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Hey Ivar. :) I'm not going to bring in another character. I'm kind of swamped right now and am having trouble keeping up with all of the level-ups I have with other characters this weekend already, and I just don't have the time to build something new right now. Appreciate the thought though. Hopefully we'll play together in another game soon. :)
Okay, Helgar. I'll leave it to you, then. I see the wisdom of your words, but I need to leave. I can't work for people that I can't trust, and this situation isn't leading me in the direction that I am determined to go. Too much temptation to revert to my old self. Perhaps I will move on to elven lands. She bows. However, I thank you for your companionship on this job and wish you the best in the future. After they divide the loot, she packs up her things and bows to everyone. May the gods light your path. She leaves.
Yeah, okay, I get that. What about the boy though? You are just going to let her keep him for study?
When Zalona realizes that she is taking the boy *permanently* she despairs, hoping that he will be okay, but not knowing any way to get out of here with him. She waits for a chance to get him out, but doesn't like her chances.
Seeing that the woman is not going to be more forthcoming, Zalona still doesn't trust her, and determines to leave. She is willing to wait around a few days to get her share of the loot and make sure the boy is okay though. Since she doesn't have a deadline hanging over her head any longer, she works with the boy more trying to get some basic language going. He already recognized the names of a few deities, so she attempts to add a little more, like his name or her name, or the concept of a book. She wants to get an idea of where he comes from so maybe she can take him back to his own people after they leave here.
Zalona doesn't drink. After Nempura speaks she adds For my part, I'm looking for work and a long-term job offer seems pleasing. However, I'm not interested in anything shady, and too much of this seems that way. No one has been straight with us this whole time. We were told one thing and then have been required to give another. Gold is nice, no lie... but I'm not interested in signing up to work with people I don't trust and who don't value my life... or the life of a child. No offense, but so far, that's the impression I've gotten from this "opportunity."
Sure, I can keep going until there is an exit.
Actually, since you asked, I think I'll opt out and let a less redundant character take over my spot in the recruitment. Good luck with the game. It was interesting trying to figure stuff out.
Zalona is disappointed that the language lesson doesn't seem to be working. She was trying for the building blocks of language... a few nouns, and instead she was getting, strangely, articles, conjunctions, like it was a meaningless word puzzle rather than a language. Since it was clear that she wasn't going to be able to get even a simple sentence from the boy in time for it to do any good for their immediate goals, it was no longer the top priority, and she stopped pushing him. Although she still wanted to learn how to communicate with the boy, it could wait until they got through this mission. ____ When they are asked to go through their journey with every detail, she thinks that they were changing their wages yet again... and when Nempura demands the money up front, she agrees with her and remains silent.
Zalona doesn't agree with the revelation, especially without some rudimentary knowledge of what the boy knew, but she can't reach out and take it back, so she just continues working with the boy.
Note that I never said I was trying to learn it in one sitting. I rolled a check because he said he wanted some... didn't expect it to be the only session or the only roll, although it would be nice to find out what result it got with the boy initially.
Hmm. Okay. I'll take something else then.
Zalona is also a little doubtful as to the captain and first mate's intentions
but she can't really tell whether they have truly murderous or evil intentions or not, so she just goes along with Nempura's lead. Zalona says We're trying to talk to him, but we haven't understood anything he's said so far. Still working on it, but it is going to take time. She moves the boy and his satchel as far from the open door as possible, and tries starting in with some basic vocabulary, taking some things out of her pack, pointing at them and saying the word, pointing at herself and saying her name, and then pointing at the boy to see if he will participate in the process. If she can get him to say his word for himself and for each thing, she might be able to start some rudimentary communication.
Okay, I'm taking Celestial and Draconic from the list on the Elf page of things that they can take with int bonus, and then I'll take whatever they boy speaks as my point in linguistics, after I roleplay through it and learn it if possible.
In terms of languages, I guess I never looked into it far enough when I was creating my character. I have the standard ones listed, but I should know three more from my int score and my point in linguistics. Can I roleplay this as one of them and start picking up what he is saying as we go... maybe it is a newer version of some language I already knew or something? If not, no worries. Just wondering. Even if not, should I choose from standard Pathfinder languages, or are there different ones in this world?
Zalona is relieved that the boy and the ephod aren't evil, but isn't sure what the boy is trying to do, so she's still nervous, but she lets the satchel go when the boy tries to open it and take it out.
Hearing that the ephod might be associated with Braal, Zalona is more uneasy still, closing up the satchel after Nempura makes it clear what she is talking about.
Zalona says This is something that strengthens the connection between a cleric and their deity... She looks at Helgar. ... but I also think that it is the holy relic that the journal was talking about, so I'm not sure how safe it is. Want to take a look? I'd avoid touching it until we know if it is evil or not. I can tell what it does, but other than a faint aura of necromancy, I can't really tell if there is anything else going on.
