Search Posts
Vhekk moves closer to the edge of the bridge, peering down into the icy depths. "That's close to a hundred feet, I think. None of us could survive that - I don't think we'll find this Izoze anytime soon." He turns back to glance at Lilyana, unstringing his staff. "I think it would be best to press on - the noblewoman can take care of herself, and if we follow quickly, we may be able to track this witch."
As Lilyana rushes out, Vhekk's staff seems to leap into his hand as he hurries after her. "Wait a moment! I don't run so fast as you!" "You can't go alone like this, woman! You'll get yourself impaled on a spike or something." Vhekk grins, slightly out of breath from hurrying after Lilyana. "But she is not going alone - I am following her, you see!"
Vhekk scowls, raising his eyebrows at the noblewoman's words. "Unpleasant? Most of your servants are dead - I would think that the deaths of people you have known for years would be more than an unpleasant occurrence!" He shakes his head. "If you wish to go back to Heldren, none will stop you to my knowledge. Now, if you will give us leave, there is important work that must be done."
Vhekk scowls, obligingly raising his clawed hands. "Rhokar's not dead - but you will be, if you keep following idiots. Don't you fools see by now that what Rhokar is doing means ruin for everyone? Tell me, fools, how many days of food do you have left? How many in your band are sick? Atarshamayyin's split hoof, you blithering imbeciles would cut off your own foot to spite the stones of the road!"
"Now you are just assuming. If you want to conquer land, you conquer something -not- across the continent. If you want to conquer -fertile- land, because your land is covered in snow, for example, your first move in the war is to cover the territory in snow? There are holes in this cheese." At Yorah's words, Vhekk's brow furrows, and he turns to face the dromaar. "...I'm sorry, am I misunderstanding something? What the hell does cheese have to do with anything?" He shakes his head, his ebon gaze flicking back to Rhokar for an instant before fixing on Yorah again. "Empty-skull here isn't the most reliable source - our information might not be accurate, and you're still assuming that the witches want to conquer fertile land. Perhaps there's something here important to them - the Lady's statue or some such? Regardless, I think you're missing the point. Heldren is cursed with snows in the summer - this is a fact. An Irriseni witch and her minions are behind it - this is also a fact." He crosses his arms, glowering at the herbalist. "Now, the reason this witch is attacking may be important, or it may not - so far, you have mostly been telling us how stupid our ideas are, but if you have any ideas of your own, I would be happy to hear them for a change."
"Okay. Why? Why change this place to become like another?" Vhekk scowls, keeping his staff leveled at the leader. "Why else do you think? Conquest. No army in history has ever beat the Imperial Guardsmen of Kelesh in the desert - I suspect that the Irriseni soldiers have a similar record with the blasted lands to the north, yes? If the world is ice, then they will always have the advantage over their opponents - no army in the world will be able to stand in their way." He thinks for a moment before continuing. "Noemy, you said that Irrisen had ice witches, yes? Think about it - in the Burnt Lands, a spell that saps the heat from your body would be toothless as an old dog. I knew travelers who died for lack of such magic, in fact. In the ice of the north, such a spell would kill, surely as any blade." He prods Rhokar in the chest with his staff. "Dung-for-brains here is too stupid to understand it, but if we fail now, Osirion won't be safe. Nowhere will be safe."
As the others interrogate Rhokar, Vhekk stays at the stairway exit, his staff at the ready, but after a moment, he approaches, his weapon leveled at the bandit leader's chest. "You'll take your people and leave here tonight - never come back, you understand?. Heldren is not yours - leave it be."
As Yorah attempts to aid the fallen bandit, Vhekk joins Maq'la by the stairway, holding his staff at the ready in case any bandits try to rush the stairs. "You down there! Your leader is dead, and most of your people are ill! Surrender, and we will aid you - fight us, and you will die!"
Vhekk steps forward to follow Rhokar, his staff spinning like a whirlwind. The length of wood flashes out like the fangs of a striking snake, but as Rhokar raises his arm to defend against the blow, it veers off, and stars flash in the bandit's vision as the staff whirls around from the other side to rap smartly against the back of his skull.
