I'm checking in. I'm still here, but have been on vacation this past week so I haven't had time to adjust Uruelleth's stats yet. I'll have time later this week if selected.
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I'm intrigued. I'd like to submit Uruelleth, a different take on an elf that I played in a campaign that unfortunately ended a few years back. Of course, if selected, I'll level him down to 8 and make sure his build conforms to your campaign. The main thing is that he was an orc warlord in Belkzen who was assassinated by the Red Mantis (the previous campaign involved wiping out that organization). He was reincarnated as an elf and had to flee since he couldn't exactly continue his life as a warlord of orcs as an elf. For motivation, he basically wants to avoid another death by assassination because of his faith in Gorum. So he volunteers to fight the for the elves, and picks the toughest missions so he can die a glorious death. He still hasn't gotten killed yet. Build: elf bloodrager See the profile for background vignettes.
Hope everything's going okay for everybody.
Ruel allows the guards to run and releases his battle fury. Still panting with the exertion of battle, he looks around for a ladder or rope to throw down to the slaves. While he does that, he looks over to the gnoll ex-slave. "You there! Where did Goldshackle keep her valuables?" He first tries asking in Dwarven, and then Taldane if Tukh didn't seem to understand him.
Uruelleth allows himself a tight grin when he sees that his attack on Goldshackle left her so loopy that she hit herself. He keeps up his attacks, hoping to drive through her and step in to defend Kilarra.
Uruelleth keeps up his attacks on Goldshackle, showing that ignoring him would mean death.
In a flash, Uruelleth is next to Goldshackle. His falchion is in his hands with a blur as he lets his battle fury take him, and he brings it down hard onto the slaver.
Ruel moseys through the crowd after Kilarra, hoping to appear like her bodyguard. He gives the guard a knowing wink and a sly grin when Kilarra bends over to look closer at the slaves.
Uruelleth gives Talia, Bharaz and the others a look. Speaking loud enough to be overheard, he says, "Let's move up to take a better look at the merchandise, shall we?"
"Anyone got a way to get the slaves riled up?" Uruelleth tosses out as an idea.
Ruel scans the crowd and then gives a tight nod. "Gotta agree with Talia. Hopefully, once the crowd starts running, they'll have trouble getting to them. Bharaz can stay close by and keep 'em off the casters. Kilarra, you'll do better flanking me or Achutla." He gives Alayna a long, somewhat distrustful look, then focuses on their target and her bodyguards.
Under his breath, Uruelleth mutters to his companions, "Crowd's going to make it a problem getting to 'em. Don't know if they'll retreat or keep fighting. Guards at our back will be an issue, too. If Talia moves me up, who's going to cover the spellcasters?"
Uruelleth stands close by Talia with a relaxed look on his face. He takes in the bouncers professionally, assessing their combat utility.
Uruelleth rubs his smooth chin while he thinks on the battle plan. "One way in... through a long and twisting alley. Sure to be other ways out, but we won't know 'em until we're there..." With a grunt of frustration, he shakes his head. "I don't like our chances being sneaky. Going there to buy a slave for information just risks us getting made. Then when we go back, Goldshackle will have all her guards on alert and probably all her merchandise moved. "I say, we do this straightforward. Belkzen Blitz time. No warnings, no mercy. Anyone who fights back is put down hard. What do you say?"
Ruel shrugs his shoulders and nods his head in Talia's direction. "What she said. You're either satisfied with who we are, or you look elsewhere."
Ruel just stood in the back and watched their reaction to Talia. Her knowledge was impressive, but it made a lot of people nervous. "It's a lot to take in, yeah? It sounds like you need us a whole lot more than we need you, so don't get any bad ideas about us knowing too much."
Ruel lets out a long, slow breath he'd been holding. He always thought he'd been a pretty slick liar, but lately everyone's been seeing through his bluffs. Or maybe it was his disguises. He nods in agreement with Talia, and walks with the group to the tavern while carrying the large pack that contained his heavier armor and weapons.
Ruel tries to fade into the background while Bharaz puts his mercantile skills to use in negotiating a better price for putting the Fair Winds into berth.
Uruelleth grins fiercely at Achutla. "And I you with your sword. But an elf wielding a falchion is a little too obvious for Ilizmagorti." In preparation for bluffing their way through the docks, Ruel sets aside his falchion and his breastplate, opting to wear his chain shirt. He slings his bow prominently across his chest and ties his hair back.
He approaches the bargemen. "Good evening. I'm the first mate. Name's Tane "Longshot" Leren. Our captain is Dervin Steelbeard." He gestures to the rather empty deck. "We're looking to take on some more crew. Don't worry; we don't plan on pressing anyone, unless you've got a few rabble rousers in lockup you're anxious to get rid of. Shouldn't take more than a day or two."
Ruel folds his arms and give Kilarra a smirk back. "I like those. If we lose this one and Talia makes another, I nominate Entrail-Reaper."
