Welcome back, @Big Joe!
If you think you are up to keeping this game going, then Thistle is happy to get back in the game.
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Yes, thanks for the invite all. I look forward to tweaking DAY-LIX-EE-AH's nose in perpetuity.
I will be travelling (again) from Wed through Monday. I don't know what kind of internet access I will have. Please bot me if necessary.
FYI - I will be gone this weekend as well, and will not be back in play until Monday.
Of course Thistle makes a point to talk to all of the caravan members as they travel, often regaling them with tales of adventure and tidbits about their chosen professions as written by archaic scholars who likely never saw a sideshow in person, or at least not from anywhere closer than the back row. Still, the gnarf was full of wonderful stories (to him) and amazing advice (also to him) and was rewarded for his efforts by S’jeer, who re-dyed his hair and provided her own special blend so that Thistle could refresh the color ever 3 weeks or so.
FYI I will be travelling from Wed through Sun this week. I may or may not have much time to check in on the game. If you need to bot me to keep the pace moving, please do so, Thanks!
"We thank you for your kind offer of the gift. I think that is an amazing imprint of the wolf. And you say it reveals its true nature among those changed by the light of the moon? That must mean lycanthropes, men and women who change into the form of their beast during the days surrounding the full moon. Well, they can change at other times too, but at the full moon they have no choice. It's like having a job that three days a month requires you to put on a costume. You can put on the costume any other time, but during those three days you have to wear it. Oh, and you lose a lot of your own will as thebeast inside takes over. And most are evil. So, not very much like a costume at all." Thistle pulled the blade from its sheath to check and see if it was silver. "As for the ride, I would be happy to. As a disciple of Desna, the freedom to travel where I wish on my own two feet is a blessing, but sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad." The dwarf rubbed one of his feet against the back of the opposite leg to show his point.
Thistle pulled out his wand, which he had completely forgotten, and brought Smaranda back up to full strength.
"Smaranda, sit girl before you fall over! Oh that poison is horrible. Let me see if I have anything in here that can help with that. Yes, see, here are some vials of antitoxin, no whoops. Okay, forget the antitoxin. Let's just deal with the aftereffects, shall we? Two small vials of lesser restoration potions, and here's a scroll too. We can patch you up in a jiffy."
Blessings of Desna given, Thistle unloaded his crossbow from his back and aimed carefully, trying to hit the spider and not his companions. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, opening one up slowly to see if he hit anything.
Thistle raised his hands and brought them together, forming the sign of Desna. A pulse of radiance flew out from him, and everyone felt their spirits lifted.
"Where? Oh in that direction? Very well. Charge!"
"There was a spider with a face? Was it a happy looking face, or more scary? I once read a story about a scary-faced spider that could turn itself invisible, and leap out and scare small children. The mother told the child that the spider would not hurt her, but the child knew that the spider would leap out and get her. The mother picked up a shoe and said 'I'll squash that spider with this shoe if it tries to get you.' The child was about to say that the spider was in the shoe when the mother put the show on and squashed the spider. So, I guess that doesn't really really apply if you say this was a big spider, unless your idea of a big spider is only about the size of my thumbnail. Is it?" Despite his words, Thistle looked around to see if he could see signs of this big spider Smaranda was talking about.
"Well of course I was able to see the tracks! I mean, how could I not? Reading isn't all done in the sunlight with large, well-defined script you know. Sometimes you spend hours in dim candlelight, squinting to try and make out the snail-trail scribblings of a half-drunk archivist." Thistle sighs in pleasure at the thought. "I..." He broke off, cocking his head to listen to something in the distance. Smaranda beat him to it, haring off on her own. "Wait, Smaranda! That didn't sound like our missing person. It wasn't....human." He trailed off as Smaranda rushed off, quickly outdistancing him and the rest.
I will be travelling tomorrow afternoon through Tuesday evening, and will not be able to post again until Wednesday. Please feel free to bot me if needed.
"Help? Of course we'll help! That's what we are all about, helping people. I mean, remember when I first came upon you, fighting wolves in the graveyard? I didn't hesitate. 'Thistle' I said to myself, 'these folks need help', and I rushed in to save you all. I even healed you. Well, maybe that last part wasn't so helpful," he glanced at Kisasi, "but it was the intent that counted!"
@Gm - Glad to hear you are feeling better. @DAY-LIX-EE-AH - I composed a 37-stanza brass fanfare to inspire you to get better. There are 24 parts, 19 of which are trumpets. You sit back and relax and I'll tell the conductor to get them started. I'm sorry, but in the short time frame I was only able to get a junior high band to perform it. I'm sure it will be fine.