Vhekk stares for a moment after where Noemy disappears. "Um... Did she just... Sliset, yes she did. Well, I suppose there's nothing for it now." Unstringing his staff, he rushes towards the rope, grabs the edge of the roof, and leaps off, using his grip on the roof's edge to swing him back around and into the window.
The young hunter rolls as he hits the floor, springing to his feet. His ash staff seems to flow like water between his obsidian talons as he issues a challenge to the bandit lord. "Give us the Lady Argentus, or we will take your life!"
Vhekk thinks for a moment. "Well, they will likely expect us to enter by the front door, so if we enter that room there, on the second floor, we can kill their leader - I do not believe most of the rest are in any state to fight. If we take their leader, we can help their sick to get them to stand down. Who knows? Perhaps one of them will know where our kidnapped noble is."
Vhekk glances down at the little poppet, concern written on his features. "There is an old saying: 'one does not fight the lion in its den.' If we enter the house, we fight on their terms - we are safe out here on the roof, and we can see them from wherever they emerge. When they come out of the building, they will waste valuable time seeking us, and I doubt they will be able to strike at us up here as easily as we can shoot them."
I'd like to apologize for the decreasing quality and frequency of my posts - with the way work's been going, I'm afraid I may have taken on one campaign too many. I've rebalanced my schedule, and I will try to get better about posting in this campaign. Again, sincerest apologies for the decline in my PbP games, and I will be sure to rectify the issue as soon as possible.
Vhekk shrugs, his obsidian claws moving down to the end of his bow staff as he re-strings the weapon. "My eyes are good. I can see them from atop whichever building you care to name." He nods towards the stables. "I think I might be better up there - I can hold my own in a battle up close, and I am skilled at avoiding notice, so it would be best if we saved the higher space for those who need it, whether for battle or for stealth."
"That's not how fire works. Simple presence of water in the form of either brief mist, flowing water, or ice is not a factor." Vhekk glances at Yorah, his brow furrowing. "Ai can create water with her magic, yes? After we create the fire and draw out the bandits, she can quench it with a thought." "There's also the hostage question. What if they're in the stables? I didn't see anyone odd-looking in the building." The young swashbuckler shrugs. "You didn't see them in the stables, either, I thought? The noblewoman is almost certainly within the lodge - she's worth more to the bandits alive than dead, and there's no warmth in the stable from what you said. I think you are seeing problems where none exist, my friend."
"Northerners? North of where you were from? Or northerners of Avistan in general? I don't know of the northern reaches of Avistan." Vhekk glances at the half-elf warrior. "My apologies, I meant north of Qadira - Taldor to the Crown of the World. In Sedeq, I served a representative of the Imperial Bank who had all manner of wild tales about these lands. She saw them as lawless backwaters compared to the might of the Padishah Empire."
Vhekk is much the same way - Qadira is notoriously touchy about their horses, Vhekk is a proud member of the Tzorehiyi, which are the horse nomads of Qadira, and his god is noted to be a god of horses - they're presumably his sacred animal, so Vhekk is entirely on-board with this plan.
"As long as we take out the cook, I'm fine with whatever plan you go with. Just set me up with a bank of snow beyond where they'll egress, and I can snipe them from there. Just... don't harm the horses. Maybe we can take them back to town after this is all over. What methods do we have to set the stable on fire?" Vhekk nods tersely, his tone clipped and full of anger. "I did not wish to say anything, as I was told that such blasphemies were customary in these Northerner lands. Still, my intention was indeed that the cook should perish. As for the stable, I have some flint and steel - I think that if we set the horses free, I may be able set one of my arrows ablaze."