Zalona doesn't understand what the boy is saying, but she doesn't see him as a threat. I'm sorry, I don't understand she says. When the boy offers her something, she smiles and accepts the satchel that he holds out, but when she sees what is inside it, she worries that this is is the dangerous thing that the journal talked about. It looks beautiful though, so without touching it, she casts detect magic and tries to identify it.
Seeing the boy watching them, Zalona says Why are you watching us, young one?
Hmm. Unless they are worth a lot, I want the compass and the leather case with pen and ink. I also think we should probably wait to sell the tusk until we find a collector. That seems like something that would be worth a lot to the right person. Also, I'm totally cool if someone else wants the silver dagger, but I don't think we should sell it... we should have some sort of silver weapon around just in case.
Zalona figures they can unlock the door at their leisure, but for now it is good for them to be quarantined... and if the captain actually tries to kill them, they likely have to open the door first, which will hopefully at least give them a chance. Anyone else have healing spells left, or should we use the cure potions we found on the ship? Arn still looks pretty hurt.
I think you at least missed this one: "Continuing to look through the chest you find a small leather case containing a ink pen and three vials of ink. You also find some important tools that a captain would need like a sextant, compass, sand hourglass, and a lead line. There is a secondary chest within this chest that is also locked, you do find the key among the other keys. Opening it you find the ships wealth of gold, the gold that remains after returning from its journey of buying goods. Not that you are taking time now to count it, but there is 2,868 gold crowns"
Having already told them of the danger and knowing Nempura would keep pressing the case, Zalona remains silent. She heals her affected companions, hoping to at least patch them enough so they are not bleeding everywhere...
... and then, having used up her bigger spells for the day, she keeps using Prestidigitation liberally to clean up any blood or other trace of the contagion that might have come over with them, including people, weapons, other gear that may have touched them, and everything they brought back. She's paranoid about anyone else being hurt and she's going overboard trying to do what she can to protect everyone if she can.
Zalona level up: Brazen Deceiver / Sound Striker Bard 2 +6 HP (half+1=4, +1 for favored class bonus)
Abilities:
Additional spells (other than the above):
Bardic Performance +2
Skills +9 (perception, diplomacy, disable, knowledge (arcana, history, local), sense motive, stealth, and sleight of hand)
I'm switching to something else now since we already have a bard, if that's okay. Maybe sorcerer? That okay with everyone?
Actually captain, we don't know if he will be okay, or her... . The crew were all turned into undead by that Manta Ray shapechanger that you saw dive off the ship. Have you heard of Lacedon? We did get the logbooks, and some assorted things and some gold, but we had to cut our search short when we were attacked by every former crewmember coming back as undead. I think that the boat was purposely grounded so that the contagion wouldn't spread. I set fire to it, but even if it doesn't go up in ash, don't let anyone else aboard. It's too dangerous. I suggest that we isolate the people who have been injured... provide them with necessities of course, but prevent them from harming anyone else until we see if they are also corrupted... and get to a temple as fast as possible in case it is possible to find a cure. Zalona also uses prestidigitation to clean the chair and the blood from Arn's wound, just in case it carries the contagion.
(fail) Zolana examines people's injuries and asks What are the chances that anyone injured also has whatever those poor people had? Is there any way to tell?
Zalona picks up the remaining torches, moves 20 feet forward and drops three in the large area which looks like it has a lot of things that could catch on fire, then moves ten feet back and drops the remaining one on the cargo bay doors, hoping it will smoulder and eventually set fire to the wood below it. When Nempura calls, she replies Coming!, planning to head up and get out of the area that is starting to get a little smoky as soon as possible.
Zalona picks up four torches, moves south 15 feet, drops two of them, moves 10 feet north, drops another, then moves back to her original position, dropping the last of the four.
Zalona lights all of the torches, looking around in the limited space available for whatever looks to be the most flammable. Unless something especially vulnerable catches her eye though, she grabs two of the torches and runs them into the corners near the rooms filled with undead so that the fire can lick at the walls there. Coming back, she grabs four torches and moving forward, she scatters them around the large room. Returning, she nudges the last two torches to opposite sides of the mast, hoping that central place will help the fire spread, and then she runs up the stairs to try to escape the inferno herself.
Okay... I'll try jumping into the details and count up my own rounds. As I asked previously, please let me know if the zombie things break out and I have to cut my plan short.
Okay, I'll just use 8 of them in case I have to set something else on fire sometime soon. Don't need them for light because I have the light cantrip, and I figured setting several around by various things that will burn would get the place going faster.
Zalona locks the door and then lights a torch. She takes out all ten of her torches and lights them all from the first one, quickly putting them in places where they should start a good fire. She was scared of getting caught down here, but more scared of not trying to do something about it.
Real life comes first. Hope everything gets worked out.