Dude, so sorry to hear that. Hope you get better soon. I'll have the gnarf lay off you until you recover. Well, mostly.
PFS #: 52459
I'll take one, though I don't get much PFS in these days. Ditto DAY-LIX-EE-AH's question.
"I say the person with the most need should get the cloak. DAY-LIX-E-AH, since you have proven to be very susceptible to enemy spells, you should definitely be the wearer. I know how hard it must be for you to face the fact that you ran off and left us all. Most likely, that's the reason you barked at Smaranda earlier. Trying to assuage your own guilt. Here, I think I have a small treatise in my pack that might help you..." Thistle broke off at the look on DAY-LIX-EE-AH's face. "On second thought, I'd rather this not go into the fire tonight. Perhaps I can read it to you?" Thistle happily stood his turn at watch, chatting with anyone that was awake with him...which was everyone given that he talked at his normal volume.
"I think she is more than likely stupefied by your stupidity! I have been told I am tone deaf when it comes to the feelings of others, but did you seriously just call Smaranda a ghoul? Dr. Tobias Threadhart once wrote 'the cruelest thing I ever saw was when a mother compared her child to a throgbeast in front of that child'. That child grew up to be the most vicious dogcatcher in Absalom. Nearly broke her mother's heart to see what her child did to those dogs. Of course, for about 20 years, fried dog on a stick was very popular, but it went the way most fads do." "But yes, once you have apologized to Smaranda, we should be on about our business."
Thistle looked ashamed that he had gone for the magic items before healing. "Right, right. Hnag on let me concentrate." He poured healing into the room, being sure to exclude his dhampir friends from the burst of energy. Then he pulled out that wand they had been given and touched Kiassi up as well.
Thistle moved about the room, using his arcane training to search for things with magical auras and setting those objects aside. Once he had them collected, he began studying each to see if he could identify their properties. "Well, I don't know about the rod or the cloak, but this is a potion of magic fang. Not sure what use for it we have, though, unless you want to make DAY-LIX-EE-AH's tongue even sharper." "Is anyone injured?"
"I suppose it's too much to hope that she just drank a bottle of poison to prevent us from killing her?" Thinking quickly, Thistle shouted "Fall down!" at the priestess, who felt an overwhelming urge to hit the floor.
Thistle couldn't move as the wave of negative energy washed over him, but internally he was smiling. He had made that same mistake in reverse before, and he was glad to see someone else doing it now. Suddenly, his muscles were released from their bindings and he rushed forward. "Don't worry Kisasi, I am coming to help!"
Thistle wanted to contribute, he really did, but his muscles were locked in rigor from the magical paralysis from the ghoul. Still it was fascinating that the creatures could have a pseudo-functional society like this. He would have to talk to one of them about it if any of them were left alive.
Thistle started to reply to the ghoul when the creature bit and slashed at him. He could feel the muscles locking up from the creature's magical paralysis, and had just enough time to say "That's an interesting physiological response to wounds. It reminds me of something I read in..." before he lost all conscious control over his body.
"DAY-LIX-EE-AH, come back! I was only just joking (mostly) about the largeness and tastyness of your thighs."
"Oh no, I wouldn't! Too little fat and too much gristle on me! Try DAY-LIX-EE-AH instead. I mean look at those thighs! One of those would feed you for a week!" Thistle wasn't really thinking about what he was saying. He was more inclined to stay away from those grasping claws.
sorry for the delays. I had a work trip, followed by the grand opening for my wife's new clinic, and then popped a 103 fever that has had me in the delusional stage for 2 days. I'm coming around though.
No worries, Big Joe. Glad everything is back up and running again.
"Who is this Pallid Princess you speak of?"
"Hello in there! My name is Thistle Winton, follower of Desna and scholar of the most interesting things. We don't wish to harm anyone we don't have to, but it seems like you might be scared of us. Don't be. We are all nice people..." Thistle broke off and glanced at DAY-LIX-EE-AH before continuing. "Well, most of us are at any rate. Why don't you come out to talk with us. If this is a holy site you'd rather us not enter, then we would be happy to abide by your wishes. We only saw the condition of this hamlet and thought to look into it and offer aid where we can."
