Try as I might, I can't seem to keep up with this game. You all probably saw this coming, but I apologize, I'm going to have to bow out.
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Also ready to move on.
Tahlaera follows Lord Bramwell's lead after their search of the town hall's records fails to turn anything interesting up, politely excusing herself and joining the group at the temple, then shortly thereafter to Kendra's house. "No, we hadn't heard. Do they have any idea when this happened?"
Town Hall: "A pleasure, I'm sure," Tahlaera responds to Shanda politely. She follows after the woman with a quick glance at her companions, seating herself at one of the available chairs. "In looking into the late professor's death, we were hoping to gain access to the records the town hall keeps. Is this something you can help us with, Shanda?"
Same, I think.
Tahlaera sits down heavily after the last stirge is slain. A bit light-headed, she stands after a moment. Too dazed to wave Dr Benedict off, she allows him to minister to her wounds and nods weakly when it is suggested that they get started on the tasks at hand. "Obviously, we're on the right trail," she remarks.
Tahlaera yelps in surprise, drawing her thinblade as a stirge latches onto her. Raising her off hand to fend it off, she stabs at it.
"I will join the group attending to the town hall, then," Tahlaera chimes in.
Tahlaera follows along back to the professor's house quietly. She volunteers to assist Kendra with the research as well, and spends the remainder of the day poring over old tomes and trying to keep out of her fellow researchers' way.
Tahlaera just shakes her head, arms crossed. She mutters quietly, "I wonder if the officials at town hall have some sort of 'fee' for looking at their archives...."
Tahlaera catches Lyla's dark look and pats the child on the head. "Don't take it so hard. You'll be an adult in the blink of an eye, and then they can't use your age as an excuse."
Tahlaera nods at Lyla as she accepts the planchette. Stepping to the side, she studies the item for a few moments, going over the scarab design carefully. She then thrusts the planchette in a safe direction and intones, "Klaatu... verata... n...nlnnr."
Tahlaera looks at Kalina with a jaundiced eye as she takes one of the healing potions as well. "I have some knack for figuring out magic like that, if you'd like me to try," she says, looking at Lyla.
Tahlaera nods her assent to Kalina. "Thanks," she says dryly after the oracle heals her. As the rest of the party looks over the cache of items just discovered, Tahlaera requests that she be allowed to take a look at the as-yet-unidentified planchette.
After a few moments, she shakes her head, her efforts frustrated. "I have to admit that I am curious where those other centipedes fled to," she replies to Benedict's suggestion.
Wiping the centipedes' ichor from her thinblade, Tahlaera resheathes the sword with a dark look at Kalina. Looking closer at the sarcophagus now that the room is clear of danger, she remarks, "I don't see anything either--just an old skeleton."
Shaking off the pain and shielding her face from the barrage of magical energy Kalina turned on her, Tahlaera manages to draw her thin elven blade from its sheath and stab at one of the particularly large centipedes swarming her.
Reacting quickly as the swarm attempts to flee, she skewers another of the vermin.
I had trouble accessing it earlier, but it seems to work okay at the moment.
Following along quietly as the party searches the room with the sarcophagus, Tahlaera is caught off-guard by the swarm of centipedes. "Where--Ow!"
Tahlaera nods her acquiescence to Zokar and takes a seat silently. "I agree with the doctor. We can ask for forgiveness later, if there are objections. As for the 'Way,'" she continues, lowering her voice, "I believe that I can begin to answer that. The Whispering Way are an ancient order whose uniting tenets are the pursuit of power and the belief that undeath is the truest form of existence. They often operate alone or in small groups, and--as you might expect--are involved heavily with the research and...application...of necromancy. Their agents often travel to remote, haunted locations to conduct what passes for field research. A haunted prison would certainly seem to fit the bill."
What does the "V" stand for, I wonder? Tahlaera nods in agreement with Raoul, echoing, "I was at the Lorrimor estate the whole night."
The following morning, Tahlaera quietly replies to Kendra, "Ravengro is unfamiliar to me. I would be honored to see more of the town." The previous night: Tahlaera replies in Elven to Ash and Cerana, smiling and begging off from the social engagement by explaining that she has some research of her own to do.
Tahlaera shrugs. "I've a bedroll with me. That's all I need."
Tahlaera turns to Kendra. "I don't suppose Father Grimburrow attempted to contact the Professor's spirit, did he?"