Well, then in the interest of moving things along so we're not stymied by indecision, it seems like it's preferred to sail the Fair Winds into port in Ilizmagorti. Therefore, I suggest we do that. Maybe there's a Knowledge (local) check we could make to see if one of us had picked up the general procedure for docking? Then we either bluff or bribe our way through customs or whatever goes for that here in the pirate port. Several of us have decent bluff skills, and maybe use Bharaz as the "captain" since he's the one most likely to be unknown to those keeping an eye out for Pact members. Thoughts?
Can Talia (bringing along a couple other PCs) teleport to Shark's hidden cove to get the boats? Then they can row out to the Fair Winds and pick everyone else up. We could do that if we wanted to go with anchoring the ship outside the harbor, but that risks the ship itself. "Burning" the ship could be something we could do since Talia could always cast those spells again and make yet another ship. Or, if there are enough slaves, just give it to them and let them sail away with it to freedom.
I think the only issue with that is that we may be running away with a large number of escaped slaves. Getting them all onto a rowboat might be too unwieldy. Of course, having the ship in dock as a getaway vehicle will burn it as ours if the escape is witnessed. Tough choice.
Uruelleth gave Kilarra a look at the names she suggested. A coward's weapon or the most boring name for a ship ever. He sighed when Talia seemed to like Fair Winds. "Fine. Whatever." When Talia tells them all about the visions, he keeps an eye on the girl to watch her reaction to the orders that she's to be taken alive, and then compares them to Talia's own. He was curious which was worse: Talia's imagination or Alayna's experience? Ruel, however, was nonplussed about being marked for death. He knew that. It had happened a couple times before, but so long as he dies a warrior's death, he wouldn't mind.
Ruel shrugs. "Sounds all right. Probably better to go with something plain, rather than try to be clever and name it something with a hidden meaning." He heads out to the ship. "So, are we going to try to take this thing to Ilizmagorti now?"
Interested to see how this magic works, Ruel follows along. He takes an axe to fell some trees if he can find one amongst the kobolds' supplies.
Ruel nods along with the others, similarly impressed if Talia could pull it off. But his face still twisted with concern. "Even with a ship, we wouldn't be able to just sail into the harbor without some sort of permission, would we? I'll grant you that the bugs won't be looking for us coming in on a ship, but that doesn't mean the harbor will be unguarded." He looks over to Bharaz. "You managed to get here through the port at Ilizmagorti. What was it like? Was your ship inspected?"
All right; then we only have the small problem of trying to sail the thing. =========== I agree it's a pain, but cutting them all loose seems wrong. Maybe this is a debate we could take up in-character? Sounds like fun. Also, there's a pretty good chance that Goldshackle will not have huge numbers of slaves at any one time. Keeping a large inventory of slaves around who aren't doing anything seems horribly expensive. Housing, guarding, feeding, dealing with their waste... it's bound to be a lot of upkeep. We're looking to dismantle the operation rather than save a current batch.
Okay, then. Next question: How will we get the pirate ship to the ocean from the kobold warrens?
Wouldn't it be easier to just capture our own pirate ship? More fun, anyway. :)
Ruel snorts in wry amusement. "Ja, det låter som dvärg för mig. Fortsätt bära det, så kan du ha en trevlig konversation med Bharaz." Dwarven:
"Yes, that sounds like dwarven to me. Keep wearing that, and you can have a nice conversation with Bharaz." He watches the girl marvel at the magic of her father's magic item for a moment, then thinks back to what she had been talking about earlier. "You don't have to tell me anything about that place. Fair warning, though. Talia's the nosy sort. She'll want to know all about it, I expect." He steps closer, leaning over her. "No, there's only one thing I want to know. You talked a good game to your dad. So I'll help you get your revenge. But are you up to it? Will you fight?" Before Alayna can answer, he points to her forehead. "And your answer doesn't come from here." His finger moves to right above her breastbone. "It's got to come from here."
Uruelleth scowls when the girl recognized him and blurted out what she'd apparently overheard while enslaved to the Mantis. He gives her a warning look, then catches the glare from Bharaz. He'd seen those kind of looks before from dwarves. He relaxes somewhat when Talia goes after Bharaz when he stormed out. He figures she'll do what she does best: take control of the situation and get him focused on their true enemy. And if not... well, he could take the next ship to Lastwall and go fight orcs. As Achutla wanders over to talk to Kilarra, that left Ruel with Talivar's whelp. He turns to her. "Any more of our secrets you've got to share?"
Agreed. Looking forward to this new dynamic!
Uruelleth watches the ceremony, not really sure about Talia's idea of bringing Talivar's spirit back for a send-off. Still, he gives the frost mage a salute of respect. Ruel turns his attention to Talivar's daughter. He approves her oath of vengeance; he just hopes she has the stomach to fight when things get difficult. No doubt, she endured terrible things in the Mantis's lair, but he doubted she had fought off enemies directly trying to kill her. He'd known some warchiefs in Belkzen who favored harems of slaves. It turned his stomach then, and he hadn't changed his opinion in his lives since. "Well," he finally says after the ceremony is over, "if the girl's a sorcerer like her dad, she could probably use some of his gear. Better she use it, than burn it up." He takes Talivar's magical belt, headband, and cloak and hands it to Alayna. "It may not fit all that well, but here."