Responding to Rhaedlaf Zalona says Lock it now? Wait... isn't Helgar coming this way? I thought she was having a hard time climbing. ... You go on up and get that boy safe, and I'll be along. Once Rhaedlaf is out of the way, she yells through the door. Helgar? You coming this way or not? If Helgar responds that she is coming, she opens the door back up for her. If Helgar responds that she isn't coming, she locks the door. If Helgar doesn't respond at all, Zalona waits, lighting a torch.
Zalona, not hearing anything on the other side of the northwest door, takes a risk and opens it. Seeing that the Lacedons are otherwise occupied, she motions to Rhaedlaf and everyone else still in the room This way! It's clear. Then she goes over to re-shut and lock the door across the hall , making sure (hopefully) that none of the creatures will be behind them. In front of them was a different story, of course, but they would be ready for that as well, hopefully.
Zalona shuts and locks the door after Rhaedlaf pulls the boy out. Yeah, I have pitons in my bag. But they aren't pounding on the door up here anymore... maybe we should get out that way... safer than climbing? Just grab stuff and run for the boat... hopefully set fire to this place after we're off?
Zalona unlocks the door that the screams were coming from and opens the door, taking a look inside to see what the situation is and whether they need to rescue someone before leaving.
Zalona steps into the room beside Nempura and closes the door behind her, keeping her hand on the knob, trying to prevent it from turning. She responds to Nempura Okay, but this won't last long. Addressing Aris she says Aris, can you toss the string of keys over here? I need to lock this door behind me! She continues to Nempura Also, who is screaming in the other room? Someone you locked in, or someone we need to save?
Zalona puts a hand out and casts Close on the door she came from , hoping to delay the creatures, and then turns around, opening the door she is sitting in front of to figure out if the scream came from one of her party members.
Yep, that's fine. Although, Aris has the keys... she could have opened that door at any point as well.
I was assuming the whole time that I came in from the middle door between the stairs and 11 and back out the same way. Again, hard to track when we haven't had markers on the map before this.
Wondering if you could make a map with tokens on it that we could move around, like on Google slides rather than a new pic with each reveal. ... I am having a hard time knowing where I am. I thought I was at the door to 9 because you said I was able to see people stirring in 7 at the same time... so the door into the blank room is right there... no idea why I needed a double move to not quite get there. If I started from far away, was I by Aris? If so, I could get the keys from her instead of trying to pick the lock. I just need to know where I am so I can make better decisions. If a new map doesn't work, maybe grid markers so we can describe things more exactly, like I'm moving from A11 to C14 or something?
Zalona is too mind-numbed to be shocked by the new undead creature that she saw. Just another thing on the pile of horror that this trip had become, but she manages to say, for the benefit of the rest of the party: Undead... seriously this time. It's a Brykolakas. That's what has the whole crew infected I think. There are more in the opposite room, stirring. She examines the Lacedon offspring.
Seeing the new undead stir, somewhere in the back of her mind, the guilt at killing the man evaporates. It would have had to be done anyway, but the guilt at making a bad call out of fear stays. What breaks through her deadened senses is the scream that sounds like a child, and her morose shuffling walk turns into a sprint to get to the door. She speaks through it, as gently as possible, although there is still an edge of concern in her voice at the situation. Hey, my name is Zalona, and my friends and I just scared away the thing that was hurting everyone. Can I come in? We need to get you away from here quickly before it comes back. Are you alone, or is anyone else in there with you? We have a boat waiting, but we need to hurry. She tries the door quietly. --If the kid/survivor/undead monster in disguise unlocks the door, she opens it. --If there is no response, she starts picking the lock and adds If you hear some tools, that's just me trying to open the lock. I promise I'm just trying to get in to help you, and you will see that I'm not a monster before you have to go with me, but I don't have a lot of time to help you feel safe right now, I'm sorry. When I can see you, then we can talk more. You'll see that I'm not scary, I promise.
Hearing what is going on in the other room and realizing that the "survivors" don't need her healing, Zalona hopes that what she did put the poor man out of his misery rather than robbing him of a possible recuperation, but knows she will never be fully certain. She does gain the strength to stand back up though, and nervously cleans herself off with another prestidigitation spell. Then she heads for the part of the ship they haven't checked yet. They needed to wrap this up and get it over with.
When Helgar says they are survivors, Zalona says, still staring at the wall, I have a healing spell left. It's only one, and it might not do much, but I can cast it on anyone you think has a chance of surviving. Just pull them out of there and I'll do what I can. then she looked at her hands, imagining the blood that had been on them less than 5 minutes before... from a survivor. She'd let herself panic, and killed a man. Maybe it had been someone she could have saved, but fear had made her blind. All this time, and still blood on her hands... was redemption even possible?
Zalona stops, realizing that the creature isn't moving anymore, and that... she might be wrong, which makes her sick. She backs into the hall and vomits messily, sinking to a sitting position against the wall. She cleans the vomit and her weapon with prestidigitation, but otherwise just sits, staring at nothing.
That's possible, but they also could really be undead. :) ... And he definitely shouldn't have touched her leg. She was freaked out enough already. :) |