As the dromaar herbalist reappears, Vhekk remains silent, his obsidian claws clicking against his staff as his onyx gaze seems to bore into the stable. After a moment, he speaks. "This dry weather calls to mind a tale from my homeland. A thief set a fire in a caravanserai owned by the Imperial Bank to hide her theft of a rare Osirian artifact - it was the dry season, so the flames spread, and in the blink of an eye, half the building was gone and a dozen people were dead in the blaze. The trade masters complained for days about the lost items." He turns to Yorah before continuing. "Yorah, your idea is a good one, but I think we could improve it. You said that the bandits were eating their horses, yes? If that is so, they are likely almost out of supplies, and the three horses left in the stable represent the remnants of their food. If we were to set the horses free, climb to the roof, and set the stable ablaze - with a flaming arrow, perhaps, or a spell - then the bandits would have no choice but to respond, and in this cold, I doubt they will be able to bring water from the well. With the thieves in disarray, we can strike - with them outside and their food and their sick inside with us, I don't see how they can do anything but surrender."
As the scouts confirm the presence of the traps, Vhekk actually seems to relax, moving forward himself to join his allies.
"If there are traps, there likely aren't sentinels as well - there's no cause to have the one with the other. We should be able to approach unseen."
Sincerest condolences for your loss, GM.
As the group approaches the lodge, Vhekk makes sure to stay close to the treeline, holding his cloak close to his body so as to trap whatever heat he can. At Yorah's words, he shakes his head. "The rope bridge is a good distance away. I agree we should destroy it before entering the lodge, but I think we had best start with the stable - it's some distance away, so our actions should go unnoticed there." His onyx eyes scan the lodge again as his brow furrows in thought. "As for how I would protect this place, I would put lookouts in the lodge to spot invaders, and I would rig the rope bridge to collapse at a moment's notice. As for the well and the outbuilding... I don't think they should have ambushes unless our foes are unnecessarily fearful - they have no reason to suspect an attack, so there is no cause for anything other than the normal." He shrugs before continuing. "Then again, there may be some form of well spirit that lives there on its own. The presence of the fae complicates matters; I am only a human - well, mostly human, anyway - and can only look at these problems as a human would."
"Anyone else wondering what these ice faeries and bandits and witches wanted with the Lodge? Is it special somehow Vhekk?" Vhekk glances over at Noemy, shrugging. "In all honesty, Noemy, I haven't met the High Sentinels much - those who our friend said once used the lodge. Some kind of peacekeepers in the forest, I think, but their territory doesn't overlap much with the best hunting lands, so I don't run into them often. Still, those of their number I have met were skilled archers, and Heldren is in greater danger for their absence, I think."
Vhekk nods assent to both Maq'la and Lilyana, still watching the bandit. "As I said, my friend, we have no quarrel with you. I wish you luck in finding your stash, and if we find any other bandits who are willing to see reason, we will send them your way. Good faith to you." The young hunter retrieves his staff and begins to set off down the game trail towards the lodge. "So the High Sentinels are no more. Troubling news indeed. Still, there may be some survivors - Sentinels who fled the lodge or were on patrol when the attack happened."
Vhekk pipes up from where he was standing near Maq'la. "Even if you don't wish to fight alongside us, our goals are truly quite similar. These woods are a dangerous place, and you've told us you want to get out. You've given us information, and I see no reason we can't help you in return. Unfortunately, I don't know if we can help you find your stash, but we can give you information ourselves - a trade in kind, yes?" He glances up at the sun, getting his bearings for a moment before extending an obsidian talon to the east. "If you follow the road that way, it leads to the port town of Golsifar. A friend of mine is a sailor aboard a merchant ship called the Horizon Glory - he says the captain pays a fair wage."
Vhekk's expression softens. "Look, friend, I am not heartless - as a matter of fact, I have three. All that talk about 'soul eating' was just talk, you understand? You are trying to leave the bandits, and I fail to see why we have any reason to kill you." His staff practically leaps back into his talons, and he holds it at the ready, though not in a threatening posture. "That said, though, we can't let you go running off and tell the other bandits about us, so we'll have to tie you up. If we succeed, we'll come back, free you, help you find your stash, and you can go on to Golsifar and start your new life. If we by some unforeseen chance should die, you'll probably die out here, cold and alone. Listen, we both want the same thing - for you to leave the bandits. If you tell us more, we have a better chance of surviving, and thus, so do you."
