Sheva sighs with a resigned smile, feeling she really should know better by now. "What can we do to help?"
Sheva, not being able to see clearly if the man is a potential threat, summons her pact blade to her hand and slowly walks toward the figure. "Hi there." she calls out. "You wouldn't by chance be turning children into pies or be one of the undead trying to lure us into a trap, would you?" she asks as she readies the blade into striking position. "It would be really if you weren't." "We're just here to inquire about some wine. But we've heard some stories on our journey."
Sheva doesn't notice anything about Urwin, but takes note of Galador's reaction and whispers to him. "I know that look. What's wrong?"
Sheva ponders things for a moment and meets Galador's gaze with equal seriousness. "Someday soon we'll march into a mouth of Hell, dear Galador, but not this one." "Perhaps..." she continues, thinking out loud, "... a mob is all we need." "No doubt the hags have been operating discretely for some time, the surrounding world oblivious to their evil deeds. But if we spread the word, perhaps we can raise an angry mob to charge their windmill while we stay out of it."
"Back when I lived at the convent, I spent time studying fiendish and infernal creatures in hopes of gaining insight on my own affliction. I've come across legends and tales of night hags like the ones at the mill." "These hags are powerful, but they aren't omnipotent. Many of their spells have limited use per day. A large mob of angry villagers might just overwhelm them quickly." "So rather than charge at them head on, it might be best that we simply raise an army to do it for us." She stops and grins. "So when do we go fetch that wine? I'm feeling a bit thirsty."
"Why Galador, you seem positively chipper today!" Sheva grins. "Shall we expect the usual angry mob of husbands and fathers running us out of town?" she laughs with a knowing wink. She then takes a more serious tone and addresses the entire group. "Before we go on this errand, something's been weighing heavily on my conscience these last couple days. And you're going to think I'm completely insane for suggesting this, but ..." she trails off. "Once we retrieve this wine shipment ... I think we should go back to the windmill and finish the job we started and destroy those hags."
Sheva spends most of the day asleep, after all the previous events, plus patron meeting plus nightcap have caught up with her. She wanders around the inn as evening approaches to see if anybody else is awake so she can catch up on things and apologize for her abrupt disappearance. Heavy decisions weigh on her, decisions that will likely leave her companions thinking she's even crazier than they suspected. She finally settles in the tavern and chats with the bartender to find out the goings-on.
Galador: Sheva returns Galador's kiss with a smile. "Mmmmm... Took you long enough. Next time don't wait until you almost die." she giggles. She locks her arms around his neck and pulls him close. She whispers with heavy breath, "Tomorrow we fight on, maybe we even ..." "... but right now we live ... " "..."
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