Thistle moved up behind DAY-LIX-EE-AH and prepared to cast a spell. Any spell. Well, maybe not any spell. After all, would create water even be useful here? He started to ask the nearest person about the efficacy of water in combat, but then realized the nearest person was DAY-LIX-EE-AH. He decided to look into that on his own later.
Thistle did what no one, least of all him, ever expected....he listened to DAY-LIX-EE-AH. Releasing his death grip on Mihaela, the gnarf bolted for the safety of the doorway, determined to get outside before the building collapsed on him.
Thistle was in the process of pointing out the hidden pocket under the floorboard when Smaranda went and kicked it open. Ah well, maybe there was another around here somewhere. The gnarf continued to look around, but didn't find any more. He was so caught up in his investigation that he missed the initial trembling of the building. It wasn't until the whole thing lurched into the ground that he noticed anything amiss. He grabbed onto the nearest person, Mihaela, and held on tight.
"Something is in there...or was at any rate. hold on for just a moment." Thistle grabbed a stone, cast a Light cantrip on it, and tossed it into the room. "Proceed. Also, you may want to know that whatever it was was hiding among the rafters, and scampered out through that door over there."
No worries, Joe. We understand.
"Oh, ghouls! Nasty creatures. If they claw you, there is a significant chance that you may be paralyzed. In fact, that is the major premise behind the play O Bother, Where Art Thou, as a man stands stock still for the entire two hours of the play, while remembrances of his life are acted about him. Quite the interesting phenomena, I should say. Apparently, the lead takes a special paralysis potion before the show, leaving only his head able to function."
FYI my grandmother died yesterday and I will be traveling tomorrow and Thursday to get to the funeral and back. If I am in your game, please bot me as needed. If you are in my game, carry on and be patient. I'll post when I can. Thanks for your understanding.
"I think Mihaela is quite correct. Any time adventurers find a sign saying 'keep away', they are morally obligated to look. It's in all the books. Even this one." Thistle rooted around in his pack and came out with a rather badly mauled book of only a few dozen pages. As he held it up, you could clearly read the title. The Bedwetter Chronicles: Book 1 - Of How The Author Went Adventuring And Learned Things Before Yet Thought To Be Legend Were Actually True
Thistle volunteers for the last watch, since he needed to pray and prepare spells at dawn anyways. That let him get uninterrupted sleep, which the gnarf preferred over interrupted sleep any day of the week. For dinner, he prepared a nice fryup of eggs, sausages, tomatoes, and a small pot of the sweet beans that he had purchased at the market. It was nice to have fresh rations, but he knew it wouldn't last. A few days and they'd be eating dried bread and hard sausages...or something like that.
"Oh, Lepidstadt sounds like a lovely place. I haven't been there myself, but now Desna is blessing me with the opportunity to travel and seek out new sights and learn new things. Praise Desna! And, it's only a hundred miles away, up what the locals call the 'Old Mountain Road'. I should pack away a few books to read to you along the way. Oh, and we'd better be prepared for trouble. Some locals talked about a 'Beast of Lepidstadt' terrorizing the area. It was recently captured, so I doubt we'll have any problems with it." thistle happily packed away the tomes that Kelendra gave him, then waved goodbye cheerily as they set out. Within a few strides he was already talking animatedly about a book he once read about traveling the roads as an adventuring party.
You aren't getting rid of Thistle that easily! Oh no, my friends, we are in for a long and well-documented journey together. I even have a few treatises on the expectations of group members traveling together that I can read to you on our travels. The first one is 'The Whys and Wherefores of Boon Companions Traveling Together and the Order Upon Which to Stand as Thou Proceed Into Dangers' by Hugo Furst, Justin Kase. I would like to buy another wand of CLW and one of Inflict Light wounds, if they are available before we leave.
"Father Turnbuckle tried, but he thinks it is his standing with the church that is interfering with his call for aid. Personally, I doubt that. From what I know about Pharasma, she has little liking for her worldly clergy, and their strict rules. But, I suppose she knows that every god must have an organized base of faith, or risk losing their status as a prime deity. Besides, there's always tomorrow. And at least the holes don't hurt, right Smaranda? I mean, sure, they are unsightly and look horrifying, but they don't actually hurt, and I think that is a very important point to focus on just now. But tomorrow, yes there is tomorrow."
I'm back!
Nah, it did. There's just nothing in the Ravengro market :p
FYI, from tomorrow though the New Year, I will be on a really crazy schedule. Between work, the holidays, family visits, and trying to get my wife's new vet clinic open for business, I won't be able to check and post on the boards as regularly as I'd like. Please bear with me.
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