Vhekk scowls at the man's deflection, drawing his own conclusions from the suspicious man's evasiveness, but after a moment, his face splits in a grin that is somehow orders of magnitude more disturbing than his scowl ever was. "No worries, friend - you don't have to tell us about the other bandits if you do not wish it. Of course... the other bandits won't know that, yes? We could tell them that you - what is the phrase? 'Spilled the beans?' We could tell them that you 'spilled the beans' like a clumsy stevedore on an Arcadian trading vessel. And if they learned the truth - about your stash, and about your plans to leave - I doubt they would be as understanding as we are." The young cambion plants his staff firmly in the snow and crosses his arms, his razor-sharp obsidian claws glinting in the weak sunlight. "The way I see it, friend, your best chance for survival is to tell us everything you know - and I do mean everything - about the bandit camp and the frost-fey, then head for Golsifar as fast as your legs will take you."
Vhekk waits for a moment, giving Yorah and his allies time to get in position, then approaches the man, trying to get as close as he can before revealing himself.
After moving closer, he calls out to the man, his staff raised in an aggressive posture. "Stop right there, farwet, or make peace with your gods! I know most of the woodsmen in this forest, and you certainly are not one of them." His features twist into a fiendish scowl as he nears the man. "The rumors of my kind are well-known, so I suggest you tell us what we want to know before I have to eat your soul."
Vhekk stops suddenly as his search uncovers the bodies in the nearby ditch, tracing an elaborate loop in the air with the end of his staff and whispering a brief prayer to speed their souls to the afterlife. "We'll come back and retrieve their bodies for funerary rites later. For now, we need to press on, or more people will die." He glances down at his footprints, which are quickly filling with new snow. "This snow can conceal our movements, but it may also conceal the movements of our enemies. From here on out, we must be cautious - if the fey and their witch overlords have twisted the animals to their cause, any raven on a branch, any mouse scurrying beneath the snow, even the trees themselves may be spies."
I think I have also updated my statblock. I'll probably wait to Remaster until the Swashbuckler class comes out, but I don't envision any major issues - mechanics-wise, most tiefling feats have a direct correlation to a new nephilim feat.
As the last opponent falls, Vhekk unstrings his staff and starts checking the snow to ensure Maq'la and Noemy are not lost in the alabaster drifts. As Maq'la returns to her normal size, he visibly relaxes. "Fortunately, this fey's curse seems to fade with death." He continues to glance around the area, seemingly searching for something. "The 'talking stag' was controlled by this trickster fey - but wasn't Findoll searching for the same creature?" He shrugs, his onyx eyes still scanning the snow. "If he was cursed, he should turn up soon, and if he was killed, his body may still be around here - either way, we should at least check." He shudders in the cold wind, and one obsidian talon clutches his heavy insulating clothing close to his slight form. "If our search is in vain, we should press on. The blizzard is getting stronger the further we walk - we must be close to the heart of the storm."
Vhekk, prepared for trickery from the stag, is ironically caught off-guard by the appearance of the fey in the clearing. "Sliset! What in the name of the Great Loop are these things?" After fumbling with his bow for a moment, he launches a volley of arrows at the apparent voice of the stag as he moves towards his shrunken friend. "No-one shrinks my friend, deceiver! I'll send you back to the witches in a box - or perhaps several!"
As the stag speaks, Vhekk's onyx eyes go wide, but after a moment's surprise, they narrow, and he nocks an arrow to his bow. "You are truly an unusual sight, Lord Stag. It is my experience that few stags speak, and that fewer still stoop to deceit and falsehood. This forest has been taken over by the wicked, ones who go against the natural order. If you don't mind my saying so, what cause have we to trust you, and how do we know you are not one of them, especially since the last person who tried to follow you nearly froze to death?"
Vhekk thinks for a moment as his allies discuss the strange shape glimpsed in the snow. "We would likely accomplish little seeing where it is going - its instincts would be to flee from us, at least if it is anything like an ordinary stag. We may be better served seeing where it has been, and this snow seems well-suited to the task." He looks in the snow near where the white creature was seen, trying to see if he can follow its tracks back to its lair.