Uruelleth frowns in thought for a moment. Talia had mentioned that she might be able to eventually learn a way to bring him back to life, so he wonders if they would need his body for that. Probably. He knew from experience that one only needed a small portion of the body for reincarnation, but she had said Talivar was beyond that. "Building a pyre feels wrong. He was all about the ice and cold. Is there a place somewhere on this island that is always cold? Or, maybe a tomb in your deepest tunnels? "Last thing we want is to let the bugs get their claws on his body. They'd probably try to make him undead or something. Bad enough on the girl, what they had her do. She doesn't need that. Hell, none of us need that. Maybe the pyre is the best call."
"Sure. Let's go." He nods his head in the direction of the correct tunnel to reach Makkatat and starts walking, assuming that the others would follow. He had to stoop quite a bit to navigate most of the tunnels. Whenever they pass a kobold, he greets them in Draconic and assures them that the dwarf was with him. While he guided them, he looks back to Achutla. "So, I assume the kobolds remembered you? You're still here." When he gets to Makkatat's chambers, Ruel shows visible shock that he is no longer the crippled kobold he used to be. "Whoa. That must have been some strong magic!" He moves on quickly to the point of the visit. "We've had a tragedy. Talivar was killed by a trap the Mantises set. But we've found new allies. Achutla, you apparently know already. This dwarf is named Bharaz, and I've seen him fight. We're not stopping the mission. We all knew what we had signed up for."
Ruel gets a look of satisfaction on his face. Talivar's death hurt, but it won't stop them from destroying the bugs. "Okay. Let's talk to Makkatat. Then we'll send Talivar on to the Boneyard. After that, we'll make our plans to strike at Goldshackle. How's that sound?"
Uruelleth's anger didn't dissipate so easily. He wanted to strike out at the Mantises, to destroy something valuable of theirs in full-out, open combat -- a stark contrast to knives in the dark. He kept himself from pacing as he listened to Talia list their options. "I don't know about the cult. I want to destroy something. Whatever they're after -- I don't know if it'll be satisfying." He thinks some more, trying to keep his temper from overriding good sense. Attacking the slave operation seemed quite appropriate at this point, but would it be too obvious to the Mantis? Waiting to strike the goblins would be a better play, but the loss of Talivar would be felt. His area spells could deal with waves of goblins handily, letting Kilarra and himself take the more powerful ones. Though, if the girl was a sorcerer now... He shakes his head. She is far more likely to be a liability. Either too brainwashed or too damaged -- or likely both. I say we target Goldshackle. Strike quickly, before the Mantis can consider where we might strike next. Getting rid of their slave trade feels... appropriate. Something Talivar would appreciate."
Uruelleth was about to swear when Kilarra did it for him. So he just folds his arms and broods in sullen silence. Talivar had been a staunch ally, and his magic in battle had been supremely useful. The glimmer of hope that the possible addition of Bharaz and Achutla to their number was severely diminished by Talivar's loss. And the cowardly way the bugs did it! They hadn't had much luck in a straightforward battle, so they were taking underhanded tactics like having the man's daughter do their dirty work. He seethed. He looks up when Talia mentions that the girl was also a sorcerer. That made her doubly dangerous, if she was still in the Mantis' thrall. But Talia believed her to be free. But the mind could still hold shackles that a spell won't so easily lift. He looks at Talia and then Kilarra. Between the three of them, they knew Talivar the best, having fought with him since the Pact was formed. Sending his soul on to its final rest would be appropriate. "A funeral. Agreed. Then we should decide what to do with the girl."
Ruel wakes early, pleased to see another sunrise and that he wasn't slain in his sleep. He rouses Kilarra and (perhaps after a morning workout), goes to make sure Bharaz is functional. "Come on, we need to move. Talia isn't going to meet us here, so we got to go to her." In the early morning light, he leads them through the streets of Ilizmagorti to the hidden kobold tunnels where hopefully Talia will be.
"I warned him," Uruelleth sighs. He looks at Shark with a smirk. Actually, he doesn't hold his blade much, either." He goes outside to check on Bharaz. Once the dwarf was done emptying his stomach, he grabs him by the collar and hauls him up to their rooms to let him sleep it off.
Ruel laughs at the "Bilgewater Surprise" and looks at Bharaz. "You'll be joining your ancestors a lot sooner, if you drink that."
Uruelleth rolls up his sleeve and shows the symbol of Gorum tattooed on his flesh. "Right. My mother followed the Green Faith. My tastes in gods is more like my father's."
Uruelleth orders a regular whiskey and takes a seat next to Bharaz. "If I see my ancestors, they won't be asking me about what I had to drink. They'll be trying to kill me. And me them." He snorts as he again imagines the endless battlefields of Gorum. Though for the first time, he pictures himself as an elf. He frowns.
Ruel rolls his eyes. "No, we looked into what it would cost to ship him back where be came from, and decided it wasn't worth it."
"Natural," the elf answers. "My mother was a druid. She knew a lot about the wilds and the fey. What I can do... seems tied to some of that."
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