Veltariel looks at the body confused. ”She’s alive...” she comments as she then lifts up some of the woman’s jewelry and asks ”Mokhasi? Any of this stuff cursed that would cause this?”
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Veltariel looks on curiously into the tomb. ”Someone...may want to look at this...” She reaches down and feels for a pulse...
Veltariel gives Mokhasi “See? I was right!” look as she steps over to the tomb. ”Then maybe they were buried with some of those things you were saying we could put to use, Mokhasi.” She looks to the others and asks ”Anyone want to give me a hand here? In case it’s an undead, I’d rather deal with it now than it surprise us later,” as she prepares to push the lid aside.
Veltariel makes her way slowly across the room to the sarcophagus, remaining about 20 feet from it. Once the others are down the rope, she looks back and says ”What do you all think of this?”
Veltariel climbs down the rope nimbly enough, with Esrisi close behind. As they drop down into the lower chamber, Veltariel knocks an arrow and looks around. ”North, East, and West,” she whispers as she points out the possible entry/exit points before moving cautiously ahead towards the sarcophagus, keeping an arrow in her bow but not drawing it back just yet.
Ranger 4
Hunter’s Bond - Boost to allies. Now all of you can hate humans ALMOST as much as Veltariel!
With the group rested, Veltariel again volunteers to lead the way down. ”Once I get down, I’ll tug once for Danger, twice for All Clear. Remember most of the way down you won’t be able to see or hear. And eventually there will be no wall to brace against, so you will have to rely on the rope.” Once everyone is ready, she will begin descending the tunnel once more.
Veltariel descends into the pit, and after a short while returns, her dropped torch in hand and extinguished. ”It’s about 45 to 50 feet deep, but this definitely leads to the ruins. There is a chamber below fully lit with torches. There’s a large sarcophagus, and exits to the east, north, and west. There must be some sort of magic on the pit that blocks sight and sound for the bulk of it. Also, I felt lighter while I was in it. So, we will need to keep an eye on it if we rest here.”
Vel watches the situation and becomes unsettled. ”This has to be magic. More reason to NOT trust this pit without investigating it further,” she says as she secures an end of rope around herself in anticipation for a climb.
Veltariel scoffs at Sapher's suggestion to send the hawk down. Instead she steps to the edge and looks at Mokhasi before she holds her torch out above it and then drops it.
Veltariel doesn’t stop tieing off the rope. ”Why would we think the knights are not below? The swamp witch said they negotiated passage with the boggards, and went on into the ruin. Going back and pressing the tribes just poses exposing us to further risk, which just means we waste resources with them when we can just as easily avoid them.”
”I’m fine. I’M FINE!” Veltariel insists as she shrugs the others away. She gives an aggravated look to Esrisi as Caroliss suggests camping. ”Yeah. That’s a good idea. We can secure the one passage in fairly easily. But we should at least see what’s at the bottom of this pit. If it’s just a pit, or if it’s a passage down. You guys set up camp...I’ll go and take a look. That way we will know if we have one or two passages to keep an eye on.” She then begins tying off her rope to one of the non-living regular statues.
Veltariel’s eyes flutter open again. Thus time, she scurries back from the thing and gets to her feet...
Veltariel’s eyes flutter open, and she sees the statues that knocked her out assaulting the rest of the group. But that isn’t what angers her. What she’s downright pissed off about is that these...things dared to touch her, let alone attack her by surprise! She grits her teeth and drives a foot up and towards the back of the “knee” of the one between herself and Drask.
Veltariel creeps up to the shaft edge, looking down for any sign of light or depth.
Veltariel continues creeping forward, studying the chamber and the hole...
Veltariel calmly walks forward and collects her arrows, and stands watching as Esrisi squirms uncomfortably under the robe of spiders she found herself wearing. ”So, exactly why would you break the line when we had things entirely under control?” she asks before heading on to the passage she determined led on to the ruin and continued onward.
Veltariel sends two more arrows out, starting with the wounded one then moving to the uninjured one.
Veltariel continues shooting, and if she drops one she adjusts her aim to begin working on another.
Veltariel prepares her own magic, and as the rest of the pathfinders bolster her abilities, she unleashes the initial volley on the nearest one!
Once informed of this, Veltariel says ”Well then...” before she studies the paths from here.
She points at the tunnel headed west. ”That one leads to the Ruins. I’m sure of it. We should form up and deal with the adults and then we should be clear to proceed.”
”Do they speak? Can we tell them we want no trouble, or should I start shooting?”
Veltariel holds a hand up towards Mokhasi, gesturing to him as if he were a piece of evidence in an Abadaran court. ”Precisely. Our ultimate destination is underground. This tunnel leads further in. If it can perhaps get us inside the ruins without further risk to ourselves or our resources, we at least need to check. If it can’t and is a dead end, so be it, we will turn around and try the next approach. But if we can slip inside without the tribes being the wiser, then all the better for us.” On that note, Veltariel heads on further down the tunnel once again, assuming the others will follow suit.