"Do you... feel cursed?" Vhekk shrugs. "Not particularly. Of course, I've never been cursed - at least, not with real magic - so I don't know what it feels like." His obsidian claws click against the ash wood of his staff as he thinks for a moment before continuing. "Then again, if you want to look at it another way, I've been cursed since I was born, so I don't know what it feels like to not be cursed. Either way, I'm no expert in the ways of witches."
As the party navigates through the bloody fetishes, Vhekk scowls. At Yorah's words, he speaks up. "Perhaps the witches place them here to curse those who would challenge them? We should keep pressing forward - not least because I am unsure if we are able to turn back." He readies his weapon, prepared for an ambush from the trees.
As the wyrm falls, Vhekk grins, and at Maq'la's exclamation, he chimes in. "With such a company of warriors, our foes stand little chance." His face falls, however, as he notices Maq'la's injuries. "You are wounded, my friend, but I am no healer, I'm afraid." Seeing Yorah move to aid the orc warrior, he moves out of the way, examining the carcass of the creature that attacked them. Unlike Lilyana, the young tiefling seems quite unused to the frigid weather - he seems unable to stop shivering, and he flinches each time the biting wind picks up.
Kneeling next to the dead beast, he slashes an obsidian talon along its side, his brow furrowing as he sees its strange blue blood spill onto the snow. "...This creature is not from this area, I think. Those white scales would stand out like nothing else if there was no snow, and we're far enough south - in the middle of summer, besides! - that it could not survive without this unseasonal storm." He straightens up, a scowl on his face. "Sliset, I don't even want to think about what things like this are doing to the forest. I doubt the Border Wood will ever be the same again, Yorah, even if we can slay the witch."
As the creature surges up out of the snow cover and bites Maq'la, Vhekk charges forward, holding his staff before him like a shield as he moves to aid his friend. Nearing the draconic creature, his staff flashes out like the fangs of a striking serpent, attacking the beast's unprotected flank from an unexpected angle. "There is valor in a duel, but there is also strength in unity, my friend. We'll kill this creature together."
As Lilyana points out the creature beneath the ice, Vhekk begins to spin his staff before him, hoping to turn aside any strikes aimed at him. "Whoever or whatever you are, show yourself!"
"Fill the hole with water? It will freeze over at least until this weather calms down." Vhekk raises an eyebrow. "But therein lies the problem - any water we could use to fill the hole is already frozen." He glances over at Ai before continuing. "Unless your magic can bring this about?"
Vhekk stands by as the chest is examined - while he's not immediately aware of the exact nature of the danger presented, the half-buried item is a fairly obvious trap. As Lilyana points out the cord attached to the fallen log, Vhekk pulls a leather roll of thieves' tools from a pocket of his cloak, starting towards the trapped chest, but stands back as Lilyana takes matters into her own hands. At Yorah's words, he shrugs. "Perhaps the bandits who set up this trap were pressed for time, and couldn't take the time to do the job right. Perhaps they were worried that they would lose the cache in the snowdrifts if they did not have a marker of some sort." The young tiefling raises his eyebrows. "Then again, perhaps they were just exceedingly stupid. I met a few bandits on the road from Golsifar - among their number, one who could count to ten without using his hands was considered an intellectual." He moves closer and glances over the arrayed gear. "Assuming the highborn lady does not wish them returned, I am sure these could be put to use by guards in Heldren or Demgazi."
Vhekk finishes his examination of the corpses and stands, shaking his head. "Likely bandit thugs or woodsmen, but I can't tell anything more about where they could have come from." As the group begins to create a funeral pyre for the dead, Vhekk helps to gather fallen wood and move the twice-dead. He frowns as he sees the dismembered corpse of the captain. "Let's be sure to find all the Captain's fragments, Noemy - if his ashes aren't all scattered to the wind, he'll be the worse off when the Great Loop starts again." After the corpses are set ablaze, he whispers a brief prayer over the burning bodies, wishing them peace in the fullness of the Great Loop. "I am not a mage, not really, I have simply learned to tap into the elements and pull the matter forth from different planes, in my case water and wood planes. I simply open gates and pull the matter I need from them. It's not magic as most people think of it, more like an art than anything and far more limited than what a mage can accomplish." Vhekk shrugs. "You will forgive me, I hope - I'm no scholar, that I would know the difference. You tell the world how it should be, and it listens - as far as I know, 'mage' is the best word for such people." When Yorah starts off into the forest, Vhekk grabs his staff and follows. "At the end of this trail should be the blasphemous soul binders who caused these deaths. The faster we move, the shorter they will blight this land."