Tahlaera smiles faintly at Ash, replying in Elven: Elven:
"Perhaps if time permits. But I think we will be a bit busy for the immediate future." As the contents of the books are read, Tahlaera frowns. It deepens when the Professor's journal entries on the Whispering Way are read. I should have known the Whispering Way was involved. This wouldn't be the first time the Professor has crossed them. But why didn't he send for me sooner? she thinks. She replies to Jolienne, "The Whispering Way may well have been involved in the Professor's death. They have crossed paths with him before." "Perhaps the false crypt would be a better starting point than the prison. Having the appropriate tools with which to fight the undead would greatly benefit us when we delve deeper into this plot, no doubt."
"Tahlaera Silverbow," the cloaked elf replies simply with a nod, looking the remainder of the assemblage over with steel-blue eyes.
En route to the burial site:
Tahlaera nods soberly at Ash, replying in Elven, her voice low. "I am Tahlaera. A pleasure." After the burden of the heavy casket has been lifted, and the deceased professor interred into the open grave, Tahlaera steps back, remaining quiet. Best to remain quiet, rather than offend with my ignorance of these strange customs, she thinks.
Tahlaera shifts her weight as she looks around at the other pallbearers. "Shall we move on?" she asks in her strangely-accented Taldane.
The fools don't know how wrong they are, Tahlaera thinks as she comes to a halt with the rest of the procession. She spares the rest of the funeral procession a glance, as if waiting for one of them to speak, and then studies the unruly mob in front of them, her facial expression impassive.
Tahlaera remains silent, her gaze outward toward the surroundings of the burial party rather than toward the coffin of her late colleague. She fidgets, clearly ill at ease with the human burial custom.
It'll probably take some revision of Ash's background. A couple of possibilities: his parents could be rich elven merchants who are/were Forlorn themselves, or you (if Finkmilkana's okay with it) could re-flavor the trait that it was a reward for saving some rich person's life somewhere along the way. I'm kind of curious how the Forlorn elf/non-Forlorn elf interactions will play out.
For some reason, the notion of a Forlorn elf with the Rich Parents trait amuses me.
Tahlaera would just as happily not be a pall-bearer. Non-elven customs are strange to her. The only reason she would volunteer is for lack of numbers, so if someone else would be happier doing so, Tahlaera would happily rescind her offer.
Tahlaera would also volunteer, though she would point out that she does not really know anything about Ustalavan burial customs and would invite someone to explain the process to her.
Throwing an elven magus in for consideration. She was developed for a Carrion Crown pbp already-underway, but I can edit a couple of lines in her background and it should work just fine.
Ansha here, submitting the elven magus and agent of Kyonin, Tahlaera Silverbow. 1: I add wit and pinache, obviously! :D Seriously though, I like to think that I add a great deal of roleplay/atmosphere to a pbp game, and also am quite active on the boards. Posting multiple times a day is rarely a problem for me. 2: I see Tahlaera going straight magus. While she has her investigative aspects, her primary role mechanically is that of a front-line or support fighter with some added magical firepower. In roleplay, her primary role is a cross between a detective and a bodyguard. 3: Yep. No problems here. The only reason I've ever left a PbP is because it died before I did. ;P 4: Nope! The answers to these are in Tahlaera's background, in her profile, but here are the highlights: A: Tahlaera is a former colleague of Professor Lorrimer in their shared hunt for the Whispered Way. She has worked for him as a sort of bodyguard before, and even came to be something of a family friend before he died. B: Tahlaera was on the trail of someone(s) connected to the Whispering Way, and she knew that the Professor would want her to maintain her focus on the task at hand--so she stayed on their trail, in his memory. Only after she completed that task did she return to Ravengro. C: Kendra brought/sent word for Tahlaera to meet her there, knowing that Tahlaera was named in the will but unable to be present at the time of its reading. D: Tahlaera doesn't care so much for the hamlet, as she wants to make sure that whatever problem arose in the hamlet doesn't spread, eventually making it a problem for other realms nearby (namely, Kyonin). She also wants to know what happened to her friend, the professor, and to avenge him. E: Tahlaera is secretly afraid that if she were to die fighting the undead (a real possibility in Ustalav), her corpse would be reanimated and she would be forced to watch as she turned on friends, allies and the values she holds dear, a prisoner in her own body. |