She looks frustrated. ”No. The tunnel goes on for a long way. I could have ventured further, I wasn’t in any danger at all during that run. But the prudent move was to return and make certain things were tended to here before we moved out.” She nods at Sapher, noting the dwarf is up and moving again. ”Are we ready to move out? I would like to try and find a way into the ruin without even dealing with these tribes if we can help it. But Sapher’s idea is a good one. Bring a head with us. That will possibly cause any of them who wish to contest us to second guess the idea.”
The elven archer clenches her teeth when she sees the sheer amount of devastation this thing was capable of. She looses two more arrows at it to try and bring it down...
Veltariel's eyes went wide when she saw the behemoth slithering their way! She quickly fired her first arrow, somewhat wildly, before composing herself a bit for her second shot.
Veltariel utters some words in Elven as her hawk on her shoulder screeches out at the serpent in challenge!
Veltariel steps to a spot for a clear shot at the cave entrance, her bow drawn and arrow knocked, ready to open fire on anything that poses a threat...
Veltariel comes trotting back. ”They’ve just recently fought looks like. Couldn’t have been more than a couple days ago. We move soon we still catch them recovering. Which puts the advantage in our favor, for swords or words.”
Veltariel simply slips off to begin heading for the frog men. She can at least begin gathering the initial intel while the others catch up or continue talking it out.
”We should get to it,” Veltariel says impatiently, eager to be away from this barbaric witch. ”The day is quite young and we seem to have more interested parties in the ruin than we knew.”
”Then the troglodytes are likely the weaker option at this point, should we need to fight our way through. Are the frog men more open to negotiation?” Veltariel asks.
Veltariel takes the shoe, looking at it and trying in vain to hide her disgust. She doesn’t eat but does hold the shoe as if she were entertaining the idea. ’We...” she started, but then Caroliss speaks up. Instead, Vel remains quiet and watches how the orc-blood reacts.
Veltariel had drawn her bow, ready to fire on the skeletal horde, but relaxed it as she watched Mokhasi and his...pupil...tend to them with ease.
Once the group walks away, Veltariel mutters ”So much for worries of witches sending people to gather ingredients for stew which was actually a trap...” as she gives Sapher a sidelong glance.
Veltariel arches an eyebrow when Sapher doubts her ability to reach the hut unseen, but makes no further comment on that matter.
Veltariel rolls her eyes at Sapher’s tale. Preposterous. ”Either way...the smart move is to scout them out and determine if they are a problem.”
Veltariel jogs quietly back to the group from ahead, enjoying the open air and sound of nature around her on a subconscious level, but still maintaining her focus on the task at hand. ”There’s a small hut ahead. Looks to have a well used trail in the brush leading into the eastern hill lands, and a haphazard bridge connecting the island to the mainland and path into the bush.”
Veltariel doesn’t even acknowledge the captain, disembarking the dingy quickly then heading into the tree line before turning south...
Veltariel narrowed her eyes at the human. Not an assassin. Just seeking revenge... Something Veltariel understood all too well. She held out her hand and said ”Fine. But any more violence on this ship will be assumed to be your fault.”
Veltariel has no distaste for just outright ending an assassin. Answers needed to be had first. She darted forward and tried to wrap this honorless dog up!
Veltariel sits and focuses on Mokhasi’s teaching. She is a fast learner, but she cannot help but comment on the crude nature of the language and its lack of elven elegance.
Veltariel approaches Mokhasi as he is reading, and coughs to get his attention. ”Would...would you teach me this language we keep seeing? The old human one? It seems to be a constant thing in these delves, and I think it would be wise to learn it since it may be important for a longer period than I anticipated...”
”Don’t worry,” Veltariel calls out. ”You’ll get to compare soon enough. We may be sailing to get here, but we’ll have no choice but the swamp on the way back.”
Veltariel spent as much time as possible on the deck. The shore passing by, the wind blowing through her hair... ...it all kept the stench of human off of her mind.
Veltariel rolls her eyes at Esrisi’s request. That evening, she went to go collect her bow and then returned to the manor to get some rest. She chose to sleep in the courtyard and sleep on the ground, looking up at the wind rustle through the leaves of the tree above her.
Veltariel made her way onto the dark well before sunrise. At this hour she was the only person moving about. She found herself a nice quiet, secluded spot from where she could watch the ship they were to be taking closely to make certain they didn’t try any funny business...like leave without them...
Veltariel spent 3000 on a +1 Adaptive enchantment on her bow. Then bought some camping supplies. Donated 250 gold to the bag purchase. |