When Lilyana dismisses the Ulfen warrior's account of an ice demon, Vhekk shrugs. "Like as not, you're right, but we would be safer for preparation in any case. 'Better to have a parasol in the dry season than to be caught without one in the wet season,' yes?" At Ai's words, Vhekk shudders and rubs his hands together. "Your skill as a battle-mage aside, Ai, the warmth of a good flame would be much appreciated if these ice-witches live in areas such as these." Vhekk looks up at Yorah from where he had been examining the corpses, raising an eyebrow. "The wagon was from that noblewoman's retinue, yes? The survivor said that he locked the twice-dead in there when they attacked - it has no real connection to these Irriseni, and it's unlikely to hold any real information on our foes. As for tracks..." The young man smiles apologetically. "...I will leave such matters to your significantly more competent hands. I'm not a very good hunter, you see." He stops what he is doing as Noemy starts piling wood to "save" the frozen captain. "That's... not quite how it works, little one. If the Captain is dead, he's dead. None save the mightiest figures of legend - which we are not - could bring his soul back from its next life." He shrugs. "Still, we'd have to thaw him for his funeral pyre in any case, so by all means, do what you will."
As the zombies fall to the group's concerted attack, Vhekk nods approvingly, grinning. "It is truly an honor to fight alongside you all - I see that I am among skilled warriors indeed. I have little doubt that we are capable of finding the truth behind this crisis." He spares the carriage barely a glance, opting instead to examine the bodies of the zombies. "The carriage likely had little of import to begin with, and the claws of the twice-dead were likely unkind to it. Still, our former foes may prove more forthcoming." He peers at what is left of the zombies' clothes, attempting to discern where the corpses would have come from - unlucky caravan guards, isolated hunters, erstwhile bandits, or the like - in the hopes of getting a general idea of where the necromancer is operating.
At Lilyana's question, he glances over to where the half-elf stands by the statue. "The survivor said that the ice demon froze the Captain solid, yes? Like as not, that's him there." The horned hunter returns to examining the dead zombies. "We'll make funeral pyres for the dead once we're done here. It is right that warriors should meet their gods with the observance of the proper rituals."
Vhekk takes aim at one of the undead flanking Maq'la and fires off a shot from his bow, but seeing the warrior surrounded, he quickly unstrings his weapon and rushes up to her side, attempting to provide what aid he can in melee range.
Vhekk seems to falter as the undead burst out of the wagon, and those near him hear the hiss of indrawn breath - it is one thing to know that you face zombies, and quite another to actually see them, dripping with their own rancid bodily fluids and attempting to tear your head off. He quickly raises his bow again, prepared to fire, but his hesitation costs him crucial seconds.
Vhekk backs away from the carriage, stringing his bow and nocking an arrow in one fluid motion. "It would seem we have a duty to fight, then. Tell me, Maq'la, does your god Khai'dun have any songs about fighting the twice-dead? Any battle-poetry like the Yenchaburian death dervishes? It would be fitting, I think."
As the rest of the group makes ready, Vhekk buckles on his new, heavier coat and does what he can with the laces of his sturdier boots, trying to ward off the biting chill. At Ai's words, he nods. "I have few arrangements to make in town - I have just returned from a hunting trip, in fact, so to set out again is a simple matter of not unpacking my equipment. Nevertheless, I understand that many have more... permanent ties to this town, and I will gladly help you make whatever preparations you need." Now appropriately insulated, he picks up his staff and his ghironda from where they sit by the door and walks out into the town square. "Lead the way, Ai, and once you are done, I will take you to where the ambush took place. It's a ways south, on the road to Demgazi. Bandits often use the wood to mask their approach, so caution would be prudent in that area, even without the presence of the frost-souled fey."
|
